THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1900.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11538, 24 November 1900, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1900.

—__♦ We have received from Field-Mar-shal Lord Roberts a copy of "an appeal to my countrymen and women upon a subject I have very much at heart, and which has been occupying my thoughts for some time past." It is hardly necessary to remind our readers that this is the now-famous plea that the welcome to the troops that he has been "so proud to command . . . may not take the form of * treating' the. men to stimulants in public-houses or in the streets, and thus lead them into excesses which must tend to degrade those whom the nation delights to honour, and to lower the 'Soldier of the. Queen' in the eyes of the world." The Herald has already published this letter in extenso, for the cable has long outstripped the mail and spread it broadcast in every part of the Eng-lish-speaking world. While we am assured that this generous and kindly plea on behalf of those who, "from the very kindness of their hearts, their innate politeness, and their gratitude for the welcome accorded them," will find it difficult "to refuse what is offered to them by their too generous friends," is hardly necessary_ in New Zealand, we are sure that every New Zealander will feel deeply the inclusion of our lade among the " gallant comrades" whom the great captain has led and loves. For in this .letter breathes the true spirit of the Christian soldier, of the matchless Bayard of our Victorian age, the general to whom the men who do his bidding are not mere pawns upon a chess-board, but are as children whom his son-less heart yearns over and would serve. This year of 1900 has taught us many lessons, not the least of which is that the kindly heart and the fatherly care may be felt and seen amid the passions of war as amid the virtues of peace. We have learnt that a Christian soldier is not a figment of the imagination, but a very real thing. We understand why an affection that even Napoleon never won and a tenderness that even Nelson never inspired, softens the heart and dims the eye of every man who has marched and fought with "Bobs."

We here in New Zealand, particularly those who have no knowledge of the Motherland, can hardly estimate the value of Lord Roberts' appeal even though we can appreciate to the fullest its loving-kind-ness. For when our lads land they come in small numbers to cities where, when all is said and done, drinking is not a common habit, even on holidays. Their welcome has been, and will be, more public than private ; they are the honoured guests of the communities that speed them through to their own homes and to their own kith and kin. Moreover— and we say it without disparagement to any of the brave men who fought our British battle—our New Zealanders went from averagely better circumstances and were averagely of more self-re-liant character than those whom the Old Country sent to war. This was inevitable and natural, and accounts largely for the admitted superiority of our contingents. We gave our best. And when our lads return, we know that neither they nor we will celebrate debauchingly, whatever odd cases of excess may be, for they have ever been restrained to temperance by then will and not by their poverty, and, in spite of an-

cient- traditions, it is not a colonial failing to take offence at refusal to drink or a colonial failing to be bashful about Baying "no." Nevertheless, even among our New Zealanders, the inculcation of the great man who has led them will bear good fruit. For youth is thoughtless, and in times of great excitement tends to extremes ; at least we have all been told with a tender frankness that there is nothing in "making a night of it," that excesses bring discredit upon us all and grieve to the heart the leader who has " not trusted them in vain." And if this is so here in our homely colony, with its little towns and broad equalities, how much more may the appeal do good in the Home lands 1 For there, as Lord Roberts sadly infers, the thrusting of liquor upon those "whom the nation delights to honour" is a national habit. The man in khaki, while the enthusiasm lasts, can hardly remain sober unless he has the courage to say "no." And Lord Roberts, with the unconscious diplomacy of the simple man who speaks from the bottom of his heart, while nominally appealing to the thoughtless, who care little for him, not to offer, is in reality strengthening the men who love him to refuse. That "Bobs" grieves to hear of his boys shaming the uniform will "stop many a wrong thing from being done in Britain and throughout the world, as it has in South Africa throughout this hardfought campaign.

Lord Roberts is proudest of his men, not for being fearless in battle, but for being upright and honour-' able" of their own free will. They needed no appeal to abstain from crime, he tells us ; " they bore themselves like heroes on the battlefield, and like gentlemen on all other occasions." They entered a hostile country, flooded with lies " as to the brutality of Great Britain's soldiers." They found that only the Englishborn dared greet them at first, the others hiding terror-stricken behind barred shutters and closed doors. But speedily the peaceful inhabitants found that there was "nothing to fear from the 'man in khaki,' no matter how battered and warstained his appearance." And we may remark, by the way, that many of those who cowered abjectly when dreading outrages upon women and children rewarded with unparalleled treachery the law-abidingness and discipline from which they felt they had nothing to fear. But Lord Roberts does not speak of this. Tie evidently feels that it is better to die treacherously ambuscaded than to live with a foul record, and in that spirit he asks his "fellow sub-

jects ... in return for all these

grand men have done for them, to abstain from any action that might bring the smallest discredit upon those who have so worthily, upheld the credit of their country." We have taken grateful opportunity to speak before of the debt of gratitude which our world-nation owes to its great soldier, of the feelings towards him which must overflow in the heart.of every mother who sent he* son to stand or die for the Empire. Yet none who love Queen and Country will find repetition wearisome, for never was purer chieftain of a purer cause. Not a complaint comes from him for the gallant son in whose South African grave the family-hope of England's greatest living soldier ließ buried; not a word of his own doings ; not a breath of boasting or a gesture of scorn. It is always for his men, his children, his boys, his army of heroes, his gallant comrades, that he speaks and pleads and claims recognition. It is always their worthiness that he maintains even while of their weaknesses he does not shrink from speaking. And surely, as when the sword of Cromwell lay buried with him, the Cromwellian soldiers merged again into 'true English citizenship and strengthened the nation that they had lifted to premature supremacy, so we shall see the quarter of a million men who followed Roberts merge again into true citizenship to strengthen and elevate us all. For every man is made a better man whose heart enshrines a true and noble ideal. And Providence has vouchsafed to our new-born Empire that he who first led its martialled array to victory is worthy of the place in their hearts that our soldiers give him, is a Christian hero, an ideal indeed.