The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday, September 1, 1914. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1291, 1 September 1914, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday, September 1, 1914. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

“Tohunga,” writing in the Auckland Herald, reminds us that there has never been in all the long history and traditions of human government any previous organisation which can compare with that of the British Empire. Think of it! Here in New Zealand we have absolute liberty to make any laws we choose to make, to levy any taxes we choose to levy—fiscal or otherwise—to arm men and ships in any way we choose to arm them, to be sovereign in the land the Imperial Government secured tor us and deeded to us. The Empire does not demand a penny from us. Yet every King’s ship is our guardian, and every British regiment our world police ; the King’s ships are almost wholly provided by the Mother Country, yet those provided by our Australian kinsmen in time of war are as our own. New Zealand is free, and it is free because between us and any interference with our freedom stands the steady greatness of Britain and the unwritten compact that binds the British to the British all the world over. Never since she lost her American colonies has Britain lost an inch of Englishspeaking land. It is at such a time as this that it is well to remember such facts, for in times of peace the skulking windbag is calculated to unsettle the unthinking and to create the suggestion that the average Britisher is nothing but a serf.

One of the most remarkable features about the present war, writes Mercutio, is the manner in which the various Governments of the countries affected promptly prepared to prevent the exploitation ot the public by speculators and gamblers in foodstuffs. The socialists, who denounce war as simply a great movement for the benefit of the capitalistic class, will have to acknowledge that organised society has made considerable advances in humane legislation since the wars of the last century, when those vast sums were, made by those who forestalled the necessities of the people. It is extremely doubtful whether any previous war, great or small, commenced with so little disturbance of trade or finance. As a matter of fact America, which is taking no part in hostilities, and seems further removed than any other country from any possibility of being drawn into conflict, has suffered much more than Great Britain or France through the disturbance of financial and food markets. In New Zealand since the British Navy has opened the sea routes of the world we could, and soon will, go on industrially as if war were unknown. The dairy factories from one ,end of the Dominion to the other will soon be in full swing, and steamers laden with butter and cheese will be leaving our ports for their accustomed markets much more freely than they did last year. Facer on when shearing commences, farmers will be looking to the wool-buyers of Britain, America, and France to offer good prices for the new clip. The German buyers will not be in the field, it is true, but other countries will require more wool, and will make up for this deficiency. Later still, when the meat ships begin to take into their cold chambers the six million odd carcases of sheep and lambs which we annually export, it is probable that we shall be discussing ways and means of coping with the demand for farm products throughout the world.

In a series of notable articles published in 1911 Mr Robert Blarchford, the well-known socialist, drew attention to the danger to Great Britain from a German invasion of France. He said : “Mr Balfour once declared that the problem Imperial Defence was the problem of the defence of Afghanistan. But times have changed since then, and I shall propose an amendment to the following effect: The problem of British defence is the defence of France. There it is: the greater danger, the nearer danger than the danger of a German invasion of England, is the danger of a German invasion of France. Supposing France attacked and conquered by Germany, how would our fleet prevent the annexation of Calais and Cherbourg? And what could our fleet do to prevent the German conquest of France ? As for Belgium and Holland there would be no need for Germany to annex them. With Calais in German hands the Netherlands would be quietly absorbed. Then Germany would have Calais at one end of the Channel and Cherbbourg at the other. Also she would have Amsterdam and Rotterdam and Antwerp, which Napoleon said was like a pistol pointed at the heart of England Also she would have the Dutch Navy and the Dutch craftsmanship. Then France would be a crippled Power, and Britain would be unable to keep pace with the German output ot battleships and sailors. That is why I say that the problem of British defence is the problem of the defence of France. Whether or not we form an offensive and deleusive alliance with France the result is the same; the defeat of France is the defeat of Britain. The downfall of France is the downfall of the British Empire. The aggrandisement of Germany is the humiliation of Europe.’’

Is it too much to hope, asks a writer in one of our contemporaries, that some at all events of the youths who are eagerly looking forward to the new excitement awaiting them may be persuaded to temper their praiseworthy spirit of adventure with some consideration of the true worth and dignity of the task entrusted to them, and of the real importance of the business in hand to the destinies of the world ? But I will speak to them in better words than my own. In an address given to the young men of the Royal Military Academy, Mr Ruskin says : “ . . . remember

that your fitness for all future trusts depends upon what you are now. No good soldier was ever careless or indolent in his youth. Many a giddy and thoughtless boy has become a good bishop, or a good lawyer, or a good merchant ; but no such an one ever became a good general. I challenge you, in all history, to find a record of a good soldier who was not grave and earnest in his youth. Be thoughtless in any other years rather than now, though indeed there is only one place where a man can be nobly thoughtless—his deathbed. No thinking should ever be left to be done there.” So with a moderate degree of serious thought the young men who go to the front may come to recognise that the football field is a less noble arena than the field of battle, and that it is better “to ride a war horse than to bet on a racehorse.