Remembering the price of war
Take a moment to honour those who made our freedom possible
Times Colonist/Canada
Published: Sunday, November 11, 2007
Today is Remembrance Day — a time to think about the point of war, the
value of peace, the sacrifices of our ancestors, and more than
anything, what it all means in today’s world.
Nov. 11 has special meaning for all of us, no matter where we stand on
military budgets, Afghanistan, terrorism or anything else. This is not
just another statutory holiday. How we mark it, and how we celebrate
the efforts of those who came before us, reflect our national character
and pride like no other day of the year.
It hasn’t always been this way. At one time, this was just another day.
On Nov. 11 in 1913, the Victoria Daily Times urged that work begin on
the Johnson Street Bridge. "A considerable number of men are out of
employment just now, and the commencement of operations on the various
projects will afford them much-needed relief."
The Daily Colonist celebrated what was in bloom. "For a demonstration
of what our November gardens are like, one need only keep his eyes open
on the streets, and he will see many of Victoria’s sweetest flowers of
girlhood wearing at their belts beautiful bunches of fragrant violets,"
the editorial said, "the kind that grow out of doors beneath our autumn
skies."
A few months later, an assassin in Sarajevo plunged Europe into chaos
and the world into war. Soldiers from Victoria sailed off to battle in
the late summer of 1914. Many never returned home.
In an editorial on Nov. 11, 1914, the Times fretted about the problems
being caused by "alien enemies within the municipality" and urged the
federal government to open camps to house these aliens as soon as
possible.
The Colonist expressed optimism. "All along the front in France our
position is said to have improved," it said. But things weren’t really
getting better. The two sides ended up in a stalemate that cost
hundreds of thousands of lives.
And the killing was not confined to the battlefields of Europe. "More
than 800,000 Armenians have been massacred under conditions which make
death to be desired by the victims as a blessed relief," the Times said
in an editorial on Nov. 11, 1915.
The Colonist’s editorial that day dealt with the fighting in Europe.
The opening line was to the point: "This is the 468th day of the war."
One year later, the Colonist reported that "steady progress is being
maintained by the Allies, although just at present it is not notably
rapid." Odds are, the soldiers struggling to survive in the muddy
fields of Belgium would not have sounded that upbeat.
On Nov. 11, 1917, the Times took careful aim at anyone who claimed to
be a pacifist. Arguments in favour of pacifism "are the official Berlin
brand, inconsistencies, contradictions, misrepresentation, distortions
and all." A pacifist, the Times said, was nothing more than an upholder
of German militarism.
The Colonist urged Victorians to contribute to the Great Loan, $300
million to help with the war effort. "Patriotism cannot be measured,
but it can be emphasized in terms of money, for silver bullets are
indispensable to the winning of victory. The appeal upon this occasion
is directly to the people, both rich and poor." And still, after more
than three years of killing, the war dragged on.
Finally, the stalemate broke. On the following Nov. 11 — the one in
1918, the one that we should remember today — it came to an end. Both
newspapers looked to the future.
"Let us not forget that territorial readjustments, reparation,
restitution and demonstrations and other manifestations of the
destruction of Prussianism do not square the account of the victorious
united democracies of the earth with their heroic dead," the Times said.
"The world that will rise from the sacred soil upon which have showered
the blood and tears of millions must be a better world, a world humbled
by the consciousness of its own defects and weaknesses and determined
to seek the higher, the spiritual things of life."
The Colonist urged its readers to welcome home the soldiers who had
been fighting in Europe.
"It might have been the way it is in Central Europe — a beaten Empire,
with all our possessions in the hands of the enemy. Our boys fought
like demons and died to preserve the Empire."
When the Great War began, Canada had a population of about eight
million people. More than 600,000 joined the Canadian Expeditionary
Force. By the time the war ended, on this day 89 years ago, 60,000
Canadians were dead, buried in war cemeteries if their bodies were
found. And 150,000 others were wounded.
In other words, one out of every three people who volunteered to serve
their country were killed or injured. Some of them suffered for the
rest of their lives because of their war experience.
We should pause today to remember those people.
We should think of the veterans of the Second World War, a group that
will soon be gone.
We should pay tribute to all of the other men and women in uniform who
have been willing to give their lives for their country, for their
families, for us.
Yes, it will take a couple of minutes. That’s nothing, though, compared
to the price that they have paid.