THE STRANGLEHOLD.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 265, 5 April 1917, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE STRANGLEHOLD.

DEATH RATTLE IN ENEMY'S THROAT.

By HORATIO BOTTOMLEY, In the "Sunday Pictorial''. In this powerful and characteristic article—one of the finest ho has written—Mr Bottomley pleads for the r c lentless tightening of the hold which he considers, we now have upon the neck of the enemy, and protests against any peace talk" or truce till the demon of Prussian militarism ia slain.

VES, I think we have it at last—l mean the stranglehold round the enemv's neck. I seem to hear the death rattle m his guttural threat; but to make quite sure, I want a few more grips—and then we will throw Ins foul corpse on the dusuieap of the Devil, whero the imps of Hell disport themselves.

But .we must be on our guard. Strangling men are apt to kick, and this Teutonic monster is a coarso and burly l:east. Always by nature a glutton, ho will take a lot of choking—wherefore we must tighten our hold. The brute is sure to die hard, and it may be several months yet before he is finished, have you ever seen a bullfight? I hope you haven't—in which case ask someone who has to tell you how the bull, bleeding from a hundred wounds—the darts of >*le toreador sticking in all parts of its body—goes mad wtih blinded fury, while all the time rushing headlong to death. Well, that describes the present condition of Germany.

First, wo are starving her. Of that tiiere is no doubt. Her home reserve of food is giving out; for some months to come she cannot hope to produce anything litfe her requirements—and, at last,"our Blockade is being appliM, with the result that comparatively little gets into the country. I say "comparatively little," because it is idle to shut your eyes to the fact that Holland is still either importing or refraining from exporting a good deal of food which sho can not possibly require tor her own consumption. I wish Lord Ko'bert Cecil would at least address a " Note" to the Dutchmen on this point. But I am not very hopeful of Lord Robert. I remember that when he was appointed Minister of Blockade He called his new office the "Department for Restricting Enemy Supplies." Of course, it should have been " For STOPPING" them. But wo are getting on.

Tho same with munitions. Despite all the territory she has seized, cotton and a variety of other explosive essentials—and iron, steel, copper and all sorts of material for guns and riflesare running short, whilst the Allies are piling up huge supplies for the coming Push. Don't forget that tho activity in the West of the last few months was only a preliminary canter —Sir Douglas Haig tells m that—and that tho big Offensive hasn't yet begun. When it does 'begin, " Push ami GO" will be our motto.

Taking a general survey of the situation, therefore, I look forward to the next few months as constituting a bright Promise of Spring.'"And quite appropriately Spring is to see the birth of the New World which is to ariso out of the ashes of the War's ruins. I noticed that in tiieir Reply to America the other day the Allies spoke of a new Furopo but it isn't half enough. It will not be sufficient, for instance, to drive the Terrible Turk into Asia —there to brood and sulk, and propagate, and brew r.ew plans for invading and corrupting Europe. ALL human Perverts and Throw-Backs —whether Turk or Teuton—must be placed under strict supervision during a period of moral education. That will be one of the first duties of the World's Peace Council which must emerge from the War.

In the same way, Germany's power for further mischief must be destroyed. She, too, must go back to school. Her dangerous toys must be taken from her. Warships, guns, submarines, Zeppelins and other instruments of mischief, must bo given up—and soldiers too. Such tilings must all lie handed over to a great International Committee of Public Safety; and then we can get onmith our work and our play and live like deoent men and women—working out lor ourselves the Destiny which lies beforo us; and which, in the Mystery of God, may yet be brought nearer by the sacrifice and suffering of this ghastly war. What a mystery it all is!

But Spring is coming, and with tho awakening of Mother Nature from her rest, will come the rekindling of resolve, the birth of new hopes and greater schemes for Victory. If Faith can move mountains. Work nnd Determination can also achieve miracles, and tho miracle we have to achieve to-day is the re-birth and resurrection of the World. The first stop towards the accomplishment of that great purpose is the strangling of the Monster of Militarism, Despotism. Blood and Iron, which has stalked the earth for tho past thirty years. And that is why we must tighten and still tighten our grip on its throat. • # » In the meantime, we must be pre-

paring ourselves for tho New Birth* Although wo havo never been as black as our enemies, both abroad and at home, have pamtcd us, it is all too true that before, tho wa r we wero growing stale and slothful unde thre enervating influence of prolonged prosperity. JN'utured in the comfort born of our start in the industrial markets of tho world, and conserved and expanded for years'by our unchallenged Sea-Power, we never paused to contemplate the possibility of serious rivalry. Tho old spirit'was still there, but it had been damped down. Our enemy did not understand. He took our paltry domestic quarrels and political sham-fights as indicative of our national temperament. He treated our labour and Peace delegates and other cranks a;; serious representatives of British opinion; and, thank God! ho was fooled by Secret Service Agents, who assured him that when war came Britain would bo compelled to stand out on account of industrial revolution at home, civil war in Ireland, and rebellion an her oversea Dominons. Thus was he fooled into casting tne dice.

And now he is being disillusioned. Men, munitions, money and food are failing inm. And hi 6 principal ally--Austria—has had enough. Hungary's heart has never been in the war, and, like Bohemia, she has been looking to it simply as a short cut to liberation from Austrian domination. So long as tlio old Emperor lived they were content to lie low—waiting tor the advent of h's successor to ootain their aspirations. Tho time has now come, and Austria is feeling her way for a separate peace. Th;it will be the crowning blow to the Kaiser's hopes, just as it is tito trii2 explanation of his hypocritical overtures of peaee. Wherefore, we must keep our stranglehold. Ministers may falter, politicians may faint in the fight—the great heart of the people is strong to endure—mighty to conquer. The imperishable memory of a nation's sacrificed manhood has sunk deep into the soul. To-day, as on tho first day of the challenge—in the spring of 1917, as in the autumn of 1914—the call is to endure and to Conquer. It has been a long fight, but tho endi s in sgut. The enemy —on whose side the God of Battles seemed to be standing in those early, unforgettable, months of Armageddon—is now ueing deserted, and will soon stand —and fall —alone. But tho evil that men do lives after them, and tho crimes of a nation bring swift requital. The crop of Germany's infamies has been sown in the blood-soaked fields of Belgium; her reaping will bo the whirlwind of Defeat, the harvest 01 Damnation.' Slcwly, relentlessly, too, with almost unseen motion, tne great military machino of the Allies has been prepared. The months of semi-idleness enforced by tho rains and storms of "Winter are not being wasted. In the West mighty schemes aro reaching fulfilment; great plans are in the making. And if wo , look to the Middle East, the of Spring is not less hopeful. There, delays born of indecison, disappointment, the product of weakness, have marred the picture and .blurred the prospect. But even the ineffable Tino — pinchbeck potentate, with the smilin.; face andt lie crafty mind—seems at last to understand where lies his future and his fortune.

And (ill through the dark and dismal days the mighty Navy is keeping watch and ward. Tlio threat of the submarine is not to lie despised; its power to work harm among the world's .shipping 's great. But with eouragc and resource Wo shall defeat its machinations. It may mean—and probably will mean for the time—some serious interruption of our oversea fcod supplies, but that will B'mply serve as a timely awakening ot tlw nation to the necessity—which I have boon urging for years —of making itself practically independent of foreign feeding. At last we have a Ministry of food, and I hope its library does not contain textbooks by <Jrv-n.s-dust theorists on the dismal and fantastic science of what is caleld Political Economy. But the revival of British agriculture must lu> the secondary lesson of the submarine menace. The first must l>e the pressure of the stranglehold. Every vessel sunk, like every woman and child murdered, must in.°an one moro degree upon the pressure on the throat. There must be no weakening—no diplomatic exchanges of high-flown platitudes, no Conferences—no truce —until the Hun monster is choked to death.

That he is now in his death agony, gasping for breath —and pleading for mercy—is tlio brigiitest promise with wheh tlio purifying, rejuvenating Benson of Spring has ever been ushered into the World.