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Hokitika Guardian, 24 October 1918, Page 2

As emphasising one phase of Britain’s great part in the war, tho following is not without interest, ’showing how the iron grip of the British Navy now requires Germany to pinch and scrape : ' war materials for munitions and other, sinews of war. This is confessed in a remarkable article in the Government North (German Gazette. Tho Berlin or Tageblatt describes it as the most ‘.‘unblushing” avowal of Germany’s plight yet made, and welcomes it as “preferable in every way to the usual rose-tinted assurances.” The tell-tale communique is an official appreciation of the Kaiser’s action in bestowing his autographed picture upon tho chief of the Raw Materials Department of the War Office. It says:—“That war is a brutal, I'omorseless thing, comes homo daily to everyone of us nowadays in our flesh and bones. Our necessities com- . pel us to use every ounce that our soil can yield, and every scrap of raw ' materials that we can lay hands on in Germany, or secure by book or by crook from abroad, for the one great object of holding our own against the resources of a whole world. The comfort of those at hoine must- take second place . The ; duty devolves upon us of sacrificing the j last ton of copper and nickel of zinc or i aluminium, for tho army to bring forth ; tho leather needed for man and horse, | even if our children have to go bare- j footed or wear wooden shoes. Every | ounce of wool from the hacks of Gcr- J nran sheep must bo utilised to clothe men j in the field, aiul textiles confiscated j must, be turned into shirts and under- j wear for them. The resources of our soil must bo exploited on the most intensive scale. Whole- now industries must he created, others restricted ,or converted substitutes devised of almost every sort-, and their production facilitated. All these things necessitate farreaching interference with our normal economic life in the interests of the individual and of the commonwealth alke.” When tlio pall of war over Ger many and the Allied neighbours is lifted the revelations as to the true condition of internal affairs will bo surprising. The blockade initiated and maintained by the British Navy is a stern reality, and has contributed very materially to the exhaustion of the enemy now so apparent.