EMPIRE UNITY ACHIEVEMENT

Evening Star, Issue 19778, 31 January 1928, Page 5

EMPIRE UNITY ACHIEVEMENT

lIAGNIFICEKT wo IK FOR EXSOLDIERS PRESIDENT OF EMPIRE SERVICE LEAGUE hi the final verdict of history FieldMarshal Earl Haig’s work lor the benefit of the British soldiers who fought in the Great M ar will probably rank as high as his splendid leadership of his armies in the held. lua , 1S saving a great deal, lor the overwhelming victory of the Allies, m which the British armies played an important part, was one of tho greatest teats or arras in history, despite mistakes and lost opportunities. Those who sit down and calmly consider how totally unprepared Great Britain was to meet an enemy who had beeir ready lor many years will realise what a gieat ieat it was to win the war in the time it was won. ,;lu the course, of the greatest warin history the British people mobilised, equipped, and trained, and put into the field tho finest force the world has seen. The discipline and quality ot its rank and file, the leadership and initiative of its regimental officers, the organisation and supply ot its medical services, ithe competence and reliability ot its 'staff and intelligence, all alike were i unsurpassed. But without the inspiration and driving force of a leader the British Army would not have been what it was, and during the greater part of the campaign in France and Flanders that leader was Field-marshal j Earl Haig. When the greatest war iuhistory was .over, the leader of the British armies 'did not sit back, as he might have done, 1 to enjoy the honors which were fittingly I.showered ou him. His first thought i was for tho men who had 1 ought the ; battles of tho Empire. At the time of 'xhe inception of the British Empire Service League in South Africa in 1921 there were lour or five ex-serviceineu’s associations functioning in Great Britain. Realising the need for unity it the cause were to prosper, Earl Haig icreated a unity committee, and by his ] efforts these organisations were cq--1 operated into one federation, which ulti(mutely became the British Legion. In South Africa, where the first conference was held, there were four separate bodies, and, again, as a result of the field marshal’s appeal, these unanimously agreed to merge into tho British Empire Service League (South Africa). Not long after New Zealand voted for ■unity when the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association became representative of the entire body of ex-servicemen in this country. Last year, when tho fourteen existing ex-servicemen’s organisations ol Canada amalgamated to form the Canadian Legion of the British Empire Service ; League as a result of the grand presi.dent’s tour through Canada, following 1 tho second biennial conference in Ottawa, in 1925, complete unity of ex!servicemen throughout the Empire was jat last established, and Earl Haig’s triumph was complete. Returned men in New Zealand had hoped for a visit from Earl Haig this jycar. It was announced some time ago ■that ho intended to attend the confer|ence of tho B.E.S.L. in Australia this jyear, and it was felt certain that he would take the opportunity of paying a visit to Now Zealand. Later, however, it was announced that the field marshal would not come to Australia in the meantime owing to ill-health. General regret will be felt among all sections of the community in Australia that they will not see tho leader of ; the British Army who lias done so much i both in war and peace. , The speech delivered by Earl Haig |at the third biennial conference of the 'B.E.S.L.. held in London in June, (1927, will give some idea of the work jof the league. In the course of his .remarks tho field marshal said;—

“Tho 8.E.5.L., in close co-operation with the British Legion, is settling itself to work to use its Empire organisation to find out openings overseas and to fill them with the right type of men. It is a work which, in its beginnings, is slow, and its results take time to arrive; but once fairly started (as we believe it is started now) it has a snowball effect, and gains strength and impetus with each additional man who :s helped to a fair start, and with each opening which is satisfactorily filled. “Working with_ the British Legion at this end, and in touch with the overseas ex-service organisation concerned at the other, the B.E.S.L. is able to go forward with the assurance that the men whom, it sends out will be of the type which can make good if they are afforded a fair chance, and that their ex-service comrades overseas will welcome them and see that a fair chance is given. “Each man, each family, so settled remains a part of the organisation of the B.E.S.L. The man is received in the local ex-servicemen’s organisation, and is from the start a man jvith

friends and helpers instead of an isolated unit lost in a strange land. He carries with him. instead of a sense of grievance, a feeling of loyality to the Empire. He becomes at once an advocate for and a factor in inter-Empire trade. “Settlement in the overseas dominions and colonies and British trade are are interdependent on each other. Migration, properly directed, not only relieves the pressure at home, but opens up new markets and develops new sources of supply. Thereafter all that is needed for the greater progress of inter-Empire trade is more goodwill and better information, The maintenance of a world-wide spirit of comradeship among ex-service men supplies and keeps alive the goodwill; the 8.E.5.L., with its 6,000 _ branches throughout the Empire (in correspondence with its Trade Information Bureau) and with ‘Our Empire ’ Magazine, as its organ of publicity, is m a strong position to supply or supplement the reuuisite information. “ I have said that the primary object of our league is to assist ex-seryicemen ; but in my outline of our activities it has. I think, become evident that the scope of our work, by a natural and inevitable process, extends to wider and yet more splendid ends than that. The needs of ex-service men scattered over tne whole face of the globe cannot be served by a central association such as ours without a drawing together of the communities in which those ex-service men’s lots are cast, and a strengthening of the bonds of fellowship first born of old war associations, but now reborn of a common object and endeavor. _ “ The league stands as a living memorial of past service, freely given, to our King and Empire, rendered side by side on many battlefields. It stands also as an active reminder of the service which is still required of us. There is no bond of brotherhood more close than the association which springs Irom great achievements hardly won by mutual sacrifice and effort in the past, 1 unless it is the living tie which grows from present service in a common cause.’’