The Evening Star FRIDAY, JULY 4, 1919.

Evening Star, Issue 17087, 4 July 1919, Page 4

The Evening Star FRIDAY, JULY 4, 1919.

To-sat the Empire knows beyond doubt the day on which it

Tha Celebration of Paaoe.

will officially be asked to participate in celebrating the coining of peace. Tie Imperial Government have, with His Majesty's sanction, decided, so far as the United Kingdom is concerned, to hold their celebrations on Saturday, the 19th inst., and have invited the Overseas Dominions of the Empire to participate with them by holding theirs on the same day. That invitation, we do not doubt, will be universally accepted. Never, from the ill-starred moment when the New Zealand Government in this relation decided to go on" their own, has there been any serious doubt that in so deciding they had erred, and erredt badly. Ther©,waa an overwhelming consensus of opinion that Peace Day, when it came, should, be simultaneously honored by all loyal subjects of the Empire, whether their habitat happened to be the Mother Land, Canada, Africa, Australia, New Zealaad, India, or the Isles of the Sea. Only thus, it was felt, could British people everywhere best feel that they were indeed sons and daughters of the same race, united by the same ties of blood and faith, world survivors of the myriads who had given their lives that they might not perish, .and true forerunners of those mightier nations that are yet to be. Nor, we think, will serious exception ho taken fto th» farther decision that the Peace

oelebrations bo confined to one day. The Government's second thought in this respect also will, we believe, be generally regarded as better than their first, and as more in harmony with public sentiment and the fitness of things. Apart altogether from any questions of doubt as to the reality of the Peace we are to join in celebrating, the. present, it is felt, is emphatically not a time when we shall do well to abandon ourselves for several days to more or less purposeless "and ephemeral demonstrations of patriotic jubilation. Our observations lead us to the conclusion that the change in the originally suggested programme will meet with the general approval of the community. Locally the Peace Celebrations Committee have devoted a lot of time and energy to giving effect to what they believed to be the wishes of the citizens, and, as a consequence, it is possible that disappointment, if not pecuniary loss, may be experienced. There is no reason, however, why the concerts and illuminations, that are already arranged, and that would entail more serious inconvenience to abandon than to carry through, should not extend into the following week. Everything that is essential to mark the popular rejoicing that Peace has come at last can be as well, if not better, accomplished in one day as in three. Dunedin, in common with the rest of New Zealand, even at a time of exceptional anxiety, desires fitly to celebrate the great fact of the coming of Peace; but it would be far from satisfied if our rejoicings were restricted to music and cheering crowds and illuminated streets. The great mass of thoughtful people are persuaded that we are still living, and that we must yet continue to live, in days of doubt and amid hours that call for constant vigilance. Yet, while knowing these things, they are also calmly confident of the final outcome. And to such as these—who, we would fain believe, constitute the great majority —'thanksgiving is an essential portion of every form of joy. Hence it is that the Imperial Government, as well as appointing Saturday, the 19th of July, as a day of rejoicing, have resolved that Sunday next (the 6th inst.), being the first Sunday after the declaration of Peace, shall be devoted to thanksgiving services throughout the Empire. This is a form of jubilation in which all may participate with fitness and profit. "It is a good thing to give thanks."