THE LESSON TO BE LEARNT

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 98, 26 April 1916, Page 4

THE LESSON TO BE LEARNT

Captain Donald Simson, who was greeted enthusiastically by both soldiers J and public, said that the people had not realised the meaning of Anzac. All of the speeches had been based on the winning of the war ftom the military point of view. "You will not win this war, you will not get the peace you are asking for,, in a military victory. You have got to learn your lesson first, and I thank God that one man—the Prime Minister—judging by his remarks this evening, is beginning" to "realise it." For many years they, as citizens of the Empire, had neglected their duty, and it was this .neglect, resulting in commercial greed, selfishness, and forgetfulness of the ordinary laws of humanity, that had j brought about the war. Prussian mili- ! tarism was one phase of it. The lesson they had to learn was one they had all been taught. "As you sow, so shall you reap." And what of the price? The Mayor had spoken of extravagance. There could be no extravagance except in human lives. They spoke of cost. Let them think of the men who had lost their lives, who had . como back sick and wounded, who were now, after five or six months, in the hospitals all round the country. Let them go round tile hospitals and see these men, and they would realise the cost. Go to the women who had lost husbands and sons, see hosv many mental cases there were as the result of the war, and they could speak of cost. Captain Simson. mentioned the references to compulsion. "There are ten to twenty thousand men in this country visibly fit to volunteer, but they are not financially fit. The voluntary system has no reason to fail if the Government will provide on a sound decent basis for the dependents the men leave behind." (Loud applause.) The motion was carried by acclamation and with cheers. Cheers were also given for the Mayor and the Ministers present.