THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, AUGUST 14, 1914. THE APPEAL OF BELGIUM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15687, 14 August 1914, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, AUGUST 14, 1914. THE APPEAL OF BELGIUM.

- All who consider others as they would have others consider them, must have their sympathies aroused, their energies braced, and their pursestrings loosened by the appeal of Belgium. '-When will the English come?" they asked one another in Liege. "The English will soon be here," said mothers to comfort their children. Simple words but meaningful and heart-stirring, for they tell the British world how in her hour of trial Belgium has turned for aid to the great nation that has ever fought for the liberties of struggling nationalities, and how the Belgian people trust our answer to their appeal. A million men from the great wave of aggressive war that is bursting unprovoked across the unoffending states of Belgium and Luxemburg which had no quarrel with the Emperors, gave no assistanco to their enemies, created I no danger to the legitimate developt ment of Germany and Austria, were guaranteed neutrality and independence by the pledged word of the Berlin Government. Against that wave industrious and home-loving Belgium is the first rampart, and to defend it she has appealed for help to the British and called in the French. Hero is a situation which no liberty-loving man or woman can think of without emotion,.as none of British breeding can think of it without pride. These 'Belgians trust us. Belying on our coming to their rescue they have dared to withstand the hosts of the Kaiser, and to match their devoted courage against the invader's ignoble strength. Betrayed by their German guarantor they oppose him on their violated frontier, firmly believing that Britain will succour them before their freedom is lost. Surely this is

enough in itself to justify the mus-

tering of troops in all the free states of the British, and the swelling from our abundance of the Patriotic Funds that are to relieve and minimise the hardships of war.

In one exalted moment, Britain has recovered its historic place as the head and front of the'free European states which do not threaten the peace of their neighbours, and only ask to be allowed to work out their own national problems without molestation. Sir Philip Sydney died fighting for the liberty of these

Low Countries, and with him many other Elizabethans'who knew that England cannot be free unless it helps others to freedom. To . the same " cockpit of Europe" in which they fought the Spaniard, the English—grown to be the British— to curb the tyrannies of Louis the Great, of the great Austrian, and of the greater Corsican. . Never a century has passed since the time of Elizabeth that the Low Countries have not called upon England to aid them in defending their liberties, and never have they called in vain. We are receiving- to-day in Belgium the trust and confidence that is not the growth of a day but the outcome of centuries of national faithfulness to a great and noble ideal. There has never been a more magnificent and a more pathetic testimony to the sanctity of the British word and to the belief that the British will not see liberty destroyed than the spectacle of the Belgians opposing German invasion. The self-satisfied statesmen of Berlin never doubted that the British Government would hesitate and shrink back from war, but the Belgians, who had everything to lose,. never doubted. Because our forefathers loved liberty and were true to their word and were staunch to their allies, a patriot army has sprung from tho peaceful soil, of Belgium and has stayed for a breathing-space the march- of a million men. The Belgians fight our battle as we must' fight theirs. Into this "cockpit of Europe" must go again the English —grown world-wide and Imperial— and strike .down tyranny where it has been'struck down so often before. Tho New Zealanders who go to this most righteous war go for uti all, and the Patriotic Fund is to make their going easier and to provide that as far as possible none suffers by their going. .

Doubtless we are affected in this Dominion,' as people are being affected all oyer the Empire, ' by the commercial and industrial disturbance arising from the war, but we are immune and altogether likely to be immune from any serious difficulties. There can be no shortness of food. There can be no prolonged scarcity of employment as long as the trade routes are opened. A million pounds is no more than we might reasonably be expected to spend annually upon mere preparations for defence as long as Germany continues to be a peril to the peace of the world. We shall all be housed, fed, clothed, and in comfort while the war lasts, while those who go to fight for us in Belgium or elsewhere will have to take tho fortunes of war. There are none in New Zealand who can expect here anything like the hardships incidental to a campaign in .North Europe continued through the" winter; yet, as their duty leads, them; our .volunteers' will cheerfully and

patiently endure the worst that comes. They are giving in their own persons our national and willing answer to the Belgian appeal. They are going to help stein the tide of invasion that is "a million men. They are our message to the Mother Country, our challenge to the Kaiser, our warning to all tyranny; and it is not fit that wc should take all they give and all they do for us and give them nothing in return. The men in the forts of Auckland arc steadily doing their duty, and deserve the grateful thanks and appreciative consideration of the public, but this does not depreciate in any way the work being done for the country by those who have volunteered for service abroad. None who consider the matter can doubt the need here and in every other centre of strong Patriotic Funds or question the claim that those funds make upon the generosity of every loyal citizen.