BRITON'S UNBENDING PRIDE.

Taihape Daily Times, 29 October 1917, Page 7

BRITON'S UNBENDING PRIDE.

A DETERMINED NATION. Via Rotterdam, England receives from a German newspaper correspondent, some impressions of the British officer, and the writer makes a number of complimentary remarks, many of which arc quite unexpected. On the whole he pays a warm tribute to men whom he possibly did not see till they fell into German hands after stubborn fighting, and this possibility makes all the better worth reading what he has to say, for by them our men have withstood much. Sketchy quotations of his impressions follow, thus: — The British officers are generally strong, determined, independent, courageous young fellows, full of firm confidence."

"The younger officers are entirelywanting in what we are accustomed to call 'military ; bearing' but the manliness of the type which England has trained is quite suitable to replace much of this militarism. Stomachs and spectacles are not to be seen among them. The feeling that they are always superior to other nations gives them great calmness and they are therefore, not filled with any real hate against Germans." HOME INFLUENCE. "The war is by them quite coolly regarded as a sort of necessary clearing up between England and Germany for pre-dominance. They arc convinced that Germany wished to conquer the world, and that England could not allow that. They are strengthened , in their pride by the attitude of their people at home. Stacks of captured letters confirm this fact. It is just the plain, simple, middle-class people who are suffering under the war and want peace, but these very people warn their men at the front, determinedly to hold out, to bear all suffering, even the worst, if only they can force victory. The English have now. bitten themselves into the war idea, and are obstinately determined to carry the affair through. In any case such words as they write help the men at the front to hold out."

"As regards the war' situation, the views of English officers differ very much. Some of them still trust to English victory this year. The majority, however, as generally jtolso the men, are not so firmly of this opinion. They believe we and they are about equal to one another, and that neither will be able to conquer. But not one of them regards it as thinkable that England should accept a German peace. That is pride of a hitherto reconquered 'nation, and this pride is opposed to the pride on our side of the people's army, which has been unconquered for a hundred years."-4 "English officers have a very contemptuous opinion of the U-boat war. They say there i s no question that the submarine war will bring them into the slightest difficulty, and that they havc unlimited confidence as to- the development of all affairs at sea." "There is one thing we should take to heart and learn from the English. I don't mean the use of English counting in tennis or the aping of English customs, but the unbending pride which places before everything else their Fatherland and their own nation.'