WAR TO BE WON.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15464, 17 December 1915, Page 5

WAR TO BE WON.

STRATEGICAL POSITION WORSE.

AUSTRALIAN GENERALS

STIRRING SPEECH.

A meeting of members of both House, of the Victorian Parliament, held recently to consider the scheme adopted by the Government for the raising of Australia's new army of oO,CQO men, was marked by a stirring speech by Major-General McCay, who is just back from Gallipoli.

The Premier, who presided, said he had no doubt that tho army would be raised, and raised quickly.

When General McCay rose to speak l;o was accorded an ovation, members standing and cheering lustily. Ho said : —Fighting is comparatively easy work. It keeps your brain moving, and in a state of continual tension. Further, it is easy to fight with troops like trained Australian soldiers. May I bo permitted to' say not merely Australians but '•trained" Australians. Bravo as the Australian soldier i s by nature — and he is brave —if time and occasion permitted I could tell yon stories of Australians from privates to colonels who individually and in numbers displayed a laughing disregard of certain death that made my blood thrill to •watch. As iar ns Australians arc concerned they have got all those fighting bulldog characteristics of the Briton. Tho Australians aro bravo men— (cheers) —and the only thing to make them equal to any soldiers in the world is to turn them : nto soldiers with a proper spirit of discipline. I belonged te a division which got a thorough training] in Egypt, and at the conclusion of -hat training they were soldicis in ever- -senso of the term. If they had not been they could not have done what they did at Gallipoli. Conscnuently the one need in Australia is for the mer to realise that when they enlist they surrender their independence —all of us from privates to generals — and become part of a machine. If wc do not mako this surrender we can never become smooth working parts of tho machine. While initiative is always good, individual independence must bo sacrificed for tho good of the whole. The Commonwealth has offered to raise 00,000 additional men, which will mean keeping 100,000 men continually in the Geld. If Australia docs that sho| will be doiiiff as much as anyone canl expect in any but extreme circumstances. Lf the events upon land continuO their trend against us, it might bp that the time will come when Australia for the sake of tho children of the future, will have to make n still greater sacrifice. But if this State, along with the other States, provides her share of recruits, I have no doubt w<» will get .50,000 men, in to our monthly reinforcements which have to bo sent along to replace tho wastage of modern warfare. 1 may fairly claim to be a soldier. I do not know anything but one fact, and that is that the British Empire is in the midst of a war that has threatened her existence more seriously tMtm any war since the time of William the Conqueror. Wc have not been winning upon the land. Thiseas are our own, but wo cannot win the war with tho Navy. never wm n war against a determined natio.i unless you can enter her country. _as the Germans entered Paris in 1871. Ami I hope we will invest Berlin before the war is over. (Cheers). Wo are. worse off from a strategists point of view now than we w<we at the commencement of tho war. To tho ordinary German citizen it must appear that Germany is winning. Tho whole of Belgium, a slice of France, and a big slice of Russia, are in the hands of the Germans. Their troops are pouring rapidly across tho Balkan Peninsula. But they do not know the British nation. Britain lights best when it has something to mako >t put its back up. We have had enough to put our backs up by now. and wc havo to do it in Australia as well as in England. Any countrv which succeeds in beating England will look to Australia as its real reward. I regret sometimes to see expressions of opinion that Australia is safe, anyhow. Australia is not safe unless England wins this war thoroughly, absolutely, and finally. (Loud cheers.) For my own part, T do not want to bo alive if Britain makes disadvantageous terms of peace. (Hear, hear.) I hope I shall have the good fortune to die fighting before that, comes about. We must have numbers as well ns skill. The Germans aro as bravo as ourselves and as resourceful na ourselves, and in these days of machino-guns and high-explnsivo shells, numbers become greater factors. Now you cannot win n fight without heavy losses. The days are past in which a few brave men, by disregard of death, can circumvent and overcome a laree force. It is all frontal attacks nowadays. This means hcavv losses. If you get out of an attack with oO per cent, casualties and succeed in gaining your objects, you have done well. Tf you aro repulsed, tho casualties will be greater. That means a heavy drain. 1 have alwnv<: felt that Australia can provide 100,000 men constantly in tho firing-line. The man who is fit to fight and who does not volunteer is living on tho charitv of the man who does fieht (Cheers.l Forjrivo mo. but I sneak feeiinglv when I say that, but T have had ' the honour to command 4000 Austral;nns—wo never say Victorians now. They are all Australians. If im Australian is of fighting are and does not his service*, it is for the authorities to say whether he should «tav hero and work in connexion with tho'war— not for him. I know men who ought to have gone to fight long ago. In the first two weeks on Gallipoli I had 3COO casualties out of the 4000 meii in dome. At the end of that fortnight I finished with a of lfiOO strong. Of these 3000 casualties 25 vor cent. - were killed. Of the other 2250, some were wounded, some slightlv, some poriously. and a number had since died. When T remember these 4000 men. how I watched them g 0 into that battle—sometimes it was my privilege to go with them—and when I remember the things I saw them do, when hundreds gave their lives, not for their own sakes. but that tho people in Australia might be freed from any rusk of German domination and the horrors of war inside our own borders. I toll you there is nothing I can_ say which can express my strong belief that the man who stays behind, who is fit to go. is a coward. Every able man should offer to go. so that we may leave the country in the same peace and security it has enjoyed for a century under the British flag. (Cheers.) It is no good to talk of what we will do in the future unless you have a future to talk about. I do not care what political party is in power. All these things are subordinate to the fact that we cannot do as we like unless we win this war. and we camiot do that unless the people of Australia and the Empire are prepared to do their share. I am perfectly certain we are going to win, but it is going to take a long time and will cost many lives. There comes a time when a man must give everything for his country. I hav<T seen thousands who have done it with laugh. I have seen men go into the field in which bullets appeared to be. falling as thickly as hail. In one case 140 men leapt out of a trench, and before thev had gone ten yards 134 were cither killed or wounded. Six

men stumbled back into the trench alivo. I have seen my own brigade advance- one day over ground when missiles fell every yard. Wc stai tod -'000 6tiong at 5.30 p.m. We advanced 600 yards, and although men kept falling, and we stayed there, and stayed there, and stayed there—(loud cheers) —I had 1500 left at midnight. I remember those men—how they laughed and shouted "Australia" as they went into the fight. When I remember those men, 1 have no hesitation in saying it does not matter what means arc adopted to ensure that the men should go to the front who ought to go. I have no quarrel with voluntary service. I want to sec men go to the front. Whether they are dragooned into it or not is for tho authorities to decide, Our country has entered a crisis in her destiny, and whatever our views of what should be the ordinary methods of dealing with military matters when we have time for deliberation, the need is now so urgent that we should fling aside, our views as ito the normal procedure and say, "Here is a crisis like nono wo havo known before," and accept the one fact that we must havo men quickly, must train them and send them to join their comrades at the front. Every Australian division is a welcome addition to tho British forces. Thero arc no troops -whose dash exceeds theirs, whose courage exceeds theirs. (Cheers.) There is no people who have more hanging upon the result of the war than i Australians. The one thing to-day is to get men. and any question as to how they should be got is comparatively unimportant, as long as we get them. I 'trust your committee, Parliamentary committee and speakers will dwell upon two things: one the need of men. and secondly tho obligation upon every decent fellow to take his share of tho job, coupled with the fact which has to be driven home to many men. that there comes a time when their own lives do not matter in the least degree. I have seen men who cared no more for their ov.h lives than for the life of a flv as long as the objective was attained. They i:ave their lives with the utmost cheerfulness and courage. I never knew one to grudge his wounds. Some I have spoken to in the instant of death. They did not grudge their death, but were glad to die for the sako of tho people, they had left at home. But they were not. glad to die for the people who stayed behind and who ought to have been with them. (Loud cheers.)