The Australian delegates who have recently visited the Mother Country
were entertained to dinner on Tuesday by Mr. Andrew Fisher, the High Commissioner for the Commonwealth. Mr.
Henderson proposed the health of the visitors. They were now taking their departure in the most hopeful and in- spiring circumstances, since the action of Rumania and Italy was not only the finest tribute to the justice of our cause, but a striking proof of their confidence in its triumph. Lord Milner spoke finely of the double revelation which the war had been—of what the Old Country could do, and of the splendid spirit animating the younger nations of the British family. General Sir William Robertson, proposing the toast of the Australian Commonwealth, dwelt on the unprecedented work done by the Australian contingent on the Western Front and in Egypt. Perhaps the greatest of all the enemy's mistakes was his underestimate of the help which the Dominions could give the Mother Country. Nothing in the war had been more splendid than the fighting of the Australians at Pozieres on July 22nd. They had advanced the front more than a mile, and had never lost an inch of the ground they had won. We wanted all the men we could get, not merely to win the war—of that we felt quite certain—but to win such a peace as would compensate us for the great sacrifices we had made.
Previous page
