FOUNDATIONS OF VICTORY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17348, 20 December 1919, Page 1 (Supplement)

FOUNDATIONS OF VICTORY.

THE MAINSPRINGS OF PEACE.

BY LT.-COL. A. A. GRACE, N.Z.F.A. RESERVE.

There are few things more difficult than to appraise correctly the times in which we live; distinguishing great events from little, great people from those of small importance, great movements of thought from the vapourings of mere self-adver-tisers. Usually our conclusions must be wrong, because we are too close to the picture. We do not see people and events in their true perspective. It is difficult for us to weigh and analyse the stupendous happenings of the last five years to decide what really were the foundations, and who, indeed, were the founders, of victory. It will be an easier task for our descendants; but for our own satisfaction we well may try to order and arrange the cataclysms! events which we have witnessed, and attempt to arrive at a conclusion as to their comparative importance, m order that we may determine the causes of our great achievement. That achievement was no-thing less than victory over a new kind of savagery, a neopaganism, scientific perhaps, but soulless and materialistic a bloodthirsty, brutal barbarism which would bathe the world in blood that a single murderous sept be predominant. There have been great conquerors in the past—Alexander, Qesar, Jenghiz Khan, Tamerlane, Cortes, Napoleon— but to the ambitious dreams of these there were reasonable limits : to the ambitions ot the infamous Wilhelsn there were actually no terrestrial limits. That seems to be the first salient fact. Moreover, there was a distinct chance that the arch-enemies of civilisation might succeed—because the world was unprepared. But if the world had time to prepare, Wilhelm and his savages were bound to fail. The victory of the Marne gained for the world the necessary time; that seems.to be .the second great fact. But in September, 1914, apart from the primary and major combatants, the interests of the world at large were represented by Britain,. unprepared, but frl'ed wiia deadly determination. Spain hung back. Italy hesitated. America did not move. Britain, who possessed the same excuses for not interfering as they, had thrown la her lot with the weaker side because it was the side which represented justice, liberty, right. I think that is a ' tremendous fact, a victory in itself, a moral victory which made physical victory possible. Britain's brave example made Italy's imitation of it but a matter of time; it finally constrained America to play the better part; it failed only to induce Spain to reassert her claim to greatness.a claim which cannot now be revived. Without Britain's help France would have been conquered, probably within a few months after the invasion of her eastern borders, because but for Britain's fleet she would have been taken in flank by a large German expeditionary force ,landmg on her coasts. The subsequent creation of Britain's vast armies will always stand as on e of the most marvellous features of the war, an unforeseen factor .which completely upset all the Teutons' military calculations, and, as events proved, deprived them of all hope of victory. But we must give Italy her just due. But for her intervention Austria, after the collapse of Russia, would have, been able to assist the Germans in France, and therein Italy played a great part. • When America, influenced by Britain's example, and exasperated Deyond endurance by the Germans' infamous methods of warfare, took the momentous decision which drew her to the sid e of the Allies, the issue of the war was no longer in doubt, if she were able, as Britain had done, to transform herself quickly into a military power of the first magnitude. With the help and experience of her allies she was able to accomplish that great metamorphosis, and the advent of large American armies in | France sealed the Germans' doom. But here again Britain's naval power, exhibited decisively, but not devastatingly, at Jutland, affected profoundly the general military situation, and, just as her navy had prevented the Germans from landing an expeditionary force on. French soil, so it enabled the Americans to transport their armies across the Atlantic without loss. But if we are to analyse the situation as it was a year ago, when the war was won, we must ascertain the forces and influences which made the alliance of the Four Great Powers — France, Britain, I Italy .and America — possible in ' the first instance. France fought for her life: ; she had become the symbol of Liberty and [ Civilisation : the other three Powers, in I fighting to preserve France, were fighting ito preserve Liberty and Civilisation. Therein. 1 think, we reach the heart of _ the question. It was the difference in the ethical status of the two sets of belligerents which made for their strength and weakness as the struggle proceeded. The cause of Germany was rotten from the beginning; the, cause of Fiance was as righteous as her resistance was indomitable. France's cause was the Allies' cause. On the other hand, the malignant nature of their accursed cause was to the Germans an ever-present, ever growing source of weakness. Whatever their attempts at self-deception, they knew they Mere linked inseparably with the devil, and it is to be noticed that as their d.flunkies grew, and their enemies j increased, and their chance of victory became more and nine remote, it v.-as their moral fibre which first began to weaken, while as yet their physical fibre was-stronir: so that in the "end their courage failed, and we saw the amazing j spectacle of millions of Germans retreat- ] ing across the Khhie rather than fight to i a. finish on the soil they had desecrated, j and the even stranger " spectacle of the, German Navy surrendering ignominiously without a blow. * J • Thrice is he armed that hath his I quarrel just. ' Without a just cause we and our allies would never have been I able to have suffered so courageously. I Without a good cause to fight for, the i in . .-.upai-.ible Allied Army would not have. I preserved tin: marvellous morale which enabled it to triumph amid the unspeakable horrois of the campaign of 1918. It !-•', a-- 1 have said, difficult to estimate : ih-' events of our times. Hut I think we I may rest assured that ou e of the main | reasons why ue have Peace on Earth i today, is because a just Cause gave to ' the arms of the Allies a Might which was I irresistible. J

QHRISTMAS is human nature's patent of nobility. Ever as the season recurs there is commemorated the crowning proof of man's capacity for divinity, for it is the birthday festival of the manifestation of the divine life in mortal form. For evermore, in view of the unchallengable excellence oi Him whose nativity it annually notes, our human life is declared capable of great things.

Christ's majesty of manhood has never been successfully impeached. The scorching criticism that has searched His Church has left Him unhurt by its tongues of fire. Indeed, the most ruthless critics have often lighted their incendiary torches at the flame of His teaching, so little have they been inclined to include Him in their condemnation of the Church's weakness or wickedness. And they, no less than others, mav join in the honour that is His due on the day that brings reminder of His entry into our life. '

That entry tells unmistakably the tale of human nature's potential grandeur. At Calvary's hill men may bewail the blind fury of mortal sin; but at Bethlehem they needs must bow in amazed and glad reverence before a human child. There no despising of humanity is possible. Instead, the treasures of our human store are freely disclosed. > A- Bethlehem Pilgrimage. Theologians have made much of the nativity of Christ as a breaking-in of the divine into our mortal life. But the divine could never have appeared and dwelt among us had not the conditions for its coming been here already. That appearance was no sudden, arbitrary irruption. Its possibility had been developing for ages. The coming was also a becoming. The divine did not break Into the humanit broke out of the human, and this was possible because the human had already the divine involved in it. j