The Sincerest Flattery.

Woodville Examiner, Volume XXVIII, Issue 4627, 12 May 1915, Page 2

The Sincerest Flattery.

AN exchange with whom we are on the best of terms occasional! y brings out an issue that is in essentials a replica of a \yho)e column of THE EXAMINER, bar be it from us to cavil at this honor, but we feel that it would be gratifying when we recognise our own hand in another plac ■ to find the acknowledgment of Ihe Examiner leading. The remark “from Woodville” implies a correspondent in our thriving centre. We may be unduly modest, but we feel it would be an assumption of peacocks’ feathers on our part to wear the mantle of that individual without disclaiming the personality. If our contemporary would mention THE EXAMINER, we should feel not only the glow that always warms the recipient of merited gratitude, but the added gratification that this paper is rece ving outside gratuitous and adequate advertisement.

Arm! Arm! Ye B r ave,

The iJe fence Minister has well said that this is a time when he cannot conceive of any man who is capable of bearing arms omitting to do so. It is impossible to guess when the war will end, a’ we were told it would com-

. ,ace ia May, a pronouncement that we learn by every cable is proving true. “ Oh, cities beware of war !” but war is apparently inevitable when the fateful moment comes. The fateful moment is now here, for every hour show’s us that if, last August, we had held out of war, had forgotten treaty obligation, had laid

aside our self respect and chosen the baser part of neutrality, while Germany ran amok, we should still have had to enter the lists in this mouth of May. We could not have helped ourselves if we would not choose to perish as an European power, perhaps as a nation. For the insults hurled against America would not have been withheld from us. The gas episode—so obviously accepted as part of the enemy plan of campaign—would have eventuated on the Russian frontier instead of at Hill 60. And German arrogance would have resented as a declaration of war any pronouncement on our part that would express the detestation with which this latest exhibition of a deadly purpose fills not only Europe, but the civilized world. So if in the beginning, there were any in Britain who still clung to the dream of peace, they must now realise that there are times in the affairs of nations, as of men when the tide sweeps whither they would never go of free will. But the tide that drives carries safely to fortune, and this day’s advices bring one significant item that may presage its turn. “ Germany,” says one cable, “ is rejoicing over the torpedoing of the Lusitania, and on the Rhine the towns are beflagged.” Surely if the enemy is magnifying mere unworthy incidents into victories it must be felt that there is little hope of legitimate rejoicing over successes in battle. Whether this is so or not the fact remains that this is not the moment to pause for breath. “More men, more munitions!” is the call from every front. Men, men, men, and munitions of war must be at the disposal of our leaders as soon as it is possible and for as long as is necessary. Can any among us hesitate ? It is only by straining every Empire nerve that we can play the part that we must play in this momentous war, for today as never before in the history of nations the master force rides the whirlwind, and the battle is to the strong.