The Dominion WEDNESDAY, JULY 21, 1915. THE NEED OF THE HOUR

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2519, 21 July 1915, Page 6

The Dominion WEDNESDAY, JULY 21, 1915. THE NEED OF THE HOUR

It is unfortunately true that. a great many people in New Zealand do not oven now in the twelfth month of the war realise thai the existence of the British Empire is really at stake. Optimism in general is a thing to be encouraged and a sign of sound health and good animal spirits. _ But that excessive optimism which leads.'to a belief that success can come without effort is one of the worst of vices. It is the most fatally wrong-headed attitude from which an individual or a nation can suffer. We have become so accustomed to success as a people that we look on victory almost as a matter of course. Everything, we tell ourselves,. is on the side of tho Allies. They .are superior in numbers, wealtH,) and resources. As Germany weakens in the field they must grow stronger; and victory is so inevitable that the only thing necessary is to restore confidence and maintain business while a fractional proportion of the adult male population is upholding tho national honour in the field. - It is because there is a great deal of truth in all this that the habit of mind which' has grown out of it is difficult to remove,. and is liable to lull us into a sense of security which is not warranted. It is true that wo have these greater resources—the superiority mentioned— but to be of any value they have to bo put to effective use. . Are we doing this ? At the end of twelve months wo find Germany in possession of a great part_ of Belgium, soino of the richest provinces of France, and a largo slico of Poland, whilo the Austrians occupy a portion of Servia. Despite the great forces raised in Britain to aid the French and Belgians, despite the entry ii.co the war of the Italians, Germany not only maintains her hold in tho West, spares leaders and me.i for a campaign in Turkey, but deals Russia a series of heavy blows and steadily forces back tho Tsar's armies. Tho German battle fleet is still intact, except foi- tho partial or total loss of the battle-cruiser Goeben, which vessel' has done exceedingly effective work for Germany by dragging Turkey into tho war and leading to a further dispersal of the Allies' military and naval forces. It is true there is another side to the matter., Germany has suffered enormous losses, and tho financial drain must tell its tale. The German mercantile marine has been driven from the seas; and German trade has been hopelessly crippled, almost utterly ruined. But the- steady losses in British merchant ships by submarine attacks cannot be overlooked. Submarines are readily manufactured. while , maintaining her huge armies, is still producing, according to one authority three times as much steel as is Britain, and twelve months hence, if she can maintain her advanced frontiers, she may beafilo to attack British mercantilo shipping with a hundred submarines where she now possesses probably fewer than half that number. Germany has spent generations in build-' ing up tho most perfect military machine in the world. Britain has had to improvise'armies after tho war began. Even to-day we have apparently fewer than half a million men fighting with tho French and Belgians in France and Flanders. It is only necessary to survey theso facts to realise the need for a great concentration of effort.. Once tho British people are organised and their strength mado effective tho Allies must prevail. That process of organisation is now under way in tho Motherland. For a long timo the national enthusiasm was ahead of the national ability to organise it, but that stage seems happilv to be past. Loud Kitchener is calling for more men and still more men, and private letters received locally bear evidence of tho rapid par,sago to the front made by New Zealandcrs possessing any special qualifications who offer their services in Britain. Now tho whole adult malo population of the British Isles up_ to fifty-five years of ago is to be registered, and tho various qualifications of all sorted out, so that tho utmost use'may be mado of each man with as little putting of square pegs into round holes as is possible. Australia has similarly decided on "taking a war census, and great'recruiting campaigns are there in progress or being planned. In Victoria, for instance, the reports of the recruiting meetings and tho work of the recruiting depot* Ukus up often rngm than «,

are enlisting by the thousand, and tho Australian reinforcements aro to be raised from SCOO to 10,000 a month. These aro signs that augur well for the future, and they servo to emphasise the need for further effort in tlfis Dominion. The country has lost interest in calculations as to tho exact decimal point of percentage by which we have in the past exceeded in proportion to population the Australian : or Canadian contingents. Lord Kitchener has called urgently fdr every man. General Godley, in • his letter to Brigadier-General Robin, reechoes the call in emphatic terms. "What wc want," ho says, "is a perpetual stream of'reinforcements (wc cannot haoe too many)." Even tliis letter, by hair-splitting distinction's between "new units" and "reinforcements," has been used by those who would soothe New Zealand into a state of self-complacency with her efforts. Whether we send our men forward as new units,or reinforcements, the main point is that wo send them. Tho war means just as much to us as to Britain, and when our effort in men and money has exceeded that of tho Motherland it will bo time enough for self-con-gratulation. Let us sweep on one side petty comparisons, and particularly that popular one with Australia, which entirely omits the fact that bosides keeping her military forces in the field the Commonwealth is maintaining_ an important and costly naval unit. Every grown person knows that New Zealand can do more than she is doing. It is not so generally realised that the time has come to do more. The only true measure of our effort is that it is bur utmost. The only serious business for Parliament is to ensure that no opportunity for service is lost, and that the Dominion is organised to 'tho highest possible state of efficiency as an instrument for victory in the war. It is because we believe that the best_ and tho speediest means of Securing tho highest stato of efficiency is complete unity of effort by all political parties, the concentration of the leaders on this one object, unembarrassed by internal party warfare, that we favour the National Ministry proposal put for-w-ar by the Prime Minister. .Every other issue in public life to-day counts for nothing beside tho necessity for ensuring that every resource which New Zealand possesses shall bo made available for the service of the Empire in this its hour of greatest need. ,