POPULAR HISTORY OF THE WAR.

Otago Witness, Issue 3352, 12 June 1918, Page 21

POPULAR HISTORY OF THE WAR.

NEW ZEALAND'S PART. We arc living in 'the midst of the most momentous conflict in the history of mankind. The issue will determine whether the men and women of the future shall live under the shadow of a military despotism, or wheth >r the principles of Christianity shall prevail, and nations, l:ke individuals, hav; their duties as well as their rights. If the world after the war is not more free, and if smaller nations are not protected from aggression, the lives of millions of soldiers of the Allied armies will h&vis been laid down in vain. In this great struggle New Zealanders have taken an honourable- and glorious part. "We who are living know the spirit which has animated our soldiers and the sacrifices which they have made, but those who come after us can only lean these things from the pages of history. The time to record the spirit of tho war is while the moving scenes of this great drama are before our eyes. In addition to the Official Imperial History of the War, which will be prepared under the authority of the Committee of Imperial Defence, the Government of New Zealand have decided to publish a special history of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, in which the deeds of our soldiers in the " far-flung battle line" will be written, it is hoped, in a manner worthy of the theme, not from the point of view of the military critic, but with a sympathetic knowledge of the bravo spirit in which they met the hardships and sufferings which they were called upon to face. Before such-a history can be written materials must first be collected. Soldiers in their letters and diaries give plain but vivid nicturcs of their lives in .camp, on leave, "and at the front. These are especially valuable to a historian as intimate records of the war. An advertisement appears in this issuo asking that those who possess letters of special in teres!; should forward thbm to the Director of Base Records, who will make suitable extracts and return them without delay. The Minister of Defence would be glad if Patriotic Societies and Soldiers' Clubs would interest themselves in this m-oicct and endeavour to obtain suitable material for a true soldiers' history of tho war.