"WE ARE AT WAR."

Taranaki Daily News, 24 January 1919, Page 5

"WE ARE AT WAR."

HISTORIC MIDNIGHT AT DOWNING STREET. MOMENTOUS AUGUST 4, 1914. How, at midnight on August 4, 1914, the Empire was informed that we were at war is a dramatic story, which has now been revealed by Lord Harcourt, who was Colonial Secretary in the first ten months of the confliot. He relates the historic incident to the Empire Parliamentary Association. "On the unforgettablo night," he said, "I was in the Cabinet Room, Downing street, with a few colleagues. Our eyes were on the clock, our thought on one subject only; but there was a feeble effort to direct our conversation to other matters.

"We were waiting for a reply, wlilcli we knew full well would never come, to our ultimatum to Berlin. When Big Ben struck 11.30—midnight in Berlin—we left the room, knowing that the British Empire was at war. "f crossed to the Colonial Office, to send a war telegram to the whole of the British Empire. I asked the oflieial in charge of that duty how long it would take. He said: 'About six minutes.' "I asked him to return to my room when he had done his work. In seven minutes he had done his work and boforc morning I received an acknowledgment of my telegram from every single Colonial Protectorate, and every ialet in the Pacific. "So the grim machinery of war began revolving, in perfect order and in pcrfecj; preparation, because, more than two years previously, an individual war book had been prepared by the Colonial Committee ,of Defence for every single Protectorate and island. It was at that moment locked in the safe of each Governor or Commissioner, and they knew at once what to do."

Lord Harcourt also made ail interesting disclosure about South Africa when the rebels went off with shells, arms, mid ammunition possessed by the Union Government. "General Botha telegraphed to me to replace the arma at the earliest possible moment I turned naturally, but not very hopefully, to Lord Kitchener His I reply was: 'No, my friend; not one rifle or cartridge shall be diverted from the Jiuropean front.'" "So I searched the world over ti/» five or six days, and ultimately, in a Irkndly country, I found the arms and ammunition I wanted An empty ship -was 'despatched, the arms and oramuuition were loaded in thirty hours, and in ctetcen days they reached Cape Town. "That, sixteen days was the most' critical period for the Union of South Africa that it has gon» through sinco it was .formed."