The Wanganui Herald. (Published Daily.) FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1918. PEACE

Wanganui Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15657, 8 November 1918, Page 4

The Wanganui Herald. (Published Daily.) FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1918. PEACE

O Peace! the fairest child of Heaven, To whom thy sylvian reign was given; " The vale, the fountain, and the grove, With ever softer scene of love: Return, sweet peace! and cheer the weeping swain; » Return with ease and pleasure in thy train. Thank God for Peace! Thank God Der Tag is spent! The world may again breathe freely after over four years of stiffling sadness and sorrow, for to-day has come the overwhelmingly joyous news that an armistice has been signed by Germany. True, official confirmation •had not oome to hand when this article was written, but it seems sure that it will be confirmed at any moment. The news will be received throughout the Allied nations with a great outburst of triumphant enthusiasm, and even in the heart of Germany and in neutral countries there will he a feeling of relief that the war is over, though Germany will be stunned by the blow. Surely to-day is the most momentous day in the world's history, following a month crowded with events of such grave and trascendent historical and international importance that it has been difficult to keep pace with them or to do justice even iu imagination to all that they portend. Only a few months ago Paris and the Channel ports were in the gravest danger, and the very existence of the British, and French armies was threatened. To-day, while we shudder at the thought of the German menace we have escaped from, we rejoice that the Kaiser’s devilish bid for world-supremacy has been frustrated. To-day we rejoice at the great Allied victory and all that it implies, though imagination can but faintly embrace a small vista of what victory means. For the ending of the mighty war in the splendid triumph of the Allies does not mean merely a military victory. It marks the beginning of a new era for Europe in particular and the civilised world in general. It marks liberation from the thraldom of militarism which for centuries has oppressed the nations. For years Germany’s policy has kept the peoples of the earth in apprehension of that which has happened—though, God knows, the world never dreamt the experience would be so bitter—and

this humanity no longer will endure. Germany inoculated the whole world with the virus of militarism; and, but for her, swords might have been beaten into ploughshares long ago. The war wgs not directed by the Allies against the German people. Military imperialism has been the foe the Allies have been fighting. Even now, with our vision blurred by the dust and toil, the blood and sweat of it all, we may look back across the four most tremendous years in all the history of man and thank God for the war, direful as has been the suffering and death, for events have amply proved that had the war been delayed much longer Germany would have grown so powerful and so perfected her plans that she would have put humanity in complete bondage. Thus the victory of the Allies is the crowning effort to prevent the Teutonic Powers in' the last effort of old feudal Europe to block human progress, and may determine the distiny of mankind for thousands of years to come. The Allied victory symbolises freedom for all the smaller nationalities of Europe and for many in Asia, and signalises that the peoples, not dynasties, are to rule. Progressive hu-ianity has conquered. The. triumph of the Allies heralds the recognition of the moral free choice of peoples and nations with regard to their own fates. It is a triumph for democracy, and the effects will be momentous in the extreme. It will bring humanity together, and mean the further spread of freedom beyond the boundaries even of nations which at present live in liberty. Co-operation between the free nations will again be possible, and for the first time in the world’s history it will be quitet sane and reasonable to talk about the end of wars. The war has born a passion for peace which will prove stronger than all the passion for war in the past. This will not only be the feeling of the millions of men who will come bask from the battle zones, the men who will return from the mire of the trenches and the nightmare of high explosives, but it will be tjie feeling of millions who have had to remain behind to suffer—the mothers, wives, sisters, and sweethearts who have suffered in silence, and whose daily task it has been to scan the casualty lists in the newspapers. This lesson surely will be burned into the hearts of all—that, so far as it is possible in human power, war shall never be tolerated again. Victory will mean a closer union of democracies, a union of democracies so close and of democracies so great and strong that the result can be nothing other than the disintegration of the old order. Thus only can the infinite struggle produce effects sufficiently beneficial to the future to justify the expenditure of so much blood and treasure.