IT WAS THE MARCH OF ALL MANKIND.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 January 1920, Page 9

IT WAS THE MARCH OF ALL MANKIND.

THE GREAT TRIUMPH OF SATURDAY AND WHAT IT MEANT TO US AND TO THE WORLD-

THE MARCH OF THE DOERS OF THE WILL OF MAN.

London, July 25. "Foch brought the intellectual clarity of France anil the passion of the ideal; Pershing the friendship of the United States and our hopes that it may become a trust for the good of humanity; Currie and Monash the strong wine of youthful nationhood; and Haiff, at the head of the British Army, symbolised the power of discipline and hard work, without which all else is nought." —The Times. "The triumph of Saturday is not to be compared with any of the great military triumphs of history," says the Times. "It did not celebrate victory in the struggle of one nation with another for the mastery of the world, not a Rome triumphant over a Carthage, but rather one cause triumphant over another, faith over unfaith, mankind over the traitors to mankind. "It may seem to us, in moments of pride, that this is tlic day of the Eng-lish-speaking peoples. Theirs is the kingdom and the power, but the great procession told us, if we needed to be told, that theirs is not all the glory. "In it there were new nations and old; China, the oldest of all, with its beautiful, gentle past and a future of unknown promises; and close to China came the newest of nations, the Czechoslovakia's, blowing, as it were, on their flagged bugles a propliecy of their history to be.

THE MASTER GENERAL. '■' But above all the master general was a Latin still, as oil the day when Europe and Christendom fought Attila to a standstill in France; and we and our brothers from the West obeyed him because we, too, were fighting for a world order and a world hope. He rode impassive through the crowds like a Caesar, but viotor in a cause far higher, and chosen not by his army, but by all nations, to execute their common 'will. Surely legends will gather round him and his fellows, as they gathered round Charlemagne and his paladins, because they, too. have been the defenders of the past and the future, the champions of a free and just and ordered world. "Not in one field, but on three continents and over all the seas have they fought for justice and kindness and freedom; and not they alone with their armies and navies, but all the Allied peoples, men and women, with head and hand. The crowds gathered to watch had fought; and they al=o were lint, representatives o; all the millions that haw fought and suffered for the day that is to be.

A WHOLE WORLD PRESENT. "One could not watnli the procession without, feeling that a whole world was present in thought:,- there was the prophetic sou! of the wide world dreaming it- things to come. More than a triumph, it was the march of mankind through the ages for a moment made visilil", a muliitiifte which no man can number, of all nations and peoples and t '.'lies. This discipline, of war, this onier and purpose, this common will and harmoiiV expressed in the very movement of the troops as in a piece of music; tiii.s is what mankind must learn, not for war, but for peace, if it is to realise (he hopes of all the great visionaries.

''And surely our blood is stirred by the rhythm of tramping hosts, not merely berauM' we exult in our victory, but prophetically, because we too are dreaming on things to be, because, whether we knew if or not, the procession was for us the march of mankind as it will be. mil, merely of this victorious nation or that, but of a world growing sure of its purpose, seeing more and more clearly the goal of its eager, long-bewildered spirit.'

TIIF. INVISIBLE HOST. "Surely there was not one of us there who <iid not remember that other army, tliat multitude not visible in the fie.-h Lo share the march of victory. "In this world ail the highest beauty of thought or somtd is solemn with sadness, for all noble joy remembers the price that has been paid for it. In the midst of life we are in death—the words had a new meaning for lis as we wntehed the'living vietors march by—and onr rejoicing would have been like the laughter of fools if we had not remembered ill the midst of il those who have died so that we may rejoice. It. is because we remember them, because, not in fear. but. in tenderness, we keen the thought of those we have lost, that the cross is the symbol of our faith. P.v that sitrn, not we alone, but mankind, eonouevs; and if ever we forget it we shall deserve defeat and shame indeed. "We living cheered tile living iti the summer streets, all happy in the fellowship of the living: but there were those who d,"d in winter darkness alone, after the manner of their Master, unassured of victory, snr» only that they would endure to thi» end. Was there not some moment amid the roaring awl the wreaths at which each one of us was suddenly aware of their silence, at which we asked why we should he left except to remember them and to realise the hope for which they died? THAT WORT.!) OF THE SPIRIT. "Did they go blindly to their deaths? But we are all blind, except for our trust in righteousness as a. tiling greater than ourselves, a thin? to he lived and died fov\ Ami in our blindness we cannot see that world of the spirit to which we must yet lie true, and that throng of immortal spirits now unblinded who suriily are not present only in onr tho.ight. A little wh'le ago they were foolish men like ourselves: but now they are sancti/ied bv dealh,*and not only in our thought. They, too. are a. multitude 'no man can number; they have come out of great tribulation, and Clod shall wipe awav all tears from their eyes. We believe that, they were present, rejoicing with us. and anxious still that, we may not fall short of the hope for which they died.

THE MUSIC OF MANKIND. "It was the music not only of armies and navies, but also of all mankind, that sounded through the streets of London, a music diverse and everlasting, solemn in its triumph, single in its very diversity, unknowing the future, hut, firm of purpose, made up of individual lint universal in its harmony, armed and victorious over those who had denied the common

spirit and purpose of man, which is the spirit and purpose of God— .

On them that worship the ruthless will, On them that dream both Hiß judgment wait, Dreams of the proud man, making great And greater ever, Things that are not of God.

"There, for a moment, the judgment was made plain. The Word of God, which is also the word of man, was spoken. It was not we or any one people that triumphed, not even glorious tattered France, like a flag fought for and still flying; not Belgium alone nor Serbia, nor any little martyred people; and one great suffering people was absent but not forgotten, or unbeloved or despaired of.

"It was not the Anglo-Saxons, ourselves or America, who exulted in their victory over Teuton rivals; it was the march of all mankind. Who could see it without forgetting his own private fears and hatreds, without saying to himself—'l will hope, and live according to my hopes'? Therefore we who ha"c seen this triumph must hope that it will be the last, as well as the greatest, of all the military triumphs of history. For that have our sailors kept the mastery of the seas, for that have our soldiers won the mastery of the land. "That is why we cheer our Generals and Admirals; not as Caesars or war lords, but as doers of the will of man. And for that our dead have died. For their sake we must will to be for ever that united and advancing race of men which for a moment we saw on the day of Victory"