Part 9

For oh! when the war will be over, We'll go and we'll look for our dead; We'll go when the bee's on the clover, And the plume of the poppy is red; We'll go when the year's at its gayest, When meadows are laughing with flowers; And there where the crosses are grayest, We'll seek for the cross that is ours.

For they cry to us: _Friends, we are lonely, A-weary the night and the day; But come in the blossom-time only, Come when our graves will be gay: When daffodils all are a-blowing, And larks are a-thrilling the skies, Oh, come with the hearts of you glowing, And the joy of the Spring in your eyes._

_But never, oh! never come sighing, For ours was the Splendid Release; And oh! but 'twas joy in the dying To know we were winning you Peace. So come when the valleys are sheening, And fledged with the promise of grain; And here where our graves will be greening, Just smile and be happy again._

And so when the war will be over, We'll seek for the Wonderful One; And maiden will look for her lover, And mother will look for her son; And there will be end to our grieving, And gladness will gleam over loss, As--glory beyond all believing!-- We point . . . to a name on a cross.

ROBERT W. SERVICE _From "Rhymes of a Red Cross Man"--By permission of William Briggs, Toronto_

EPITAPHS FOR THE SLAIN

(_For a British graveyard in France_)

When you go home, tell them of us and say: For your to-morrow, these gave their to-day.

(_For those who fell in the first Battle of Ypres_)

When Might in scornful millions came arrayed, Here a few English stood, and he was stayed.

(_For a War Memorial_)

These in the glorious morning of their days For England's sake lost all but England's praise.

(_For a general grave on Vimy Ridge_)

You come from England? Is she England still? Yes, thanks to you who died upon this hill.

J. M. EDMONDS _in "The Times"_

EXTRACT FROM FIELD-MARSHAL SIR DOUGLAS HAIG'S OFFICIAL REPORT

(_January, 1919_)

(Too great an emphasis cannot be placed on the following paragraph from Sir Douglas Haig's official report of January, 1919, on the operations along the British front during the last days of the Great War. That the German army was thoroughly beaten when the armistice was declared, is here put beyond doubt by this laconic summary of the military situation, when the order to cease firing was proclaimed.)

The military situation on the British front on the morning of the 11th November can be stated very shortly. In the fighting since November 1st, our troops had broken the enemy's resistance beyond possibility of recovery, and had forced on him a disorderly retreat along the whole front of the British armies. Thereafter, the enemy was capable neither of accepting nor refusing battle. The utter confusion of his troops, the state of his railways, congested with abandoned trains, the capture of huge quantities of rolling stock and material, all showed that our attack had been decisive.

PRESIDENT POINCARÉ AT THE OPENING OF THE PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE

(_January 18, 1919_)

Gentlemen: France greets and thanks you for having chosen as the seat of your labours the city which for more than four years the enemy has made his principal military objective and which the valour of the allied armies has victoriously defended against unceasingly renewed offensives.

Permit me to see in your decision the homage of all the nations that you represent toward a country which more than any other has endured the sufferings of war, of which entire provinces have been transformed into a vast battle-field and have been systematically laid waste by the invader, and which has paid the human tribute in death. France has borne these enormous sacrifices although she had not the slightest responsibility for the frightful catastrophe which has overwhelmed the universe, and at the moment when the cycle of horror is ending, all the powers whose delegates are assembled here may acquit themselves of any share in the crime which has resulted in such an unprecedented disaster. What gives you the authority to establish a peace of justice is the fact that none of the peoples of whom you are the delegates has had any part in the injustice. Humanity can place confidence in you because you are not among those who have outraged the rights of humanity.

There is no need for further information or for special inquiries into the origin of the drama which has just shaken the world. The truth, bathed in blood, has already escaped from the Imperial archives. The premeditated character of the trap is to-day clearly proved.

In the hope of conquering, first, the hegemony of Europe, and next, the mastery of the world, the Central Empires, bound together by a secret plot, found the most abominable of pretexts for trying to crush Serbia and force their way to the East. At the same time they disowned the most solemn undertakings in order to crush Belgium and force their way into the heart of France.

These are the two unforgettable outrages which opened the way to aggression. The combined efforts of Great Britain, France, and Russia were exerted against that man-made arrogance.

Your nations entered the war successively, but came one and all to the help of threatened right. Like Germany, Great Britain had guaranteed the independence of Belgium. Germany sought to crush Belgium. Great Britain and France both swore to save her. Thus from the very beginning of hostilities there came into conflict the two ideas which for fifty months were to struggle for the domination of the world--the idea of sovereign force, which accepts neither control nor check, and the idea of justice, which depends on the sword only to prevent or repress the abuse of strength.

Faithfully supported by her dominions and colonies, Great Britain decided that she could not remain aloof from a struggle in which the fate of every country was involved. She has made, and her dominions and colonies have made with her, prodigious efforts to prevent the war from ending in a triumph for the spirit of conquest and destruction of right.

. . . . . . . . . .

The intervention of the United States was something more, something greater, than a great political and military event. It was a supreme judgment passed at the bar of history by the lofty conscience of a free people, and their chief magistrate, on the enormous responsibilities incurred in the frightful conduct which was lacerating humanity. It was not only to protect themselves from the audacious aims of German megalomania that the United States equipped fleets and created immense armies, but also, and above all, to defend an ideal of liberty over which they saw the huge shadow of the Imperial eagle encroaching further every day.

. . . . . . . . . .

While the conflict was gradually extending over the entire surface of the earth, the clanking of chains was heard here and there, and captive nationalities from the depths of their age-long jails, cried out to us for help. Yet more, they escaped to come to our aid. Poland came to life again; sent us troops. The Czecho-Slovaks won their rights to independence in Siberia, in France, in Italy. The Jugo-Slavs, the Armenians, the Syrians, and the Lebanese, the Arabs, all oppressed peoples, all the victims long helpless or resigned of great historic deeds of injustice, all the martyrs of the past, all the outraged consciences, all the strangled liberties, reviewed the clash of arms and turned toward us as their natural defenders.

War gradually attained the fulness of its first significance and became, in the fullest sense of the term, a crusade of humanity for right; and if anything can console us, in part at least, for the losses we have suffered, it is assuredly the thought that our victory is also the victory of right. This victory is complete, for the enemy only asked for the armistice to escape from an irretrievable military disaster. In the interests of justice and peace, it now rests with you to reap from this victory its full fruits.

. . . . . . . . . .

By establishing this new order of things, you will meet the aspirations of humanity, which, after the frightful conclusions of the blood-stained years, ardently wishes to free itself, protected by a union of free peoples, against every possible revival of primitive savagery. An immortal glory will attach to the names of the nations and the men who have desired to co-operate in this grand work of faith and brotherhood, and who have taken the pains to eliminate from the future peace causes of disturbance and instability.

This very day, forty-eight years ago--on the 18th of January, 1871--the German Empire was proclaimed by an army of invasion in the chateau at Versailles. It was consecrated by the fate of two French provinces. It was thus a violation from its origin and, by the fault of its founders, it was born in injustice. It has ended in oblivion.

You are assembled in order to repair the evil that has been done, and to prevent a recurrence of it. You hold in your hands the future of the world. I leave you, gentlemen, to your grave deliberations, and declare the Conference of Paris open.

NATIONAL ANTHEM

God save our gracious King, Long live our noble King, God save the King. Send him victorious, Happy and glorious, Long to reign over us, God save the King.

O Lord our God, arise, Scatter his enemies, And make them fall. Confound their politics, Frustrate their knavish tricks, On Thee our hopes we fix, God save us all.

Thy choicest gifts in store, On him be pleased to pour; Long may he reign. May he defend our laws, And ever give us cause To sing with heart and voice, God save the King.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Great War in Verse and Prose, by Various