BE OF GOOD COURAGE.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 November 1917, Page 7

BE OF GOOD COURAGE.

SILVER LINING TO THE CLOUDS. TRUTH AND RIGHT MUST PREVAIL. Worda of good cheer were spoken by the Governor-General and the ""rime Minister, at Wellington, on Saturday afternoon, at the ceremony of unveiling a memorial to the ex-pnpils of the Roueneath School who have fallen in the war. Their remarks had special reference to the not very cheering news we have been receiving over the cables in the last few days.

"Perhaps today there may be an uncomfortable feeling because things have not gone as we should have liked them to go in the last few days," said his Excellency. "We are, perhaps, a little bit inclined, although not willing to own up to it, to be just a little bit downhearted. Ladies and gentlemen, if you are students of history, you know that there has never been a war equal to this 'one in its size, or in the number of men engaged, and in no great war has the end been achieved without ups and downs. I can'see nothing in the present situation to indicate that our race and our ideas of liberty and honesty will not yet come out on top. None of us like to own up to being downhearted, but probably there are numbers of people here who have been reading the cablegrams from day to day in the past week; wondering whal; is going to happen, I know no more than you do about what has hap-' pened. But, recollect this, that in the biggest war in which the Empire was engaged before this one—the war at the beginning of the last century—we had no easy ride. In the Peninsula Sir John Moore and Crawford both had their ups and downs in what was then considered a great retirement, the retirement on Conmna. And if we take the other side of the picture, and see how the people who arc now our enemies fared in their wars of the century previous to that, we shall see that they had a considerable number of ups and downs in the time of Frederick the Great. It is hardly reasonable to expect that in this war we are going to have everything our own way. In France we have a great deal to be thankful fof, and it is on the French and Belgian frontier that this struggle is finally going to be won. Things have undoubtedly gone wrong with our Italian allies, but that is not going to be the end of all things for us. Sorry as I am that things have not gone smoothly, I think that instead of being downhearted we should be prcud of the way in which our troops in France have won out of a most difficult situation. Nor let us forget the action that has been carried out in Palestine by troops from all parts of the Empire in a meritorious manner.

"I have taken this opportunity of speaking in this way because I heard that there was among the people of this city a disposition to be disheartened. I ask you to take courage, and I believe that the men to whom lam about to unveil a memorial would wish you to do the same. I am certain that the troops in France are not downhearted, and when things don't go right let us take men who have the hard tasks ahead of them to ask of us that we should be of good courage. ... I wish everybody here and all the people of New Zealand not to be downhearted, but rather to look to the great deeds that have been done, and that are going to be done by your sons, your kith and kin, and to think that in this fight right and liberty are going to triumph." (Applause). The Rt. Honorable W. F. Massey spoke also of the great wars in which England fought to free Europe from the military tyranny of Napoleon. That struggle went on for years, and still the issue remained in doubt, but it was a fact that reverses, difficulties, and disappointments brought out the best qualities of our race, the qualities of courage, endurance, tenacity and resource. And these qualities would win this war for us as they had won other wars for us in the past. "Though there may be occasional signs," he said, "of a small proportion of the people being downhearted, take it from me we are not discouraged The citizens of the British Empire stood well up to the reverses in the early part of the war, and I feel certain that, the great majority of the citizens of the Empire are' determined to see this thing through, whtaever the sacrifice may be. What, is money, what is property, what i shuman life—and Heaven knows we have paid our share in the lives of mencompared with losing the war and allowing the world to be dominated by the Germans, the people who have sunk to the lowest depths of barbarism, and committed atrocities at which the civilised world has Btood aghast? 1 would rather see New Zealand and every one of its people beneath the sea than under the heel of Germany. (Hear, hear.) His Excellency has pointed out that there is a silver lining to the cloud, that though occasionally things look black, there is a brighter sidei Our fleet is still unbeaten, and will remain unbeaten till the end of the war. I am satisfied that tho worst of the submarine warfare is over. The British troops are doing well on every front, working with the gallant and undismayed French, we are driving the Germans back. Haig's hammer is striking, driving the Germans back to their own frontier. Now the Americans are coming in fresh and unwearied.

"I say this because I mean it—the result of this war is beyond dodbt. This war is going to be won on the Western front. We may have difficulties elsewhere, but in the end we will win on the Western front. Remember that the British always win the last battle, and. they are going to win the last fight in this war. And until we win the last fight —and. may it come soot" —we us British citizens have to do our part, have to stand fast for liberty and freedom and righteousness, for the ause of the Empire to which we belong." (Applause).