The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 1915. A GREAT ANNIVERSARY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 40, 17 June 1915, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 1915. A GREAT ANNIVERSARY.

So much engrossed is everyone in the titanic conflict now raging over the! greater portion of Europe, that few of ns realise what a memorable cen-, ternary is close at hand. Just one liundrecl years ago to-morrow those selfsame plains of Flanders, which are now resounding with the dreadful clash of the mightiest armies that have even been gathered together, were the chosen area for one of the greatest and most decisive battles in. the world’s history. On the little plain of Waterloo, amid the smiling cornfields of the peaceful villagers of La Have Salute, the English army under the Duke of Wellington, resisted with unparallelled steadiness, during a long summer’s day,the most desperate charges of the hitherto victorious legions of Napoleon. This victory was a linal and fitting climax to the great war which had devastated the greater part of Europe for nearly a quarter of a century. 'Die battle of Waterloo is not only memorable as one of the most bril- t liant military achievements in the rich-ly-garnered heritage of our race, but it is characteristic of the policy of England, which has always been on the side of the oppressed. The victories of Lord Nelson bad made an invasion ol England tben as completely out of, the question as our present naval predominance would make it ’ oday, but the English people were not satisfied with safety merely, and having cleared the seas ol every loe, they resolutely set to work to beat down the despot on land. How well and faithfully they pursued that great task during the live long years ol the Peninsular War all readers of “Deeds that won the Empire” know well, and the IStb of June, ISlo, saw that task as splendidly achieved on land as, ten years previously Nelson at Trafalgar had secured it on sea. It was the final act in that great military drama in which for over five centuries England and France had been the greatest actors and the most inveterate foes. Today. a century afterwards, these two nations, joined in a common cause, stand among the shambles of Belgium

to sUm Ike tide of conqne-t of rt ( brutal military autocracy, before whose I aims and methods the, overweening 1 ambition of military despoti-mi of the great Napoleon pale into insignificance. In 1815 we were not fighting so much France as a human ogre, who had by ids military genius misdirected the resources and powers of ;i brave and chivalrous -people, and in Lids year of Armageddon, we are not lighting so much the German people, as the hydra-Oe.,ded Prussian militarism, who arc as callous of the interests of the;-, own unfortunate victimised sublet U * as they are-Of the unoffending Bel-1 gians. The German people a"e but! as pawns in the game, and their lives! ami warfare are of little moment to the military demons who have devised! and control the military automaton. For this reason we must expect no conscience in the prosecution of their plans, for a conscience belongs to a people or nation, and not to a despotic class who may bo exploiting it. Their “collective” conscience is about as ( highly-educated as that of the audiences, who, in the days of Nero, witi nessed the gladiatorial contests, and hooted when the Emperor turned up' the Imperial thumb to spare a brave, but fallen, gladiator. We must, therefore, recognise that the task which is before vis will lie a greater and more, hitter one than that which faced our. forefathers in the Peninsula and at Waterloo, as the stake is not the mere retention of power for a score of years or so by a single man as in the case,

of Napoleon, but the riveting of tin* shackles of a military bondage over the people of Europe and generations yet unborn. The task which we have voluntarily and honorably set ourselves, must be honorably, finally, and successfully achieved. The blood of our forefathers which on that historic day at Waterloo was so freely shod for the sake of freedom and justice, should encourage every man and woman in the Empire to put forth every effort in our present day of trial, so that we may worthily uphold the glorious heritage they have bequeathed to us. On this historic day we should make a solemn resolve that the Empire will see this war through to the finish with the same spirit and energy as characterised the veterans of Wellington and Nelson. For the text of this resolution we cannot do better than adopt the following words of Abraham Lincoln, uttered at the field of Gettysburg during the American Civil War: “It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thusl far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain.”