FIGHTING THE DEVIL.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16324, 23 September 1918, Page 8

FIGHTING THE DEVIL.

A move was then made to the officers' hut, where Mr Kipling addressed a large gathering of the commissioned ranks. He said: —

Several years have passed since England was permanently occupied by the armed forces of a foreign nation. On the last occasion—eight hundred years ago—our people did not take kindly to

tho invaders. I know they did not, because I live a few miles from whore the battlo of Hastings was fought, where all the trouble began; and I assure you wo are still talking about it. (Laughter.) But don't let me take up .your timo by retailing the local gossip of these parts. (Laughter.) Besides, conditions have changed. They will after 853 years—even in England. (Laughter.) You may have noticed that we natives do not rosent either tho presence of your armed forces on our soil, or your buildings such as. those; —huts, which are one of the visible signs of your occupation. As far as you a-r© concerned, wo are a placid, not to say pacifist, community. Why, gentlemen, you could not annoy us if you started in to build pyramids. (Laughter.) On the contrary, w« should be pleased. We should say: "This looks like business; this looks as if the United States meant to stay till they had done their share of the'job thoroughly." (Cheers.)

"Wo have been a long time over our present job,' and wo may be a long time yet. It has been a little bigger than we expected, because this is the -first time sincg the Creation that all the world has* been obliged to unite for tho purpose of fighting the devil. You remember that before the war ono of our easy theories was that tho devil was almost extinct—that he was only the child;of misfortune or accident, and that we should soon abolish , him by passing ringing resolutions against him. That has proved an expensive miscalcular tion. Wo find now that the devil is very much alive, and very much what lie always was —that is to say, immensely industrious, a torn organiser, and better at quoting scripture for his own ends than most honest men. (Laugh ter.) His industry and organisation we all can deal with ; but more difficult to handle is his habit of quoting scripture as soon as he is-in difficulties.

"When Germany begins to realise her defeat is certain we shall be urged/ in the namo of mercy, toleration, lovingkindness, for the sake of the future of mankind, or by similar appeals to the inextinguishable vanity of man, who delights in thinking himself holy and righteous when ho is really only lazy or tired —I say, we shall be urged on these high grounds to make some sort of compromise with, or to extend some recognition to the Power which has for its one object the destruction of man, body and soul. Yet, if we accept these pleas, we shall betray mankind as effectually as though we had turned our backs upon the battle from tho first.

AMERICA'S RESOLVE. . "But you, gentlemen have not come 3000 miles to protect Germany. Your little vanguard is hero to help her change her heart, and I read in the 'New York Tribune' a day or two ago the lines on which you propose to change it: 'When wo wont to war with Germany it was with' tho resolve to, destroy German war-power. If that power is inseparable from the German people, then we are resolved upon tho destruction of the German people. The alternative is in their hands.' That is reasonable and easy to understand. You are going, none to soon, into a world which has been laboriously wrecked by high German philosophy, based on the devil's own creed that there is nothing good or evil in life but thinking makes it so—in other words that right and wrong are matters of pure fancy.

"That belief it will bo your privilego to assist in removing from the Germans' mind. (Cheers.) His beliefs are primitive. Except on certain portions of the front, wnere he has been better educated, he believed that the United States army does not exist. In the first place, it could not cross the Atlantic; in the second, it was sunk while crossing; in the tnird, it was no use when it arrived. It iB possible that you may be able to persuade him that he has been misinformed on these points. (Laughter.) But we are of a more credulous disposition. We are quite convinced that you have come over, and the Allied . Armies at the | front, who are authorities on the subject, tell us that your little vanguard ! there is extremely useful. (Laughter.)

"Meantime, your invasion of England goes forward according to programme day by day. Unlike tne other invaders we have known, you bring everything you need with you, and do not live upon the inhabitants. In this you are true to the historical vow of your ancestors, when they said to ours, 'Millions for defence, but not a cent for tribute.' (Laughter and cheers.) At any other time the nations would be lost in amazement at the mere volume and scope of your equipment, at the terrifying completeness of your preparations, at the dread evidence of Eower that underlies them. But we ave lived so among miracles these -past four years that, even though the thing accomplished itself before our very eyes, we scarcely realise that we watch the actual bodily transit of the New World moving in arms to aid in, redressing the balance of the old. We are too close to these vast upheavals and breakings forth to judge of their significance. One falls back, on the simpler, the more comprehensible fact that we are all blood-brothers in a cornmen cause, and therefore in that enduring fellowship of loss, toil, peril, and home-sickness which mast needs be our portion before we come to the victory.. "But life is not aD grey even under these skies. There is a reasonable amount of fun left in the world still, if you know where to look for it—and I have noticed that the young generally have this knowledge. And tnere are worse fates in the world than to be made welcome, as you are more than welcome, to the honourable and gallant fraternity of comrade-in-arms the wide world over. Our country and our hearts are at your service, and with these our understanding of tho work ahead of you. That understanding we havo bought at tho price of the lifeblood of a generation." (Cheers .i