Today Empire Day is being celebrated while the British Commonwealth of nations is fighting in the greatest crusade of its history. Today the youth of Empire i gallantly shedding its blood for the ideals which they adore. Today men, women and children are paying the price of greatness in those tight little islands the nerve centre of the imperial system, It is to Great Britain that the thoughts of most will naturally turn on this anniversary, the scene of centuries of struggle which has brought to men the liberty they hold so dear.
It is the land that freemen till, That sober-suited Freedom chose; The land where, girt with friends or foes, A man may speak the thing he w A land of settled government, A land of just and old renown Where Freedom slowly broadens down From precedent to precedent.
It is the land from which men have spread throughout the world making two blades of grass to grow where only one did before, helping backward nations to work out their own destinies, freeing the enslaved, a land upon which all exiles think with more than a little emotion on such a day as this.
And of the Empire what can be said in these times,—when it has rallied to the cause of Great Britain so gloriously that there is something of sublimity in it,—more apt than the words of Kipling the minstrel of empire?
Those that have stayed at thy knees Mother, go call them in—We that were bred overseas wait and would speak with our kin.
Not in the dark do we fight—haggle and flout and gibe; Selling our love for a price, loaning our hearts for a bribe; Gift; have we only today—Love without promise or fee—Hear for thy children speak, from the uttermost parts of the sea.
There is a touching story of the last moments of King George V that, on one occasion of brief consciousness before he died, he asked his secretary: "How is the Empire?" It was an unusual phrase in that form, and the secretary replied "AN is well, sir, with the Empire? And the King gave him a smile and relapsed once more into unconsciousness.
"That spiritually all is well with the Empire which King George loved so deeply is amply demonstrated by the voluntary response to the call to arms which Dominion after Dominion and colony after colony so spontaneously gave. Today that Empire stands in great peril. Against it the wickedest combination that the minds of evil men have ever conceived is warring with enormous strength. Almost alone the British Empire is continuing the fight. Almost alone it will persevere until that menace, and the men responsible for it have been destroyed, and freedom for all men restored to the waiting world. The time will come when those "lesser breeds without the law" will be taught that might is not right, that those who seek to live by the sword shall indeed perish by it. That is the immediate mission of the British Empire and its arms will not be laid down until that end has been attained. There will be no peace until victory has been obtained; there will be nothing but sweat and blood and tears until mankind has been rescued from the slavery with which it is threatened.
For the Empire is indeed embarked upon its greatest crusade. From that point of view this war must be regarded as a holy one. It is not so far as the Empire is concerned one of aggrandisement, but one of resistance to callous, calculated aggression. That is why the heart of the Empire is so firmly behind Great Britain in this struggle, why there is that intense faith in its destiny to save the world from an era of brutality and domination by politically immature nations. The fight must go on. There can be no talking of peace until the cause of right emerges triumphant, and security obtained for all the countries of the earth. On such a day as this these deter-ruinations must be reaffirmed with faith in the justice of the cause and trust that Providence will dedicate our arms to victor Then again all will be well with the Empire; all will be well with the world.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.