“THE TE PUKE TIMES” TUESDAY, AUGUST 21, 1939 “TO THE DAY!”

Te Puke Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 66, 29 August 1939, Page 4

“THE TE PUKE TIMES” TUESDAY, AUGUST “TO THE DAY!”

THE majority of Britons are aware of the infamous German toast “Her Tag” (To the Day). This toast was popular for a number of years prior to the Great War, and according to advices it has been revived by the Nazis. No doubt, after the pact with the Russians, the Nazis will more than ever drink “To the Day.” Away back in 1914, a few days after the invasion of Belgium by the Kaiser, the then Governor of Victoria, Sir Arthur Stanley, in an address stated: “I do not wish to use hard words towards any nation m the world but when I remember that the German nation has for years had as its toast in its military and naval messes, ‘To the Day’ then I feel strongly on the subject. What does ‘To the Day’ mean? It is to the day when the German nation feels itself strong enough to attack others. They think that day has now come. We trust the day has not come when a military , despotism can crush the free nations of Europe,, for, whatever failings there may be in the British Empire and the French nation, these two races are based—their very existence is based—on liberty. We are not under the heel of a military oligarchy as they are in the German Empire, and I believe that freedom, backed as it is by right, will triumph over an attempt on the part of the German Empire to seize the opportunity which has not yet come. We must face the situation with confidence in our cause but in all humbleness. We have not grasped the sword in our hands: it has been forced into our hands; it rash act of the German nation, but, the sword havisg been placed in our hands, we know bow to use it; and we shall use it with humble devotion and with certainty that right is on our side.”