OUR INFLEXIBLE DETERMINATION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1835, 4 June 1918, Page 2

OUR INFLEXIBLE DETERMINATION.

IN two months’ time the people of this Dominion will be once more proclaiming their inflexible determination to carry on the war to victory, but the long faces that have been fashionable during the last few days have suggested anything but the inflexible determination and stout hearts that are needed to win the war (says the Post). It is not to the credit of a county that has done great work in the field, and is still doing it, that this should be so. In this respect we need not be ashamed to take a leaf from our enemies’ book. The German resolution in the face of defeat and Hardship and privation has been marvellous. If it had been no stronger than that displayed by some of bur own people under infinitely easier conditions —conditions, indeed from which physical hardship has been entirely lacking —Germany would have been, crushed long ago. It should be a point of honour with each of us not to allow the German non-combatant to beat us in a matter which is as essential to victory as the valour of our fighting men. Not faint hearts but increased efforts should be our answer to any successes that the enemy may win. While some of our patriots are accepting the blasphemous bluff and braggadocio of the Kaiser for gospel, the Germans themselves are not so foolish. The German General Staff has published a warning against expecting the, advance to continue at its recent pace. “The enemy’s insistence is desperate,” says the official notice, “and counter-attacks may be expected. Our losses have only been commensurate with the importance of the struggle.” This warning shows that Foch and Haig and the brave men are doing their duty and exacting a terrible, and perhaps from the German standpoint an alarming price. It is beyond the power of Germany to defeat such men. Let us not betray them by failing to maintain behind the lines the hope and the courage and the resolution without which all their effol'ts may be vain.