“BE PROUD,” SAYS FOCH.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1930, 23 January 1919, Page 1

“BE PROUD,” SAYS FOCH.

WHAT IS THERE NOT TO REMEMBER. THE MEN WHO SAVED THE LIBERTY OF THE WORLD AND ALL ITS HAPPY FUTURE. London, Nov. 22. “Ollieers, non-commissioned officers, and soldiers of the Allied Armies: After having resolutely harried the way to the enemy, yon have for months attacked him without respite and with unwearying faith and energy. You have Avon the greatest battle in history and saved the most saered cause: the liberty of (he Avorld. Be proud. With glory immortal yon have adorned your (lags, and posterity Avill ho ever grateful to you. “(Signed) FOCIT, “Marshall of France, Commauder-ia-Chicf of the Allied Armies.” EOCH’S .MASTERSTROKE. ’ “The history of tlie Avar may be searched in vain for such a defeat as has overtaken the Germans. Newer in the immediate past Ims any combatant stood in the position of the Allies, who have been able to dictate what terms of peace they liked. Neither Napoleon nor Malte ever achieved such a triumph.” says the Daily Mail. “We a re. a hie to-day to reveal the fact that if the German envoys had not signed the armistice, Marshal Foch had prepared a blow Avbicb must have brought alter catastrophe on their armies. He stood ready to strike east of Metz, hotAvcen that fortress and Saarbrnck, to seize their main line of retreat, and to capture, not .some 80,000 men as Mollkc did at Sedan, but 1,800,000 men. INHERITED NAPOLEON’S MANTLE. “This avu- the great blow up I a Avhieh his Avhole strategy led from that nigh! of July ITih, when (he Allied troop- moved into position for their first counter-stroke. So hopeless avus flic German position mi November lllb that the crowning liloav avu.s not required. The Allies’ triumph avus avou in the Held, and the secret of it was consummate generalship. Marshal Foch shoAved himself the superior of the boasted leaders of the German Staff a> the Allied soldiers have proved themselves (he masters of the German soldier. Marshal Foch, in a Avovd, has inherited Napoleon’s mantle, and there could bo no higher tribute to his genius.” LET US REMEMBER. “The absorptions of the future Avill soon (end to 'destroy many memories of the Avar,” says the Observer. “For the sake of the fulure itself let ns give at least his day to recollection. The difference helavccd one human being and another, as hetAvecu man and all oilier creatures, is largely a difference in poAver of remembrance —whereby avc do not mean the lively mental rolentiveness so often prized, and not av ilium t reason. Iml that moral seizure and imaginative hold Avhieh can turn the meaning and colour of past experience into the very stuff and hue of elm racier. EMOTIONS, EFFORTS, IDEALS. “What is there not to remember ? ‘We live in thoughts not years, in deeds not breaths, in actions not in figures on a dial.’ By that measure, avc of this age who remain have all lived more than any in (ho limes before us. IVe iiaA T e crowded into a loav years emotions, efforts, and ordeals, tragedies and achievements, catastrophies and triumphs, and convulsions of mankind and cluing-

es of the world such ms were formerly sf.relched over generations or centuries. “Once we had all dreamed of what it might have been to have lived with Pericles or Alexander, with Hannibal or Caesar; to have known the early Crusaders or their efflorescence in the third century; to have had part in the Renaissance or the Reformation, in the age of discovery, or in that of Elizabeth; to have breathed and stirred when Cromwell and Chatham did! or to have gone forward with events through the whole epic of Europe from the fall of the Bastille to the fall of Napoleon. A VISTA BEYOND SIGHT. “In four years and four months we have passed through an age more wonderful and terrible than all these; and the sequel is a vista going beyond sight. Posterity will he interested for ever in knowing what manner of men and women we were, in our traits and habits as we lived, and may much exaggerate us. Or may not. We have been great. We had to be. We may have been greater than we know. Much ever about ourselves that will be clear to history is dim to us,” BRITAIN “WON THE WAR DOUBLY.” Commandant “B,” the famous Drench military writer, says; — “What Prance shall never cease to boar witness to is the part played by Great Britain. She was the Jirst on the ground of equity and to protect the weak against the strong, to enter the struggle, and to sacrifice in it her interests, her liberties, and her dearest prejudice. She threw in the whole resources of her immense Empire, and the llower of her manhood. "And we realise also that without ilie freedom of the seas, which her naval power secured for the Allied world, the war was lost, in advance. Great Britain won the Avar doubly, because it was this maritime supremacy which drove Germany into unrestricted submarine piracy, Ihcrebv bringing about tlie intervention of the United Stales. “Men forget quickly, but history will have a more tenacious memory. History will do justice to those who. whether Avith us or not in the hour of victory Avcre the early artisans of victory, and avlio arc now almost forgotten because (hey have disappeared from the life or from the lield of battle. Among them are two avlio, as far as concerns Britain, av i ! i certainly not be overlooked by history —I mean Lord Kitchener and Lord French.''’ THANKS TO SIR DOUGLAS HAIG. The folloAviug message has been sent by the Army Council to FieldMarshal Sir Douglas Haig, Com-mandei'-ia-Chief of British Armies in Prance: — “The Army Council desire, on the occasion of the happy termination of hostilities, (o congratulate all ranks of His Majesty’s Forces in France upon the magnificent share taken by them in the brilliant actions Avhieh have contributed so poAVerfully to the gradual Avearing doAvn and linal submission of (he enemy. “Since August, 1014, the British Expodilionary Force has groAvu from the small but highly efficient army Avhieh, with unequalled deeds, won ronoAA'ii at Mods, in (he ha tile of the Marne and the Aisne, and at Ypres, to a great army. “For the last four mouths (his army has waged on a front of many miles an unceasing battle, and bus every day Avon ucav glories for its standards. “Through these four chequered years of eonflid the same spirit of cheerfulness, stoicism, and gallantry, Avhieh our forefathers constantly displayed, has again been slioavu in the glorious tale of daily achievements Avhieh is the Empire's pride and rejoining to-day. “To Field-Marshal .Sir Douglas Haig, the Commander who has led to a decisive victory, over a formidable and skilful foe, the mightiest army ever sent forth to battle from the Empire, to all the rank and tile, who have borne the burden of the campaign, undaunted by discomfort, wounds, sickness, or death, and also to those Avhose unceasing labour behind the lines has smoothed the Avorking of the machine of victory, the Army Council tender their tribute of admiration and gratitude with the hope that, under God, the mighty work which has now been brought to a victorious conclusion on the battlefield may ensure for the Empire a future of honour, prosperity, and peace.”