Rangitikei Advocate. TWO EDITIONS DAILY. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1915.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XL, Issue 11436, 29 November 1915, Page 4

Rangitikei Advocate. TWO EDITIONS DAILY. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1915.

THE British people have now sampled the fighting capabilities and usages in war of nearly every people under the sun, and are in a position to pass judgment upon them. The latest to obtain the honour of crossing swords with the hitherto unconquered Briton are, of course, the Germans and Austrians, the Bulgarians and the Turks. The history of the Turk from the time when he set out from Arabia to spread his religion by fire and sword right down to the present day, predisposed us to the belief that he would prove a cruel and treacherous enemy—that international hostility coupled with the bigotry of a religion still in the fanatical stage would cause him to treat any of our people who fell into his hands with exceptional cruelty. But nothing could apparently bo further from the truth. When the Gallipoli Peninsula was first occupied we were shocked by stories of outrages and mutilation of the wounded and believed them because of the centuries of bad character which the Turk had behind him. But the stories evidently originated from hysteria and insufficient evidence. He is now proved to he an honourable combatant, a valiant fighter, but scrupul- ! on sly observant of the laws and | humane usages of war. and has almost endeared himself to our men 1 at Gallipoli who visualise bis geni oral personality as a benevolent j old gentleman who takes capture j philosophically, and is grateful for I any favours that may ho extended i to him. It is questionable whether j if it came to bundling any people | out of Europe at the close of the j war our men would be inclined to I put forward some other candidates | for compulsory retirement the I Greeks for instance, ! Ihe Bulgarians have also proved themselves infinitely netter than their reputation. The peoples of the Balkans flo not Jove each other i nor sing aloud one another’s praises, and in their mutual recriminations it is probable that we have believed too much evil of all of them. In the late war between the Servians and Greeks on the one hand and the Bulgarians on the other, they shocked the humane sensibilities of the world by mutual accusations of 1 the most ferocious cruelty to hostile populations. It is very possible , however, that many of the stories were immense exaggerations of small episodes. The present war has shown ns very clearly that during the clash of peoples in war the conditions are favourable to invention and exaggeration. An old saw claims that “The Devil is not so black as ho is painted,’’ which is a, very comforting reflection for some people. In any case, however, our contact with the Bulgarian has revealed, even in the hateengendering atmosphere of the battlefield, that ho is a gentleman, who tights fairly and with due regard to the humanities. There is one explanation in regard to the attitude of both Turk and Bulgar towards the Allies and that when one of them strikes his armies are not nerved with the concentrated hate* of centuries, as in the battles of Turks and Balkans. On the other hand we have a nation right in the midst of civilised and cultivated Europe, boasting its “Kultur” and its scientific attainments, that has proved itself a cowardly atrocity maker. From the time that it first set its devastating foot in Belgium it has reddened the soil with biood and caused it to be watered with the tears of its people. Its soldiers have murdered and outraged the helpless people, its coward ships have bombarded undefended towns, and its submarines, not having the courage to attack British ■warships, where there was danger to bo encountered, have sent many hundreds of women and children to death by the sinking of unarmed merchant ships, have abused the white flag, bombarded hospitals, sunk Red Cross sliijis, starved and brutally ill-treated prisoners of war, and committed every other excess in the tables of the laws of the infernal regions. It is a people whoso souls have been perverted and brutalised by years of demon iacal teaching. There is evidence that they are now anxious for peace. Their

resources are on the first quarter ebb and they long for a chance to secure their .preservation as a united Germany. But Europe would be accountable to God and posterity to allow such a madhouse as Germany to exist in its present entirety, for it would not he long before, the same type of endeavour to rule the world and a repetition of the same savage bestiality would break out again.