THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1916. THE CLOSING YEAR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16890, 30 December 1916, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1916. THE CLOSING YEAR.

It needs a stout heart to cast a backward glance over the moving and portentous ©vents of 1916. The war lias almost entirely obliterated the familiar landmarks. The perspective is completely altered. A most astounding revolution is in progress, • destined to change the surface of Europe and to a large extent to re-shape the universe. While the world is deafened, as it were, by the roar of the guns and rendered well nigh insensate by the daily din of battle, it becomes a matter of extreme difficulty to form even a dim conception of the unprecedented momentousness of the period. It is given, perhaps, to comparatively few. to realise the unparalleled gravity of the world situation. Only by slow degrees will the finite mind grasp the import of the rapidly altering value of things. The currency of thought and action is in the melting pot, and the new mould is not yet fixed. It would be as futile and foolish to attempt to set forth in well ordered sequenos at the close of this year events of a description that used to rank as important in the history of the period. It is true that the passing year has seen the deaths of Lord Kitchener and of the Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria; true, that Ireland has-been the scene of a disturbing insurrection, and that a Ministerial crisis has occurred in Great Britain, with a striking sequel; true also that J :lie United States has passed through the throes of a closely contested and exceptionally interesting Presidential election; but overshadowed by the great tragedy of the war, these and other like occurrences are of inportance and value only in so far as they bear relation to the conflict which occupies all minds, and which keeps the nerves of all men at extreme tension. Any attempt to survey the history of the year resolves itself, therefore, into a review of the war and of the lessons which the war teaches. If the record of 1916 be approached from this aspect and in this attitude it may be affirmed that the New YeaT dawned with the promise of a partial, if not complete, victory for the Allies in the course of the twelve months—a promise which was brightened by the Russian advance and the fall of Erzeroum, and grew stronger still as the gallant French army successfully re-

sisterl the great German avalanche upon Verdun. Still brighter seemed tlio prospect when the British forces launched the " big push," which had been long expected on the Western front; while the Italians performed prodigies of valour in the Alpine passes and tho Russian hosts inflicted a crushing defeat upon their Austrian foes. But there wore spots in the Allies' sun. Tho capitulation of General Townshend and his column at Kut-el-Amara constituted a set-back which has not yet been retrieved, although tho latest news from Mesopotamia is of a more encouraging kind. The entry of Rumania into the war was tho signal for a determined German attempt to reduce that kingdom to a second Belgium and as the old year is dying a Russian reverse unfortunately increases the probability that the attempt may succeed. Russia is no nearer Constantinople than she was twelve months ago; Italy has not gained Trieste; Greece is still seething with duplicity a.nd treachery; and as yet Germany holds Belgium, a large part of Northern France, Poland, Serbia, Montenegro, and now a great portion of Rumania. The bright expectations with which the year opened have to this extent been disappointed, but it is a disappointment over temporarily frustrated hopes, not over any diminution of the assurance that success will rest with the Allies. It may be frankly admitted that Germany and the countries associated with her have exhibited a resiliency and a power of endurance with which they were not credited. Their successes are the fruit of the organisation of science, of scheming, of insidious treachery, and they have been accompanied by a barbarity and inhumanity that are too dreadful to dwell upon. In individual dash and daring; in ceaseless watch and ward by sea ; in skill in gunnery and boldness in aviation; in hand-to-hand conflict and fair fight, the Allies have over and over again shown that they are a match for the enemy. Of the contribution which the British Empire has made to the Allied armies a recent estimate by the military correspondent of The Times may be proudly accepted as inst. The legions which set out for France have, this authority says, vanished silently, and are a memory now, but their soul remains, and will remain for ever, in the great national army of the Empire which" will ever adorn the present generation and the history of our times with an aureole of glory unsurpassable in brilliance even by legendary Rome. And, in this connection, it is well to recall the ringing words of good old Jeremy Collier, a brave man and staunch in his da.y and generation: " True courage is the result of reasoning. A brave mind is always impregnable. Resolution lies more in the head than in the veins, and a just sense of honour and of infamy, of duty and of religion, will carry us further than all the force of mechanism." The lessons of the passing year are plain to see but hard to learn, and the first of them is that of self-sacri-fice. The memory of those who have fallen in battle sufficiently enforces this lesson. The brave men who have died or who return home maimed and broken have trodden the path of self-sacrifice, and have shown the way. The second and most pressing lesson is the need for national service, a call to the whole Empire to display the same splendid spirit as has inspired so many to offer their lives on behalf of country. If the Empire is to be saved from the hands of the aggressor; if liberty and righteousness are to prevail, it can only be accomplished through 1 a universal recognition of the urgent need for national service. The story of the war during 1916 reveals an enemy, still powerful, utterly unscrupulO'iis, ambitious, and overbearing, determined to leave no stone unturned to stave off defeat. If the new year is to reveal an enemv vanquished and suppliant, eager for a cessation of hostilities upon the only terms that will give any permanency to peace, the people of British Empire, including all the British dominions, must displav a determination to apply their energies much more whfole-heartedly and much more unselfishly than they have yet done to the promotion of the national cause. The passing of the old year and the dawning of the new may fittingly provide the occasion for a general petition in the spirit of the lines: — Use me, England, in thine hour of need Let thy ruling rule me now in deed. Sons and brothers take for armoury, All love's jewels crushed, thy warpath ho! Thou hast given joyous life and free. Life where joy now anguisheth for thee. Give then, England, if my life thou need, Gift yet fairer, death, thy life to feed.