The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1917. THE CLOSING YEAR.

Taihape Daily Times, 31 December 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1917. THE CLOSING YEAR.

With which is incorporated The Taihape Post and Waimarino News).

It is very doubtful indeed whether any year ,since history began to be written has been so full and so fraught with sadness and sorrow as that which is gliding away and which to-mor-row will be numbered with the past. The great world-war is well into its fourth year . and still the end is not in sight. With the : commencement of the New Year we find Germany, employing much' the same tactics, and, in fact, by making one or two substitutions she js 'engaged in fighting similar battles. Battles that are not at all calculated to win final victory in the field, but are by a definite plan»of treachery as disclosed by German documents containing instructions and rules as to the best method of disorganising enemy countries, creating dis- ' order among their people, and by throwing men's minds into a ferment arc likely to encourage civil war and fratricide. In the latter part of last year Germany had by buying up the Russian Press and by the ramifications of secret agency managed to secure the German, Stunner, being made the Director of Russia's foreign policy. The Russian fiasco commenced from that moment; we need only refer to leading German newspapers for proof thereof. The Cologne Gazette said "Stunner would offer no obstacle to German desire for peace, which from now onward will be born in Russia." The Nieue Freic Presse frankly said, "However Russified old Stunner may be, it is nevertheless very strange to see a German directing Russia's foreign policy during a war that had its birth, in the domain of Pan-Slavic ideas." In Sturmer we shall find* an arm which we can use, "at our own will." He will not declare that it is necessary to annihilate the Prus-. sian Military caste. From the fall of 1916, Russian patricians were troubled with painful and terrifying suspicions, with sinister rumours of treason, of the existence of dark forces that were working to create a favourable sentiment for a shameful peace that would bring with it the complete destruction of Russian unity. Germany had then gained ascendancy in Russia, and the world beheld the ludicrous phenomena of an enemy directing that nation's affairs. With the beginning of another year we realise what Germany has accomplished in one year; wc see the cankerous virile growth resulting from spores sown by secret agency, which there are reasons for assuming will result in the complete destruction of an erstwhile great Empire, and a powerful Ally of the Entente cause. The past year has been the most momentous in Russian history, for it can only-be by the performance of an almost impossible task that she can be snatched from disintegration and from losing her place among the great nations of the earth. The other great event of 1917 that will for ever live in history, and which will have an influence on the future culture and progress of all peoples, is the entry of the United States into the war against German domination. It was in January a year ago that President Wilson received the auspicious memorandum from Germany which rapidly led to the fateful decision. Germany's - Note was presented to the United States Government on the thirty-first of January and diplomatic relations with Germany wore severed three days later, the contemp-

tible Berristorff being ordered off Am-

erican territory: Since then the Ameri-

can people have revealed what it is

possible for a peaceful nation to ac-

complish in twelve mouths in getting ready for a trial of strength. In addition to supplying all the Allies with money and munitions to carry on the war, it is officially known that at least a million and a half of men have been transported to France without the loss of scarcely a man, despite the boasted submarine effectiveness of the enemy. We have said that Germany is employing similar tactics at the commencement of 1918 as she depended upon to secure peace in January, 1916. Now, it is Italy .that is being subjected to a colossal attempt that is to render her useless to the Allied cause, last year it was Roumania that was being overrun. Eussians were fighting give and take battles, which did no more than keep certain enemy forces occupied. Germany was boastfully hint ing at making an offensive on the West Front that would penetrate the Allied lines and bring Britain to her knees. Huge concentrations were reported on the Dutch and Swiss frontiers, as similar concentrations are boasted of to-day, and which, as Major Moraht says are to be Germany's answer to Lloyd George's historic speech British troops had then just inflicted

a serious defeat on enemy troops on the Anere, this year it is Cambrai that has been menaced. Whatever potency may be at the back of German boastfulness, there is no denying that the utmost confidence pervades the Allies in France and Belgium, whatever may happen; Germany may be reinforced with divisions from toe east, but the Allies will have more than an equal force of new, fresh American troops with an almost incalculable augmentation of munition supplies, guns, aeroplanes and other equipment of the latest and most deadly kind. The last German hope in Greece has been killed and the Greek nation is anxious to be let loose at their old enemies on their borders. Turkey has signified willingness to fight with the 'Allies if the Turkish Empire is left intact after the war. If the confidence in final victory was anything less than certainty with the Allies, Turkey's offer, might prove attractive, but Jerusalem will, never more fall under Turkish rule.-The. year' 1917 will add to the Jewish history that which means the fulfilment of prophecy which Jewish ; pcople in all countries of the world have been expecting about this time. This fact alone will cause the past year to stand out in future history so long as history is uninterruptedly chronicled. Coming to our own Empire there is little to say that can run parallel.in the minds of British people with the catastrophic nearness to destruction the nation has come, owing to its, indifference to the appalling and unprecedented war machinery built up by. Germany. Although final triumph now appears assured through the marshalling of America's millions of men alongside the British in Prance, and by the announcement of the Emperor of Japan that the Japanese will assist to the fullest extent in making secure the aims and objects for which the Allies are fighting, we know from ample experience that incidents may arise I throwing back the desired accomplishment till financial ruin overtakes us. In New r Zealand we have scarcely realised that a war of such magnitude is being waged; that millions of lives have been sacrificed and many millions more have been incapacitated from again taking their place in adding to the wealth and prosperity of their respective nations. Many hundreds of our people are entering upon a New Year with a load of anguish almost unbearable. Sons, husbands, brothers and fathers fallen to German guns, bombs and bayonets are being mourned for, j and many of our women are comfortless. It w T ould be cruellest irony to wish them the usual happy new year, but we can pray that God will lighten and relieve their sorrows. It is most remarkable that the close of another year finds this country being governed by a self-appointed administration. This extraordinary condition seems to be accounted for only by the fact that a prosperity brought about by unprecedented high prices for national produce pervades most sections of the community. The close of 1917 discloses in this country a people so absorbed with the reaping of riches that they have little or no time to give to planning and legislating for the future. The people that ceases to care for its future trade and the future comfort of the toiling masses arc inviting a calamity that must sequentially follow. About the present and the past year's progress there is nothing to complain of, and Taihapo has enjoyed the general prosperity to as great or greater extent than any other district in New Zealand. May the progress and prosperity now experienced improve in the year commencing at midnight by being extended to every class, high and low, rich and poor, and may those who have the guidance of public affairs so act as to prevent that red revolution which is in the air of the whole world, from causing havoc in our midst.