THE REAPERS AND THE HARVEST.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume II, Issue 594, 5 January 1916, Page 6

THE REAPERS AND THE HARVEST.

! [Here is a vivid statement of how the | tragedy of Europe looks to the leader writer of "The Province," published in j Vancouver, British Columbia. J "Storming across the fields of France and Flanders they come—the reapers of the harvest. "Grimly, heavily, floundering ! through the muddy plains and j marshes of Russia they come—the | reapers of the harvest. "Clinging to the ridges of the mountains, scaling the cliffs of the 'Austrian Alps—the sons of Italy (come to the reaping of the harvest. "Battering foot by foot their road 'through the Dardanelles, toiling painfully over the burning sands of ! Mesopotamia, men from Australia,

New Zealand, Canada, India, France, Britain, Italy—come to the reaping of the harvest. “Gathering among their mountain fastnesses, gazing down upon the waters of the Danube, the men of the Balkans wait for the word which will send them forth—reapers of the harvest. “For the seed sown 11 months ago has ripened. From the marshes of the Fripet to the North Sea, from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, through the short bleak days of winter, through the softening winds and rains of spring, through the long hot days of summer, the crop has grown to maturity—and now the autumn is here and the harvest is ready for the reapers. “By the blood of the slaughtered martyrs of Belgium, by the wrung and tortured soul of France, by the devastated fields and blackened ruins of Poland, by the cholera-stricken villages of Serbia, by Hie red holocaust of Armenia, by the watery grave of the innocents who perished on the Lusitania—the harvest has reached fruition. “ ‘The Day' has arrived—- “ The reapers arc at hand. “And as they come the earth resounds with their tread, and the vaults of heaven echo their cry;— “‘As ye have sown so shall ye, reap.' ”