“THE GLORIOUS FIRST OF JUNE."

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 1 June 1926, Page 4

“THE GLORIOUS FIRST OF JUNE."

The most casual reader of the history of the .British people cannot fail to be inspired by the great deeds of the men of past centuries, during which was built up, on foundations that have stood the test of time and the stress of adverse circumstances, the wonderful structure of our Empire. In that great and romantic development, no part has been more filled with deeds of during, resource and adventure than that played by the Royal Navy. It. is no more than fitting, therefore, on this first day of .Tune, to turn our thoughts for a moment to a famous sea. battle fought just ovc-r a hundred and thirty years ago. With the guillotining of Louis XVT. in. January, 1703', Britain withdrew her ambassador from the capital of the newly-constituted French Republic; and on February 8 began the great war which was to last, with, two short intervals, until after the triumph and rout of Waterloo in 1815. Britain’s supremacy at sea was apparent, from the outset —it saved her latex from a Napoleonic invasion—and at the declaration of war the feet moved down to blockade the great naval arsenals of Brest, Toulon and Rochefort. So thoroughly were the French ships held in restraint that there was only one important sea-fight in the first three years of the war. That was when the Brest squadron came out on. June 1, 1794, to convoy a merchant fleet inward bound with corn. Lord Howe, •Commauder-dn-Chief of the Channel fleet, flying his flag on the Queen Charlotte, cut the French line, and in twenty minutes won one of the greatest successes that the Biitish Navy had achieved up to that time —a victory known ever since, by the name of the day on which it was won, as “the glorious first of June.” No matter how critical we may be of warfare, no matter how devoted to the ideal of universal peace, it should do us good to remember sometimes the battles of the past, which, fought to safeguard our heritage of freedom and to lay the foundations of our Empire, will be inseparable from a .proper appreciation of British, history even in that bright future day when armies and navies shall be no more.