THE Pukekohe & Waiuku Times. PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS. TUESDAY, MAY 23, 1916 THE EMPIRE AND THE WAR.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 176, 23 May 1916, Page 2

THE Pukekohe & Waiuku Times. PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS.

TUESDAY, MAY 23, 1916 THE EMPIRE AND THE WAR.

" We nothing extenuate, nor let down auaht in malice. 1 '

To-morrow will be the great anniversary which has been specially set apart to symbolise the ties which so closely bind together England and her great self-governing colonies and dependencies. It was a felicitous idea which led to the adoption of the late Queen Victoria's birthday, for during'her long and prosperous reign the Motherland and her once despised and neglected ofl'-shoots gradually became woven into the close-knit and enduring fabric which is at onco the wonder of our friends and the despair of our enemies. And no time can be more litting than the ever of Empire Day for a brief roviow of the great war we are steadily mustering our gigantic powers and resources to win.

When the history of the war comes to be written, one fact will stand out as if cut in stone, and that is that not only we, but also our Allies, owe our salvation to the British Navy. It has not only kept every inch of British soil inviolate from the foot-marks of the Hun, but has enabled uj to feed our gallant friends with men, munitions and supplies. -It has not only swept the German flag and commerce fioru the Seven Seas, but has shut her and her friends in almost as closely as if they were iu a beleaguered city. And it has silently and remorselessly strangled the submarine menace, by methods which are the more aweinspiring to the enemy becausa they can scarcely even be guessed at, until it is the. mere ghost of the decisive factor its originators fondly hoped it would become. We have made blunders no doubt, but not more than we have usually done at the beginning of a war. One of the greatest of foreign soldiers is credited with saying that England always began a campaign by losing battles, but always managed to win the last and decisive one. And though our failures may loom very large when looked at alone they dwindle into comparative insignilicance when viewed as portions of the enormous whole. And there are not wanting signs that the propensity to err is being gradually overcome. Our nation, as always in a crisis, is rising superior to its leaders, and one by one the inept, the iucapable and the featherbrained among theiu are being swept away. Gradually tho man of action is coming into his own and the niau whose claim to lead rested on his possession ol a glib tongue and a popularity-catching pliability ul' principle is being swept into oblivion. When Kobinson Crusoe was cast upon his desolate island he derived much toluce from putting down on paper " tho good and the evil in my case, staling veiy impartially, like debtor and i reditor, the comforts 1 enjoyed against the miseries I ssulfered." Let u.- do tho same, and our readers can then strike the I balance for themselves. t;VIL. The enemy's occupation ot a portion of France, the greater part of Belgium and most of Russian Poland. Tho defeat and occupation of Sorvia and Montenegro. The adherence and assistance oi Turkey and Bulgaria. (inr failure at fiallipoli. Our loss of Kut-01-amara and its garrison. <J o« .d. UOUD.

The absolute stoppage of the German overseas trade. The loss of all German colonies save one, and that is rapidly falling to our arms.

The enormous cost in men of the various German and Austrian advances, and the failure of these advances to secure any military decision. The slump in German credit and the depreciation of her currency. The comparative failure of the two arms upon which Germany was relying to paralyse and terrify England, the ZepDelin and the submarine.

The gigantic failure at Verdun, ruinous not only because of the loss of men that Germany cannot replace, but because of the conviction of the neutral nations that she has put forth her full strength and failed.

So far we have beoii doing little more on land than sparring for time. We had to improvise our army and prepare munitions to fight an enemy who had devoted all her energies for a generation to getting ready for war. Now, as Hercules held Antaeus, we are holding Germany in a strangle hold, till like Antaeus she will weaken and die. An expectant pub'ic has been waiting more or less patiently for "the great offensive in the Spring." It may perhaps never ho needed. Please God it never will, for the cost in lives would be ghastly. And our sturdy aud wise old Generalissimo, Joffre, is not the man to waste a single life if he can attain his ends in any other way. Mr Asquith tells us that wo have raised our army from the quarter of a million we began the war with to nearly five million. Mr Balfour tells us we have added a million tons to our Navy, which would suffice to double the number of our Dreadnoughts and battle-cruisers and still leave 300,000 tons for smaller craft. Ton for ton and ship for ship we have rebuilt our mercantile marine as fast as the enemy's submarines have destroyed it, And the German Chancellor has admitted the failure of the submarine blockade, aud confessed that Germany can never hope to starve England. A few months ago he told us to look at tho map, meaning wo were to contemplate the portions of our Allies' lands that Germany hold. Let him paint the oceans red and tinge with our British hue the vast expanses of the German colonies, aud then gaze upon it himself with serenity, if he can.