THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1904. OUR RIGHTEOUS CAUSE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12698, 28 October 1904, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1904. OUR RIGHTEOUS CAUSE.

While we await the outcome of the present grave international crisis, hopeful that Russia will make that complete amende which it is as much her duty to give as ours to demand, it is supremely consoling to know that our cause is righteous and that, should war be forced upon our. Empire, our hands are clean and our conscience clear. For with nations as with men the knowledge that their quarrel is just enables them to face with fortitude the greatest dangers and to bring into action their utmost energies. It assures them of ultimate triumph, no matter what forces may be arrayed against them, no matter what combinations may arise to support the wrong. Often the causes that set nation against nation are so involved and so complex that honest and impartial critics are divided in opinion, and even among the combatants themselves there is doubt and perplexity as to the necessity for resort to arms. But in this case the issue is so distinct, the provocation so absolute, that from end to end of the British world party differences have been swept away and a, united people stands prepared to maintain Freedom at any 1 hazard if the Government is unable to secure it by diplomatic representations. For that is the position. Our cause is righteous because it is Freedom's cause, not the narrow freedom which is confined to ourselves, but the broad and unimpeachable Freedom which is for all who live— right of simple, peaceable men to toil unmolested, of unarmed men to follow their lawful calling without being shot and slain. If we w%re possessed, at this great crisis, by a spirit of aggression, if Ave sought territorial expansion, material gain, national advancement at the expense of others, we could not feel as we feel now. But we suddenly find ourselves, in the amazing circumstances so suddenly thrust upon us, called upon to justify our place in the van of human progress, to speak unfalteringly for the rights of humanity or to be false and foresworn to the standard under which God has made us great. Whatever civilised foreign nations may do should the smoke of our powder obscure to them the occasion of this crisis, they acknowledge now that Right is on our side. French fishermen huddle in Cherbourg from the piratical Russian fleet as pigeons huddle in shelter at the shadow of a hawk, and the French—treaty allies of the Tsar —condemn the evil-doers and assert their fault. Even the Germans, swollen with national jealousy against us, do not yet attempt to justify the Russian crime. So that we need not ask what is thought by the Americans or by any other of the Northern peoples who join with us in seeking the liberties of men. There has rarely, if ever, before been such complete unanimity of civilised and Christian opinion, a unanimity all the more meaningful because it is evoked at a time when the Manchurian War and its complications have predisposed the European Continent to judge harshly any action of Britain.

We most earnestly and sincerely hope that war will be averted, but there are times when war is a lesser evil than submission—such a time is upon us now. We have submitted until our backs are against the wall. We have made concessions and allowances to Russiar tyranny and insolence until there is nothing left to concede if Freedom has any meaning in the modern world. Our peaceful mailboats have been stopped and seized and carried away captive, while our admirals bit their tongues and looked the other way. Our peaceful merchantmen have been waylaid, confiscated, even torpedoed without warning, and still

lib© Imperial ' G Government has kepi ! to its policy of peace and sought redress by long-dray™ negotiations. Until now, in North Sea, waters, on historic fishing grounds, where Englishmen have drawn the nets from time' immemorable, Qvtv countrymen are murdered earning bread, | through the, long night hours, for waiting wives and little ones at. 1 ho';te. It is not to be * borne, I Civilisation, is & mockery, law ja. farce, 'peace a delusion and j justice a by-word, ! if stick, wrong can Igo unchallenged. Peace we value as few peoples value it, but who ' would care to live on earth if the 1 Tsar were to be its master ? And master of it lie is if peaceful fisher- , men—English or other—are to be I slaughtered in cold blood because , they innocently lie in the path of i his warships, upon the waters of the open sea., and if the murderers are to sweep on their way as though the Tsar was the only power in the "world. Such a state of things has not yet come about, only for the reason that we will not submit to it. It would be already with us if we hesitated now to insist upon redress. But as long as a single fighting ship bears worthily the flag of Freedom, as long as in all the world a single State bears worthily the British name, there can be no drawing back. The blood spilled on the Dogger Bank would cry to Heaven against us if fear of the Tsar and dread of hostile combinations and thought of cost outweighed the duty so manifestly ours. If Russia makes such amende and reparation as is demanded, not by our national pride, but by the world-wide sense of international justice, there will be peace. If she refuses, there can be no outcome but war. That she should refuse seems inconceivable, but not more inconceivable than that her fleet should ruthlessly slaughter innocent fishermen and go on its way unconcerned. For peace we pray, knowing what War means. But if war comes we rejoice that it will come to us for such a cause that) all good men of every nation will approve us and posterity say that we upheld the rights of human kind and the liberties of the whole world.