The Daily News. FRIDAY, JULY 18, 1919. CELEBRATING PEACE.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 July 1919, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, JULY 18, 1919. CELEBRATING PEACE.

Throughout the Empire to-mor-row there will be celebrations in honor of the ratification of peace. It can hardly be expected that there will be anything like the demonstrative outburst which accompanied the news of the signing of the armistice, for the latter occasion came to the people of Greater Britain as a mighty relief from the high tension of between four and five years' intense anxiety as to the issue of the struggle with all its fluctuations and sacrifices; it ended the war and the terrible casualty lists, and it meant the return of our boys from the firing line to their homes. Tomoirow's celebrations, though robbed of their exuberance by reason of the time that elapsed since the armistice was signed, possess a deep significance and constitute an event that will become an historical record for all time, while Peace Day will stand out as the i parting period of the old era and the new. Armistice Day was rel garrled more in the light of a celebration of victory—the attainment of the Allies' goal, and the triumph of the cause of right and humanity. Peace Day has a far different meaning, for it is of the nature of a crown for the victors who successfully made war against war. and opened up to the world the prospects of a lasting peace. The nations are now under a solemn league covenant to live at peace and to adopt arbitrament instead of the sword. While this great international safeguard does not mean there will absolutely be no more armed strife, it certainly provides reasonable hopes that never again will there be such a terrible Armageddon as tnat which has recently inflicted so vast a drain on the man power and the resources of the principal nations of the world. The impressive thanksgiving services held a short while back are still fresh in the minds of the people, attuning them to loftier ideals and nobler efforts in national and social life. So we may take it that step by step the people of the Empire have been led through sorrow and suffering into the haven of peace, and to-morrow's celebrations may well be held in remembrance as the outward and visible token that the ordeal has been safely passed, the new era entered, the black clouds of bitter warfare rolled away, and the horizon of the future made bright with promise. "We are too close to the events of the war to view them with calm, unimpassioned judgment, but time will assuage its horrors and cruelties, though the atrocities committed by the Germans will be difficult to obliterate from our minds. With the advent of Peace Day we may fix our hopes and energies on the future, knowing that though there is much to be done if the lessons of the war are to bear fruit, yet we may take heart from the fact that just as victory in the armed conflict was won by courage and unswerving resolution, so will those same virtues achieve corresponding results in the days of peace, thereby advancing the happiness, and well-being of the world. There may be some who consider that processions, fireworks, bonfires and joy rides are inappropriate methods of celebrating peace, but they are a means to an end. They) bring the people of all ages and classes together for a united purpose, so that it continues that common bond of action which was -so strikingly manifested during the war. It is unity that should be the keynote of the Empire, and it is only by the attainment of that pillar of strength that an' end will be put to industrial and other strife. It should be the aim of every member of the community to make the peace celebrations so memorable that the true significance of the occasion will never grow dim, but rather serve as a stimulus to profit by the lessons of the war, and inculcate new principles which will show that the great sacrifices made have not been in vain,, while holding in the highest honor those who answered to the call of duty, and especially those who made the supreme sacrfice in a cause that appealed to every right-minded citizen. Thus may the peace celebrations be a living. force in cementing the true bond k.of brotherhoo 1 |