IN MEMORY OF THE BRAVE.

White Ribbon, Volume 24, Issue 285, 18 March 1919, Page 1

IN MEMORY OF THE BRAVE.

j The brave that are no more. I “Toll for the brave, I “We stand at one with those men that died, ICome dawn, come jd.uh, we have these beside! I l iving or dead, we are comrades all, ■ Our battles are won by the men who I fall- - When peace dawns over the counti j I side, ■ Our thanks shall be to the lads who I died. loh, quiet hearts, can you hear ,us I tell ■ Mow peace was won by the men who fell!” ■ “There is a reaper whose name is Death, I \nd with his sit klc keen I lie reaps the bearded grain at a I breath, ■ And the flowers that lie between! For four long years has the Reaper. I with his sickle keen, been busy in oui ■ midst, and by means of war, postilI (‘me, and famine, he has garnered in, las well as the “shocks of corn fully I ripe,” so many of the “bright flowers I that grow between.” From these far-off isles of the sea I numbers of bright spirits went forth I to fight for freedom, and many, alas. S will return to us no more for ever. I 1 housands of our most promising jfl young lives have been cut short, fl freely offered up for the sake of I others. F The mighty guns are silenced now ; || no longer does the deadly submarine

lie m wait for the peaceful merchant ship, or the hospital with its cargo of wounded. The sight ot the telegraph uniform has (eased to send a deadly chill to the heart «*t the mother. The long drawn out • agony is over, and already new life i" stilting beneath t <• ashes ot tfie dead past. But deep in oui hearts we cherish the memory of our honoured dead. Sincerely do yye mourn them; lovingly do we revereme them; and earnestly do we desire to crec t a memorial that shall fittingly commemorate their supreme sa< rific e, and express our deep sense of indebtedness to them. W hat grander tribute could we offer them ♦ban to lav the foundation stone of a monument that shall he lasting as time itself, and the topmost stone of which, reaching beyond the bounds of time, shall be hidden in the golden mists of eternity. Now is our opportlnity to do this. On April loth we may syveep away the Liquor liar, and in a dry Dominion lay broad and deep the foundation stone of a nat’onal character, that shall grow slowly, inch by inch, stone by stone, into a monument so beautiful that the highest looking upon it may pronounce it good. Our soldiers gave their lives for us on the blood-drenched plains of F.urope and Asia, and on these fields they yyon for U** victory over the foe yyiihout. What more fitting tribute can we offi r to their memory than a glorious victory upon the moral battlefield which shall free'our land from the traitor within. The one battlefield is a- real as the other, and just a** destructive, for no nation ever is conquered from without until it has first allowed its strength to be sapped by the foe v.ithin. And

“What of the widespread havoc y\ rought M\ the foe within our gates. It avails the fortress,^( onsc leftce, It wages combat fierce* * \nd seeks by subtle strategy The soul’s stronghold to pierce; It lures youth to destruction With tyranny it reigns; li binds its helpless victim-. In slavery’s galling chains.” And the two foes are not unlike in character. Is there any atrocity committed by the tinmans upon h Ipless innocence to which a parallel cannot be found in the records of these Huns of Liquordom" Did Germany tortuie women and children." What of the long years of martyrdom endured by the wives and children of the victims of Strong Drink? A little Ix)v broke a bottle of whisky to save his father from drinking it. The drunken father tied the boy up, and \yith a horsewhip thrashed him till life was nearly extinct. lie' would have finished tlu* \york but a little* brother lushed up to him, and, holding out a loaded gun, sobbed, “Shoot him, father; don’t torture him.” These words pierced the drink-sodden brain, and cau c*d him to desist, and leave the tortured child to be brought back to life by his mother. This happened in New Zealand. Did Germans commit unspeakable outrages upon yvomen and young girls? What of the long record of crimes against little* gills in this Dominion by sexual degenerates, themselves the* product of the liquor bar? Study the history of the White Slave Traffic, ar.d its iniquitous promotor-. They yvere all frequenters of the* saloon. Without one dissentient voice police and Magistrates affirm that tlu* brothel and the saloon go

hand in hand. From every place that has prohibited the sale of aliohol comes this testimony: “Shut the saloon, and you deal the deadliest possible blow to the social evil and to venereal disease. Ghastly as were the crimes of Germany against the mother and her unborn childr those periH*trated by strong drink are yet more appalling and more awful. General Booth went no whit beyond tire truth when he spoke of children who are “damned, not horn into the world.’' Kvcry gardener knows that an unhealthy seed can never give a strong and vigorous plant. All life is one, and through the whole universe runs one grand harmonious plan. Scientists know that it is equally true with the seeds of life. A child whose life starts from an alcoholized life germ will never he a vigorous child, either physically, mentally, or morally. On the highest authority, a Congress of Alienists and Neurologists, we have it that alcohol is responsible for all the mental, moral, and sexual degenerates who crowd our gaols and mental hospitals.

And what care these Liquor Huns for the disgrace of the nation? Nothing is sacred from their greed of gold. To fill their own pockets they -,cll liquor to the soldier who comes back wounded from the fray. It is a sight to make angels weep to see the men who bore themselves bravely and proudly upon the battlefield conquered by the foe at home. Men sick .ind lame reel on our streets, and to till the coffers of some wealthy brewer their recovery is hindered, often rendered impossible. From the King upon his throne, the bishop in his |>alac e, the Premier on the platform, the general on the battlefield, the doctor at the base hospital, comes one unbroken condemnation of Strong Drink. In the Cabinet, at the War Council, on the field, or in the camp, in the .trenches and the munition factory, in th«* ship building yard or in the workshop, alcohol s jrel Is inefficiency. One who loved our K.mpire well and spent his life in her service said: “Britain must conquer the drink, or drink will conquer her.”

\ Dry Dominion! What a monument to hand down to our children! Proudly can we say to them, “Your brotheis* lives were too valuable to be

given for a drink-sodden Dominion, ind that it might be worthy of their >acrifice we laboured till it became dry.”

“That wc may tell our sons who see the light High in the heaven theii heritage to take:

I saw the powers of darkness put to flight! 1 saw the morning break!’’’

Our Government said that the hoys went to the front to protect the women and children. Now let the women protect the boys from a deadlier foe than German bullets, from a stealthier foe than its deadly gas. This monument shall be built of precious stones. In it we see glowing the red ruby of courage, the courage to stand alone, the courage to do and dare he re a- our loved ones dared on the foreign field. Shining there too is. the blue sapphire of Love, the love that counts not the cost, hut though weary in the work, is never weary of it. The clear green emerald of hope glows softly there, hope that looks to the future and sees it better than the past; that sees mankind plodding upwards to the shining heights above unencumbered by the deadly incubus of the liquor bar.

The diamond of faith scintillates there also, faith that looks to God, that hears Him say, “Go forward.”

“Forward, when all seems lost, And the cause looks utterly hopeless; Forward when brave hearts fail, And to yield is the rede of a coward; Forward, when friends fall off, And enemies gather around thee; Thou, though alone with thy God, Alone in thv courage, go forward; Help, though deferred, shall arrive, F.re morn the night is at darkest.

And all these stones set in the pure gold of self-sacrifice, just to work for others, to spare nothing in tin* fight, the White Ribboned hosts are out to win. They have grimly determined that the only way worthily to commemorate their boys is to carry on the work of protecting ih»* home and th«* children from every Hun that would suppress them. To this end they are pledged to remove from 7.ealandin the strangle hold of the I.iquor

Octopus, and they’re going to do it on April 10th if it takes “the last woman and the last shilling.”

“Zealandia, the blood of all tin sons Cries out to-day from fair and glori

ous deeds! And spirit legions of immortal ones Pledge thee, anew, by their white

Honour Roll 1 o loftier issues, born of sacrifice; Bidding thee keep, unstained, that

nobler soul, Which they have ransomed with so

great a price.”