THE SITUATION IN ENGLAND

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2315, 24 November 1914, Page 6

THE SITUATION IN ENGLAND

A COMMERCIAL MAN'S VIEWS THE NATION'S SPLENDID RESPONSE . '■ r FUTURE POSSIBILITIES The-London- representative of a New Zealand • mercantile house, writing- to his: principals here, ■ makes some interesting comments on the situation in -England ansniK out of the war, which we reproduce Tielbw :—' \ - •Tou have probably pre-occupationa enough without being; troubled mtli letters that are not .essential to the'biisi-iio6s,-.yet the,period .through', which .we aie-passing ,is of such intense interest, so fraught with fate for the time to be, ..tnrifc it may" not ', be disagreeable to you to have some.impressions from mo, who is living, so to say, ill the vortex of great events. -, Of actual hostilities I hero say nothing: ' Press-, and subsequent newspaper 1 files will inform you mors fully and"moro lucidly than.l am capable of doing,.. but some points arise, that it may not be without!interest to bring under roviow. j. Staunch When Tried.

' .One outstanding,feature is to ine, and I'am surowill, be to you,' one not'oiily of relief, but- of . abiding satisfaction, and that "is tlie 'staunchness - of our troops .. when tried, .perhaps as never troops 'have;;been,.tried- before in the field of battle, was perfect. Tho long and bloody rearguard fight from the Belgiaii frontier to the environs of Paris ■was .a-test of the 1 courage and endurance of tho men, and .they not only stood it, but ill ,a way. f!iat was superb. I was not without apprehension that we had grown too soft, and that the vagar a-ies of political leaders had weakened authority, and infused a slackening of discipline that would have reacted disastrously, upon our - armies iii ' the face of tho enemy, but any such; apprehension is dissipated' by events,: and- it is V, matter. for solid . satisfaction that such should be the case, tlie more so since the -Army , departed not inspirited by cheering crowds, martial music,; or any such like panoply of war; but was ' as a matter, of fact smuggled out of the country when, from, where, and to .where, nobody, knew -.except '.'.those who u'ere immediately concerned in the op-' eration, to -find .themselves almost at .once in .the. firing line .and 'opposed- to an army with a great tradition and farexceeding them in numbers. This was a supreme test, and has been stood in a manner .beyond all praise.' Also must it be admitted that General French and his Divisional Generals have given proof of their .aptitude for war. - These men liave been specially charged with -the training of our field Army, and it is now clear, ' although . .we feared' that such might not bo the case, that the lessons of the. Boer War, were learnt and have ibeen. applied both. as: regards organisation and direction in. the field and- dis-' cipline. ! ' Of course, the reinforcing units will not be of the same high training, and will be in a" measure' green,' ana may fall into errors avoided ■ by ■ their comrades in the -'first-line,'; but inspired,by their example they ; will be keen to emulate it, and I have no doubt will give a good account of themselves. Moreover, they will probably bo opposed to troops who have lost confidenceand become dispirited, and will perhaps not : have tho fiery ordeal that fell to those in. the. first shock, .of battle. The feeding of , the'troops and the niedical organisation have,' it-.is reported, proved excellent, and due 'to these conditions and fine weather the loss from sickness has been small, and tho deaths from wounds, not-immediately fatal, remarkably light.

; Satisfactory Rccrultlng. : - The 'strenuous recruiting which has been,. and is t still, going forward, is bringing to the ranks men of all classes, but of a very satisfactory type, ana whilst'the strain of : getting this continued flow of men equipped, armed and ' drilled, has been very .great; it has, and" is being accomplished with far less conI fusion and congestion, than.' any past , experience would have led us to ,es- . pcct.. The enlistment in such places '■ as Lancashire went off with .a rush: it,,:was L evident; the; ; more • quick-thinking people in big.industrial areas recognised ■more quickly the paramount V urgency of the call, whereas the more truly 'Anglo-Saxon people', of Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk were at first slow to. move; their minds'did not lightly turn from the pre-occupation of harvesting and its . attendant wages, but .when their Slow-, .j moving minds got to grips with the (.problem they came forward well enough.; . It. is.i gratifying "to' record;; that there i'has' been : a singular absence of any- ; thing !bombastic7or theatrical; 'they' j ust rolledup' and 'went off 'to 'their duty as a thing needful to. be'.done worthy of those; solemn -old Ironsides' who fought jSo . grimly for what ■ they deemed their duty over three'hundred :years, gone by. •• -All this, is to the good: a nation, nay, an Empire, which showed some signs, of disintegration "is 'born'■•again. What will bo the result, , where will it lead .us, are questions:easier-to put tban: to answer:' that' we shall 'be "renewed' in soine' way is pretty, (iertain, but. at 'what price and with what "suffering who shall s'a.y ?■. AVill it-, crush out -the-senseless ' display, the vulgar- ostentation' of wealth, and shall wo return te a saner outlook ? ' Will men bo measured by ■their manhood and-not by ,their purse?. iWill women cease to pose', and-abandon grotesque costumes, and again regard motherhood and domestic duties .as first claims on their lives? Perhaps; ' I hope so. :The average man is not car- : ried away by female fripperies, but looks for something more,, although he has fallen in.a measure into the despic-able-habit of "American men of slaving that their wonienkind may be foolish: he has not gone «o far on this road that lie cannot-'arrest his steps.

A Glimpse Into the Future. !• As far.as I can think out the situation, -whilst tho . bill to be ; paid v. ill ''stagger humanity," the ultimate result to tho Empire will be good. It will tend to a more sympathetic attitude. between classes and employment, and so wages should be good for a long, time to come. But this will not be so just yet—not until the full forces of our industrial'life can. again be set in motion. The poisonous teachings of Labour agitators who secured from the German menace by the exertions of others—will again raise their Taucous voices to disparage their country,-hut common sense is not dead, and the harm they will 00 will not, I think, be equal to their efforts. " Tho soldiers' song of the moment begins "It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary." ■ It occurs-to me that it .is f'a long, long way to Berlin," by which 1 mean it is yet far away to an. enduring peace; Russia, France, Belgium, and Great Britain each have their views, and it will bo les6 easy at the Council Board than in the field to bring ' these' conflicting .interests and. widely differing nationalities into harmony, the more so since Germany and Austria will bo for some time political and financial wrecks, and the "loaves and fishes" represented by war indemnity will be without that, miraculous power of expansion that is recorded of an, earlier time. . . Then there will be rectification of frontiers with "nations struggling.to be free",that Gladstone.in his time was so concerned about. "Struggling to be ■free" seemed interchangeable with .cutting each other's throats. These problems, coupled with "balance of power,"-

and other pet terms of politicians, present soma very intricate problems for solution. Then we havo a great Press agitation for "capturing German trade." It Seems to me that a good deal of moonshine is being talked. The position seems to be that tlie German system of heavy bounties to their shipping. trade must go, and' that their overseas carrying trade is orippled for long years to come. The one was an economio factor wliich. was unsound and was doomed sooner or later;-the other is a consequence of war, and : both are favourable to us, and we shall have a less crushing competition opposed to us in the.'future, which is well, but. I see no Tcason .to think it will be any adv ail tape to,iis to see German industrial life crushed.: 'It is well for British makers to wake up, but tlie winning of trade must iiltiI mately rest on our 'skill, industry, and technical training. The' immense wealth our carrying trade will give us by relief from a orushing , competition induced by unBound- economic methods in Geiinaiiyj where industries have been controlled 'by the banks, and. the ba-nk6 by the Government, are elements of hope and satisfaction, and all the good we can draw from .it will be' wanted badly enough to reinstate our financial position, but-it will only be retarded by placing obstacles in the way of international trade