FORTUNATE ENGLAND.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 319, 15 October 1915, Page 3

FORTUNATE ENGLAND.

SECRETS OF HER INFLUENCE. (By J. H. Rosny, in “The Book of France, ’’ translated by Thomas Hardy) , For centuries England lias been the most fortunate nation in Europe. Her very mistakes' —and some of them have beeng rave—seem to have turned to her advantage. Her errors have done her no harm. In war-time she has shown herself capable of repairing the faults of an organisation often defective and sometimes deplorable. For example, she was totally unprepared for the struggle with Napoleon. Nevertheless, she was by far the most formidable adversary of Imperial France. At the opening of the Crimean War her army was quite out of date. In the Boer War she had forseen neither the difficulties nor the now methods of warfare which were to prevail in that struggle, although she ought to have learnt them from the events of 1881.

England’s success, therefore, has not always been the result of her foresight or of her prudence. It even involved a certain risk for which a less gifted nation might have had to pay dearly. It is “character” which, with the English throughout all ages, has ro- | paired the errors and faults that have I arisen from an overwhelming confii deuce in the resources of the three kingdoms. ‘ I Into this national character enters, I in additon to a relish for adventure and risk, a certain reasonableness ■which imposes limits, and, among the best, a certan dogged tenacity and indomitable will served by admirably clear vision. Hitherto no one in the world has known so well as the Englishman how to blend those qualities which inspire grand enterprises with the prudence which sees how to avoid haste, excess, and infatuation. And this it is which, combined with her insular positofi, has enabled Great Britain to organise a dominion, more vast than that of ancient Roms. Yet another cause—at least in modern times—has contributed to her success. I refer to England’s tolerant attiude towards other European nations, groat and small. It is long now—indeed ever since the opening of the industrial era—since England first Hearnt to respect the rights of other peoples. Take her own Dominions, for example; she has put French-Canadians into such an advantageous positoin that, quite naturally, they include themselves among the Empire’s most loyal subjects. After the Boer War the Boer General-in-Chief became the political leader in South Africa. In India the natives have been generously governed, and Great Britain has done her best to improve the lot of the poor and to put an end to the scourge of fa mine. Towards foreigners, England lias behaved with equal justice. Holland has not been disturbed in her possession of yast colonies; Portugal peaceably holds her African possessions; and Franco, since 1871, has been able to build up a great colonial empire. Besides favouring the liberation n

Greece and Italy, England has always been kind to little neutral countries. All Europe never for an instant doubts, that England grows more and more inclined to act justly towards all civilised nations: that, from the Balkans to the Atlantic, she aims at n«i territorial

conquest, and that she is not moved by

any tyrannical motives. How can she avoid exercising a magnificent moral influence, at a time especially when another nation, formidable alike through its military and industrial power, is threatening all liberty, despising aIJ rights, tearing up all treaties which have become inconveni-

ent, recognising no rules save her own will, no laws laws save those dictated by her appetites, her pride, her scorn.

or her ferocity*

To-day England’s fate is intimately linked with that of Europe, far more intimately than in the beginning of the nineteenth century, for the French spirit did not then menace the very essence of the movement towards civilisation, which began at the Renaissance. With Germanv victorious. “lasciate

ogui speranz.a! " (give up all hope). 1C would mean the end of a glorious epoch But the Allies will* not bo conquered. Heroic France lias returned. England, the undaunted, out of her soil has miraculously caused armies to spring. Russia stands ready for gigantic battle.

Once again England shall be happy England. From this terrific ordeal she will come forth greater, fairer, more beloved.