NEUTRALS.

Taihape Daily Times, 17 April 1918, Page 3

NEUTRALS.

VIEW OF ENGLAND TO-DAY.

SMILING A WAY TO VICTORY.

(By Audun H. Telnaes, editor of the Haugesunds Dagblad. Norway.)

I have been in England about a week, but, apart from seeing everywhere, I sometimes find it difficult to think that this is a country involved in a tremendous war. At breakfast I read in the paper some complaint about the shortage of food, I had eaten a plate of porridge, a good slice of fish, and was then eating some meat. Apart from the fact that my supply of sugar was limited, I could find nothing to complain about Moreover, I have beefi down to the docks, and I do not think there is much danger yet awhile of England being starved by the U-boats. I would suggest one thing, and that is that English people fish. Two meatless days Tn"a week! In Norway we have four or five always. We nearly live on fish. It is absurd to say fish is not nutritious enough food for working people. Our experience shows us that it is. What you want is a much larger~supply of fish, and more general instruction in the art of cooking it. The' working people should be told exactly how tc do it. Even when war ends meat will be scarce, but why worry so long as the North Sea is full of fish? When I say that England does not seem like a country at war I do not wish to be misunderstood. I mean that there is no aspect of misery and suffering. The people you meet in the street have cheerful faces. Every one is smiling. They look confident. The impression I have gained from talking to people is that you did not go to the war willingly—you did not want to go to war, but you felt you had no other course—but that, being at war, you are going through with it until you secure a peace worth having.

One of the things I like about my visit is that I am not being taken round on a tour. The Foreign Office asked me what I should like to see.

and I told them. They said: "All right, go and see just what you like." I went one day to see the interned Germans at Islington, and talked to several of them. They are men wno married English wives„ They told me that they could not in fairness complain of anything. It has delighted me to see fathers and mothers with their" young officer sons. They come into the hotel to lunch or dinner. The young officer has perhaps been wounded or is just going to the front. You can see how proud they are of him, and how deep is their affection, but they are smiling and business-like rather than demonstrative; there is no weeping or anything sentimental. And the soldiers you meet in the streets —ah: what men! I do not mean that they are wonderfully drilled, but that they are real men —tall, well set up, with frank open faces and eyes bright witn the joy of youth. It is splendid to see such men—the kind of men you would like for friends. There is one thing I would like to say about Norway. We have done everything we can, while remaining neutral, to help the Allies, and we have suffered much. Our ships have been sunk and our seamen drowned. The U-boats have not only sunk our ships, but they have fired on our men while in boats or in the water. It will be a very long while before the people of Norway forget or forgive that.