"And what if some of us do pass over before this struggle is ended--what
is there in that? If it were not for the dear ones whom he leaves behind
him, mightn't a man almost pray for a death like that? The newspapers
too often call us heroes, but we know we are not heroes for having come,
and we do not want to be called heroes. We should have been less than
men if we hadn't."

The rapt, unconscious approval in those weather-scarred upturned faces
made it quite obvious that they were with him in every word. In those
simple sentences this man was speaking the whole soul of Australia. He
looked up for a second to the wide sky as clear as his own conscience,
and then looked down at them again. "Isn't it the most wonderful thing
that could ever have happened?" he went on. "Didn't everyone of us as a
boy long to go about the world as they did in the days of Drake and
Raleigh, and didn't it seem almost beyond hope that that adventure would
ever come to us? And isn't that the very thing that has happened? And
here we are on that great enterprise going out across the world, and
with no thought of gain or conquest, but to help to right a great wrong.
What else do we wish except to go straight forward at the enemy--with
our dear ones far behind us and God above us, and our friends on each
side of us and only the enemy in front of us--what more do we wish than
that?"

There were tears in many men's eyes when he finished--and that does not
often happen with Australians. But it happened this time--far out there
on a distant sea. And that was because he had put his finger, just for
one moment, straight on to the heart of his nation.