LOOK THE ISSUE IN THE FACE. BE MEN.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume IV, Issue 431, 10 August 1915, Page 2

LOOK THE ISSUE IN THE FACE. BE MEN.

[to the editor.]

Sir,- -The call to arms that may arise to a shriek, the national honour that may he humbled in the dust,these are things that are in the minds of all men. And what are we doing.’ Talk! Talk! and more talk! The British Empire was built on bloodshed and coalesced on liberty and honour, and if we are to hold our place we must do more than brat the empty air. You with your ten thousand acres, or you with your ten ; yon who ride in your limousine, or ..on who delve in the ditch: you shriek of a scrap of paper torn, of women dishonoured, and infants murdered ; you have to . be flattered, feted, and cajoled to give your shilling, or your pound, to aid the wounded soldier or the broken widow. Do you think the best life’s blood of a nation can be bartered for your paltry pence ’ Give you shall and give you must. Rut for your own sake and the sake of men who are fighting for your honour, give without pressure, ostentation or selfadvertisement.

Look on this man as he goes down with a bullet in his neck and spills his gallant life's blood on the sands of the barren peninsula—see his rich red blood go sobbing to the sand and his mighty soul go beating out on the white wings of Death. Look on the l other sweating, agonising, blood drops in the poisonous miasma of a western trench. These are your men and this your charity.

You who shriek yourselves hoarse over the departure of a troop train, or swim into seas of ecstacy over the return of a wounded soldier, what else are you doing ? Do you think these men value your ephemeral displays of emotion or the pursy platiudes of your corpulent councillors? Take a grip of your man and womanhood, and do something worthy of them. Have you seen the women who wait in silence and count their rosary of pearls? For these, the eternal mothers of us all, we have no words. We bow the knee in homage, hut God alone can do them honour—uncrowned queens of every heart and mighty rulers of every nation.

For those who will not look the issue in the face and decide in which direction their duty and honour lies, we have no contempt any more than wo have contempt for the vermin who live on sewage. If they can rise no higher they still must sift the refuse of Humanity and their food is offal. So much for you and so much for them. And now to sound the clarion note for the last rally of the last legion of the Deathless Army. To the mighty manhood of the mightiest Empire that God ever blew the breath of life into. We who have looked the world in the face and kept silent, the hour is now. The boys have done their share. Men ! the call has comet “lorward into the breach.” Blood of a thousand kings, shall it be said that we were loath to grasp the icy hand of Death ? Vic tory is doubtful, defeat is possible. Death is certain. ‘On to your heritage”—that is the clarion call to find its echo in the hearts of all true men. This is the message to write upon the walls of an Empire ‘‘Not life and honour, but valour and sacrifice. Death and Immortality !”

We who are men we fight because no King and Country calls us—everyman a king of the kingdom of his heart, master of his fate and captain of his soul.

What matter the mangled body and the broken bones, the lifeless corpse, and the bloodstains on the sand ? The soul of the man impregnahly fortified in his own honour is beating up through tlie ether, radiant and perfect, complete and whole, an earthly jewel for a Heavenly I >iadem.

Men. is it enough ? Aye and more than enough. You want no words. Fire is in your eye and courage in your nostrils. Up witii the banner of the Last Legion. Rally* to the standard of the Deathless army, whose watchword is Honour, whose flag is Hunianitv. 1 am. etc.. TOM E. RENOLDS. Havelock North, .August 6. 19)5.