"VICTORY IN THEIR BLOOD."

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 10526, 2 December 1916, Page 3

"VICTORY IN THEIR BLOOD."

CAN BEAT THE lUK UK. "Yes, I iliink yuii may lake it Uaster Bocho "ill never again set loo' 11 the ground we have won I run i i in-, and I think ho knows it Sat, although it's mighty hard to gel Ik; ground we've got From hiin is tin east ol tlie tilings we've taken Iron he German army, as •! see it. '\ h< nain gain fe in tin-changes wrought ii he two armies—the LI mis' and oursihieo July I. And that you can', eckou in figures. Begad, t lie re aren' .ii\ figures big enough for the reckon ml" These wcro the words "1 Lieutenant' olonel . commanding ouicqr of tin _tli . spoken just before lie laiuh i loin one oi' the hospital ships at South unpton. ''Fighting is a pretty queer business; .••on know, when you come to i hink i nit, especially this sort oi' ti rnado o ighting we get now. and lor Lwcntiotl entury men. lots ol whom never ha< .•I much as a shot-gun in their hand ■ ill a year ago : it'is more ol a miracli than people at home will ever under ,tand, this Now Arms. liV cnrryin< in fighting ol a kind vastly more ter ihle than any that the world ! as evei een before, and carrying it on with a.> iuc n steadiness, with as niueli .-hi 1 ' 'lornnoss, and a« much dash, 100, as an; ■ cleraii army known to history has eve iliown. It that isn't something ol i, niiaele. ask any eonunandiug ofhec: ivit'i more than ten years' service be ■lind him. "I've been ill this show since it begin since the morning ol the l*t, yoi ■mow. Our chaps have remained mud ,he sanii' all through, except for om filing. At the cutset they had dut.v : n their mind.-, doing their bit, yot 'viiow—their .job. Now they've got vie •orv ii) their blood. They've got to rea trips wth the Heche. They've i'ouiu he can fight all right. Bui they'v< found something else. They've I'onm hvv can beat him. They've I'oum they're just as well supplied and baekoi • ip.' and a bit better. And ifhe.v'v. round that when it comes to actua trips, knee-to.-knee work, they can bea ■I::, Boche every time. . '•The Hun was taughi Unit the ver; mosi the contemptihle English couli wer do would be to held their line ; ti at still until Mich time as the All High L'st was ready to give the word to sweet il,,.in out into the sea. We were al shopkeepers, who did not know one-em .i' a rifle from another, ami too soft iiiyhow, to stand up for a niomeni against real, live linns, once ihe Hut had made up his mind In move. V\ • were cruel, cow ardly de\ Ms. v > wouk torture and kill any worthy Germai who was misguided emiugli to fall int< our hands, but we were, mil soldiers nir soldiers had all been killed by tin , alicul German army at the very be ginning of the war. and a real nHeiism vas ui lerly impossible for us. I've talkid to lots' oi' prisoners, and* I as-nr-,.,ii i hut's the sort of thing Hk>.v'v< .1!! been lau-dil. and that's what I Ley believe. ''People who I i.v 1.0 measure the illl portaiice of the push by the groom' ■rained, or even by the casualties inlliel ed. will fall 11 long way hhorl in theii estimate ol what it all m< ans. The oh ject in war is the destruction of tin enemy, and the most important assel any enemy has is his spirit, the morale if'life troops. Since duly 1 our New' Army ha* inflicted a crushing blow upor ill.- enemy's morale. With the sanu t io:i])s he can never ngaill achieve till same ends. What's boon accomplishei 1 this month would have been a big gain to the Allies if our casualties had beer live tinies what they have been. Napoleon may have been right when hi said an army marched on its stomaoli : but, believe mo, a modern, educated, twentieth-century army lights on its ,nervc and spirit. And there we are immeasurably ahead of the Boche and a long way ahead of ourselves a month ago."