KEEP SMILING !

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1308, 8 October 1914, Page 4

KEEP SMILING !

The greatest enemy that New Zealand has, that the Empire has, that civilisation has, to-day, is not the Kaiser or the German, or the spy or the intriguer, but the Britisher who is too dull-witted to smile when smiling is a duty and good cheer a patriotic obligation, says “Tohunga” in the Auckland Herald. There isn’t the slightest doubt about that. For those who in their ignorance and their misunderstanding are afraid of the outcome of this grave struggle, who do not know enough to know that in Armageddon Hi- Right ever triumphs, who cannot understand that it was the sloth and the hesitation and the timidity of free nations which gave strength to the Kalserism which is as evil and monstrous a system as the world has ever known, we can have tolerance and sympathy. But what of those who, knowing better, depress and dishearten the simple and the ignorant, and add to the difficulties and the worries of those who are working the ship of State through the storm ? Frankly, they deserve the Kaiser, only they can’t have what they deserve without punishing the innocent with the guilty. This war is already vyqn. Jt vvas won, clearly won, from the very moment that Belgium refused to be epslpyed f from the very instant that Britain stood for a great ideal.

The German rulers knew this. The Kaiser knew this. Every man knew this who could perceive that when nations face death and suffering, waste of wealth and loss of all that can be seen and felt, for the sake of the great truths which are invisible and of the great ideals that appeal not to a few but to all, they cannot be beaten. When the heroic death of a fighter in heroic cause inspires ten to take his place; when the rr-ry air hums with an uprising against infamous tyranny, and war comes as a summons which none can dispute ; when the weak nations and the strong join hands for a common cause and a common duty, the issue is sore. Belgium was overwhelmed but Belgium fights on. Paris might have fallen, but the French would have fought on. Civilisation is greater than Prussia- Humanity is greater than the Kaiser and his system. Though the war lasts for a hundred days or a hundred years it can only end one way —if we keep smiling.