The Daily News. THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 1915. A SERIOUS MATTER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 311, 10 June 1915, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 1915. A SERIOUS MATTER.

if one framed one's jinlL-im-iit from the leading columns of some of the dailies of lliirf IJoiiiinimi, flu; war is all mcr, liar shouting. \:niiiii>ortaut successes of tlic; Allies are magnified, whilst obvious advantages gained by the enemy are dismissed as being of little account. This attitude scrves.no good purpose. The public can stand being told the truth, however unpalatable it may be. The cable news is scrappy and unsiilis- | factory in many respects, kit it must iliat v.e ha'.o a Ion;; way to go yet- | 1,.-f t ,,-<- iMi.rv is within gra-p. We have Lorlainly progressed in France, hut a I glance at the map will show that our | progress during' the past few months hiss !>cc!> painfully slow. We perhaps | have been led to expert too much of J the oll'rnsive movement that was pro- ■-,..;, i ;,, :-,. May and not taken ~,!,■„.;,..!:;- into account the herculean ■ „;:•,,.■,. ~r )!„, ja-I.; before m\ We are | youtlis and father' of families, and that

the standard oi officers has deteriorated. (' Tliia eort of ."*ew»" trifles with the. intelligence. Thd '' natural reply is, if tlie enemy lias so deteriorated, why aro the Allies, with their overgrowing efficiency, not making greater progress? The people do not want rubbish, of tliia kind; they want facte. They must know if thoy only rod At that'tho Aiistro-Gcrnian combination is a mighty powerful one, that, so far, its amijjpH in the- field are far from beaten, thatUhc war is the moat .dreadful menace that lias even confronted the British Empire, and that to win wo must. in company with our Allies, put forth a maximum of effort. We are certainly not immediately menaced in thcße far-flung islands, but victory for the enemy, or even » draw, -will most seriously imperil our liberty. In this connection, wo were much struck with a leading article recently appearing in the Sydney [Bulletin, a journal which, whatever its faults, cannot bo accused of refraining from speaking its mind. It refer 9 to the indifference of the average colonial in the matter of the war, and, ch&raotcristicailly, heads its article: "The pcoplo want dynamite and are given chloroform." Discussing the attitude of the average Australian, it says: "He has simply become convinced that all danger is past and victory a certainty. Ho knows that Germany is eating bread made out of potatoes; that it is already hungry and will soon lie starving; that in the west the business of pushing tho Kaiser's army over the Rliino may begin at any moment, and that in the east the Russian steamroller is getting steadily nearer to Berlin. Whoever casts doubts on these cheery fancies is a inean-spirited bound, unworthy to be classed among the sons of the Empire. The war will be over, Germany beaten and the Kaiser exiled (or, better still, banged) in three months, or at-the most six. Then will come the glad process of collecting the indemnities. Our share of the spoil will recoup us for every sacrifice. Tlie great war will -liave paid a generous dividend. Everybody will be richer than ever. This attitude is .more ridiculous than Germany's hate campaign, for where tlie Teuton absurdity may have some national advantage, ours can only do harm." The Bulletin puts tlie blame for this state of affairs partly on those newspapers which gloss over the difficulties the Allies have to contend with and systematically discount the strength of the enemy and his fighting qualities. The astonishing vagaries of the censorship are'also partly responsible. We rarely hear that Hill (say) 150 has been lost to the enemy till we learn of its recapture by the Allies, after a desperate battle, in which the casualties on both sides were prodigious. When the French ' Line is driven back five miles it is a masterly retreat; when the same thing happens to the Germans it is a smash-, ing defeat. Our centre is pierced: it is good strategy. The German centre yields; their morale is broken and the beginning of the end is near. The military experts of the journals have given us so much about German 'routs,' Austrian disaffection and lack of organisation and cash, and Roumanian and Greek detestation of Germany, and so many hopeful forecasts as to the brief duration of the struggle, that they grow tiresome. Tlie best patriotism at the present juncture, when thousands of our countrymen are gallantly hanging on to positions which might be occupied by hundreds of thousands of them were the arms and equipment problem in a more satisfactory state, is to speak without reference to the views of the "big financial interests. Empty braggadocio and vituperation and aloof contempt of a formidable enemy never yet won a battle. Our traditional custom of leaning hack comfortably and remarking that the Empire is bound to "muddle through to the end" may be well enough for Smith Africa, but it is no good for Armageddon. To talk of this war being over in six months at the pre-ent rate of progress is unfair to ourselves and a thousand times more so to the men who eve fightii".' for us. r.nd who need every fragment of aid and enthusiasm that we ran send ihem.