The Dominion. SATURDAY, JUNE 30, 1917. OUR FALLEN SONS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3124, 30 June 1917, Page 6

The Dominion. SATURDAY, JUNE 30, 1917. OUR FALLEN SONS

This journal never fulfilled a sadder task than that of publishing day after'day the weary , list of the names of New Zealand's sons killed or wounded in recent weeks in this war created by the German Kaiser. Even the glory of the great deeds accomplished by these gallant souls but faintly relieves the dark shadow of sorrow, which has fallen on so many homes in this Dominion. We are passing through dark days, and profound sympathy will go out to those who have- been stricken with the heavy hand of death. John Bright, the great Christian statesman, at a time when Britain was spending blood and treasure in the dark Crimean War, made two speeches', in Parliament that moved to deep feeling the members. Hβ referred to tho baptism of sorrow that was descending daily through the bereavements in the war. The House was hushed and awed as tho orator reaohed_ the. climax of his speech, and in a- voice quivering with tender emotion he said:

The Angel of Death has been abroad throughout the land; you may almost hear tfie heating of his wings. There is no one, as when tho fii'bt-born whs slain of old, to sprinkle with blood the lintel and the two-sided posts of our doors that wo may spare mid j>ass on: he takes his victims from the cnstle of the noble, the mansion of the wealthy, and. the cottage of the poor and the lowly.

In another speech, Bright was constrained to handle the same sad theme, for British blood was still being shed. Ho referred to the death of one well known to the House. Ho described where ho had ?last seen Colonel Boyle ere- he went to the war, and how lie. expressed his fear as a husband and father with regard to his future. Then camo tho thunderous climax, as, on tho ears of a spellbound House thero fell these words:

The stormy Euxino i> bis grave; his wife is a widow; his children, fatherless.

UISEAELI sought out the orator after his "Angel of Death" speech, and said: "Bright, 1 would have giveu all that 1 ever had to have made that speech that you have now made." The sentiments of Bright, reported by Mr. G. M. Jhevelyan in his classic Life of John Bright, might be used in our Parliament mill regard to Now Zealand's husbands and sons who have died in this war. "Wives are widows, children are fatherless, and parents have- lost tho light of their eyes— "The Angel of Death has been abroad* throughout our land; you may almost, hear the beating of bis Things." This Dominion is now beginning to know what-the stem, awful discipline of war really means. The supreme sacrifice has been made by our dead, and heavy sorrow is tho lot of the living, and our Dominion is poorer through the loss of its manhood. The mental burden Ss made lighter by.the knowledge that our Now Zealanders again fought as heroes and died for a. noble cause. Jn the Gallipoli campaign it was said in the official dispatch with regard to tho courage and sacrifice of New Zealanders and Australians: "Antiquity has no more glorious story and our anuals nothing braver," and it seems that in Flanders our sons merited a similar record; and. so wo may fitly say regarding them:

Sound the last post for the dead. Drop a tear 'mid the falling tears. The bays on each hero's head i Shall he green- for a thousand, years.

It has become more and more evident, as the infernal- scheming for years of the Prussian military autocracy has been brought to light, that this war into which Britain and'her Allies were forced is one

of the. most'necessary ;md tho most righteous in history. If, is a war worthy of Mio uttermost sacrifice. In A mill's Journal, as translated by Mjsfc, Humi'Hliey Ward, wo road thal>-

'j'here is a law of tempests in history as in Nature. Tho revile.ra of war are like tho rovilers of thunder, storms, ami volcanoes; they know not. what they ■tfo. ... No civilisation can bear more than a certain proportion of abuses, injustice, shame, and crime. When this proportion has been reached, the boiler hursts, the palace falls, the scaffolding breaks down; institutions, cities. SLites, Empires sink into ruin. Tho evil con-' lainefl in an. organism is a. virus which preys upon it. and if it is not eliminated ends by destroying it. ' We have here ;i partial if not. an adequate explanation of the- war tempest in which we are living. The Prussian military autocracy is the_ virus of our civilisation, and if it is not east out it will end our cvilisation. There have, been bad things in history, such as the. Turkish government by. massacre and the murderous despotism of the Hapsburgs, but perhaps the foulest force- is that hatched in Potsdam by the Kaiser—and his War Lords— who have found in a. Hapsburg and in the Sultan congenial a.llies. In this war, as regards the virus of the Prussian military autocracy,' there can be no compromise. This enemy of the human race must die, and our sons have died to hasten this end.' Tho great United States Republic was forced into the war becauso it saw the situation to be- such as we have indicated. President AVilson, on April 2, when he asked Congress lo decb-re immediate war on Germany, made- a remarkable admission, which explains his part in the war:—"Now we see facts with no veil of false pretence about them." He had been blinded by the "veil of false preteuce" _ that obscured Germany to his vision. His eyes were now opened, and in .his statement.to Congress he demanded immediate wa.r with the "natural foe of liberty." The London Times, of April 4, fills three columns with the cabled report of Wilson's appeal. It goes out of its way by printing in italics part of tho statement in which AVilson rises to moral majesty in his condemnation of the Kaiser and his gang. In that part thus emphasised) Wilson said: —

Wβ are now about to accept the gago of battlo with tho natural foe of liberty, and shall of necessity spend the-whole force of the nation to check and nullify its 'pretensions and its powers. . . . Wo have no selfish ends to serve, AVo desire no conquests and no dominion. Wβ seek no indemnity for ourselves and no material compensations for the,*sacrifices we shall.freely make. AVe.aj'6 but ono of the champions of tho rights of mankind, and shall be satisfied when these rights aro as secure ns fact and the freedom of nations can make them.

The United States, with its teeming millions, has thus endorsed the judgment of Britain and her Allies with regard to tho necessity and the righteousness of this war. Here we have as a Dominion the truest compensation and the truest consolation for tho sacrifices of our sons. Tho nation as well as tho individual is ennobled by suffering for the sake of righteousness.