THE SITUATION IN ENGLAND.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 155, 26 November 1914, Page 5

THE SITUATION IN ENGLAND.

A COMMERCIAL MAN'S VIEWS. THE NATION'S SPLENDID RESPONSE. FUTURE POSSIBILITIES. The London- representative of a New Zealand mercantile house, writing to his principal? in Wellington, makes some interesting comments on the situation in England arising out of the war, which we reproduce below:— Of actual hostilities 1 here say nothing: press cablegrams and subsequent newspaper files will inform you more fully and more lucidly than I am capable of doing, but some points arise that it may not be without interest to bring under review.

STAUNCH WHEN TRIED. One outstanding feature is to me, and I am sure will be to you, one not only of relief, but of abiding satisfaction, and that is the staunchness of our troops when tried, perhaps as never troops have been tried before in the field of battle, was perfect. The long and bloody rearguard fight from the Belgian frontier to the environs of Paris was a test of the courage and endurance of the men, and they not only stood it, but in a way that was snperb., I was not without apprehension that we had grown too soft, and that the vagaries' of political leaders had weakened authority and infused a slackening of discipline that would have reacted disastrously upon our armies in the face of the enemy, but any such apprehension is dissipated by events, and it is a matter for solid satisfaction that such should be the case, the more so since the Army departed not inspirited by cheering' crowds, martial music, or any such like, panoply of war, but was as a matter of fact smuggled out of the country when, from where, and to where, nobody knew except those who were immediately concerned in the operation, to find themselves almost at once in the firing line and opposed to an army with a great tradition and far exceeding them in numbers. This was a supreme test, and has been stood in a manner beyond all praise. Also must it be admitted that General French and his Divisional Generals have given proof of their aptitude for war. These men have been specially charged with the training of our field Army, and it is now clear, although we feared that such might not be the case, that the lessons of the Boer War were learnt and have been applied both as regards organisation and direction in the field and discipline. Of course, the reinforcing units will not be of the same high training, and will be in a measure green, and may fall into errors avoided by their comrades in the first line, but inspired by their example they" will be keen to mutate it, and 1 have no doubt will give a good account of themselves. Moreover, they will probably be opposed to troops who have lost confidence and become dispirited, and will perhaps not have the very ordeal that fell to those in the first shock of buttle. The feeding of the troops and the medical organisation have, it is reported, proved excellent, ami due to these conditions and fin weather the loss front sickness has been small, and the deaths from wounds not immediately fatal, remarkably light.

SATISFACTORY RECRUITING. The strenuous recruiting which lias boon, anil is still, going' forward, is bringing to tho ranks men of all classes, but of a very satisfactory typo, and whilst the strain of getting this continued flow of men equipped, armed and drilled, has been very great, it has, and is being accomplished with far loss confusion and congestion than any past experience would have led us to expect. 2lte enlistment in such places as Lanrashire went oil' with a rush; it was evident the more quick-thinking people in the big industrial area recognised more quickly the paramount urgency of the call,' whereas the more truly Anglo-Saxon people of Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk were at first slow to move, their minds did not lightly turn f"om the pro-occupation of harvesting and its attendant wages, but when their slowmoving minds got to grips with- the problem they came forward well enough, it is gratifying to record that, thorn has been a' singular absence of anything bombastic or theatrical; they just rolled up and went, oil' to their duty as a thing needful to be done worthy of those solemn old Ironsides who fought so uriuily for what, they deemed thcr duty over three hundred years gone by. All this is to the good: a nation, lay, ,111 Empire, which showed s.-.ne signs of disintegration is born again. Wlnt will be the result, where will it lead us, are questions easier to put than to answer: that we shall be renewed in some wav is pretty certain, but at what price, anil with what suffering who shall say? Will it crush out the senseUss display, the vulgar ostentation of wealtn, and shall we return to a saner out hole? Will men be measured by their manhood and not by their purseV Will women cease to pose, and abandon grotesque costumes, and again rcgird motherhood and domestic duties as first claims 011 their lives? Perhaps; I hope ' so. The man is iiot earned away by female fripperies, tut looks f k something inciv, although ho has fallen in a nieasrre into the despicable habit of American men of slaying that their womenkind may be foolish; lie .has not gone so far 011 this road that lie. cannot retrace his steps

A GLI"MnSE INTO THE PUTUIUC. As far as I can think out the situation, whilst the bill to be paid will "stagger humanity," the ultimate result to the Empire will be good. ll_ wiU tend to a more sympathetic attitude between classes and employment., and 'so wages should be good for a long time to eonie. .But this will not be 60 just yet—not until the full forces 01 our industrial life can again be set in motion. , , The. poisonous teachings of Labor 'agitators who secured lrom the German menace by the exertions of others--will again raise l their raneoiw voices to disparage their country, but. common sense is not dead', and the harm ttuy will do will not. I think, be equal to their efforts.

Tiis' soldiers' song of the moment liegins, "It's a Long, Long Way to Tijiperarv." 'lt occurs to me tliat it is a long, long way to Berlin', by wliivft -l mean it is yet far away to an enduring peace. liussia, France, Belgium and Great Britain each have their views, and it will be less easy at tile Council Board than in the Held to bring these conflicting interests and widely differing nationalities into harmony, tlie more so since Germany and Austria will be for some time political and financial wrecks, and the "loaves and fislie3" represented by war indemnity will be without that miraculous power of expansion that is recorded of an earlier, timgn..

blems, coupled with "balaiio© ot power, • and other pet terms of politicians, pre* Kent some very intricate problems for solution. Then we have a. grJit Press agitation if or "capturing Gernran trade. It seems to me that a good deal of 'moonshine is being talked. The position seems to be that the German system of heavy bounties to tneir shipping trade must go, and that their overseas carrying trade fa crippled for 'long years to come. The one waa an economic factor which was unsound and was doomed sooner or later; the other is a consequence of war, and both are favorable to us, and we shall have a loss crushing competition opposed to us in the future, which is well, but I see no reason to think it will be any advantage to us to sec German industrial life crushed. It is well for British makers to wake up, but the winning of trade must ultimately rest on our skill, industry, and technical training. The immense wealth of our carrying trade will give'ua by relief from a crushing competition induced by unsound economic methods in Germany, where industries have b<:en controlled by the banlks, and the banks by the Government, are elements of hope and satisfaction, and all the good we can draw from it will be wanted badly enough to reinstate our financial position, but it will only be retarded by placing obstacles in the way of international trade. COPPER FOR ESSEN. •- % Rome, November 24. Five freight cars loaded with copper, recently landed at Genoa for Krupp's works at Essen, have been detained on the Italian frontier. \~