VICTORY AND PEACE
The Glory Sons of Scotland, The Story Songs of Scotland. We shall hear them on the westland breeze that sings across the heather; And the passing clouds shall waft Them o’er the meadow and the sea, The noble songs of rights and wrongs, And brave loyal men.
Oh, the Daunting Songs of Scotland – The Haunting Songs of Scotland, They’re swelling by the mountain side, And deep within the glen, The Island Songs of Scotland, The Highland Songs of Scotland! - Murdoch Maclean.
The world is a happier place to-day than it has been for four terrible years. It breathes the air of freedom. It rejoices in its security. Not only has the pagan creed that Might is Right been utterly over-thrown, but an arrogant menace to the liberty and peaceful development of nations has been swept away. All the things that the proud and boastful militarism of Germany stood for have disappeared. The world-plunder upon which the rulers of Germanys had so long set their hearts has passed out of their reach for ever. To-day the gospel of greed recoils upon the head of Germany with over-whelming effects. The martyrdom of Belgium, or Northern France, of Serbia, of Roumania the Garman people escape, but if they have any conscience or any memory, they will walk humbly in the recollection of the desolation that neighbouring nations have suffered at the hands of the schemers of Berlin, who of deliberate purpose plunged Europe into blood.
It does not lie in the mouth of the German statesmen to complain of the Allies’ terms.
These have been described from Berlin as “fearful”. They are not so fearful as the “frightfulness” with which Germany for more than four years has sought to terrorise the peoples of the Allied countries on land and sea. They are not so fearful as the terms that Germany would have imposed upon the Allies had she won the war. Let Berlin remember the merciless, unscrupulous and humiliating Treaties of Brest-Litvosk and Bucharest, and let it be thankful. Germany is receiving from the Allies the just recompense of her deeds, without vindictiveness and without the taint of revenge.
The Victory of the Allies has not been lightly won. The price is high. The hour of triumph has only been reached through a long trail of blood and tears – a via dolorosa. So vole a train had Germany laid against mankind that life and treasure beyond imagining have been poured out to achieve its defeat. Only the reward is the measure of the sacrifice. The Allies dared not lose the War, and now that it has been won there is a deepened consciousness of the vast and critical issues that hung in the balance so long.
The Highlands and the Isles may honourably claim their share in the Victory. The Highland Regiments are the glory of the British Army. From the first day of the War they have done grim and stern work, their deeds of heroism and self-sacrifice will endure in the history of the Empire, and will glow with pride and affection in the hearts and the homes among the hills and the glens and the isles of the Highlands.