THE VALUE OF SACRIFICE.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 August 1932, Page 6

THE VALUE OF SACRIFICE.

To-day the Prine© of Wales is to unveil the monument to the British soldiers who fell on th© Somme battlefields but whose resting-places are unknown. They came from all parts of th© Empire, they made th© supreme sacrifice of life itself at the call of duty, and it is right and -proper that their memory should be honoured in the land for which they suffered. Such occasions as the gathering at Thiepval to-day almost instinctively raise the question anew of what has proved th© value of all the sacrifice displayed by war heroes. Superficially that value is not always easy to discern or assess. The men whose memory receives special honour to-day died that the forces of reaction in Europe might not become predominant. It is not cer-1 tain yet that in Germany they have! been rendered innocuous. The war in which the Somme battles were so important was to have ended war. Fourteen years after fighting ceased Europe is still an armed camp, the cult of nationalism was never so fiercely proclaimed, and economic conditions were never less likely to promote goodwill. In Great Britain th© leaders of the medical profession announced last week that the effect of the war upon the generation now growing up had been appalling, both from the physiological and the psychological points of view. A superficial review of world conditions to-day might almost make those to whom to-day’s Thiepval ceremony is a personal solace wonder if the sacrifice of"their kindred had been worth while. But closer consideration should bring comfort. Though slower than was expected, some progress has been made with disarmament, • and the British Empire is endeavouring at Ottawa to show that economic conditions may be made susceptible to broader conceptions than those of an individual State. Most of all—and with due deference to high medical authority—very severe tests are showing that on the whole the British race is not deteriorating. It is showing the same courage in time of economic difficulties as that displayed by th© men

whose memory receives special honour to-day. The call of duty is as promptly answered to-day as by the soldier in the field, though the peace-time fighter also hides a good deal of heroism behind a few gfumbles at authority. Wherever special effort is demanded Britons are responding to the appeal. Perils by land or sea—air, scientific experiments which involve grave risk, or the dogged persistence in the daily round, all these are summed up in that word duty, and accepted accordingly. The soldier believed that such a race was worth dying for. To-day’s task is to show his belief was justified. It is one that every part of the Empire is fulfilling to tjio best of its ability.