BRITISH BATTLES ON LAND AND SEA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11216, 23 October 1914, Page 1

BRITISH BATTLES ON LAND AND SEA.

(By HARRY LOWEBISON in Uift ! *' Clarion,." On February 14, 1797, Sir John Jervis was pacing the quarter-fleck of fcbe Victory as successive reports were brought to- him from tho masthead. Jie had fifteen British ships, the largest, his own, of 10U guns.' " There are eighteen sail of the line, Sir John." " Very well-" " There are twenty sail, Sir John." "Very wlL'- 1 "Sir John, there' ai'o tweniy-seven sail of the line, nearly double our own." ".Enough, no more of that, sir; if there are fifty. J-'U go through 'era. 5 ' ' " That's right, J>ir Joiin," " said Hallowed, his iiag-capfcain; '' and a rare good licking we'll give them." , Aud_ the "rare good licking" was i duly given; and Nelson inthe Captain ! got bis step to Vice-Admiral; and the i junction of the' French and Spanish | fleets was prevented; and England was i saved from invasion; "If in doubt, engage; if still in doubt,, engage more closely." I think it was Jervis who &aid that. I know it. bas' been the maxim of both ourarmy and navy from .time immemorial. I know, too. that the breed who wined it and. used it, are neither dead nor decadent. Which of Napoleon's marI shals waA it who complained that the : .British " never knew when they were i bea,ten'isoult probably. .He warned N;i)fo'i"oit at Waterloo, and the Emperor told him not to worry. ' " You are afraid because the British •"hare always beaten you; I'll show you how to sweep them "aside'/. 3 * or. words to that effect.. "Contemptible Tittle army,' 1 echoes tho would-be Napoleon, of to-day. Hammer: oi:. t'bor, but we. must teach -tills '.brtegari things.: • , \if «dowii-liearted? No I But still it u good reading,at. a-time like thi>- rhe m oid -of our fights by I mid and w>«i. Sir Evelyn Wood -has' edited .fclio' .two finely- illustrated -volumes sent jrie ..by...the : Wayerley Book Company, and he contributes a long, and yet concise. ■ ■ introduction .on how the fighting services-'made the Empire. 11 If"'blood be the price 'of admiralty, Lord God, .wo ha' paid m full." For centuries and centuries we have fought io r gain and fought to hold our sovereignty- I>o J not know that we have Sinned'again and again, and rieved and robbed? I graut. it fully, and then? Had we not taken, others would, and would they have treated the subject races kiudlier? Answer South Africa-, to-day in arms shoulder to shoulder with us. Such a "record, ' these two hooks! Surely never in all the history of the wpi kl. had any nation so glorious a list of battles nobly fought, of ' victories grandly -won. Marathon and Salamis and Thermopyl© are deservedly great names, but wo can match , them over and over again for bigh-souled patriotism, for magnificent- endurance, for reckless, death-defying courage. Our men are never better than at a forlorn hope. It takes a "reverse" to waken us. A great lost battle would see the whole nation spring to arms. ! Tho world suffers just now from the' uncurbed ambitions of a crowned i criminal lunatic, aud our "American I cousins are inquiring in their caustic J way: "What price kings?" One of the results of this war will probablv be that kings may have the power to make war taken from them.. Sir Eveyln Wood makes it pretty plain in his introduction that be had* no hallucinations on the matter. Kings and religions have caused a very large proportion, of the wars that have deluged the world in bload. In 1870 it was Nanoleon the Little; in 1914 it is William the Would-be. Big. In the sixteenth century Drake and other brave men were harassed and hampered and .' even betrayed sometimes hv El'nbetli and 'hr. j -h«_T, of-God monarch®. And yesterday his best generals were leaving the lvniser because he believed himself to he the Grfl-sprif fr"ii"rnl.

Good reading, though, how men, behind puppet-kings and rag-doll queens, can see beyond to ideals of lionie unci country, and freedom and peace, through dear-bought victories and b'oody wars. I suppose Carlyle is right: that only the men who are not fools can give and serve and fii'ht and win for an ideal; that the millions must have a visible symbol of that ideal, and fight rather for the flap than for the freedom it symbolises. So .Tack afloat and Tommy on tented field s ; ng their dogsrerel songs, and cheer for the Union jack, and slave, and sweat, and hunger, and thirst-, and die for you and me who sit quietly at home, if' is wonderful. It is miracle. And as sure as ever ihe call come* the men respond. Ten thusand shame,?, on us for whom they are fi<rhfcing if any of tliea* wives and little ones are to eat the cold bread cf charity. Never any more, if the working men of Britain are awake, will this reproach ever be ours.

Yes. yes. T know. I out to i.'H you about these books. They are one long trumpet call to gallant deeds, one unending record of victories bravely won or reverses as bravely su» tained. They are a noble record of ".olile deeds; and yet; honest. If the field has its chivalries it has its the drunken org : es of Rndajos are set forth and the bloodlust of the aftermath of the Mutiny. But one nses from the reading with bend thrown back and heart beating grcat.lv. Such a tribute to such a rae>! Where can the world match it? Twenty-four co'our plates are here «"d five hundred other illustrations. Ainnv of camnniirns and plans of battles that help greatly to elucidate the text. Oh. it is rare reading at a time like this when the fire of battle is in all our blood. All our boys should read it. Citizens of no mean country are we. and.", British BnttWby Land and Sea" is the most splendid record 1 have ever scon of our nation's tried and. proved courage rmd endurance.