OPINION AND THE WAR.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16146, 26 February 1918, Page 5

OPINION AND THE WAR.

THE THOUGHTS OF LEADERS.

IBE BEST-GOVERNED COUNTRY

IN THE WORLD.

(FKOM OCR OWN* CORRESPONDENT.)

LONDON, December 28. Tho Dean of St. Paul's, at tho British Council of the World AUianco for Promoting"' International Friendship through tho Churches: "We are told that this war will never be ended until German militarism is destroyed. This programme was always hopeless; we now see it is absurd. Wo cannot even destroy the Gorman Army, and if we could," wo should not thereby destroy German militarism. You can- ' not break the spirit of a people by defeating its troops. A high-spirited nation only redoubles its efforts to perfect its military organisation, and burns with an ardent desire for revenge. It we were crushed in this war, should wo acquiesce, should we take it lyj n S down ? "We know we should not. And neither will our opponents. Soino still hope for the balance of power in Europe. If this means a return to the system ot an armed peace and diplomatic warfare, it wbnld l>e intolerable and impossible. After this war Europe,. exhausted and half bankrupt, will be pressed between the upper millstone .of America and tho aether millstone of Asia. This mutual suicide club will have to be-dissolved. The disunited States of Europe would not. be ablo to exist if they remained nrmed to the teeth in face of tlie United States of America. There is a widelyheld notion that wc may compel or P er " 6uade the Germans to change their Government and adopt a more possible constitution, which wo hopo will mako them less aggressive, and, we whiter to ourselves, cortainlv much less efficient. JNo nation- iu this war has shown more pasgionata loyalty to its Government than the Germans. Even their Socialists have declared that this war has taught them f6r tho first time that they are* Germans. The Germans believe in tlveir form of government. They like it better than any other. They are willing to die for it. It is not a n ideal form of government —very far from it—but tho Germans would not change with us. The Prussian system —efficient, _ economical, and honest —ends in putting the civilian under tho heol of the' soldier, t with his brutal, blundering diplomacy and methods of f rightfulness until that nation now stands without justice, chivalry, generosity, sympathy, or . merby. Nevertheless, Germany is, in onanv ways, the best-governed country \ in tfie world, and if, after the oxhibi;c tion we made of ; ourselves before tho war. we suppose that the Germans roi jjird our system with envy and admirac tion and would like to copy it, we are vastly mistaken. On the other side there is a squalid anarchy of democracy —wasteful, inefficient, and generally corrupt—with a Government which ~ quails before every agitation, and pays blackmail to cverv conspiracy, and in which, sooner or later, those who pay ■ r the taxes are _ systematically pillaged by thoso who impose them, until the economic structure of the State is dcstroyed. Nor are wo entitled to assume that democracies are pacific. I do not think that the Germans aro a bit moro warlike or ambitious than tTib French wero 100 years ago. I think , *e shall see the same joy when peace is declared as we did then. I think that the wholp world will be eager to forTpve and forget, if only thev feel they can live in peace and security." (At tho Guildhall, the Lord Mayor of, London referred to the Dean of St. . Paul's speech, and said he had read j- e remar^s with surprise, sorrow, and dismay. Ho was" in a position-to state J j e very-6ther member of tho Cathedral clergy entirely dissociated himself opinions to which the Dean jhaa given expression.) ? PUBLIC SCHOOL ZEAL. The Dean of Lincoln (Dr. Fry), at Boston (Lines.) Grammar School: — "Nothing delights me more than to see tho zeal with which young boys, .fresh from the public schools, wUI come - ,Bp to the War Office Committee and - them if they suggest that they were yet too young, and might .wait until the next sitting. They will quite respectfully press upon the committee that they do not want to wait. . , -*-hey want to go, and I believe that +L suc^ess evenually comes after all '.the as success must certainly " s>me5 >me '/ the civilian population at home '' do ? s not lose its nerve or weaken its

©"ip—and I promise you he will not— they will find that a large part of that success is due to the wonderful readiness of these young boys to sacrifice themselves and the future that lies before them for those at home. Give rae toe young English officer. I also know py long experience the Prussian omcer, Jut give me the young English officer." FOOD SUPPLIES—PRESENT NEED FOR ECONOMY. + Bi Z Rew, assistant secretary 3? the Board of Agriculture, at the "°yal Statistical Society:— tYhile there is evidence of some reauction of the corn area in Austria, • 6 ij° £ s none * n German y> although the yield has been much reduced bv reason of insufficiency of fertilisers and of la- % f ) L Ur - Cermanv in the first year after the war will probably put a larger urea u _?der corn than she has ever had. Sho *"ill still need to import cereals, but . *here are resources in the East upon r ?l F s^e draw. It is improbable that much surplus grain will be found either Russia or Roumania when the war ends, but together they will almost

certainly be able to supply all that Germany and Austria tlesiro to buy. If they do this, the rest of tho importing countries after the war, as during its progress, must rely upon extraEuropean sources of supply. Tho grainexporting countries during the_ war have added, altogether, nearly 30,000,000 acres to their corn-growing area, which should bo more sufficient to compensate for the absence of supplies from liussia and the Balkans. The civil population of the Central Empires has been reduced by probably one million during the war, without reckoning the losses of the armies at the front. The United Kingdom population up to now is stationary—i.e., the war losses have been balanced by tho gain in births —but France and Italy will probably hare a smaller number to feed after the war than before it. From such partial information as has appeared, it is difficult to put the present reduction of food requirements by loss of man-power at less than 1,000,000 tons of cereals alone. The average food-consumption per head of the men mobilised will be less when they return to civil life, and the waste of food inevitable in the maintenance of vast armies will cease. I fail at present to see any reason to anticipate that the quantity of bread-corn in the world will be insufficient to meet the world's demand, always provided that it can be transported from the place where it exists, to the place where it i& wanted. There seems reason to believe that there are, and will be, adenuate supplies of meat in tho world to satisfy trie demands of carnivorous Europe again, assuming that they can be shipped. Nothing that has' been said modifies the grave fact that the most rigid economy of food is essential now, and until the end of the war, for the simplo reason that the food available is _ limited, not by the amount which exists in the world, but by the quantity which, can be produced in, or brought to, tho country which needs it." NOT TO BE HANDED BACK. Lord Willoughby de Broke, at a meeting of the *Royal Colonial Institute "•— "A great many of us do not _ fully realise the tremendous responsibility which has been given to us by the magnitude of our Empire and the wide area of duty we have created for ourselves in that connexion. We must look to it that we are true to the trust which other nations have' leposed in us —a trust which applies socially to the rulo of Great Britain in the scattered areas of the world. Everywhere in those distant lands British rule is preferred to that of Germany, aad the thought must be uppermost in the minds of everybody in this country that when the time comes for the settlement of peace conditions wo will never consent to hand back to Germany one single acre of the colonial possessions wo have taken from her, not from benevolent motives or desire for territorial aggrandisement, but because we believe wo can administer government better and help others to rule those countries in a manner which the Germans have not yet learned. GERMAN INTRIGUE IN FRENCH COLONIES. Professor Mantoux, at King's College :— "When tho German dream of domination is destroyed France will more than ever realise the value of her colonics, which are now sending l>er more food, raw materials, and devoted soldiers than could ..have been expected before the' war. It is not surprising that Germany has been covetous of Franco's promising possessions in Africa and Asia, and has tried to prepare a rising of Islam against France. Only yesterday the Chancellor of the Exchequer emphasised the importance of a command of raw materials after the war, and the French Colonial Empire gives rich supplies of essential articles that will bo a great weapon in bringing about a just peace. The German Chancellor has declared that Germany aimed at no territorial aggrandisement at the expense of France, but Germany had approached i-Le Fronch colonies before the war with unscrupulous trade, spying, and stirring of revolt, and direct threats. German capital has been trying to control the mines, and German tonnage has flooded the ports with German goods and German tourists, who came not merely for pleasure, and behaved as if they were in a conquered country, boasting even that the time ■would come when the colony would be theirs. Morocco affords a fine example of how, in spite of intrigue, which had planned to throw the French into the sea, France had kept her colonies during the war. The native population nas accepted conscription, p-nd only a small force is needed to hold the colony, while important contingents have been sent to France." TIGHTEN UP BELTS. Lord Rhondda, on the food question :— "There is no fear of the Germans starving this country out. The Germans recognise this to-day, and they made a big mistake in thinking that they could do so. They now say they never thought of doing that, but only of putting us to inconvenience. But the war will never be lost if we just tighten up our belts. There will be privations, and people will have to make greater sacrifices in tho way of the reduction of the food consumed, but there is no fear of losing the war if the people show the grit that I know they will do. The tonnage question will get worse before it is better, rnd you know what has lately happened in the North Sea and the disaster at Halifax. An additional difficulty lies in the quantities of wheat we liave to send to our Allies—France and Italy— whom we are bound to help. I believe that people are prepared to make greater sacrifices and submit to the most drastic regulations provided that

there is equality of sacrifice. The aim of my Department is that the sacrifice, so far as possible, shall be made equal all round.