ACTIVE PATRIOTISM

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2656, 30 December 1915, Page 3

ACTIVE PATRIOTISM

A RECRUIT FROM AMERICA. UNITED STATES AND THE WAR. A stimulus to the recruiting movement should be furnished by tho example of a young colonial who roturned to Now Zealand by the Moana yesterday to enlist in the land , of his birth. Mr. Len Hooper, son of Mr. L. J. Hooper, late of Masierton, left New Zealand for San Francisco in 1909, and has voluntarily relinquished lucrativo commercial activities in die United States ,to fight side by . side with his fellow colonials at the front. Mr. Hooper has graduated as a pharmacist iii the University of California, taking Lhe degree of Doctor of Pharmacy. When ho decided to return to New Zealand Mr. Hooper was representing the firm of Eli Lilly and Co., the proprietors of one of America's loading pharmaceutical and biological laboratories, and ho lias been granted two' years' leave of | absence.' Before his departure from Now Zealand, Mr. Hooper held a commission in the Masterton Ki/io Cadet Corps. After a short visit to his relatives, ho will join the colours and go into camp. Mr, Hooper's duties carried him all over the United States and brought, him into daily contact with business men of substance and influence. The war, he found in the course of hi 6 travels, was I everywhere the subject of an excited Interest,'and he had therefore.ari oppor- 1 tunity of observing tho prevailing, sentiments towards the belligerent _ Powers. Air. .Hooper stated with emphasis in conversation 1 with a, representative of The Do.miniox last night, that an overwhelming preponderance of .-. opinion In the. United States was in favour of ; the Allies. Views in regard to the war might at on/> stage have been more evenly balanced than they were now. but the sinking of the Lusitania, followed, by the murder of Nurse Cavell, left no shred of of doubt about the matter. . .; The question of America's, active participation in the war had to be looKed at from various points of view. It was natural to assume that neutral' America might be called upon to assume the role of arbitrator;when the time to discuss peace was ripe. But even now she was practical assistance to the Allies. She bad lent themmoney, and in her factories triplicated plants were making night and. day in the manufacture of munitions. About' soven months ago orders were placedin tho Pacific North "West for '< sufficeint ■spruce timber to make 1700 aeroplanes, and:the French Government had called for tenders for the supply of 70,000 portable dwelling-houses, each with accommodation for ; three, people.- Mr. Hooper remarked that he had himself seen one of these homes built according to specifications at Marshfield,' in Oregon. To quote'cases of assistance in another direction ; Mr. Hooper stated that- largo quantities of sleepers were being shipped to Russia, presumably for the duplication pf the trans-Siberian railway., Again, on tho humanitarian 3ide, America's neutrality was, to say the least of it, benevolent: towards tho ' Allies. A. largo; number of doctors- and nurses from the United States had volunteered in : Canada, for active service, and Dr. Murphy, of Chicago, ono of the leading surgeons in the United States, had dispatched a corps of medical men to France. The invasion of Belgium and the i overwhelming of Serbia had deeply stirred the sympathies of the people- of thevUnited States. The ruthless "sacrifice of the smaller nations had specially appealed to the United States with her political history and traditions. ■' The question was-frequently asked 15y Americans ;why. England did . not do more, why she did not s'how more vigour ; and: enterprise in the conduct of the war. They seenied unable to grasp the! fact that Britain had had virtually to create an army after war was' declared) and to lose. sight •of the splendid ';part played by the English Navy in retaining unchallenged for the Allies ,'tlie command of the seas and the world. America's commercial instincts, said Mr.l Hooper, were making her keen to profit from tho war. Tho Pupont Powder Company intended to utilise portion of their enlarged ammunition plant in the manufacture of dyes which had ' been so much of a German monopoly. A number of the ingredients required for ammunition were also used in tho manufacture of dyes, which with various chemical preparations in which Germany had specialised, came. from coal-tar products. Mr.. Hooper found the Americans , took a great interest in' New Zealand. This interest was accentuated by the exhibit from the Dominion at the San Francisco Exhibition and a practical result was thjt among his fellow passengers on the Moana were several Americans who had come with tho intention of'settling in New Zealand.