WHAT ARE YOU DOING ?

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLV, Issue XLVIII, 19 August 1914, Page 3

WHAT ARE YOU DOING ?

(Ky Tohuuga. in "N-Z- Ileiald. 'j The Empire is at. war—fighting for the great principles which are its vvry Ht'ebTood. find its inspiration, for the linhu and liberties and freedoms which make us New Zealauders. and without which progriss would he impossible in the world. The i all to -.mis has gone out. and the loyal are answering: some are going, some are i giving, some are talking—what are yo)u doing? We canriot afl a" to fight." but the re t of us can all either give ov talk. If we un both there is some justification' tor our prattling, but the man or woman who will only prattle at this crisis is quite beneath contempt. For a hundred years the Britisii lir.os have been, safe from ciominntion, have been free to make 'V o own laws, and to follow their own paths t-> better things. We have done many thinus that'we ought not to have done, and "we have left undone much I'nit we n.io-ht to have, done; we have waited time atul missed opportunities. ami have often forgotten our duty to one another. But once more a creat mercy has been vouchsafed to us. so that while there is still health in us. and hope for us we may shake off our sloth and our weaknesses, and may prove ourselves atiour to stand together and lit to hold th;>* which we have. I In the pleasant times of peace it is ens-- to forget that none can stand ! alone, easv to give no thought to the truth that'all we pessess lias been purchased for "* h >' f, thrrs at a very great urioe. In the generations' that have i gono before us. countless millions have worked patiently, and thought earnestly j and suffered desperately ami died he- | Toicallv in order that we may be as we are. They .have given us everything we have, even the land we live in, and the muscles we work with, and the skill •we call our own. They have dared the sea and opened the sea-roads ; they have asserted our freedoms and created the lnstitutions which guard our freedoms they have given us such an inheritance that to he-British is fti be among the great of the earth. Because we arc British, because our great-grandfather; found the men. the ships, and the money; to win Trafalgar and Waterloo and endured the desperate strain of Napoleonic war. New Zealand is ours in trust for the Imperial people, is our to do with as we will'as long as the Empire endures. Is anv man or woman so dull of thought, so blind of sight. perverse of heart, as not to understand what we have at stake in this great struggle? We have at stake the right to govern ourselves without mo testation, "to do as we will in New Zea land without fear of the Kai er. Belgium stood in the way, and Belgium — which gave no offence —is bleeding from the German sword. If we do not fiphi now for the Belgians. we shall some day have to fight the German in oui own New Zealand, and to right alone. The Empire has" gone aown to wai and New Zealand with it, but let nc man think that New Zealand is fighting for any cause but its own, 01' that Britain strikes in a quarrel that does not concern it. The Empire stands to-day for the right of a peaceable and v.n(•ifending btate not to be attacked without cause by any piratical Government, for the right of a civiiised people not. t.< be disturbed within its own frontier Germany lias become duuiken with t-h** wine of ambition, has torn up sacred treaties and flung aside every international restraint. ' Because they love-c theiv country and. sought to defend i' against unprovoked and gratuitous at tack, Belgian farmers and artisans an! shopkeepers and factory men are being shot down to-day upon the soil that bore them, and that Germany had, so lemnly pledged herself to respect. 1h» divine courage that inspires a woman to defend her children and a man to defend his home has entered into these peaceful Belgians and ennobled them They have chosen the higher path of resistance and loyalty, rather, than th< lower path of submission and betrayal —and they- 'were strengthened to choose aright because Britain pledged her aid. That appeal of Belgium rang like, i 'strumpet call among British parties, am rings now through the British . worlds .11 is the cry of a nation that dare* to br free to nations that "are free: "Help a. or we perish "' .. ~ Germany has millions of men, ant thought . herself omnipotent. She \va.-~ above all human law, above all international judgment, destined to rule with .ron hand from the Baltic to the .Ant arctic —or to be brought low. Belgiun was weak and powerless, and not to he regarded as having rights, yet the little nation has defied the great nation, anc 5 rights with the dauntless heroism that tryly comes with a great cause. Ann eyes of Belgium turn to the sea from "whence will rise the English. "How soon will the English come?'' ask the Bel women whose husbands and son: stand in the path of the Prussian. "Hush, little one, the English will soor be here," say Belgian women to tinchildren who tremble at the thunder of .runs.. And as we do to the Belgians it their x dire need and extremity, so wil" God in His unfailing justice do to w and. our?. We cannot remain free if we look on while freedom is destroyed. YV> must fight now for the rights of frei States unless we would lose our owi■• fights because, in our turn there will b' none to help u 3 . It is the righteousness of this war. it. inevitabJeness, its necessity, which ha.made us forget for the time our own quarrels, our own disputes and our owi broils. We know- that it is a test. Wi know that if the Empire should fail t< fling back the German hosts, to swee) the seas of German ships, to teach fh< 'German pi.ople that it was a mistake U burn their old ideals before the Baal Moloch of military conquest. We shall lose so much that we cannot afford tcontemplate the possibility. The Empire mil .-t net be defeated. Belgiun mn t be saved. France must stand. T< this- end we- must all help—and whaare yon doing? [ Patriotic funds are open in every part of th*> Empire, and money i: pouring into them from Hudson Bav tr the Bluff. No man and no woman i>New Zealand are too poor to five U their, country if only the* widow's mite. If you are not going, are you giving: And. if not, why not? Are you so h>w a thing that you have received nothing from your Stale, that you would lost nothing if it perished, that you have nc j interest in its defence, that you have nr ' care for the stinreme principle to hold which the peaceful Belgians are fightinr and dying and the Motherland is callinp ■ her free Dominions to war? Anybodv can buy tobacco or beer, hats they don't want or bread- thev waste or something dispensable. Nobody but car spare the orice of a hen or* a cow, of p pound of butter or of a pound's weigh* of gold—something. Nothing is tor small to Eivp, and—let this- be whispered gently —nothi"!? too largo.