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Aviation History
1915
1915 - 1052.PDF
If LIGHT I DECkMBER 21, [915. I CANNOT bring myself at this season to wish my readers A Merry Christmas. My wishes in this direction are as sincere as ever, but in the face of present happenings I can but hope that this time of usual joyousness and festivities will be at least peaceful. There are those of us who, were we selfish and un charitable—those of us whose little households have up to the present escaped the notice of death's dark angel— could, were we so minded, rejoice and make merry. But in this dark year of 1915, the British people are one as they have never been one before. The classes and the masses have been bound into a common people by the powerful god of war, and to-day we stand on a single footing as the champions of Christianity and the destroyers of hypocrisy, sharing equally in all the sorrows unavoidable in our fight for right and freedom. During the year which is passing, afflictions have been many and heavy ; they rest on the shoulders of us all, and we cannot be merry. But we can be peaceful, and try to bear our troubles stoically, as befitting our glorious Nation, and as confounding to our enemies. Whether or not December 25 th was the exact day on which Christ, our great Leader and Teacher, was born, matters not. It represents to us the day of His Nativity. And in this year, when we His subjects are perhaps doing more than we ever did before to safeguard His teachings, which are in danger of being trampled under foot by our despotic enemies, let us think not so much of rejoicings and festivities as of quiet thankfulness that we are fighting the good cause—His cause. That we English take our pleasures sadly has grown to be an axiom, therefore we shall not have to alter greatly from our usual habits. Nor is it either necessary or to be wished that old customs should suffer. We shall eat our Christmas dinner amidst the usual good humour, and we shall toast our friends, present and absent, in something stronger than water. Also the young people shall be looked after, for it must be seen to that their pleasures are not curtailed, as their time of trouble and care is not yet, though it will come all too soon with the effluxion of time. We elders know, however, that whatever good face we may put upon matters on this day for the benefit of the youngsters, this Christmas Day is not as those that are behind us in this generation. Hundreds of thousands of those who sat with us in the past have gone to their long rest, and, unfortunately, multitudes must follow before the rabid hoard of our enemies is beaten to its knees. Bad as this Christmas Day will be, next year it will be worse—we must make up our minds to that. It is inevitable that many of those with us this year will sit to our board for the last time. Let us, therefore, think for just a few moments on this day of the true state of affairs, even though it makes us sad. We are an undemonstrative people. If we have sorrow, we do not like it to be known : religious, our best friends know it not: in prayer, we act secretly. There fore we need not shout our intentions from the house-top, and yet remain true to ourselves when, on this Day, without moving our lips, we offer our humble prayer for those in necessity. To those who are gone, God rest their souls. To those who are to follow, God grant a peaceful end. To those bereft, God grant His blessing and protection. To those left, God grant strength to exact the uttermost retribution. GOD SAVE THE KING. And so to our festivities. It is a pleasing thought to me that not one of the toys dangling from the Christmas Tree this year shall be of German manufacture. I take it that even should there be toy dealers with German goods left on their hands from previous years who have not been patriotic enough to destroy them, that English parents and relatives will take every care not to purchase them knowingly. Were it not for the pleasure it brings to the children, I would even do away with the tree, as being of German origin. Lord ! what a nation of copyists we have been in the past. I know not whether we have been asleep all these countless years, or whether we have been too content to rest on our laurels. Maybe we have simply got horribly lazy, and have allowed others to do that which we might easily have done ourselves. I know only this, that we in this country are not lacking in the skill to provide for ourselves everything short of that which our position geographically impels us to import, would we only just simply wake up and get busy. It is not necessary to be a clairvoyant to see these things; one has but to look around to see that for years we have simply followed other nations, not only Germany, but others, in producing the things which we require, or, as is mostly the case, simply letting other nations supply us without making any effort to supply ourselves. Aero planes, motor cars, almost everything, look where you will we have, anyway at the commencement of these things, come along a bad second, or have in other directions failed to come along at all. It is true we are good at improv ing on the ideas of others, and we " get there " in the end, but for goodness sake let this war have the effect of waking us up to our responsibilities as a nation, and let's weigh in and do things. And I do hope that when this war is ended, those in authority will do something to prevent German goods coming into this country to be sold at competitive prices, or even to prevent them coming in at all. We don't want German goods, or German men, or German anything—to the pit of Kultur with the whole lot of them. No ! I am not a BIT grumpy to-day, and I am NOT going to have a miserable Christmas if I can help it. But I DO realise what fools we have all been in the past, and mean, for my part, to make some strong resolutions on New Year's Eve, which I shall endeavour to act up to. One of them will be never to shake hands with a German again, and I don't care twopence-ha'penny who knows it. 1016
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