The Dominion. MONDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1814. THE NATION AND THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2338, 21 December 1914, Page 4

The Dominion. MONDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1814. THE NATION AND THE WAR

Splendidly as the British nation has acquitted itself since the' war began, there has been a tendency of late to lapse into a condition of comfortable security. On that account, although it has occasioned grievous loss of life among innocent non-com-batants, the recent raid by German cruisers upon the East Coast of England may in one sense be welcomed. Of no great military importance, it will yet serve to bring snarply home to the consciousness of the British people at Home and abroad a realisation of the perils by which they are encompassed and of the magnitude of the task that remains to be dealt with before tho war can be brought to a successful termination. The German raid will do a great deal to strengthen the hands of those who are labouring in the Mother Country and in many parts of the Empire to overcome the last traces of popular' inertia and awaken tho people to the supreme effort which alone will furnish a guarantee of complete victory. It would be wrong to assume that because Britain and her Allies have won splendid, victories on land and sea, and all seems to be going well with us, that the issue of the war has been finally decided in our favour. This iB very far indeed from being true. Too much emphasis cannot T)e laid upon the fact that in the opinion of those most competent to judge this war is only in its early stages, and that what tho British nation has endured and achieved up to the present time is onlv a small part of what it may be called upon to endure and achieve before the war is over. A calm review of the situation will certainly do more to breed confidence than to encourage alarmist ideas as to the outcome of the war, but it will none the less act as a corrective to hasty and unsupported conclusions that the crisis has passed.

The prevalence of these mistaken ideas must be attributed in part to the attitude of reserve which British statesmen have hitherto maintained. They have, up to the present, unquestionably snown an inclination rather to veil than to emphasise the magnitude of the task by which the nation is faced, but the growing pressure of the war will_ inevitably force them to abandon this attitude, and in the circumstances it is just as well. To encourage, or even lend negative assent to, comfortable theories about the duration and magnitude of the war can only result in crippling the efficiency of the nation. To attempt to hide or palliate the facts is not merely unwise, but unjust. There is no craven taint in tho spirit of the British people, and the liest possible way to inspire them to the supreme exertion which the case demands is to bring home to them the fact that we aro only at the beginning of a long war wiiich will in all likelihood demand every sacrifice and exertion of which the nation is capable. No man can look squarely at_ the facts of the situation and fail to realise tlmt the terrible conflicts which have marked the opening stages of the war have accomplished little. Our enemies, triumphant at the outset, have been sinoe defeated many times, but arc very far from being crushed. Much has been done to stem tho tide of Germafl and Austrian aggression, but the greater task remains of driv-

ing the invaders back into their own territories and there bringing them to a final reckoning. Heavily as our enemies havo suffered, they are still enormously powerful. Tho prowess of the Allied armies has taught the German forces to retreat, but it is still truo that in tho Germans we are face to face with a- high-spirited nation of sixty-five million people, who will suffer greatly before they own themselves defeated. Austria, though staggering under repeated defeats, is still a powerful foe, and unless torn with internal dissension her armies, in the conflicts yet to come, will_ light with tho desperation of despair. With their external trade largely out off, and their internal industries disorganised by the demands of war, Germany and Austria will no doubt be called upon to endure a crushing weight of economic pressure as the conflict proceeds, and their people will be forced to endure terrible hardships, but it would be foolish optimism to imagine that this will bring either of tliem quicklyto their knees. It has _to be recognised that these great military monarchies have vast resources at command, and it is impossible to believe, however much we might liko to do so, that their resources have been seriously depleted by a few months' of war.

The splendid achievements of the Allies up to date are a first instalment of the work that awaits them in bringing Germany and Austria to ultimate defeat. What the British people in every part of the Empire have* to recognise is that there must not be the slightest slackening of effort if the nation is to emerge with that complete success that is necessary to its future welfare. In its immediately practical bearing the measure of public apathy and failure to realise the true magnitude of the issues raised by the war has probably been more in evidence in Great Britain itself than in any of the Oversea Dominions. Most of all it made itself _ apparent in the progress of recruiting in the Mother Country, which for a time failed to attain tne volume necessary to enable the nation to do its full part in the war. Here in New Zealand no such trouble has been experienced. The military authorities have placed it on record that from first to last more men have offered than coulcl bo utilised 'in the Expeditionary Forces, and the well-tried loyalty of the country is the best guarantee that this stato ( of affairs will continue so long as the war lasts, provided always that the realities of the situation are honestly disclosed and forcibly brought home to the consciousness of the people. This indeed is the keynote : of the position at Home and throughout the Empire. No one doubts that the British nation, having once grasped the facts of the situation, will do itself full and honourable justice in the task of subduing its and will meet with unshaken fortitude every possiblo call upon its courage and resources. Tho temporary slackening in recruiting in the Old Country was certainly not due to any weakness or lack of courage in the British people. Any such charge, if it were made, would be answered once for all by the stimulus which every disaster affords to recruiting, and by the heroic valour which our Territorial regiments have displayed, equally with their brethren of, the Regular Army, on the fields of France and Belgium. Tho spirit of the British pcoplo has been amply demonstrated and vindicated in its wholo attitude towards the war. The danger, and the only danger, is that tho British nation may fail to exert its full powers from a failure to realise that such an exertion is imperiously necessary. The way to ward off the danger is to trust the people not only in regard to what has already been accomplished in the war, but in regard to the vastly more important factor of what yet remains to' be accomplished.