“COLOGNE FOR RHEIMS.”

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 250, 13 July 1915, Page 4

“COLOGNE FOR RHEIMS.”

Will Cologne pay for Kheiras? That strangely Unman question is touched in a play written by Air Stephen Phillips, called “Armageddon.” The quotations that follow, although . forged in tlm passion of the moment. ar e part ot" a work which contains soui e of the finest and most abiding thoughts or. the- war penned by any Englishman The prologue to “Armageddon” is cot in hell. Satan sends the shade of AtJla to earth charged to bring again fire and blood and tears. But Satan fears Britain: An island floats upon the western wav© Whose peopl e never yet have bowed to Force And will not now, a stubborn brood and free, They sway the varying oceans of the Earth And that which was but island and remorse Ne’er sees th e setting sun go dowa on her She against Force may bring into the field The turbaned East and her seasundexv ed sons. Her most in our attempt we have to fear. ? Satan asks Belial to place “the grand lie” in the heart of the German, for he says: Music I lovo not, but confess to like The pleasant humming of a prosperous lie. The first scene opens in a chateau overlooking Rheims. A German general and his staff sit at a table strewn with glasses and papers. An abbe pleads for Rhcims Cathedral. The prayer is not heard, the German orders his men to emulate Attiia: Come like wolves upon the villages And visit wasted cities at sunset Hike the lean lion roaming Babylon. Rheims Cathedral is shelled. The climax of the play is reached when the Allies enter Cologne. The French and the Belgian generals,smarting under their countries’ wrongs, burn with ‘rag e at admitted atrocities. They ask for vengeance. Cologne Cathedral spires to the sky. Rheims lies battered. Why should they not take revenge?. The English general stops in, counselling forbearance: W 0 are in arms for nothing but a cause, Therefore could England bring into the field The hardy brood ot her sea-sundered , sons, Each' man an athlete, clean of limb and life. Youth of the open air and stung with sun, Hence the still vigil of the Northern ■ Sea, But —look to this —not these alone shebrings, But dreaming India hither has she drawn, Her princes prodigal of ptearl and' gold. Let us beware lest we betray the world. . Just then something happens, a tale of sorrow, a crown of thorns, and the English general realises what it is tolose those things that li© nearest theheart. Why not? Germany has done heir vilest —Cologne shall fall. It would unfortunately be unfair to future theatre audiences to tell how this largeissue is decided; but Cologne does not fall