ALLIES’ VICTORIES.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 8 January 1917, Page 2

ALLIES’ VICTORIES.

AWAKENING OF NEUTRALS. INFLUENCES WHICH DETERMINE NEUTRALITY. Here is an interesting study of neutral opinion about the war in the United States, Holland, Spain, Sweden, Greece and Denmark. Some of these countries realise the inevitable victory of the 'Allies; others realise even more keenly that it is well to be on the rvinning side; others again are neutral to all influences, and still have no realisation of the greatness of the heroic task which the Allies are achieving for humanity and the future. WHAT AMERICA THINKS. ‘ ‘ American military writers are immensely impressed with the recent performances and immediate prospects of the British army in France,” says The Telegraph's New York correspondent. Led away by German propaganda,, and not influenced by a few armchair critics Acre, who refused to believe you could raise such a magnificent army in so short a time, America has hitherto given all its praise to the French. Now everything is changed. It feels good nowadays to be a. Briton in the United States, and, despite all you read in the papers about the villainy of the British black list and Washington ’s threats of reprisal, the name and prestige of Britain never stood higher, than to-day. Influential military critics of America ’s leading papers, basing their opinions r-;on despatches sent by their own accredited representatives, arc foremost in giving credit to the British, and recognise fully that your victories are not due to any languor in the German defence. A TERRIBLE BRITISH ARMY “One realises here, after reading reports from all quarters, that the Germans are beaten back because they cannot stand,, and Americans now understand for the first time that the contemptible British army has become a terrible British army. ‘The French,’ says the New fork Times, ‘have had praise deserved and plentiful, for their heroism. It is well to spare a little for fhg creation of dead Kitchener, irresistible in its might, prodigious in its courage, terribly avenging on the Germans and the sneers of neutrals.’ 11 Such is the keynote of editorial references in the world s greatest neutral country, and they deserve emphasis to-day because the Americans have been told so many times by Berlin that the German army in the west was invincible, and that they"did not look for anything more substantial than a deadlock on the old lines. Till' view has been reinforced here by American correspondents with the German army, who have been fed with super-optimistic reports and legends iu the same way as : the German populace.” WHAT HOLLAND THINKS. “It is true that Holland ‘knows we are winning and is trying to prevent it,’ ” writes the Daily Mail Amsterdam correspondent. “It is true that Holland knows, or at least believes, that we have finally staved off defeat. But the Dutchman sees that the Allies ’ armies are yet a long way off. He sees that ship after ship is sunk in the North Sea; he secs that Zeppelin after Zeppelin goes unscathed across the waters. “There are pro-German and proFrench in Holland. There arc very few pro-British: and this. I think, is partly because the English appear to Dutchmen a little lacking in ‘cun uing, ’ ’ which is a quality the Dutchman much admires, because he, being a citizen of a small city, has to employ it instead of a huge army and a big fleet. “The Dutchman is I&ss certain than we are how the end of these troubles will be shaped. He knows now that there will be a powerful Britain left to trade withal, and therefore (as the September figures show) he is making shift to forego a little of his present profits from Germany to save something of his future British market.” PRO-ALLY DUTCH.

‘ ‘ Putting it into figures, I should say that 90 per cent, of the Dutch people is sincerely pro-Ally,” says "The Man Who Dined With the Kaiser” in the Daily Mail. "The remaining 10 per cent, however,, represents an influential body of opinion. It consists roughly of church leaders, aristocrats, and military men. Important personages in both the Protestant and Roman Catholic Church are undisguisedly proGerman.

"They are hypnotised by the Kaiser s incessant pretended religiousness. Their positions enable them to influence a good deal of popular opinion. Many Dutch aristocrats belong to the .To-hannitor-Orden, a Teutonic Society, of which the Kaiser’s second son, Prince Eitel Friedrich of Prussia, is the head. "Military men in Holland who are pro-German are influenced by sincere professional admiration for the organisation and achievements of the Gorman army. When you name these three categories of Dutchmen, you pretty well exhaust the pro-German elements. Thc masses of the oeople, unquestionably, are pro-Ally.

“Rotterdam is the only pro-Gorman place in Holland. The reason is not far to seek. The pre-war prosperity of that great port was ‘made in Germany. f A.s the harbour of the mouth of the Rhine, it was the place of traixship(Continued on Page 3).