NEW WAY OF LIFE.

Taihape Daily Times, 4 May 1918, Page 6

NEW WAY OF LIFE.

GREAT CHANGES IN BRITAIN, The Westminister Gazette, in an article on the British war effort, says that if ever there was another such ■war we should begin by commandeering the services of all citizens, and we should -make those who were not fighting perform other State services for wages fixed on a scale that would suspend profits or reduce them to a minimum

“This complete collectivism of national effort,” the paper says, “is the logical conclusion of modern wars. ” Men between the ages of 40 and 50 had discovered suddenly that the service they thought was quite natural and proper for their juniors was also required of them, while men between 50 and 60 saw themselves not far removed from liability which never entered the wildest imaginations four years ago.

The paper proceeds to say that taxes will be imposed which four years ago we would have thought impossible to pay. People who live in big houses will have to let or leave them and take smaller ones. Homes will have to be broken up and to be stored.

As regards domestic servants, the Munitions Department has alreadytaken half, and the Women’s AuxiliaryAid Corps wants a good many of the remainder. Moreover, by the big compulsory cutting down of light and coal, houses are being * desolated.. Hence middle-class England has seriously to face a new way of life, and jnany thousands more will have to face it after the coming Budget. The newspaper mentions these things ■without the slightest complaint. It concludes: "We now have to realise that the whole of our lives will have to be rationed, and that there is no sacrifice of comfort or convenience which the State is not entitled to ■demand for us.”