CANADIANS IN ACTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15820, 18 January 1915, Page 4

CANADIANS IN ACTION.

In the honourable emulation of the Imperial peoples there is no thought of disparaging comparison, either in war or peace, for each and all do no more than their best, inspired always by the great traditions common to them all. Those who have maintained the prestige of famous British regiments, which for generations have never faltered on the battlefield and were never more heroic than to-day, will have been the first to give honour and credit to the BVitish territorials and to tho colonial contingents who are proving themselves of the same good fighting stock. The Canadians have been fortunate enough to be foremost of the colonial forces to reach the fighting line, and none will grudge them their good fortune. The Canadian regiment which is reported this morning as having cleared trench after trench on the Yser with the bayonet, driving the Germans back a mile, has only confirmed the universal confidence in colonial spirit and discipline, and in the worth of the colonial troops that are hastening to fight for Imperial liberties and Imperial honour in Europe or wherever else they are sent. Our New Zealanders, the Australians and the South Africans will do as well when their turn comes. Meanwhile, every colonial will be proud that the colonial soldier has been tested and found good, and that colonial war cries ring in the ears of those who thought Britain decadent and the British Empire ripe for plunder. These Germans have already found it harder to ■ plunder our Empire than to torture poor Belgium ; they may realise after a time that an Empire for which all its states are ready to fight in British fashion is not yet ready to be Prussianised.