PRIDE OF RACE.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 14 May 1917, Page 2

PRIDE OF RACE.

BRITONS ALL.

NO LONGEB SEPAEATE NATIONS,

BUT ONE.

"I didn't know what phrase 'pride or race' meant till I came to this war. But it is something to be an Australian, or it is still more to be a Britisher. The most patriotic Australian could not be content to be only an Australian; he would have to claim the larger and fuller heritage to which he is entitled.'' >So writes an observnat Australian soldier, a lawyer in civil life, to his brother in Wellington.

"When in London, walking down Whitehall or by St. Paul's or Westminster Abbey, I often experienced (he says) a feeling of exultation impossible to describe. I was walking on air. My feet scarcely touched the ground, for it was possible to say, 'This is mine.' All the past in English history seemed gathered up there. And all the vast responsibilities of the present seemed to be d.iven home to the mind; responsibilities to the world in every corner of the world. I often used to wonder if we were equal to the task, and I do so still—for as much has been given

much is expected. "It is almost staggering to think of the work awaiting the British race when this peace of work is done. We will have denied world power to the Germans, we will have subdued her as our great competitor; but we will have to show that Ave are worth it ourselves. I I often wonder what effect this war will have on the particular destiny of Australia. was kind enough to send a copy of a leader from the re Imperial Federation. After reading . it I passed it on to several others sleeping in the same hut as myself; just ordinary men, one a fireman on a locomotive, another a boilermaker. They didn't like it at all. They used an impolite word, equal to 'jrot.' The reason was that the treated the different parts of the Empire, such as Canada, New Zealand, England,, etc., as quite distinct and separtc nations; it spoke of them as the allied of the Empire, and said that if Australia and the other Dominions had liked they could have preserved a position of benevolent neutrality in this war. (That is nonsense, of course.) To us who have come spontaneously to this wan that is a sort of blasphemy, and to these chaps it was enough to put the article clean out of court. Australians at home do not realise the truth of what is going on now. Do you recall Henry's words :to his men before the battle of Agincourt —that he who shed his blood with ..im that day 'shall be my brother; be he ne-er so vile, this day shall gentle Ids condition.'

"So now, English, Australians, New Zealanders, and Canadians, we arc not separate at all. Their men together have become actually and really one nation, much more one nation than the people of their respective countries. It will he a pity if Australians at home do not realise this,, but whether they realise it ov not I honestly think the sentiment will find for itself some adequate governmental expression after the war. It will not be denied even by geography. I often think of that sentence of Shakespeare's I have just quoted: 'Be he ne'er so vile, this day shall gentle his condition.' It is fine to sec how brotherly some men get in this life. A man reckons himself very poorly off if he has no mate."