LITTLE NATIONS AND THE WAIT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1655, 28 December 1916, Page 2

LITTLE NATIONS AND THE WAIT.

SI’EAKLNti recently at Cardiff, Mr Lloyd (leorgc said: "A nation may be rich in minerals, in its soil, in natural beauties, and in its commerce, but unless it is also rieb in

great met) there is an essential ingredient to national wealth that is missing, (treat men in all nations are like mountains. They attest, and assemble the vitalising elements in the heavens distributing and direefing them in the valleys and the plains, so as to irrigate the land with their fertilising qualities. A world \vithout them would be either a desert or a morass. England without them would have been a fen of stagnant water, and Wales- would have been a wretched swamp. The first thing that strikes me in going through the list of those represented by statues is how old was the civilisation of AVales. We are here to honour the great men of a little nation —such a small tuition compared with the nations that are in (he arena. Ami yet, little nations

were never more alive, never more important than they are to-day, in this euntliet of gigantic Empires. If I were to pass a criticism upon the Allies, 1 should say (hat. whilst lighting for little nations, they have never fully recognised and realised their value and their potential

strength. Britain now is nt the full strength of nu Imperial tide, and yet whilst the tide is high mul will get higher, it will never submerge the joy of the little notion in its post, in its present, in the fnllire which it can see plain to its gaze. The small nation is like the little spring. It does urn cease (o have a separate existence even when its Waters arc merged in (he great river. p still runs along (he same valley, under (he same name, draining (he same watershed: and il it ceased lo (low and to gather tin* waters () f j lown glen (he great river would shrink, would lose part of its impetus, and part of the purity of i( s waters. That river is now in Hood, A storm of righteous anger against a ghastly wrong has swept over the land, and (he river is full and overllowing its hanks. I thank (!od that now there are cataracts from the mountains of Wales that swell the torrents of angry waters Unit will sweep away for ever the onpres>ions that have menaced several generations."