The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE TUESDAY, APRIL 1. WHAT WILL WE DO?

Taihape Daily Times, 1 April 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

TUESDAY, APRIL 1. WHAT WILL WE DO?

(With which is Incorporated The fai> hape Foot and WalciaiiTao News).

A cable message from England states that it is believed Peace Celebrations will be fixed for sometime in This may be correct or it may not, but that great occasion is not at all likely to be set back to any later date. We arc advised that preparations afe proceeding in Britain, on a scale hitherto unparalleled, and that they are to be of a magnitude and nature to surpass all preconceived notions of honouring great- events and achievements. It is not a man that has been rescuer:,

not a people, race, nation, or even an Empire that has been saved, it is the civilisation of the whole world, an unprecedented occasion; history pourtrays nothing like it; the mind of man could not hitherto conceive it, as there was nothing on which to base such a conception. The greatest of all warshas been won, .the British flag has once more been in the van of victory, borne by its bravest sons to complete triumph for freedom and all that the mind of civilised man considers noblest and holiest. They fought for justice alike for their enemies as for themselves; there was no selfisu motive behind those brave fellows who sacrificed their lives in hundreds of thousands that their homes, their fathers, mothers and all their fellows keeping the home fires burning might be saved fiyjm (by the Molock of Kaiserism. There was no pusillanimity damping their ardour or dulling their action; they establishea the undeniable claim to having long., the greatest of all wars and having achieved a victory beside which all victories of history are mere brawls. There should be no occasion to follow our heroic New Zealanders to Egypt, Palestine, Gallipoli, the Somme, Messines, Bapaume, Pozicres and dozens of other places, and eventually to Germany to take possession of one of the most magnificent cities of whicn Gormans can boast. These victorious sous of New Zealand will be back in their own land by the date to be fixec for the celebration of the overwhelming triumph their courage has won. Our soldiers will see how we value their sacrifice of life in the fight for the security of our land and homes by the order, magnitude, and heartiness of our celebrations. While the war was proceeding we wore seized with j fear and trembling lest our British armies and navies should fail to defeat the hellish conceptions of Prussian militarism, and men of all ranks devoured every word of cables Celling how the struggle was going, how the sway of battle was moving, whether in favour of our lads or of the ravaging, enslaving, murdering A,re our columns so eagerly scanned for good news to-day, or is it that all fear of defeat has gone, and nobofly cares 'what our lads have suffered, no* what may result good or ill, from tho victories they have won? Tho Imperial Government has invited New Zealand to honour the defeat of Prussiar.ism and the triumph of justice and liberty by fittingly celebrating the formal declaration of peace, to publicly honour with festivity and appropriate ceremonies so distinguishes, renowned and illustrious an', occasion We ‘know that people of this, district

,vill not fail to honour the consummation of the almost inconceivable tn ■war and bloodshed, the rescue from destruction of our race, from tlieTlownfall of the Empire that our fathers handed down to us free, to he kept free, with all its truly noble traditions. We are going to honour the occasion as it should be honoured; those who have suffered most are going to display the true nobility of the British character in stoically venting joy that their sacrifices were not in vain, that not a vein in their anatomy contains one drop of selfish blood that would cause them to view their loss as more than the triumph of humanity against national and racial death. We are called upon to show a. national appreciation of the noble sacrifice of some that the whole Empire might not he destroyed, but are we not guilty of delay in making preparations that will enable our rejoicings to synchronise with the rejoicings of the rest of the Empire, and of the whole civilised world; for thankfulness will be no less sincere arid great in Germany for the establishment of peace than in any Allied country. An appeal has been made by a publicly appointed Peace Celebration Committee, of which the Mayor is Chairman, for contributions that alone will make Taihape Peace Celebrations possible. The curtain is about to fall on the mos* awful drama ever enacted on the world’s stage, a war of unparalleled suffering, sacrifice, determination, heroism, stoicism and right, as opposed to the might of brutishness, barbarity, almost inconceivable, and having all the attributes of hell and diabolism, tn a few days the curtain will be rung down on the terrible enactments and the actors. We are asked by Empire leaders to show our appreciation, thanks and gratitude for the greatness and nobility of the performers and the performance, how much of our means are we going to give towards honouring the bursting of the links or a new feudalism that would have bound the British Empire to a truly, savage state? Wo know the money required will be forthcoming, but let it not be too late for achieving the utmost. Those of us who arc left from the maelstrom are going to reap the reward of our men’s courage in winning the world’s dread battle, let us appreciate the reward Avon by ;'tS« sacrifices of our sons; let those who have the means give in with their means towards celebrating the most significant event the world knows anything about; and, finally, let those who nature has blessed with gifts that are inseparable from such a celebration come willingly forward with the voices God bestOAvcd on them for use on such occasions; let the players of the modern sackbut, psaltery, lute, harp', and cymbals he there, Avithout asking, with their instruments to honour the men Avho haA r c brought the most awful, bloody, and barbarous drama that Avas eA r er staged to so glorious and successful an ending. An appeal for money and for singers and musicians is made by the Peace Celebration Committee, let it not be said that one Taihape man failed to respond.