MR MASSEY'S MESSAGE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXV, Issue 8209, 5 August 1915, Page 3

MR MASSEY'S MESSAGE.

DESPATCHED TO LONDON. WELLINGTON; August 4. •Mr Massey despatched the. following message to the London "Times," in responso to a request from the editor of that journal, on the anniversary of the declaration of war:— "It is fitting that the citizens of the younger nations should remember the land of their fathers and convey to ovakinsmen at Home a renewal of the assuraoice that we have counted the cost and that we stand together, in the knowledge that the ties uniting us aro stronger thaji steel. They arc the ties of fellow-citizenship and language and tradition. They represent everything that is dear and sacred to the people of our race. Never was loyalty to ourselves and to each other more necessary than at the present juncture. We are faced with a cruel, powerful and unscrupulous foe, who' hates Britain and everything British, both at. Home and abroad, with an intense 'and bitter hatred, and -who can be held in check and finally driven back to his lair only by the determination and clogged endurance which has saved the Empire in times of trouble in the past. "The oversea Dominions have taken up the burden of Empire, which will never again be laid down. Wo have learned to think Imperially. We realise that as citizens of the Empire we are/all one great Imperial family. We are giving of our best and bravest, and I will continue to give, not only lor i Britain's sake, because this is our fight iust as much as it is the struggle of England or Sootland or Ireland. "Though the sky may become overcast and black clouds appear,- wo know that behind the clouds the sun is shining, that the darkness will disappear and light and warmth once moro reach the earth. So with this crisis the sun of peace and righteousness will shine again. The Kaiser and his war lords and all. the wickedness they stand for will pass away, and their deeds will be remembered only as the evil memory of an evil dream. "W. F. MASSEY, "Prime Minister."