The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. TUESDAY, AUGUST 4, 1914. WHERE BRITAIN STANDS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 88, 4 August 1914, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. TUESDAY, AUGUST 4, 1914. WHERE BRITAIN STANDS.

With almost startling rapidity events are shaping their course in Europe in the great upheaval which commenced with the first brush between Austria and Servia. Germany, the aggressor, while preaching peace, has attacked both Russia and France, and by her attitude given further evidence of arrogant desire to entirely dominate the European Continent. We of the British race in every corner of the Empire stand watchful and waiting for the action which is almost inevitable. If Britain stands aloof to-day—if she can with honor refrain from participating actively in the present strugglethen it is almost certain that in isolation, as the friend of none, Britain will, sooner or later, have to fight for her very existence. No man can desire to see his country recklessly plunged into wnr, but every man who is worthy of the name must recognise that there comes a time when,' while the world is as it is, war is inevitable, in the present crisis we may but pray that the administration at the heart of the Empire may be guided to the right. So far as the cable messages to hand indicate the British Government has not declared itself except, as ever, the friend of peace, but in the extraordinary message which we were able to circulate this morning it is clear that Britain's practical sympathies are, and rightly too, with her good neighbour, France. It is, at any rate, a step in the honorable direction, when wo find that Sir Edward Grey, as Minister for Foreign Affairs, has announced to the British Parliament that if Germany's ships enter the English Channel and bombard the French coast or shipping, Britain will lend her aid to France. At any moment now we may learn that she has gone much further.