THE FOURTH ROUND

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3183, 6 September 1917, Page 6

THE FOURTH ROUND

(To the Editor.) Sir,—The economic aspect of the war is assuming a more important aspect, every week. The sinews of war are< straining and creaking. Whose ure" tho toughest? We have begun the fourth, round. When champions fight no one looks for a knock-out until an hour oir more of gruelling punishment given and taken has begun to tell upon the weaker man more markedly than upon thestronger. Germany started for a knockout in the first round. Our footwork at Mons and thereabout, our in-fightini; along the muddy trenches and among: th» rural farms and villages of Flanders awl Northern France, together with the fact that the High Sea Fleet was securclr bottled iip. stalled that off. Gcrnmnytried another long-arm blow with heir Zeppelins and fast cruiser raiders, ;u manoeuvre which hail tho effect of thoroughly roneim? agniiiSt her every drop of English blood. She tried another bystriking at Kgvpt and India. With our forlorn hope expeditions on •ualupoll and in Mesopotamia we parried that. Sho tried another, by indiscriminate submarining. A damaging blow this if she had not over-reached herself in making , H. It was intended to blockade England, but it has brought America roundto us as nothing else could have done, has disgusted and provoked other neutrals, and is doing more to bring about an effective blockade of Germany herself than anything we could possibly have accomplished. In tho meantime we have stuck to the in-fighting., Jab and jalj n»ain, jal> liarder ami ial> oftener, a, ril'lit hook here and a left there, now. •>V,,I i\"ain, but jnb all the time. It costs .ESOOOte kill a man in this way. or ; £Cooft to regain a rood of ground, lough pome, but what of Hmt? New Zealand, on the other side of the plobo, raises cnoiig'i. in-ten days to account for MOO odd-Ger-mane, or' to redeem, at any rate, onn sciuare mile of sh»ll-pilted, blood-sodden, rioil and she does this, not by cadging it from the Motherland, but by Riving it as freely as she has given, and is giving, her men. Suppose it. were the other way round, and that German colonies tbo world over con.ld do. and ware doins. what our overseas dominion? aro (loin?? Ami now, early in this fourth round, wlin logics <l'p better man? What is tho betting? What the price of the German, '••uric n? compared with the British bob? Tho Germans are robbing the air of nj--Irn«en, rnbbiivr the grave of its (lend, inbbiii!.' their children of milk to extract therpfrom the ingredients of that all-neees?arv war product, nitre-glycer-ine. We have more Hian over of it, without mauling" dead todies or taxing new-1-nrn bnbies. Wo are to-day oiiMnddiii? Germany for Swiss chocolate and Danish butler—two lines of which she has had » virtual monopoly during three years of war. America has come to lieht with "' iii pmlwro"! on all exports to neutrals, ■which until now haye acted as the TCniser'fi middlemen. Finally, in regard to home industries." we are trusting tlie man in the street with the news of the day, and romemoners hold liiph office with neer?. wtiilf nil do their bit in factory !■•!<! fieV ir fell" coir.mon cause. 15 u I tho i sn f ]\i= iviis' end to fceep truth from the cars and power from the hands of Hie npoole lest they refuse, (o slavo nnv longer at Hie production of food substitutes for a starvation wage, or to serve as cannon fodder for the pnk". nnd at the Micst of, a self-glorious military caste. —I am, efo.. IL M. B. MABSHAtL. Mangatainoka, September 3, 1317.