Freedom or Slavery.

Free Lance, Volume XV, Issue 795, 24 September 1915, Page 6

Freedom or Slavery.

THE Chief Justice of New South Wales doesn't beat about the bush when he addresses a publicmeeting on. the subject of the war. He scornfully denounces "the puling pacificists" as what they are, the real and worst enemies of their country. Premier Holman is equally outspoken. No peace, lie holds, will be satisfactory which does riot involve the direct punishment of those who are proved responsible for having delivered Europe over to the ravages of the War Devil. Both men clearly see the real issue of the war, the decision of the question as t6 : whether the world shall retain its freedom or be engulfed for "half a century or more in an ocean, of German military domination.

That issue has never been more eloquently set forth than in the glowing words of Robert Hall, the great English preacher, who (in 1803), when English liberties were threatened by Bonaparte, expressed himself as follows: —

It remains with you, then, to decide whether that freedom, at whose voice the Kingdoms of Europe awoke from the sleep of ages, to run a career of virtuous emulation in everything-., great and ■■ good: the freedom which dispelled the mists of superstition and invited the nations to behold their God: whose magic touch kindled the rays of genius, the enthusiasm of poetry, and the flame of eloquence; the

freedom which poured into our lap

opulence and the arts, and embellish*ed—life till it became a theatre of wonders: it is for you to decide whe.ther the freedom shall yet survive, or be 'covered with a funeral pall and wrapt in eternal gloom. * * * *

. The issue for Great Britain, for Australia for New Zealand, is freedom or slavery. And until we are assured of a victory for freedom, let no man prate or? even whisper aught of peace. There can be no peace with an assassin save that which ensures his end. Germany must be brought to her knees. Either that or the death-knell of the British Empire will. be sounded. Fellow New -Zealanders, that is the real issue!