THE SPORTSMEN'S WAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16300, 5 August 1916, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE SPORTSMEN'S WAR.

I "PLAY UP! AND PLAY THE ' GAME." ; Br TOHtTN-GA. ! foot bill"" V ° Ut V' P - °" '~ riikot fi fW anc I < uia.i -round, mi ; nr , swinltni uimnin i- -iinniiip. swimming I !'""P V vii in-> boxing . ... at .' 7' " <1ln »- I'O-xing. sailing. row i ne ■at. * dozen , sports " d pastimes, the tl ': l, , 1 '° r " has learned that - Stcadv. *'.>. does it when the pace begins tc tCl '.. - Not in ""inning or i„ lo'sin-r j« •"'edit or discredit as known to the sport »'P mst.n.-t of the race, but in fair plax ; a "d steady play and play,,,. ,„, to the i '•"-(■ Bred into the bone of everv true- ! »<■"« Kntish lad is the unwritten code of i the sportsman-t,, play a winning game I ""..lout sol) boasting and to plav a losing .Rame Without dismay. Through these . two long years of desperate strife the ! sporting instinct has justified itself and : the sportsman's code has magnified itself. i Ihe Empire stands unshaken ail the j world over because its youth and its man- ; hood have played up and played the game. , Other influences have been at work, of , course. 1.,. v ,, of country and pride of j race, iove of liberty and pride of freedom, i !>>\e of h,.me and pride of safety, ~e n se of • duty and of ownersnip in a matchless I heritage. for democracy, if democracy I an.. anything at all. teaches the I humblest that by every inherent right he j is the equal of the 'greatest, that the j nation i> ~f all and the State for all. and | that Progress moves constantly nearer to | exalted ideals. The motives of our 1 national actions lie in the profound depths I from which great statesmen draw their j inspiration.-, hardly knowing why or j what or how they draw; but, the methods I of our national action are "sporting" to j the core—to play up and plav the game. | whatever the odds and however it goes, i Waterloo was won on the playingfields of F.ton.'* said Wellington, the great general who was so poor a statesman, the captain who understood soldiers so well and yet understood civilians so little. i Waterloo was won at " Eton." at that i greater. wider '"Eton" which schools every British boy with an hour to spare, which soaks the s]>ortsm»n's code into pvinep and peasant. which teaches " keeping fit." and playing the game. A hundred years ago the sporting instinct was as it i- to-day. though dwarfed and stunted :-i a measure by ill condition.- and unwholesome surroundings. '"Steadv. boys "' did the trick at Waterloo, as at, Mens, at the Landing, at Loos, and at the Somme. The sportsman cannot always win, but he can always deserve to win. In peace he can always play hi? level best till the whistle ; in war he can always tight, till he falls, and sometimes a irttle longer. What Wellington meant, brench could say, Hai-g. Birdwood, every captain who counts. As for Jellici./e and Beatty—well, the sailor-man is a '" sport" whose whole life is a great game, whom the salt sea keeps ever trained and tit, whose clean skin and steady eyes and sinewy arms mark him. in peace and war. as the constant winner in a ceaseless conflict, of which the losing penalty is certain death. Cecil Rhodes, statesman and Empirenuilder. felt the true inwardness of sport when he made his great scholarships conditional on training of muscle as well as training of mind. We all know that there is a tendency to strain his conditions a little, that promising students have sometimes included a little sport in their ' curriculum in order to qualify as Rhodes scholars, and that the trustees have hesi- ; tated to- work drastically to the found- I der"s obvious intentions. We shall under- . stand Rhodes a great Vfeal better hence- ; forward. He would cordially agree that. : the Germans have outlawed themselves from English University life : we shall cordially agree that the' old Greek ideal, so dear to his sporting heart, is to be accepted, whole and undiluted, as identical with the true British conception. Those Rhodes Scholars who. in the flower of their strength end the blossom of their intellect, have given up their lives for their country and for the Empire, and for Humanity, have done for the Rhodes ideal what many and many an untutored lad ha.- done for wholesome sport. Thev have justified it. They have played the game to the utmost. Thev have set an example to all others, so that by their example, as by their doings, they have helped to save their nation and their people, not oiiiv for now. i m t for all time. It i-_ often thought, and sometimes said. t!>3- the sacrifice of gay and gallant life, nt the strongest and the best, of the keen-brained and the emotional, is a los* trom which our people and humanitv will take Jons to recover. Do not believe that! If it were so, Humanitv would never have struggled from heathenism and barbarism towards higher and better things, for ever and always the best and the bravest, when called to do. have marched steadily to their dutv, and have made a path 'or their people at the sacrifice of many lives. The seas have been paved with the bones of cur seamen—vet the Xavy is matchless still Our liberties have been won at long cost " f 'if p and limb—vet the sweet savour of our British liberties won the wounded heart of South Africa and made Botha draw his old sword for his new- empire. When this bitter war is over and the worn battalions return to the homes for which thev have seen loyal comrades sutler and die, thev will find the memory of their dead as a living flame in the hearts of their people and the qualities they ennobled moulding- the living and governing the State. Those, who have shrunk from sacrifice, those, who have deprecated duty-doing, those who by tin's ex. use or by that pretence have been dir-loyal and unhelping will know the truth that those who seek to sav e their lives -hall ' ,-• the,,, and that those who give their live- .'hall find them. Bv the renewed ideal* tha* are as essential as air to nation* and peonies, by the love of women for the -ti-ong qualities which guard them, by the trust turning of boyish hearts to the hemes of song and st.orv. all that i- !,■-! and dearest in those who have died "ill !i\e and flourish and replenish the e-nb to n.'iut'es- generations. Mere is a, true saving: that the British, would have polished from the face of the earth had it not been for their soldierdead, ('.ci.iive what would happen to us had we shrunk from war two years ago. ha" we looked tiinidiv cm while, the German*, tranitled down Belgium and broke the high courage of France ' There would then be t ,c;-c i,, the world to-day. the peace of a Germany glutted with conquest, in-oieiit with triumph, convinced that Force alone va- the Law, the terrible peace ot a worthless Empire that waited fir the ravisher and the slaughterer. knowing that it had been weighed in the balance and found wanting. Soon wo should see Auckland smoke like l.ouvaiu and the fanu-teads of the Waikato made merry in niter the German fashion : the;, would be:d our women and girl- into slavery a- thev have herded the women and girl- o'' Lille : «-,, should meet the fate we -hoiild have de.-erved. and there would he none to pity us. Fioin this most ghastly of fates, this most gha.-t'v of tragedie.-, wo have been saved bv the sporting instinct, by the world-wide British training which taught peaceful generations to play up and play the game. We thought too much of sport, we were often told. "I he Germans were driving us out of the markets, it was said, becuu.-e they worked while wo played games. And who will condemn the great games to-day, who will belittle the sports that kept our vouth strong and chivalrous, the sporting code that taught every lad to brace himself and keep steady when the pace begins to tell? For through these two terrible years the sportsmen have given to us the ingrained courage that we needed, the enduring strength without whit h the Empire would have fallen. And still, after two full years of war. the slogan of the sports ground holds the battlefront and fills the reinforcements : " Play up and play the gamel"-