BRITAIN IN THE WAR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17860, 5 August 1918, Page 4

BRITAIN IN THE WAR.

Ykstebday was tho anniversary of the British declaration of war on Germany, and to-day throughout the British dominions there will be solemn meetings of tho people to renew the declaration of the Empire's determination to prosecute the war to a victorious conclusion. Opportuntely there comes this morning Sir Douglas Haig's assurance that tho period of crisis has passed and that the Allies can face lire future with confidence. With the significance of that assurance we deal elsewhere, but we have only to glance back over the incidents that have marked Britain's part in the war during the past year to realise how grave th© "period of crisis" has been. The developments in the Mother Country, of course, have reflected those on the Continent. The disaster on the Italian front necessitated a far-reaching change in the control of the Allied armies, and that, in turn, led to a bitter co uroversy at Home. It was m France that the facts of the position were best appreciated, and from Franco came' the persistent demand for the unification of the Allied fronts. Tho reform, however, was only partially carried out, and it was not until the full force of the German strength had fallen on the British in the field that the Allied armies in France were placed under a single command. It is a little distressing novr to recall how absorbed Britain appeared to be during tho winter in political futilities. There had been warnings in plenty of tho ordeal through \vhich tho western Allies would have to pass in consequence of the collapse of Russia, but tho blow had actually fallen before Britain undertook the national mobilisation that ought to have been instituted so many months earlier. If our measures to meet the crisis were tardy they were sufficiently heroic in the end, and the nation will remember with pride in after years the magnificent spirit of its response to the call of duty. It was against tho British Army that the Germans hurled their offensive in March, and it was the destruction of the British armies that tiiey planned to give them tho decisive victory in the war. We can never sufficiently praise the heroism of the French soldiers who fdled the gap in the front, but history will unquestionably record that it was the stiffness of the British, on the ' Somme, in Picardy, in Artois and in I

Flanders that defeated tho Germans. The spirit of the troops was matched by the spirit of the nation behind it, and our conviction is that the fourth year of the war, the most critical period so far as the British arms were concerned, will be regarded as one of tho most glorious in the annals of the Empire. It was not only that the British Army in Franco was called upon to sustain the full weight of the enemy's effort to secure a decision, but there was also tho all-important consideration that to the British Navy fell tho task of defeating the German endeavour to starve the Allies into submission. On tho sea, as on tho land, this has been the critical year of the war. Tho whole hope of the Allies for tho future depended on tho maintenance of the ocean lines of communication. Their troops, their guns, their vast material of war, had to be brought, in largo measure from abroad. Their food supplies had similarly to be carried over the sea routes. The great new American Army, on whose valour and power the future course of then war depended, had to be transported to France,- and tho celerity with which it could bo carried over tho Atlantic was ono of tho decisive factors. By far the largest share of the naval burden had to be borne by the British, and it is their unforgettable achievement that has rendered possible not merely tho maintenance of the Allied armies in the field, but oven the maintenance of the will to resist. These aro tho broad, important aspects of the year, and'in comparison with them the battles in Flanders of last summr • and autumn, and the operations '.. .no minor theatres, including the occupation of Jerusalem itsolf, call for no moro, than passing mention. Of tho Dominions we need say no more than that they rallied to the call of the Mother Country. Their men fought beside hers with the same heroism, tho same undavrivd confidence in tho certainty of victory. They have shared in the sufferings, as in the glories, of the critical year; and they face tho future with the same high spirit and the same enduring faith.