Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER. 22nd 1917. THE WEEK.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 September 1917, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER. 22nd 1917. THE WEEK.

In the “Chronicles” of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force which came to hand this week there, is a good story told by the Editor which has some immediate application to the possible duration of the war. He pointed out that the actualities of the military situation, anl the extreme difficulty of dis-

lodging entrenched troops are, generally speaking, still only understood by the front line troops of the belligerent nations, and by the unfortunate civil inhabitants of the war-devastated regions. Tt is also true that the soldier', in one section of the great field of war often fail to realise the difficulties

which face their own comrades on another front. The writer illustrates this by recalling the impatience of the New Zealanders on Gallipoli with the

I .British troops holding the Western fx-ont during 1915. “Why don't they | get a memo on?" was a common query, •while the confidence of the Now Zealand troops in their own prowess was revealed in the assurance of.“by jove if we wore there, we would shift the Huns.” Then the New Zealander remarks: “Well we came to France, wo saw, and we. understood. We take off our hats to the British Army of 1915 with even more, reverence than we salute the British Army of to-dav." This little, confession gives something like a clue to the probable duration of the war. Incidentally it pays the highest. compliment to the 1914 British lArinv, that glorious band —but a l handful of men—who held up the great German war machine while the French army was rallied to save Paris, and thereby break down the groat scheme of European invasion so carefully planned by the ruthless invader.

Brr the story we have related carries a moral for the present time. Having laarned their lesson, the New Zealanders can pardon the more readily, the Editor quaintly remarks, the ignorance of others, and for this reason he smiles tolerantly at the ideas of the /war current among our American Allies at the moment they had resolved to enter the fray. Tt was at this period that a New Zealand soldier was being returned to his island home in the Antipodes and his ship made a call at an American port, where he acquired “first hand knowledge of the future daring deeds of Undo Sam’s Army and Navy." The Nrtv ! Zealander puts tho question pretty clearly when ho relates: “A local magnate (at 4.30. a.m.) discoursed as follows: ‘Do you know, siree. we are prepared to send ton thousand; Yes, my colonial friend ten thousand men at once to settle the war! !’ When it was explained that New Zealand had sent ten permit of tier million population to the war and hadn’t quite settled it yet. he was astounded. That was tho military side. Then came the naval. A retired naval commander, we were told, delivered himself as follows at 11 a.m.—The sun was over the yard-arm; ‘Wait till our fleet gets busy. Our game’s this. No waiting, no delay. Without, hog pardone wo go right into Kiel Canal and blow the whole German Fleet up!’ The New Zealander wished them luck from the bottom of his heart— hut thought they might live. (!') and learn. The illusions once prevalent about a short, .sharp war, have been dispelled long ago among the belligerents themselves. It is only by the hard experience of the conflict that we can realise what the stern proposition is ahead ol our fighting forces.

Tmc reports of peace overtures still obtrude in the cabled news. I’he echoes of tho Dope’s effort have not yet died down, and some further pronouncement on the (issues is still to be made from the Vatican this month. France, though her new Premier, expresses her unabated determination to fight on, making tho restoration ot her lost provinces an irreduciable minimum. In this circumstances there can be no early peace, except by acomplete enemy capitulation, which at the moment does not appear at all probable. According to an American correspondent tTiis week the German man-power is falling very markedly. He remarks; “Germany confronts the certainty of a fourth year of war with a reserve of less than a million troops composed of hoys.” lie believes that Germany will exhaust her last resources 'before a year is out. Thenceforward he concludes Germany must choose a shortening of her lines, or will he courting disaster. We have the definite statement also fioin Holland that at Cologne hoys who were fifteen years of ago in in May last, may enlist. The inexorable pressure of a situation such as this on the War Lords of Germany must , have its effect,am] peace feelers will continue to hi* made. Apparently there are some concessions omlxxlied in the Austro-Gerninn reply to the Pope of more than passing interest. Hut to supply a real basis for permanent settlement they will require to concede a very great deal. The nearer peace may be from causes of Germany’s weakening, the. more justification thero is for any apparent lufl on the fronts.

Thanks to splendid organisation and untiding ponsipteney, the. pixihibjLtion party has won on the six o’clock issue. Tho result is not creditable to New Zealand. Tt will be remembered that under the last local option poll, 274,4.05 votes were east for continuance of hours and licenses as against 229,474 for no license. Phis mandate Parliament has ignored. Parliament has ignored also tho fact that licensed victuallers are at present licensed from six to ten p.m. daily, Sunday excepted, and for this privilodge the country has accepted substantial fees to hind the license. This scrap of paper, hv Thursday’s action in Parliament, has been tom up, and the country is made to repudiate its moral obligations. The proposal pushes the matter beyond endurance, and it is not surprising to find even the AttorneyGeneral animadverting on the wrong to be done. Hie Minister of Finance appears to recognise the, seriousness of the financial problem ahead, and there are hints at State control and compen- : nation. These are very much in the air, and meantime many hundreds of people are seriously affected. Many will suffer heavy financial loss. Others will lose employment. The country will have to hear heavier and less oquit able taxation. All this for visionary possibilities. The prohibition which is to he forced upon flic people will be resented in many quarters, because, it lacks a real virtue towards helping to win the war. The new legislation will be of far-reaching effect and will ciarrv much that is objeotionnblo in its train It will create difficulties with soldiers in camp, cause much lawbreaking, and generally produce result* and dissatisfaction far from creditable to national ambitions.

The Lyttelton Times has written very sanely on the subject of Hotel hours, and we cannot do better than reprint its remarks, which wo fool satisfied will find a general reflex in every day public opinion. The paper saysln our humble opinion a great deal ol exaggerated nonsense is talked about tbo early closing of hotels as a “war measure!” The driving force behind the agitation for sis o’clock closing is

unquestionably the prohibition party, whoso sincerity is beyond question, but whoso zeal obscures the impropriety of using the war to impose total abstinence upon the community. A very worthy desire to restrict pleasure and unnecessary expenditure in those serious times has induced many moderate citizens to reinforce the prohibitionists in the attack upon one particular form of waste and this has certainly improved the character of the agitation. But the campaign is the reverse of flattering to the commurfTty as a whole, both in respect of its habits and its intelligence. We can understand the Government being impressed by a multiplicity of petitions and resolutions, and the compromise of nine to eight is just about what might have been expected in the circumstances. Tuk Prime Minister, in moving the second reading of his Bill, delivered an interesting and able speech but he was obviously les s concerned about establishing the merits of nine *to eight whatever those particular merits may be, than he was about demolishing the 1 arguments for six o’clock closing. It will ho observed that Mr. Massey made no attempt to show any restriction oi hotel hours will give the country a single additional soldier pr improve the efficiency of the forces, nor has he or anybody else proposed that money saved by 'the people, through spend, ing less in the bars, shall be put intc the national war chest. On the con. tvary, the Government anticipates a certain amount of financial embarrass incut as a result of carrying its owr proposals and still more trouble oi the same order if the hours are furtliei restricted. Our particular objection! to this agitation are that it seeks tc impose a. measure of prohibition upor a particularly sober community and tc effect a reform of quite doubtful quan tity and value at the heavy cost of f lawful legitimate trade

By the passing of the Government’s measure the hotels are to lose five business hours including two of tho most profitable, to satisfy a. well-in-tentioned hut vague demand for “efficiency and economy,” while at tho same time picture shows may carry on day ‘and night, theatrical .companies nuiy take money out of the country, the importation of luxuries is openly encouraged by the Government, and racing and betting continue to prosper although nominally reduced by onethird. We think one of the first sensi hie steps towards economy would, he a drastic curtailment of non-essential imports including, of course alcoholic liquors. If tho Government wants to promote economy it should reduce the excessive cost of living which u could do, if it would, by checking the exploitation of the consumer by the producer. But what tho Government really desires to get through its Bill is some measure of peace from the eternal threats and embarrassments it is subjected to over the licensing question. The remedy for this is not to put the men and women of tho Dominion into leading strings, but to purge the licensing trade of its admitted evils by State control. The elimination of private profit, the placing of every licensed house in the •hands of a salaried manager whose dismissal would follow the permission of drunkenness, would bo an immense stride in tho advancement of real temperance, which, with all due respect to the extremists, prohibition is not.