The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 1917. ITALY’S VALUABLE VICTORY.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 22 August 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 1917. ITALY’S VALUABLE VICTORY.

(With which is incorporated The Taihape Post and Waimarino News).

It is particularly gratifying news that reached us from Italy yastjr lav afternoon, as it clearly indicates that Austria cannot afford assistance to Germany, not even for the food r uid:r.g expeditions in Roumaria. It must ha* e been a source of mortification to Germany to find that she had not the men to take the road that traitors opened for her to th e Russian granaries, : nd now, when a division or two of Austrians are taken to help in seizing the Roumanian harvest, those pestiferous Italians meanly take advantage of 11-oir weakened forces, capture several more thousands of them and also bring their objective—possession of the Irridenta —much nearer accomplishment. The blow struck by Italy this week is a most valuable contribution towards winning the war; it will tend to ease the position in Macedonia and Greece; it will prevent Maekensen, being reinforced in his Roumanian raiding; it will give time to Russia, and make the Russian road back to the Carpathians more easily traversible; it will impress Germany with that no further help can be forthcoming from Austria in setting free Germans from other fronts to be transferred to France and Flanders, where a decisive victory is urgently being sought by Britain and France, and its moral effect on Austria and Hungary will be incalculable in fact, it may easily bo the determining factor in a crisis in those countries that would precipitate the revolution which has been very seriously threatening for a long time past. Austria has long been the cynosure of keenest observation by the world’s statesmen, internal weakness being of so extreme a character that almost anything may have happcned_ The premiership of Hungary has changed time after time, and before th e news of the Italian victory came to hand had resigned and Andrassy had succeeded him. This is one more stop to friendship with the Allies; Andrassy is not likely to reign long, and the mantle may then fall upen Karolyi, who sometime ago advocated in the Reichsrath

an early peace by compromise, rapprocliment with Britain and the democratisatiou of his country. AustraHungary was at this point sometime ago, and has been parrying it - by efforts at peace with Russia on lines drawn by Germany, and through the Pope. In fact, it was yesterday cabled that the Empress of Austria had been corresponding with the Pope, imploring him to make peace proposals, all with Germany’s cognisance. Promises of German victories have caused Austria to dally too long; there was a time when it might have been possible to i effect' a seperate peace with Russia; it might even have been possible to .have come to arrangements with the 'Allies but all that was before the two Russians Kerensky and Korniloflf became leaders of the Russian peopla and Russian armies. Korniloff has an old debt to repay Austria; he will not forget the treatment he received while J a prisoner at Buda Pesth, nor the [ treatment his fellow-countrymen are , getting. He escaped from his captors | and tramped on foot for some thirty days through Hungarian towns and camps, till he safely reached his own country and now he is preparing to pay the bill for his board and lodging. Kerensky is not likely to favour any * peace with Austria that does not bring freedom for Slavs in that country, ■where a minority of Magyars, with German assistance, rule a majority of Slavs. Neither will Kerensky be likely to make peace w 7 hile an Emperor who is the catspaw of the Kaiser, Is on the throne. The position in Austria is admittedly parlous, and this great Italian victory wall contribute to a condition of chaos, if not revolution. Italian armies are now only som e six or seven miles from Trieste; Austrians that, with German help, were going to overrun and degrade Italy as they did Servia, have found their masters, and are being driven like maddened cattle from country that has been under Austrian rule for centuries. This great victory by our Italian Allies will have a very wide influence for the good of the Allied cause. HIBERNIAN PHILOSOPHY. We are to-day very mutfli In the position that the philosophic Hibernian must have been when he said, ‘'lf I musht I musht, there’s no choice left.” Money is wanted to continue the war, bring about the defeat of Kaiserism, and to establish a peace that will be a blessing to us and to our children’s children, w e hope, into the Very dim future, Money is wanted that we may retain the heritage of freedom that was bequeathed to us by our fathers, and to enable us to hand it on to those who come after us entirely free from the taint of domination as we received it. It’s the proverbial Irishman’s case with us, “If we must we must,” and it is just as well that we should emulate our unknown Irish friend’s, philosophy and realise that, “there is no choice left. With the merest introspection, wo realise that there is no way of winning the war but by the expenditure of money and men; that the money can only come from those who have it that lit is no longer attainable, from England and that the money-bags of America are being shepherded in the interests of America, the Allies, and for purposes that will enable other countries not yet in the war to throw in their weight against Prussianism. We boast about being a grown-up nation when any immediate material advantages r.re awaiting claimants, we must also be a fully grown up nation in fighting for that freedom which the Motherland has given us, and which we wish to retain and enjoy. Misers amongst us have struck 'upon bad times; it is either their money or their freedom and honour that must be affected; they must fight with* their money or lose the other qualities that their, forbears purchased dearly with blood and treasure for them. New Zealand cannot get the

money requisite to carrj' on the v r ar successfully from any extraneous source; it is purely a case of having no choice left but to find the money ourselves. W e read of the Whitmans, of Wairarapa and the McHardy’s of

Palmerston, and pride is felt that the majority of men with money in this country are willing, nay, eager, to pour it into the National War Chest that the country’s honour may remain untarnished. This cessation of borrowing from the Motherland is something new to us, and we have not quite come to make it accord exactly with our old ideas. Only some amongst us realise the true position and take to the new regime that has been forced upon us, like ducks to water, but wo shall all come to understand that, as a nation, we arc to be much more self-contained and self-reliant, so far as money goes, than we have ever been in the past. Germany has menaced our freedom and we havs boldly and honouurably replied with our men, we have sent the flower of our jmung life to stem the tide of Hun invasion, we have hitherto lived largely upon borrowed money, but the source of our borrowing has run dry, and now we are compelled to find all the money that is required to. feed, clothe and keep in fighting trim, the hundred thousand men we have sent away. There is a-mple money in the

country for a loan of fifty millions,

but it is only twelve millions that are now asked for that our sons, brothers and fathers may be kept as we arc honourably bound to keep them. iJet us say with our ancient Hibernian brother, “If I musht, I musht, there’s no choice left,” and let u« all promptly go with out subscriptions to the W T ar Loan, where they will earn big interest, free of income tax, ar to the Post Office for five per cent War Bonds, and if our resoruccs will not allow us to display our patriotism to that extent even, let us invest all we can in War Certificates. Thirteen shillings will secure a Certificate which the Government will return us £1 for.

What appears like a case of real hardship is brought to light by a rather pathetically worded letter from Mr Thos. P. Ransom, baker and confectioner, to his customers, appearing in this issue. Mr Ransom’s son, who worked and managed his business, has been ordered into camp, and although all means within Mr Ran-

som’s knowledge have been exhausted to get another baker, he now finds that circumtsances have arisen that render continuance of his” business quite impraticable. It is unfortunate that arrangemenits cannot be made whereby an elderly man could be saved froln ruin. First one man and then another has promised to take the vacant position, but none have kept to their word. Mr Ransom did not appeal to the Military Service, Board, because his son was anxious to go to the war. We hope the local Efficiency Board will do something to save an old man from the loss that the forfeiture of his business will entail.