If a finishing touch were required by an American citizen to the argument that Germany's own actions have forced the United States into the position of a belligerent, it should be supplied in the destruction of the armed American steamer Aztec, with considerable loss of life.
The enthusiasm with which Americans have received the President's address indicates on their part a national sentiment which no doubt represents a feeling of relief that the uncertainty of a humiliating situation has been terminated.
To a large section of the American people the patience with which the Government at Washington submitted to the hypocritical tactics of Germany has been infinitely exasperating.
President Wilson need not have waited till the present hour to discover, or at least to proclaim his discovery, of the intolerable wickedness of Germany, of the fact that the wrongs of which she is guilty are aimed at the sacred rights of mankind and that she is waging an aggressive war in the interest of an autocracy which is a standing menace to the world's peace.
The personal conviction which he has expressed on these points must have come to him long since, seeing that the evidence upon which it is founded has been accumulating since the beginning of the war.
President Wilson did everything that was humanly possible to maintain the neutrality of the United States, but now that he has given expression to his true feelings in respect to German motives and methods of warfare in words that there can be no recalling, his countrymen hail his speech as the greatest in their country's history.
History must pass its judgement on such a point. In the meantime, however, seeming inconsistencies are forgotten in the courage of the President's first real war-speech.
•The luck of No. 13!
Private Wm. A. Macnab, Otago Company, Seventh Reinforcements, went into camp at Trentham on June 13, 1915. He arrived in Egypt on November 13, 1915, his twenty-first birthday and joined the 13th platoon of the 14th (South Otago) Company.
He was later transferred to the 13th (North Canterbury and Westland) Company, and went into the firing line for the first time on May 13, 1916. When wounded, he found on returning to consciousness that his bed at the clearing station was No. 13.
He left England to return to New Zealand on November 13, 1916, his 22nd birthday, and arrived in Wellington on March 13, 1917 having been left in the Capetown Hospital for two months. By the vessel on which he returned 13 men were brought back to New Zealand. Private Macnab was wounded in the Somme battle on September 15 of last year, and though his wounds did not total 13, they were getting on that way, numbering eight in all.
•Woman workers on farms in the Wanganui district are doing their share towards helping the Empire in this time of trouble. Up till a day or two ago it was always felt that dipping sheep was a man's job (says the Wanganui Herald,) but on a certain farm not 100 miles out of Wanganui a woman was observed doing the dipping and doing it well.
She was a guest at the homestead, and as there was a shortage of men she offered her services, which were gladly accepted. The result was that she put through 1400 sheep in the day - a creditable performance.
- ODT, 4.4.1917.
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