The New Zealand Times. SATURDAY, JANUARY 15, 1916. A MOVING APPEAL

New Zealand Times, Volume XLI, Issue 9248, 15 January 1916, Page 6

The New Zealand Times. SATURDAY, JANUARY 15, 1916. A MOVING APPEAL

Nothing could be better than the appeal issued yesterday by the Prime Minister as chairman of the Board of Recruiting. "We hare pointed out that the machinery established by the board for keeping the ranks of our forces up to the promised mark is.the right machinery for-the work. We have now to note that the start of that machinery has received a magnificent impetus ti» keep it going to the end. At the outset the Prime Minister lays stress cv our obligations. Tnese are of honou' of patriotism, and of loyalty to our manhood, calling to us from tlw trenches to help them. Of these obli gations; all binding with uncommon force, the greatest is the obligation o» honour. We have promised. What wo have promised we. must perform. Theio is really nothing else in the situation It is not for us to consider any que* tion of modes and methods of making good. Wo have to make good. That is the honourable obligation. To lose sight of it would be dishonour for evermore No country ■ can allow so black a mark as failure of the solemn word to lo placed on its - escutcheon, least of all a country marked, quoted and signed for greatness at the outset of its careet in life. It is nothing that we have al ready done so well. An enrolment ol 46,000 men for a nation of a million i» great. The Prime Minister enlarged on it very properly. But the question is not that we have done well or ill 01 indifferently. It js of our promise to do a certain definite thing. That definite thing is to send away every month to the end of the war 2500 trained men. We have to do that, not to waste time in glorification of what wo have done. The obligation of patriotism is strong, of course; irresistible, in fact. But it is in comparison with the honourable word, insignificant; its value, generally great as it is. only to be considered in this connection with our pledged word. In the same way the cry of our hard-pressed soldiery is irresistible, jppealing to our blood. . But its maiu' strength lies in its corroboration of the word of honour.

There is a special appeal which has been made in this manifesto of the Prime Minister's for the first time. But it deals with a fact which was notorious years ago. It was knows to the Government of this country before 1910 that it was well understood in' diplomatic circles that in the case of a British defeat in any war with Germany, the enemy would certainly obtain for his share through the.peace terms the oversea dominions of Britain. There were people then who talked about Germany's disinterestedness, and other people equally fatuous who prated of the impossibility of subduing unwilling dominions aud of Germany's knowledge of the fact. Now that the German mask is off it is useless to remind ourselves of these high and mighty critics of a stupid, senseless past. The war ha 3 .blown away all such ingenuities, sophistries, banalities. The facts stand plain and promi.

| nent. "Germany's plans of conquest," i said the manifesto, "which have been unfolded before the eyes of an

astonished world, since the war began, included tho annexation of the British Overseas Dominions, also of Egypt, and probably India." Tbe enemy has grown more arrogant since 1910, and ho has added India and Egypt to the open programme of his vaulting ambition. His projects against the selfgoverning dominions have been exploded to fragments by the British Navy, but his Egyptian and Indian plans are getting into full swing. Now, if he wins in the war, there is no doubt whatever that he" will collar all three of these extensive groups of territories. j As to the argument of the fatuous people who insisted that Germany would recoil from the task of subduing unwilling dominions, Germany has shown tnat the superior Ruler of Germany recoils from nothing. Ho tore up the "Scrap of Paper," he deliberately destroyed tbe cities of Belgium, without any provocation whatever, merely for the purpose of terrorising. He stained his soul with the crimes of the Lusitania and the submarine blockade, not to stop trade — a thinjj known to be impossible —but only for killing. He murdered wholesale by coastal attacks and raids in the air. All these crimes stand supported by the writings of his paid swashbucklers, uniformed and otherwise, both of the brutal pen and of tho scientific weapon which in Germany is labelled "Infallible." If there could be any doubt, it is dispelled when .\e read the quotation from the German newspaper which calls for the massacre of the British race and the obliteration of its language from the tongues of the earth. These things prove beyond peradventure that if the Empire is beaten in this war, the life of no man will be safe in these islands, the Kmour of no woman will be worth one moment's purchase, and the slavery of all children will begin under circumstances directly leading to the total destruction of our race- If German force ever gets here, with the demoniac "Hymn of Hate" in the pro-i gramme of its band music, there will be a clean sweep of the Englishspeaking folk. Even if the extinction policy failed, our- lot would be unendurable. The freedom .of oux democracy would give place to the rule of some Prussian drill-sergeant, the official posts would be filled by Germans, commerce would be Germanised, tho professions -would be worked Teutonically, all avenues of advancement would be held by German hordes; and interference at every turn, brutal, callous, and cruel, would in' the end bring excuse for massacre. Self-preserva-tion joins -with Honour in making irresistible appeal to our. manhood.