Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, FRIDAY, JUNE 18. 1915. WATERLOO DAY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 13714, 18 June 1915, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, FRIDAY, JUNE 18. 1915. WATERLOO DAY.

Today wo celebrate the centenary of Waterloo, that decisive battle which exercised such a determining influence in the making of European history. Then, as now, the British forces were in tho field to rid tlie world of military oppression and tyranny, and it. is the irony of fate that the people to whom we brought freedom and gave opportunity to develop and prosper should now be turned against us, and he seeking to dominate the world with an. iron hand, harder and more cruel -than that of Napoleon. The warfare to-day bears much distinction from that of one hundred years ago, and tho distinction is hardly to the credit, of our advanced civilisation. The Franco-Prussian war, it has been said, began arid Jended in a single battle. Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo left nothing undecided in future tevents, for victory gave firm judgment. The elder Dumas has related in his memoirs how he saw Napoleon passing through Villers-Cotterets just before the. battle.' "Nearly everyone," said he, "made a rush at tho Emperor's - carriage. Napoleon's pale, sickly face seemed a block of ivory. He raised his head and said 'Where are we?' 'At Villers-Cotterets, sire,' said a voice. 'Go on.' But a few short days later Dumas adds : "A horseman coated with mud rushes into the village, orders four horses for a carriage whifeh is to follow, and departs. . . A dull rumble draws near. . . a carriage stops. Is it he, the Emperor?' Yes it was the Emperor, in the same position as I had seen him before, exactly the same, pale, sickly, impassive, only the head drops rather more. . . ' Where are we?' he asked. 'At yillers-Catterets, sire.' 'Go on."' And so with that unforgettable and tt?n*«» portrait of the' fallen

soldier we see him pass W the bitterness of "the last phase." It is worthy of note that Blucher, in the hour of victory, was full of revengeful feeling and would have liked to refuse to negotiate with the provisional government in Paris; in his truculent mood, ht» would have proceeded to storm the* French capital, but Wellington stood between. him and Paris afld would not permit it. His chivalrous attitude dre-*?. the distinction which is noted so clearly* to-day between British and German: character, and doubtless it played some* part in the building up of a frieiidshix* betweien England and France which, lias lasted for one hundred years. Since then there has been no clash of ai-ms between the old rivals, and though at times they have drifted dangerously apart; our ever revered .King Edwa-fcol worked' hard to found that Entente Cordiale which is the mainstay of .their strength to-day. We rejoice at the hundred years of peace with Franqts, and hope with her aid to bring to Europe and the whole .world a peace that will last for many centuries. Ab. English writer has drawn an interesting comparison between Neuve Cbapelle and Waterloo. Battles of a century antf more ago were definite and .dramatic exploits, culminating in a gigantic clashThe battle of to-day is, for the mostpart, merely a heavier push at _orie point along lines' that f are continoaHy' locked in a swaying and indeterminate grapple. What has caused the differ-* ence ? The answer .is simple— mechanical science, i Tlie inventions of the past twenty years, including high explosiVes;. *■ a powerful field artilery, - -magazine rifles, and air craft, have swept away the older tactics. The Brown Bess pf Wellington's time was a -Mere blunderbuss compared with the rifle of to-day-His field artillery was. largely \compdsjec_ of 63-ounders and 9-poundersi -• Qnr Prussian Allies had old guns 4hat' Wete to a large extent pushed and dragged- by • tho gunners. So inaccurate and slow was the fire of cannon and. musket that the French scouts could creep up the-'-I slope of Mount St. Jean to within 150 I yards of Wellington's squares, even bf. lns horse artillery, -and. open a galling fire with little danger :to themselves- : So stiff was -the alignment of armies that it was not considered advisable to isen-d forward more than ,a few scouts to tfriye off the Freilch wasps. In such conditions of warfare the man counts.' for far more than the weapon ; an3 the . day of cavalry seemed by no mehns to " he nearing its ehd for great offensive movements. Wellington *did little to-strength-en his position in front of Waterloo. Trendh warfare as jffacitised to-day, was unthoughti of. The -firte of artillery andr of musketry - Iwas then so limited both in range an<» accuracy, that the cannon of both armies 'wtere placed in the front line (exactly the opposite of present tactics), ahd could batter away for a, yhole day without annihilating either 'the hostile guns or, the army --behind them. The. write?-, after detailing the elaborate system of trenches, wire entanglements' and eort--cealed machine guns' and artillery"; which the Germans possess, records the impression that Waterloo was a ., mere "extemporised scrap" compared; to, Neuve A. British losses! in -the latter . erigagiemetrt ttitalled' littl£ lci^r thittti at —- Waterloo, though the single, battle of Waterloo shattered the ; might of Napoleon. The contrast is due' to the changed conditions of war. Trt 1815," in the days of small armies and imperfect tools, the shock of a few tens of thousands of men could decide a war. In 1915, the era of iconscriptioh anct science, a. battle is merely an intensification of the daily struggle for the ..possession of trenches ancl fortified villages. There is this, however, to comforts and tincourage \ts, . that British pluck "and persistence remain to-day asindomitable as they were one hundred years ajgb. The fighting qualities of iottirace have not deteriorated.' One cause is jusfc. as it was before, the ltiyaity to our 'Allies' which distinguished .- tho Waterloo campaign is*: the' same, -and without doubt our arms shall triumph in the same glorious manner. The field of Waterloo, lipid to-day • by-our enemies,' shall be restored to its rightful owners and we may yet isee', .the vision of Villers Cottar ets given' ub by Dumas, with the Kaiser, in place of If Napoleon, as' the fallen and) fugitive Emperor.