Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star Saturday, july 25th, 1917. THE WEEK.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 July 1917, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star Saturday, july 25th, 1917. THE WEEK.

Fuoii time to tome there are echoes of the stringency of the food problem in Great Britain, yesterday in some of the soldiers’ letter# published there wore references to the shortage, emphasising what is generally understood to be the case. A London correspondent, writing on the subject recently] supplies the following sidelights cm the grave situation at Home:—“lLord Devcrnport’s statement in the House of Commons on the food question created a profound impression not only upon the unemotional assembly, but throughout tho country. For the first timo people sharply realised that the nation is within measurable distance of bread famine. Through the week I heye had the opportunity of converse- , \ ) s :

tfoa with m«r charged with the responsibility of averting or, if things come to the worst, of faring this disaster. In the freedom of private conversation they exceeded the plainness of speech permissible to the Food Controller making a statement in Parliament. There is no doubt that before this month has run its course a stringent rule of rations will be enforced throughout the Kingdom. It was only minenoe of defeat on the battlefield that enabled the Government to resort to conscription. Hereditary prejudice against adoption of this Continental procedure waS'carried to perilous length There will bo no dangerously fatal delay in regulating consumption of loou, especially bread as may be left on hand or available in the near future. Soon- , er rather than later, wo shall have our bread doled out on an inflexible scale of moderation.

“In private households difficulty is created by the servants. Accustomed to have the best of everything in the way of food supplied in unlimited quantity inviting waste, they arc not going to bo put upon by parsimonous mistresses, who, under pretext, of saving the Empire want to apportion the'r food within reasonable limit. If the Empire is going to topple over it must go. They are not going t° do without their 11 o’clock snack, that abnormal meal that breaks the monotony of a mornijng. The saJne spirit animates the vast body of working classes from which the servants’ Hall is recruited. Accustomed oven in the hardest tune to liavo a perhaps otherwise scanty larder stocked with bread, the gravest warning spoken from the public platform, and re-echoed through the Press will not, induce them to abate a single loaf, or guard against habitual wastage of odd crusts or half-eaten slices. It is in relation tb this state of affairs that compulsory rations will be beneficial."

Mr. Lloyd George lias assarted that Britain cannot be starved this year or next y©ar. This statement implies the seriousness of the position in tne Homeland. It is Clear that .the country is shaping towards dire extremit !es in the matter of food supplies. The United Kingdom will bo producing from its own soil a greatly enhanced yield of food products, but still far from sufficient for its millions. Tho submarine menace and the toll it as taking is dwindling the shipping space at an 'impressive rate . Great' Britain is not going to starve, for the want, or food, but for the difficulty of getting it to its shores. There is ample food available for Britain if there were the bottoms to carry it. Tho stores of New Zealand are heaped up with supplier and the same thing is occurring in other markets of the world ordinarily open to Great Britain. If tho vessels- are not available for the carriage of food, how aro the troops from the United States to bo transported ana maintained in adequate nuiubors to assist ill shaping the end of the. war r That is the question which tho direful situation suggests, and it is the key to tho reoent, stern action of President Wilson this week tin dealing with tho shipping problem in his own country. Tho hard experionce of the old Country in tho matter of food supplies should bo an example to other countries to control tho situation before it is too late. Hero the folk aro being urged to grow staple supples, the advice is of tho greatest importance for Die people t° follow.

Although it it is a year since the battle of*the Somme was waging , we me ouly iiiow getting some of the M U .,ost details of that titanic struggle. Mr Beach Thomas, the admirable war correspondent, has written a book on the long drawn out fight, and it is interesting reading. Mr Thomas k a realist. “Tho general attitude of the soldier,” he remarks, “to everything written about war—and not least toe official news—is that all iis too smooth, too pretty, and too favourable. It is true what some have endured to suffer others must endure t.o boar; but readers must submit to be tricked. Avoidance of the brutality of war is in soma sort inevitable. All who have written about war, especially the great historians, who are doubly deceived by the distance of time and and spaco, sco it as the airman sees it in large spaciousness, where details arc hid, and only issues count. But lett us remember the real war behind. If wo forgot the''loss, the pain, the fear, the waste, and the wickedness, wo forget* a duty to the human race.” True to his promise,' the author does not shirk the facta as ho saw them. He does not represent the Germans us a set of demoralised poltroons—he admires their courage and their military skill. He does not belittle the price that the Alti©*» *aa j to pay for their success, or tho errors, both in plan and ©xeoution, that made it is costly. He does not pretend that the victors enjoyed the battle—only one man of all he met confessed a natural inclination for fighting, a. Scotsman, who described a bayonet ehargo as “cherry.”

The Sommo gave' Germany her first taste of the concentrated power of the British Empiro. “The battle,” says Mr Thomas, “was opened by troops from tho British Isles and ono battalion from Newfoundland, the oldest colony, but before its end all tho Empire haa taken part. The South Africans fought a seven-days’ deadly struggle in Delville Wood. Tho Australians toon Pozieres, and fought a yet tougher battle against the mud near Warlenoourt. The New Zealanders did their own work and much of their neighbours, to the west of Guoudocourt, always winning and minimising casualties by virtue of more pluck and quickness. The Canadians took ovet i,„ui the Australians and later captured trenches and villages with the impetus of the French troops at their best.” | There was even a chance for Indian cavalry, who had a dashing adventure with their lance# south of High Wood. Indeed, Mr Beach Thomas thinks that in the public mind the Somme is cmeuy identified with the exploits of the oversea, Scottish and Irish troops. He does not grudge them their fame. He very handsomely observes “tho highest thrills I associate with Australians, Canadians and Sodtch. Their deeds and emotions remain, most salient m the memory, and yet the battle in retrospect is essentially English. One has the impression that the English gave the others a chanoe to shine ns & pack of good undistingnishable forwards give the openings to the half

and tihneequautera backs, whoso names are known to every spectator.” Elsewhere, changing his metaphor, he remarks that English troops were the cement 0 f tho battle, yoeman stock in good old country regiments who carried conservatism to the point of to yield to any argument, even it couched in a hurricane blast of shellfire. The author was chary of using the word “English” until a wounded Australian who had got his “blighty' obsorved that would be fine to go “home” as “ho’d never been there.” This, says the author, is about the finest complment that any nation could desire. The man was as likoly as not of Scottish or Irish origin; he would have disclaimed any home but his owu in Australia. • But the automatic, instinctive use of the word struck Mr. Beach Thomas as extraordinarily apposite at the Somme with its fargathered legions.

Ma Frederick Palmer, the well-known American correspondent has also written in detail of w»o Somme, and in Iris woik several chapters are devoted to the celebration of the exploits of the Anzacs. He was particularly impressed with their physique their independence of hearing, their enterprise things, lie observes that can come only from generations of good food and a healthy free life In the open air. Ho mentions that our men have t-ho defects of their qualities, one of which was that they were a little slow to realise that they must do exactly what they were told in tho attack. They never did loss; the trouble was that they often wanted to do more. They would take the appointed trench, and then in an excess of elan would try to take another sometimes with unfortunate results. At that time they had still to grasp that thrift is a' great military " virtue; a soldier’s duty is among othor things to keep alive, in order that he may go on fighting. The New Zealanders (whom Mr. Palmer found to be a type distinct, from ' the Australians, though resembling them in many ways) were much more thrifty. Their bravery was the wonder of all, yet their casualties were never quite so high as those of the Australians.

Speaking of the alleged deterioration of German moral the author warn s us against attaching much weight to the usual reports. He takes Skobeleff’s classification that out of every hundred soldiers 20 aro natural fighters 20 are timid and 60 average men, who will light under impulse, or when well led. Armies are organised on the basis of tho 60 average. It became evident in the course of the, advance that the 20 “funk.sticks” were thoroughly demoralised. They would yield whenever they had the chance. The 60 average men were not as good as they had been but wer 0 still well led and very far indeed from demoralisation. As for the 20 natural fighters ‘‘more fighting made them light harder.” These were tho storming parties, that were detailed for . forlorn hopes, the machine gunners who would waiu behind in hiding as the Allies advanced, and work havoc from the rear until they received their despatch. These were the men who wero often found strapped to their guns, nbt, says Mr. Palmer, by command as a guarantee against desertion, but by their own proud request.