TRAFALGAR DAY.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 14038, 22 October 1909, Page 2

TRAFALGAR DAY.

To the Editor of the "Tiniaru Herald." Sir. —May I cravo tho favour of a spaco in your columns to reply to tlu: two letters appearing iu your issue 01 to-day. 1 am glad oi tlio assurance of tlio writers that the teachings ot the league are entirely opposed fostering or keeping alive national jealously, and that the idea and aim of the celebration, is to impress on our fellow citizens tho necessity of commanding the seas so that we may be impregnable to foreign invasion. At the same timo I cannot agree that such demonstrations cAi be held without danger of reviving or engendering a spirit of national ill-feeling. \\ itli respect to tho instance cited of the American celebration, that, I would submit, is not. on all fours with the Trafalgar anniversary. Tho former is the recognition of the birth of the nation. The American Declaration oi Independence, will always be kept, and rightly so I think, and every Britisher who felt, slighted would be guilty oi silly weakness. We will suppose, however, that your correspondents were living ill any French colony, and some day was set apart for tho celebration of the victories of Joan of Arc, and the local magnates and press dilated on that day, on tho way in which the Uritish had been driven out of Francs, and by a woman. It is not necessary for mo to ask whether there would not be a feeling akin to resentment. That is my point. It has been truly said over and over again, that the burden, of national arnaments is becoming so heavy that the whole civilised world is crying out against it. And still the barbarous and wicked waste of wealth goes on increasing. "While are fellow citizens are starving by tho hundreds, millions are being spent on warships, and all the other horrible paraphernalia for slaughtering aur fellows. What is to stop it? One tiling only. A general diffusion of the peace sentiment, tho cultivation at all times <>l a spirit of forbearance and fairness to other nations, tho avoidance of all cause for quarrels, and the respect for foreign national sentiment. In following this course we arc carrying out the ideals of the highest and best sivilisation. Such a policy is not ignoble or weak, but on the contrary will strengthen ns nationally. The solo reason that I object to the Trafalga celebration is because, inmy opinion, it is in direct opposition to this treatment. I am. etc.