Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star SATURDAY, MAY 1st, 1920. THE WEEK.

Hokitika Guardian, 1 May 1920, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star SATURDAY, MAY Ist, 1920. THE WEEK.

The commemoration of Anzae Day recalled the war and all that it carried m its train. As the days go by and we get a wider vision of the W, we begin to ipaj/sp more and morqgwhat it lias meant. Take on;- pwn little district, remote as we were frogi rlie seat of war, and the roll of honour m.bished the other day contained nenrjV DO dead a s Westland’s toll in the Great "ar, ,Tliis is a stern reality. The knowledge of the facts relating to the i war are being added by the writers i who from various points tel) their story I now-a-days free from censorship. Philip | Gfibbs was one of the greatest story-tell-ers during the war, the cable news day by day supplying, his version of the progress ot events, and many graphic descriptions ho sent us. Also ho wrote war books during the period of the.

\vnr ; but these came under the ban of | censorship/ and while not actually written to order, yrsrs written to a specification which provided wha,t might not be mentioned. Since the lifting of the censorship Sir Philip has wi'i'ttpp another book—probably his most notable publication—and a. review of the work is vary interesting, and is worth republishing at least in part. The reviewer goes on to /ay:—The reader of Sir Philip Gibb’s earlier wur b.opks often got the impression that, on account editor of the ban of the censorship or bis own w«s;3 of the fitness of tilings, ho was leaving much .unsaid. That impression is confirmed by ■••‘Realities of War,” which supplements the previous four volumes, and enables .the author to speak freely on ifMUy matters on which | silence was formerly observed. It is ,

easy to understand that this book could , never have been published while j D.O.RA. was in force. For'» time the staff frankly regarded ail war con es-1 pcjidoeis as a nuisance, and though it. ! did not actuary thwart them, it seldom ! went out of its w.a-y give them assist- • 1 anee. i

The correspondents (or at- any rate, Sir PhiJjp Gibbs)' retaliated by forming a very poor opinion of tho Staff. General Headquarters is “a city of beautiful* ' ..nonsense” where “war was quite a pleasant 'pc-' | ci.pation for elderly generals who lik- I ed their little stroll after lunch, and for young regular officers, released from ’ tho painful necessity of dying for their

country, who were glad to get a game of tennis after strenuous office work, in which they hud written ‘Passed to you’ on many minutes, or had drawn the most comical caricatures of their immediate chiefs.” The author reveals himself as a bitter critic of the members of the high command; few of them escape his censures. He accuses them of wasting lives on operations which could not justify the sacrifice, of ordering local attacks and raids simply because they would be “good to report” in an official communique. He describes the British staff college as “hopelessly inefficient,” producing specimens with “the brains of canaries and the manners of Potsdam.” He condemns the system

which made tho Staff jobs the preserve of the Regulars and kept out the brains of tho new armies, quoting the cases of Monash, Hobbs, and Currie to show what the unprofessional soldier could do, given a chance. However, the reader will probably feej some doubt whether things were ; actually quite as bad as Sir Philip Gibbs’ ex parte statement suggests. His is a sensitive soul, shocked by all tho honor and carnage of war; his sympathies are all with the man in tho trendies; and this may have ied him into some injustice to those whose duty lay elsewhere.

JL'Tiom liis unmeasured criticism of the High Command it is pleasafit to turn to his unstinted appreciation of the lighting men. Words almost fail him to express his admiration for the regimental officers, subalterns straight from school, lads from the desk, the counter and the plough, who took up the work of the “Old Contemptibles,” and received so little recognition. During the war it was often remarked that while the troops from Scotland, Ireland, and tlie Dominions were mentioned by name, the Tommies were referred to vaguely as British Troops.” Y T et many of these regiments from the counties and the cities had to their credit exploits as line and’ had passed through ordeals as terrible as any of their brothers in arms. To take an instance at random, one battalion which had fought in the Ypres salient and at Loos had had 17 commanding officers by the beginning of 1916; had at one time or another, been commanded by every officer down to the 2nd leiutenant, and had only 30 men left out of the original lot. Sir Philip Gibbs is at pains to celebrate the deeds of such as these, and has rescued from possible oblivion many a splendid incident which was hidden by the fog of war.

His book covers no particular period, but gives a series of vivid impressions of the Western Front, and deals in greater detail with the lighting at Loos in 1918. Everyone remembers how, in the earlier years of the war, our hearts were uplifted by the news of some signal success as at Loos or Neuve Chapelle. Gradually it would be hinted that the success wag not so striking after all; that tho gains were not very great, and that a terrible price liad been paid for them. Sir Philip Gibbs goes even further in his account of some of these affairs; he holds that,they should never have been undertaken. The officers and men of the new armies were stiff imperfectly trained, and the artillery support was inadequate through lack of shells. All that the attacks accomplished, at a heavy cost, was to bite off a V-shaped salient which was enfiladed by German fire. Matters -were better at the Somme, but even there the loss of life was disproportionate to the gain of groiind. If it was to be a war of attrition, we seemed to be going the right way to exhaust our own man power.

The author ,saw a good deal of the Australians after Pozieres and at Amiens, where he was when the Germans were hammering at its doors in the great offensive. His description of them is worth quoting in full:—“Gipsy follows, scornful of discipline for discipline’s sake, but desperate fighters, as simple as children in their ways of thought and speech (except for frightful oaths, and looking at life, this life of war and this life in Amiens with frank curious eyes and a kind of humorous contempt .for death and disI eose and English Tommies and French girls, and ‘the whole —*—show’ as they called it. They were lawless except for the laws to which their souls cave allegiance. They behaved as the equals of all men, giving no respect to Generals or staff officers or the devils of hell. There was a primitive spirit of manhood in them and they took what 1 they w,anted and wore l-feady to pay for it iji corn or in disease or in wounds They had no conceit of themselves in a little, vain way, but they reckoned themselves the only fifhting men, simply and without boasting. Some of them were ruffians, but most of (hem were, I imagine like those English yeomen who came into France with the Black Prince men, who lived ‘rough’ close to nature, of sturdy independence, good-humoured though fierce in a fight and ,ruthless. . . It is as though Australia had bred back to the old strain. Our own English.soldiers were less arresting to the eye, more da op or and neat; not such evident children of

nature.” This critical praise of the Australians, may be read to apply in general terms ,to the New Zoalandrrs, and to the devil-may-care spirit we -nay attribute the success with which An?/ic cam© into being, and followed up tile further success of the Australasian troops on every other battle front.

Tug Prince of Wales lias made a very happy impression at the few points whero he has touched. The Rotorua visit was marred to some extent by the wegtlied, but the “star” programme .WAS gone through' in good, style. Pri-vate-letters from Auckland give glowing accounts of tho charming personality of tho Prince. Ho appears to be all that has been said of him and it is not a mean performance to live up to the reputation he has received. In a very few days we shall have His Highness with us, and here as elsewhere in the Dominion, a cordial welcome awaits

j him. As Heir Apparent to the Throne |of England he fills our thoughts naj purally. What manner of man is our j future King to be? The constitution of , our Empire entails a monarchy for the i most democratic people in the world, i It seems a. contradiction yet Kingship has proved the key to the success of our constitution. In the life of this generation the people have been well served by its monarchy. From Queen .Victoria onward the reigning monarch has been very close to the people and Britain

has been the envy of other nations in regard to her happy form of constitution. Hitherto we in the oversea Dominions have viewed the monarch ‘born afar, in a rather impersonal way. With j the advent of the Prince we shall be ' brought into touch with the reigning family and will realise more and more the character of the ties which hold the Empire, and gives the government of the country tho secret springs of power it enjoys. Hail to our Prince then, who deserves, as he rightly exacts, our homage and our loyalty. The signs yesterday that the railway strike was resolving into a three days’ wonder did not have that happy issue. .'

News received late last night at this office gave a clear resume of the position, and the explanatory telegram was issued as an “extra” at 8 o’clock this morning. Our correspondent has supplied a clear and impartial review of the situation,, and it seems evident that a serious onus is upon the loco men it the strike is maintained to the' further disorganisation of traffic. If a simple tost of loyalty were applied at this juncture there should be no doubt as to their attitude. If the men persist in standing out longer they will alienate public sympathy plmost entirely, and the end will be that they will have struck in vain. TJie Premier and the men of the traffic branch came to an understanding very promptly, That was'to the credit of all concerned, and

under the terms the men are in as strong a position as ever if they are not satisfied with the decision of the special tribunal which is to be set up. The loco men could have entered into a. similar compact without loss of prestige, and all would have been well. For the present they have thought it best to act otherwise, and it looks as if they will have to bear the consequences of their rather sullen decision.