THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS TUESDAY, AUGUST 11, 1914. THE DOMINION FORCES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15684, 11 August 1914, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS TUESDAY, AUGUST 11, 1914. THE DOMINION FORCES.

The promptness with which the first section of New Zealand s contingent is being despatched .justifies the pride which our citizens take in the steady loyalty of this Dominion. This thousand which will havo sailed long before this issue of the Herald reaches the back blocks of Auckland Province is not merely the first of the Eight Thousand that is immediately being sent to the aid of the Mother Country wherever she sets her battle line; it is also the first of that unending succession of Thousands which will stream from New Zealand to Imperial War as long as the Empire calls. This is the actual position as understood by every patriotic citizen, and the understanding makes the departure of the expeditionary force a very solemn and serious occasion. Our departing territorials arc more than fighting men; they are hostages. They are pledges to the Empire from their brethren and kinsmen and comrades who remain behind that force after force will follow them . until the fight is won; sureties to the Empire from their parents and relatives and friends that treasure shall be as ungrudged as life and limb in the Imperial cause. If New Zealand could not leave the Mother Country to fight alone still less can she forget the sacrifice made for her by her own sons at her bidding. " With the entry of our expeditionary force into the fray, with its mustering in our cities and its sailings from our ports, we cease to bo onlookers and become participants. Wherever they fight the purpose of our New Zealanders is to rescue tho little North European states from the tyranny of' the Kaiser and the domination of Prussian militarism. That there was-never a more righteous war-in the long history of Britain would count for little to us were we' not striking for the Empire with our sister dominions. The sailing' of the expeditionary force 1 is the drawing of the sword , by. New Zealand for the . Empire ' and, a' righteous cause; - that sword " cannot bo sheathed or .the, mustering of expeditions slackened until the, righteous cause has triumphed and German aggression been utterly foiled.; •

Those who have been disposed to take . a narrow view of. patriotism and loyalty .can see from this grappling in Belgium of the rival forces of aggression and independence how entirely foolish it-is to imagine that a country can be defended by peacei loving patriots only at its own frontier. The men who flock towards the hard-held land of the Belgians from every British state—from the Franco-British provinces of Canada, from the Anglo-Celtio states of Australia and from the Anglo-Dutch colonies' of the South African Union—are to fight for their own liberties and independence as much as though they were fighting to eradicate the German menace from the high seas. At the present juncture, Germany is the arch-enemy of freedom, and wherever free states striko at Germany they strike for themselves, whether it is in Belgium, in West Africa, or in the North Sea. If Germany can ride rough-shod over every state in turn, if she can ruthlessly destroy the neutrality and independence of Luxemburg and Belgium—which she was pledged to maintain—and can thus the more easily destroy Franco and stand the unchallenged military dictator of Europe, how long will it bo before she overwhelms Britain and dictates her terms to and imposes her will upon the British Empire and tho world '! The Asquith Administration, most reluctant, to : war of any British Government, has been compelled to rccognise the utter impossibility of abandoning Belgium to its fate and leaving France to bo brutally slaughtered. This Liberal Administration, with Mr. Lloyd George still its Chancellor, has not only declared war but is sending a British army to aid continental nations in thoir resistance to undeserved and unprovoked German invasion. Our New Zealanders l wherever they fight will be part of

this British army and will fight with it for the liberties that wo should lose if Germany were to triumph. Germany cannot triumph, because the principle she is attacking is too strong, because the peoples who defend it arc able to prevent its destruction. That principle is the right of free nations to go unmolested as long as they give no offence and make no attack, and the duty of all free nations to defend one another against the deliberate and unprovoked attack of piratical and pledge-breaking states. Belgium has no fault in this matter excepting that Germany thought her weak. When New Zealand, answering the Imperial summons, sends her contingents to aid the right against the wrong she really fights her own battle, fighting the better on a far frontier while her own lauds remain able to meet the harsh demands of war and to maintain the flow of fighting men. It is possible that this war may be brief, but it is extremely likely that it may be prolonged, that the . civilised world -simply adjust itself to war conditions and the ] i British Empire brace itself and organise itself for a desperate and exhausting battle. There is no need for pessimism even if years of European hostilities, thinly interspersed I with truce and armistice, lie before j us. As far as New Zealand is con- . cerned, we can go on producing; we can rely on the Empire to keep the sea-roads open; and we can help to feed the United Kingdom and the allied armies, and to keep up the ! military strength of the Empire in the field. The Imperial Government has been considering a British expeditionary force of 100,000 or 150,000, and already a second force is being outlined. Britain always fights that way. She will send one hundred thousand men to the Continent; . then another; and another; and so on until the scale is turned. If the war lasts through the Northern winter, half a million British troops will be in the field by the next spring. New Zealand will find her contingents rising from tea to twenty or thirty thousand. The Dominion may have to strain every nerve in this battle of giants. We do not hesitate, therefore, in voicing the popular belief that far greater sacrifices may bo demanded of us than the sending of this first few thousand men, and in urging our people to face the situation as true British people have ever met and faced grave situations in the past. The training system should be placed on what we may call a war footing, and the fullest opportunity offered to every youth or man to become efficient and qualified for i active service; an appeal to the patriotism of old territorials should provide plenty of competent drillsergeants; and the whole population should realise, accept and emphasise the fact that every young New Zealander should qualify to take his place in the Imperial battle line as the need arises. This constant and unfaltering preparation to strengthen the Imperial forces until they secure for us an honourable and fruitful peace is the most sacred duty of all New Zealanders.