AUGUST 4.

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 14727, 4 August 1921, Page 2

AUGUST 4.

A PEN PICTURE.

IN THE HOUSE OP COMMONS.

It is seven years ago to-day, August 4, since the Great War began. Do you remember the events of that most evil day? Do you recall what happened? Let us look in at the House of Commons on that fateful night. > IN THE HOUSE. "Prone to assume strange angular attitudes when speaking, the Foreign Secretary (Sir Edward Grey) hung over and clutched at the dispatch box before him as though it literally contained the most malignant of all the swarm of Evils that issued from the Box of Pandora, as he told his hearers of the rejection of the German bribe, and warned ,them of the imminence of a declaration of war. "Then, amidst increasing, deepening excitement, the Prime Minister read the appeal of the King of the Belgians, and told of Great Britain's ultimatum to Germany. . . . OUTSIDE. "No wonder those close-packed crowds of sturdy Britons waited under the blue glare of the arclamps to hear Big Ben bell the midnight f hour. As the great voice boomed Twelve from the illuminated square of the dial, amidst the striking of the countless clocks of London, a tremendous roar of cheers acclaimed the pipping of the egg of Fate and Destiny, echoed by other crowds in distant thoroughfares, spreading in waves to the unseen horizon, whose East was pregnant with thj Kaiser's Day.

GERMANY'S-WIRELESS MESSAGE

"And before midnight of this pregnant Fourth of August, from the great Wireless Station of vise, in Hanover, Germany flum; round the world this vital message to all her mercantile marine:

" AVar declared on England! Make as quickly as you can for u neutral port.' •

"On the outbreak of war the British Navy Cut the All-German cables. One by one the German colonial wireless stations were dis • mantled. When the great station at Kamina, in Togoland, fell, the only remaining links in the system were between the Fatherland and the United States." IN SLOANE STREET.

Here is a picture of London streets ,the day after, those "packed thousands waited under the blu« glare of the arc lights for the rising of the Curtain on the World Tragedy:—

"Once in Sloane Street, the war rushed at you. Groups of men, young, old, and middle-aged, stood talking at every street corner, newspapers rustled in every hand. You couldn't escape the papers. Huge, flaring headlines shrieked from the broad sheets in the gutters and on the railings: 'WAR,/ DECLARED! ULTIMATUM EXPIRED! BRITISH FLEET READY FOR BATTLE! INVASION OF BELGIUM BY GERMAN ARMY CORPS.' UNCONSCIOUS* HEROES.

"The drapery salesman . who was to win the Victoria Cross called from the top of a Knightsbridge motor-'bus to the grocer's assistant who was to receive the Medaille Militaire at the doughty hands of Joffre.

"The budding airman who was to bring down a Zeppelin single-handed chauffed past on a motor-cycle—the girls who were to make shells for British guns or pack made ones with T.N.T. and kindred explosives tripped along in their transparent hobblo skirts to meet Alf and Ted at the. Tube.

"And neither Alf, who subsequently took five Huns prisoners by the single hand, shepherding them back to the British lines with dunts of tho gun-butt and sarcasms more pointed, nor Ted, who threw himself down over the exploding bomb, dying that his comrades in the trench might live, dreamed what kind of chick would pip Fate's egg for him or her presently. , "Yet the dullest face wore a new expression, in the tamest eyes burned the light of battle! PEACE AFTER STRIFE.

Peace after Strife, and after Labour,

Rest; Who gave himself gives unto God his

best. Now—for War's grim, remorseless

tragedies— Soft turf, and fragrant flowers; and whispering trees, And, in our hearts, undying memories. Thrice happy you who, freed from

mortal care Range God's Highways and breathe

His Nobler Air. All that you had you gave to save

Life's Soul, Now you are healed, and in His Love

made whole. In His vast labours you will have your

place, And build with Him the Kingdom of His Grace.

—JOHN OXENHAM. Ypres, Sept. 12, 1920.