The Daily News. SATURDAY, JUNE 28, 1919. LOOKING BACK.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 June 1919, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, JUNE 28, 1919. LOOKING BACK.

Although the peace treaty has not yet been signed and the fruits of victory that was won at last in that "stupendous and incessant conflict wherein men fought as they never fought before in masses," have not been gathered, it is only a matter of a brief period when our faith and patience will l>e rewarded. Looking back over the events of the last five years there is much to arouse the gratitude and pride of the citizens of the great British Empire in tlie magnificent achievements of the troops who answered the call when the Empire was in danger, and had to face a mighty, powerful foe who had been vigorously preparing for a world war for half a century. Even had Britain been prepared—which she was not—the tasjfrwould have been gigantic, and yWln thn end, the cause of right prevailed and the disturber of the world's peace was crushed and forced to become a fugitive from the Fatherland. The war, in Sir Douglas Haig's opinion, fell into three great stages. In the first, the rush to gain the best positions; the Germans won. The second was a long and, fearful struggle of attrition to wear the enemy down, and the third was the reaping of the fruit of that struggle in the breaking of the immense German fortified lines, 'the relentless advance of our

troops in the culminating offensive of last year, and the dealing of the decisive blow. The agony of the Somme was not in vain. ' ( lt is in the great battles of 1916-17 that we have to seek for the secret of our victory in 1918." If the end was long in coming it was because we were unprepared, and not that the little British army was badly trained. Judged by that army's performance at Mons it had nothing to unlearn, but "gave the first revelation of the tactics that were to win the war." The "contemptible army" overcame all difficulties, and became democratic and national as never before. A taxi-driver rose to command a brigade; an undercook became an efficient General Staff officer; a railway signalman commanded a battalion; an editor led a division. Tried by the fiercest test, taken at the utmost disadvantage the Imperial forces emerged in triumph over the greatest military combination on record. Our victory • was not fortuitous, rescued from a sea of muddle, error and mismanagement, but represents the flowering of national character in a triumph that has no parallel in the history of any country, ancient or modern, and we have reason to hold our heads high as we look back on this stupendous task. Now that peace is on the threshold it behoves the people of the Empire to sweep their war-weary minds clean, and to confront the future with a good heart. It may be hazarded, in! passing, that the people of the Em-1 pire have not yet been seized with! the significance of that march of our troops across the Rhine, which constitutes the most memorable chapter of British military history. It jWas the outward and visible sign of the ending of a titanic struggle that rocked the foundations of the world, and was a prelude to the assembly of Allied delegates at a conference which was to impose such terms on the vanquished as would ensure permanent peace. Future generations reading Sir Douglas Haig's words of description of that march will sympathise with his temptation to pause in his official despatch to record the crowning incident in this deadly conflict of ideals of civilisation. The proceedings at the Peace Conference are fresh in the minds of all, as are the ravings of the Huns against the terms which have been laid down. They were informed at the outset that the terms were to be dictated and not negotiated, thus dismissing all hope of their obtaining a diplomatic victory. All their blatant talk about an unjust peace and the enslavement of Germany is mere whining at being conquered. "They will cheat you yet, those junkers," said Carl Rosemeier. "Having won half the world by bloody murder, they are going to win the other half with tears in their eyes, crying for mercy." It is worth while recalling what the Kaiser said in 1917. <'The. Entente must be made to pay all Germany's war costs, including the cost of German armaments for the next forty years, amounting to about £20,000,000,000—part to be paid in raw materials and by the surrender of half the Entente's merchant fleets, and seizure of all private and public properties in the annexed territories." Herr Erzberger went even further by declaring that Germany "must obtain control not only of Belgium, but of the whole French coast from Dunkirk to Boulogne, with the possession of the Channel Islands," and the indemnities were to include not only reimbursement of all war costs, but payment for all damage caused by the war; the redemption of all German State debts, and the creation of a large fund for (German) victims of the war. These two pronouncements may well be compared with the ravings about an unjust peace, so that Herr Seheidemann's screams of real or simulated rage will produce no effect on the Allies, but may be regarded as akin to the shrieks of the lowest class of criminal when taken from the dock. The terms have been settled and Germany must carry them out.