ROOSEVELT’S TRIBUTE.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 8 January 1917, Page 7

ROOSEVELT’S TRIBUTE.

BRITAIN HAS “MORE THAN KEPT PROMISES TO ALLIES.”

“In all history there has been no such gigantic and successful naval feat accomplished as that by the seamen and shipwrights of Britain during the past two years.' ;

This glowing tribute to the work of the British navy is paid by Mr Theodore Roosevelt, the famous ex-Presi-dont of the United States, in the current issue of the “Answers.”

“To her Allies,” Mr. Eooesvolt de-

clares, “England has more than kept the promises she made. She has given Russia the financial Assistance that none but she could give; her money efforts all round have been unparalleled in all previous history.

“Two years and a half ago no Frenchman would have expected that

! Britain would have been able to put ) more than two or three hundred thou- | sand soldiers into France. The soldiers j of Britain have done their duty fearj lessly and well; they have won high | honour on the fields of horror and l glory; they have displayed the same ! gallantry and stubborn valour that had ■ been so evident in the armies of France. | Russia and Italy.

“Her women arc working with all the steadfast courage and devotion and self-sacrifice that the women of Franca have shown.

“The British navy, too, was mobilised with a rapidity and efficiency as groat as that of the German afniy. *

“Now, having said all this,; lot me point out that, always excepting her naval performances, Britain has been less effective than she should have been in the use of her strength since the outbreak of the war. This is because she had not prepared in advance, because she did not accept the advice of Lord Roberts.

“If all the sons of Great Britain had been trained under a system of universal service, and if it had been clearly understood that in war time neitben undue profit-making capitalists nor striking' by workmen would be tolerated there would have been no invasion of Belgium, and no long-drawn and disastrous war..”