1917! THE OLD YEAR AND THE NEW

NZ Truth, Issue 602, 30 December 1916, Page 4

1917 ! THE OLD YEAR AND THE NEW

New Year's Day is a world holiday. It has no connection with religious 'Ceremonies of any kind, ancient or modern! But the Scotsman looks upon the first day of the year as particularly and peculiarly his holiday. The Northern Celt will continue to toil all Christmas Day and Boxing Day likewise, consoling himself with the thought that as a result of his industry on such days the Arbitration Court award* him "treble tiller." But this same person will resent any attempt to get htm to give up his holiday on what he terms "Ne'erday* for the sake "o* a wheen bawbees." And on that day the faithful Scot drinks a toast, not only to the New, but to the Old ! Year. One of the happiest of hla RacchflnaHan ballads has for its title, "Here's To The Year That's Awa'." ! When, with a good supply of the "elements" on hand, a Scots company rises to honor this toast, it is done m these words: "To the Year that's Awa' — May the Neist be Nae Waur!" And bo, aa we stand on the threshold of 1917, and note the ww-douds that still darken this fair world of ours, I we sigh, as we look back over th« ruin and red record of the year that's away: "May the next be no worse." It may not be much to hope for, and yet it might easily be too much. During the year now swiftly slipping from the eternity before, to the eternity that is past, many homes m these bright islands have been robbed of loved ones by the ruthless hand of relentless war. We bad hoped, when the now dying ye&r, was still young, that, ere all its beads wera told, the heel of tine tyrant would havo been lifted from the necks of Balgium and Frtnce and Servia, and the peoples of Europe allowed to breathe freely once more. But though many, many lives have been sacrificed ungrudgingly and, oh, so bravely, m the united efforts of the Allies to consummate this most laudable purpose, the day of deliverance has not yet dawned. The Mailed Fist of tho brutal ! War Ivord still grasps the nations of j Europe In a stranglehold as the year of 1917 Is ushered m upon the world for weal or woe. • • • Throughout 191« the tide of the | titanio struggle haa ebbed and flowed. ! When tho year was m its swaddling clothes, the newspapers all were prating about the Big Push that was to take place on the Western j Front "m the spring." But the spring passed, the summer ended, and autumn gave place to winter onco again m Northern France and Belgium, and tho Big- Push Is still on tho Up of tho gods. Certainly some advance has been made, and the despoilers of Belgian fertility and virginity, have been driven back, with great loss, some considerable distance. Not once, nor twice, but many times during the post year great buttles hove been fought, m which the arms and the armies of the Entente have provod superior to those of their resourceful, unscrupulous and well-equipped enemy. At the same time tho Central Powers havo moro or less evened up things by their successes on other tronta. Aided by their great strategic railways the Hun War I/orda are able to fling overwhelming forces at chosen points against tho Russians, Serbians and Roumanians, and by sheer force of numbers push their way forward. But Mich victories arc less or moro spectacular and are of little military *»Iknincance when weighed m the balance with tho Kaiser's failuro to take Paris, to get to Calais, or to break the blockade, which, despite the efforts of tho great gang of smugglers m Holland. Switzerland and other neutral countries. Is slowly but suroly woarlnu down the Hun, despite his assertions to tho contrary. Then atraln. the success of German, arms m Itouroanla is dearly bought at tho price paid at Verdun by the xocont French success, m great measure facilitated by the weakening of tho Crown Frince'a command m order to strengthen the forces marching against Russia and Houmania. And thus tho grime of seasaw goes on. • • • On calmly reviowlng the poultion. ono Is forced to the conclusion that had things during the past twelvo months turned out moro favorable for mo Allteut than they have. It would hay« been little «hort of a miracle. The roason why the real Big Push did not como off "m tho Hprlny." or during any other part of jyiC. is Ureauao -t, never was Intended that it should. All tho talk about tho comlnj? advance was morel}' part and parcel or the tactics of our generate In order to keop the enemy guea»inK. Tho talk of the "coming event" \v;u* ho lnaU*> tent and persistent that ho became Borlounly perturbed, lllw "observers" and "Hcouta" Informed him of th« trroat mnanoa ot men and munitions which the Alliea were piling up behind the lines, and ho coneld<?r»»d thw»«> were tho "shadow before' which augured the "comlni: even;.' l>ut a« day* i;r«"W to ww'ttit and wiv>;* to movuhr-, :tnd tho Alll«'i< <iuU<?mr4 themnrlvtvt with nUfhi «"U'l»u: and trtmrh »"<*sdi»s:. j ho cosuludi'd tlmi th* I'-h: l'»^h vv 4 «-« it lit£ jirc'varhniiotj. ami In «»n«- «»r two itv.itnnt*<*.i *»itr»:nj>i««U '•» """all th« hlutt" on ih« AMU-.*. I.ucUUy. <m nueU t»«-cu-wiipli» lllfl Hntpnlo crttM««*Ut<l<sr:*, j though not BUfilclontly mrong-to.brwk through, vktf« tibia wittily to ropulsse

such ill-considered attacks, and to follow, up such repulses, by becoming the aggressors and capturing a line of oneroy trenches. These things but mystified the First War Lord's officers all the more, and the Big Push began to get on their nerves. Then came the dash forward at the Somme with its many thousand of Germans killed; many more seriously wounded, and almost as many taken prisoner. Had the time for the Big Push arrived, then the victory on the Somme had been a splendid Btarting point It showed the German that the Allied troops could break through If they desired to break through. But for some unaccountable reason — unaccountable, that is, m the eyes of the Pessimist and the D* rtl anus— the Allies did not "f olloW on.? They returned to their old tactics of holding up the Hun, and all the while continuing to pile up guns and ever more guns, ammunition and ever more ammunition behind the lines. And so the longer the delay lasts the more cartain is the victory which Is to follow the Big Posh when, *t last, It la pushed home. •• . • It will be seen then that much of our dissatisfaction with the present military situation arises out of our imperfect knowledge which prevents ua from appreciating the difficulties to be overcome. No doubt we would not now look upon things with such a seeming lack of confidence m the final outcome of the struggle, had our long-eared literary lights in' the day-lies not led us to expect much more, very much more In the way of a successful offensive than, when everything is taken into account, could possibly have come our way during 191 C. Blessed are they that expect little, may be a somewhat satirical beatitude, but It la nevertheless true, and as true m modern military operations as m any other phase of lifo and struggle. Had we expected less, much that has been done on land and sea would have appeared to us as wonderful. It is our conviction that this is a sane view to take of the operations of our army and navy and of the armies of our Allies that makes us satisfied to join our Scots confreres m their seasonable toast: "To the year that has gone— may the next be so worse." ' • • • And unless the purveyors of our nowa ore still making wild guesses and guesses wide at the truth, there la much presumptive evidence that the New Year not only will b* no worse than the Old, but for us lmmeasrxreably better. The work of training large numbers of men has been going on unceasingly m Britain, the making and importing of munitions of war have been , pushed to the utmost limit, Th« Big Push expected "is tlu> Spring* of 1916/ and, probably wisely, delayed, will eventuate it may be wfa*n we and the enemy least expect it. It would appear as if some inkling «f tnia has forced Its way Into the heads of the German filibustered, and that they are not too sanguine of the outcome — hence tho recent peaco overtures of which we have heard so much. Truth" is Inclined to attach much more Importance to these same overtures than the contradictory coble canards may seem to warrant. The fact, however, that Germany is willing to go back to tho ante beltum position and accept that arbitration who ho high-handedly refused m July, 1914. ehowa how hard pressed she is, if not from without, then most certainly from within. It shows that the people of Oermajay are not now so confident of Geibel'a prophetic assertion which the First War Lord haa done no muoh to popularise: Und ea mug an deuLsehem Weaon Elnmal noch die Welt genesen. It dhows that the German War- God ia not the Over-Lord ho claimed to be. and death and famine that have b«en tho harvest ho haa brought Co the Gorman workers havo blasted thoir faith m Hlti till tana to success. And«o hopo deferred having inado tho heart of the Gorman nick even a» it is apt to do with tho mast philosophical of v«, tho reaction has Net m. Tho cry for peace la growing m volumo among the German working-cluta and ia becoming over moro insistent. In Drlialn. tho workers, while not lovers of war at anytime, cannot bo said to have shown any premature weariness of tho flght they arc putting up. True, they will accept penca j»ladly, when »M«h can bo mado hononiuly without loss of national presilfco and void of injury to our Allies, hut U would bo wrong to say or even to «Mgge«t tluit tho British as n people are tired of the wur. So tar om on© may mnko deduction* from tlso Htntenwnta of rcprencntatlvo men, ft i would appear n» it the Jiritinh capital- ! ii*t !m more inclined toward peaoo than ) | the Hri tiiih proletariat, tin ha*< hlr» {capital — money and plant— pausing 1 I moro and more under Govormm-nt control, and tho experience Is no unplcatttint that It gives him pnune. H«» la ! rvaklnjr hlmt»«*lf what will bo the* up*!to< |at it all? ll.' known th-»l li«« wUI n*v«»r i I>h ull<nviHl sp;tin HUch licvn»« at rx ■■ l<|<>it:t(ion it* ho Una i-njoyed m ilw» '■ j past, nml \u< U'hr* a further rortujl- , ( MK'JH Milt wJi.niUJ <liv» wur cu.'iUmi.- ' • milch Itiuset . I • j H J« muat <ys*«ntl.*il for lite ciust? of i

conditions above mentioned should be unequivocally secured. For what, after all, have Uie German Kaiser, And the Austrian Emperor and their klngWs, princelings and war-lords been lighting? This question haul not been better answered tba* it has by William Archer, the well-known London critic. In an article on Theology and the War," Mr. Archer says; It may sound paradoxical, but what we are lighting against is, m the hist analysis, that roost Inept of iraperßtltiona— the dlvLne right of king*. It la true that, m such a fight, Russia is on odd ally; but it is none the less true that Germany \a the only nation of Western Europe, m which the superstition survives, and that, if tho war does not put an end to it, the world will have agonised m vain. For the king who believes m his divine right Is almost bound to believe that It !» conferred upon nun by a war-god, who has, by an unalterable decree, made organised (slaughter one of the supreme functions of kingship. There is not the slightest doubt m "Truth's** mind as to the correctness or Mr. Archer's summing up of the position ft.nd the real motives behind the action of the Central Poww* m bringing this tcrrtblo calamity on our modern civilisation. Therefore It !« to tho Interests of democracy, both present and future, that tho Allies should not allow thfim»t<lven to bo bluff«<l into talking when fighting Is rooro likely to speak with tho proper <«mpba* His on the Mchcminir crown houds and princeling puppets of Omral BuropuNevertheless, "Truth" hopes for an fftrly and an abiding pcie<«, nnd truots that tho beJlfl which no Soon nro to rtn« out th«j <M<l Year nnd rlntr. m the N't*vv, will ii oj Ik* Jnnj; r»li*?nt before they nro »\vin>;lng jivM-rlly ngnln peftllni? forth tho mv«wi»!v vt peace proclaimed at lani, '"Truth" will hnll thoHo peal.l with joy ,md thnnUnKtvtng, confident Hint tjif^ir pc.illtjK J.l «n earnem of the roinifur of thai d.-iy when thry nhall be < f nU«*!i upon (fit • Hint: «i»t v jiiuwly dying eaufto Atnl rtnri<-m tortwt of pnnv '»(rif<'. ; lllisg „i!t „}«1 ».»-.;i{Ji-:i of fuill .li?if..'i#r, lltny out (!-.« nnrrowlnir h:it of Hiau' «mt th« thoUMftd waf« «f i uiiS, j lUng In thf ihouitnnd y^ars of p<snc<>. j