A PEACE MESSAGE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12687, 8 July 1919, Page 5

A PEACE MESSAGE.

END OF THE GREAT WAR. HON C. W. RUSSELL’S TRIBUTE. \ Wo have received tlie followingprinted message from the Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon G. W. Russell; :

Ihe tragic war through which our Empire passed for four long and weary years has at last come to an end. First came the armistice, and now peace has been signed. Thank God, the awful tragedy is ended. As the healing influences of time cause the sorrow and anguish of that period to recede, it will gradually become a memory,, hut it will lie upon our hearts and lives for many years to come. To many families it has brought sorrow. With, them im the hour of victory we deeply sympathise. Our _ nation has in those few years been lifted from adolescence to manhood; from children at the mother’s table to partners in the great British Empire, oup statesmen having equal voice in the peace settlement with even those of the Mother Country. The part played by New Zealand—a country which less than eighty years ago was a terra incognita, occupied only by a few whalers and the aboriginal natives—in sending 100,000 men, fully tra.ned and equipped at its own cost, to fight at the other end of the world for Liberty, Justice and Freedom is indeed a great record, and on© to which future generations of New Zealanders will point with pride and glory. Everywhere our men have won honour by their courage, their resource, their sacrifice, and their victories. They fought and died for a noble cause. Victory has crowned the efforts of Britain and her Allies. The world breathes more freely to-day than it has done for the last hundred years. The greatest effort that history has seen to enslave humanity has been foiled and defeated, largely by British soldiers, and above all by the invincible power of the British Navy. The race has many golden pages in its history, hut none brighter than those which record the valiant, doings of our Army and Navy in the late war; and amongst these none will live longer in the history of our race than those with which the names of New_ Zealand soldiers are associated. With feelings of devout thankfulness we look to the future, and trust that the sacrifices made in this war will he seed of which the harvest -will be permaneut peaho, a happier world, and a brighter outlook for humanity.

G. W. RUSSELL, Minister of Internal Affairs and Public Health