The Times. PUBLISHER ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19. 1918. DAWN OF VICTORY

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 7, Issue 427, 19 November 1918, Page 2

The Times. PUBLISHER ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19. 1918. DAWN OF VICTORY

"We nothing extenuate, nor let down aught in malice. 1 '

Although peace is not yet finally concluded we may take it as practically certain that the signing of the armistice was the signal for the curtain to fall upon the greatest drama that has ever been played on the human stage. From that fateful August 4th, 1914, when Great Britain decided to be true to her great traditions and throw her whole weight against the insane lust of conquest of the meglomauiacal Kaiser and the insatiable greed for plunder of his subjects there was never any question but that this was a fight to a finish to decide whether the world should lie bleeding and prostrate at the feet of the unspeakable Hun, or whether civilization should be allowed to proceed upon the model of Anglo-Saxon justice, tolerance and freedom. Had the Teutons been able able to impose their will upon first Kurope and then America not only would civilization as we know it have been destroyed but the very i foundations of religious belief would have been sapped, for few could have brought themselves to believe in a just and merciful God had He permitted all that was best iu the human race to be overwhelmed by a nation of fiends whom to call brutes is an insult to the world of dumb animals. How narrowly at the beginning this great calamity was averted all the world knows. The peace at any price party that had for years controlled the government of Great Britain had turned a deaf ear to every exhortation to prepare for tin- inevitable cataelaysm, and all that stood between civilization and chaos for many weeks; was a handful of Biitish regulars j and the first hastily gathered I levies of French soldiers. The | story of how these men held and finally llung back the advancing hordes of Germans is the most I

glorious among the many glorious chapters of the war. This was really the decisive battle that won us tlii' war, for it gave us the precious weeks that enabled us to arm the nation. Foch's recent brilliant campaign was merely

the coup de grace, and by one of those mysterious workings of fate, which seem too wonderlul to be mere chance, the last town we recaptured from the enemy was the very Mons from which the British legulars first deployed to face the Germans invaders.

For four years and four days the world conflict raged with varying fortunes. Then the master-spirit of the war, the only truly great soldier the conflict has throwu up on either side, Foch, having patiently manoeuvred the enemy into the position he wanted him in while we held our breaths and wondered how much further he was going to tempt fate, turned and struck on the Sth ! of August. From then until the last shot was fired at 11 a.m. on the 11th of this month, our offensive moved like clock-work. Gradually the German retreat degenerated into little else than a rout, and we had the satisfaction of knowing that the enemy was soundly thrashed before the surrender of their allies gave them the excuse of saying they could not continue the fight alone. The hardest, most trying and at the same time the most interesting part of the great work is over, but much yet remains to be accomplished. We must so order things that never, while Time is, shall the world be exposed to a danger so great and terrible. We trust no maudlin feeling of sympathy for a beaten foe will tempt us to lose sight of justice. The enemy has done nothing throughout the whole contest to win even the most grudging respect from us. He fought like a blackguard, and the way he has in defeat turned upon the leaders, whose boots he would have licked had they won victory for him, shows that he loses like a craven cur.

So we must set ourselves calmly and resolutely to the task before us. We must do what we can to dry up the Empire's tears and bind up its wounds. We must determine in the final terms ot peace to render it impossible so monstrous, so wicked and so callous, a crime against humanity can ever again be attempted. We must deal out justice to all convicted evil-doers calmly and decorously but relentlessly. And if we are to be worthy of the glorious dead, who did not hesitate to lay down their lives to shield us from the unspeakable degredation and horror ot Hunnish domination, we must so order our future lives that when it comes to our turn ''to cross the great divide'' we may not be ashamed to meet those dearly loved ones who went before for us.