GOING "ALL-OUT"

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3015, 28 February 1917, Page 6

GOING "ALL-OUT"

BRITAIN'S DETERMINATION FOR VICTORY DR. NEWMAN'S IMPRESSIONS LLOYD GEORGE THE "MAN Iff DESTINY" Dr. A. K. Newmau, M.P., who has just returned after a six mouths' trip to England and France, told an inteiviewer yesterday that he had had a most interesting time there. A journey to England and back, he said, should not be lightly undertaken as a pleasure trip. Already there were restrictions upon women trying to visit England from the colonies, and if the submarine danger continued these restrictions may be extended to men. "No woman passenger is allowed iu the Mediterranean —the more passengers on a ship the greater the danger to a crew already in serious peril. Many would-be passengers from and to England are voluntarily refraining from travelling. The German submarine campaign is a real danger."

Dr. Newman said that the British had for months past realised'fully the coming peril, and Admiral Jellicoe in London was arranging to defeat it. - Admiral Sir Percy Scott long ago foretold the dnngors of the uuder-water boats. Britain's preparations were on a huge scale, and the Navy was keen and clever. Aeroplanes were seen flying every day in Home waters, and the Navy was doing great execution without making a fuss about it. Germany, however, by standardising the building of submarines, had a large output. The commercial submarines Bremen and Deutschland had undoubtedly been put out of action, and this effort of the Germans to inaugurate trade had fizzled.

/ The Western Front. Dr. Newman said he had long believed that the Western front was the decisive battle line. Ho had never believed in a widespread faith that the real centre was in the Balkans. He was more than ever certain that in the West was the only struggle of importance. All the Balkans were now in effect German, and tho struggle iu the Western front was greater than ever. Great Britain and France '.vere deter : mined to fight it out in trie West!. Germany knew this, and was. struggling to avert defeat. No one' in Great Britain would dare to say when the war would end. All early guesses wore so utterly wrong that people had given up guessing. All people thought of in England was how to raise enormous forces, which were absolutely necessary. Great Britain was going "all out" to win the war. Men and women alike were determined on the most heroio sacrifices to win. Nothing but using every national resource would win. Men and women at home, were going to "stick it out" just as bravely as tie men in the trenches were doing.'

The Man of Destiny. Mr. Lloyd George was the long-sought-for Man of Destiny, and. ali Great Britain, every man and every 'woman, was Behind him. "Whatever he says, goes. Ha can say anything and the people at ,once respond, as quickly and as ohediently as an army obeys a general. The crowds of peoplo who used to curse that 'damned pettifogging little Welsh Attorney' are now Lis willing, faithful army of unquestioning backers. Lloyd Gcorgo orders and Great Britain does as he orders. I bought papers' formerly hostile to him after he overthrew the Asquith Government, and none sneered. All agreed he was the man. they had all wanted." The Lloyd George Ministry had delighted the people because he chose the biggest business men in Great Britain to manage the different Departments. Lloyd George, in picking his Ministry, cut adrift old traditions and picked men for their abilities and for no other reason. He was the head of a wonderfully able' Cabinet—the ablest in Great Britain's history.

The Nation's courage. \ "The courage of the men and women of Great Britain is noble. Fathers and mothers send their sons to fight, and wives thoir husbands, with magnificent courage, yet often with broaking hearts; their courage is as noble as' that of their boys in the trenches. When Mr. Lloyd George asked for £700,000,000 of money, and • many feared he would not get it, Mr. Bonai Law asked the public: Will you send your sons to the front and save your cash?" and the public put up £1,000,000,000. Dr. Newman learnt in "the City" months before this, that even if the war lasted for years the public would be able to find the cash, and. would certainly put up the last sovereign. People in Great Britain had slowly but at last realised the dread peril and the need of being all out —"and if the war lasts they will be all out" —and the result would he a sure and certain victory.

Dr; Newman visited the New Zealand hospitals and the New Zealand Soldiers' Club—and the New Zealand people living in London were as true and loyal in their help as those in New Zealand, the sites of the hospitals might have been better, hut they were admirably conducted. He ashed the boys at Walton-on-Thames how they liked it. "Like it! Why, it's heaven—clean sheets and live good meals' a day," they said. The boys in the front, though feeling the cold of December very keenly after a Wanganui or Auckland winter, looked very fit. All soldiers at the front loathed the war, but the sick who got well were all determined on going back —"to finish the job." ; "The most interesting morning _of my life,", said the doctor, "was a visit to the front line of trenches in France, held at the time by\ the Wellington Rifles. The boys were surprised to see a man not in khaki. They fired off a few rounds of the Stokes mortar for me, and I.saw the bombs fly high and fall about the German trenches; and the' machine-guns •of the Germans let off a few rounds. They told me if I heard the rattle of the machine-guns the bullet was past, and there was no danger because bullets travelled faster than sound. Though my visit fascinated me —still T like Lambton Quay better. After visiting the front I feel I want to take my hat off to every one of our infantrv privates, for every man who has done his bit there is a real man and.a perfect hero."