Lake Wakatip Mail QUEENSTOWN, FRIDAY, JANUARY 5, 1917 The Old and New Year.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 3221, 5 January 1917, Page 6

Lake Wakatip Mail QUEENSTOWN, FRIDAY, JANUARY 5, 1917 The Old and New Year.

This id tlie third year in succession that we have to look back upon and forward to a world still drenched with the blood of the best and bravest of its children. At thifi hour of writing, and for many months paet, no less than fourteen nations, or if we include Greece, as we well may, fifteen, are bending and straining' and drawing upon all their resources, mental, moral, financial and physicals for the purpose of defending and attacking each other. There never has in all human history been anything like unto this war. It is the most terribly devastating, body and soul destroying juggernaut that has been launched against, not the lives and liberties only of any particular section but all that portion of the human race that, lays claim to being regarded as civilised. It is this, more even than the enormous extent of the battlefield, the vastneiss of the numbers engaged, the heart-breaking daily toll of killed and maimed, that constitutes the unique aspect and unparalleled tragedy of the war in which we are. engaged. \\ e know that it mu<i be fought and fought to a finish. We know that there can be neither compromise Jior arrangement with Germany. It is .simply and utterly impossible for the world ever to know the blessings of peace now that it. knows the policy, and methods of rea ding that. g>olicy. of Germany. The nation- of Europe, Belgium, France, Italy. lUi -'a. England ami the rest, know beyond tin* shadow of doubt that as lonas German mi'iiarism remains, for just as long there can and will be no peace, for them. A< well might a man take the deadly cobra into his mom a« a companion and bedfellow, and think to lie down in peace and sifeiy. a* either of these powers hope 10 live free from fear of attack with an unbeaten Germany as their ever pre-eut neighbour. This world of "Urs and we British in particular are i-'ow to learn but after 20 months of .-anguiuary war we are coming to learn—we should Jke.to think that we had long since done .so—that there can be neither peace nor safety for any naiion willi a still unbroken military Germans' at large..

The history of the year 1917 is ch"telly remarkable for thd«: (lie awakening of the Alln>«. as a whole, to the seriousness of the task they have undertaken. It i 9 not to our en-lit that it is possible to say t hits bin there i> too much evidence aua:net u- io deny its truth. We have not uiili-ed our resources to the uttermost and we have not, as Allies, worked together with that harmony and unity of purpose that we should have done, or this we have a "frisrhtful example" in the intervention of Roumania in European early autumn of last, year. Wny did Roumania enter when she did and why did she act as she did when she decided that the hour had come and that time was ripe to enter? We do not know. All we can definitely say L-; that- the Prime Minister (Mr Lloyd George) in his first speech as head of the Government in the House of Commons asked, practically, the same questions and referred to the Rumanian Ivusiness as "a blunder." When the news of Rumania's entry first became known the people of the Allies everywhere flung up their caps, and neutrals intimated that the end of the war in their judgment was only a matter of weeks. To-day we know bet tor. We know that the armies of von Mackensen and von Palkenhayn have driven the Rumanian and Russian out of Bucharest and Transylvania and the Dobrudja and that, their successes whilst they do not. as Mr Lloyd George has said, alter the fundamental facts of the wjir they will, we regret, prolong its duration and add to its difficulties. Elsewhere with the possible exception of Greece there has been steady and sure, if slow progress. On the Sonime and the Meuse British and French arms have assumed and maintained the offensive. The great battle, or rather series of battles, around Verdun In.u'iii''inir on the twenty-first of Fenruary last and continuing well on into December have ended in the definite defeat of Germany. The blow that wa- to crush France find bring the war percept jiilv nearer its close has been delivered and fai'ed. Whether the world wi l ! ever know what this prolonged a irony of endurance means in numbers of live.s lost and of bodies broken we cannot say, but when we consider the probable numbers that.

have been engaged on all side* throughout the year that has passed, as well! las the .numbers of lost that are admitted by the belligerents, the heart sickens, and the brain reels as we contemplate the gruesome story and seek to ascertain its dreadful total. Simultaneously with the roar of battle on the Eastern and Western fronts, the gradual recovery of our prestige in Mesopotamia, the defeat of the Turk in Egypt, the- beating down of the last remains of German opposition in East Africa, the Empire and its Allies have been faced with djfficulties and dangers from Greece. King Constantine ha* followed in the wake or his royal brother-in-law the German Kaiser. Aeainst the advice of h:s tried and proved statesman, M. \ enezelos, Constantine of Greece rel'u.-ed to honor his bond to oome to the help of Serbia and played such an amazing game of double dealing a' more than once to place the French and British armies in dure peril a peril from which the Allies can not! be said even yet to have wholly escaped in honor and safety. The attitude of the King of Greece a|ui of poriion of his army is not only a shameless betrayal of the highest interest- of Greece and of tho-e nation" —Eussia, France and England—that made an independent Greece possible, but is an ominous warning of now the curse of militarism, the foist of glory, and the fear of German "frightfulness" are sufficient to break down and destroy those principles of honour and humanity that are the foundations ot our Christian civilisation. It was inevitable that the tremendous conflicts that have raged on land and sea should have given rise to political changes and differences of opinions among the respective Governments of the nations engaged. There have been ministerial crises in Russia, resulting, we rejoice to know, in the overthrow of the pro-German party: in Italy, in France and, cnieJ 01 all, in England. The world looks to England to carry this mighty struggle through to a victorious and, therefore, permanently peaceful issue. And England will do so provided her own people prove worthy of the tas£ that is theira. We (feel humiliated when pve learn that many in England to-day are no nearer a realization of the causes and objects of the war to which they as part of the nation are committed than they were two and a-half years ago. Hence our gratification when it was announced that Mr Lloyd George had succeeded Mr Aequith as Prime Minister and head of a Government in which the ability and fitness of its members have been made the first consideration. Mr Lloyd George holds out no hopes of easy and certain victory. On the contrary he tells the Empire that it cannot have victory without sacrifice and that sacrifice has yet to be made. There can be no question whatever that by this path and this only is victory to be attained. And what England tainks so think her allies. The year upon which we are now entering will we pray and believe be one that wtili bring us all nearer the goal of our attire*. T[iat goal, we repeats is ( peace. But. not such a peace as Germany has had the temerity to offer and the United States of America have not been ashamed to endorse. President Wilson, who in November was elected for another term of office (largely owing to his opponent-' want of moral courage) has dared to assert that he does not know what the Allies are fighting for and that the objects of the belligerent? are the same. Thiunfortunate letter writing President apparently recognises no moral distinction between the assassin and his victims. Happily the great majority of civilised mankind are not ignorant. There has been an almost universal answer from neutrals and ally belligerents alike—the war must go on until f real, lasting and, therefore, genuine peace is secured for a sufleriug world. And with this cry in our hearts we may calmly and confidently face the coming days and weeks and months of the New Year.