IS BRITAIN DECEIVED?

Taranaki Daily News, 3 July 1915, Page 10 (Supplement)

IS BRITAIN DECEIVED?

pushed back a decisive inch e.e: pu-i-UloYgli' hiding: '.-. ii i i tl' 'i- ai'.r. .; ;;.v British water, ai will. \h>.v/.-. i:.>..,":i----ouYdnvr t!v:if.':i iVr ]..,'-■ bg,;■;■■■ v > will 1)'.- o\ir in' ii:- em ..\ ;,|.ai,i:.i, '!!!! i. ' '• ■ - j- v | a fool's paradise: b,..::fe it i,' or.,pa-.fl-ing a lirtion .desigatd dt;.'. tiy and gr.:-.e. t'n fight and win the "war." '.':„•■ war .ran In- fought and won witii ju.-t two tki':;;-s the country with the Yiea "'.int neither men nor money are urgently needed because tiio war is ii/./.iiug to its linisii kcriminal. If tiie war-viil-lii'-over-la'foiv-wr-krow-teps it wntiiil be bad enough, for I ai;j sure a lot of Kitchener's stalwarts uaJ ■t'voiii these Olympian lieighf-: yet \ would shrug my shoulders and rriiioiulwr tin:fc one has no right to expect log:* and perspicacity, as a nil,.. I'roa: ii:' l man or woman in the str.vi. lie and tic' headlines iu th-ir fa.oi'viu- u-'W--

paper, and for months have not s. en a Germans "ri'lrea'Lii:e'' iMnoini..;>u: •■!•,- hither and tl'ithcr and I he Allies "naii' lug" irri-sisiibiy here tin re, and everywhere. If bills instead of bulleis or.!' 1 beat the Germans, the Raiser's forwa.'ili:ig address would lr.ui' been St. I'-lena lung ago. Put it e not only in Omnibushiuil 1 hear it daily from men and women who can think and reason, as well as read. 1 hear it iu the clubs., anil in the restaurants where they charge for "covers," and 1. hear it most vm-ifor-01if.lv from able-bodied gentlemen wh > hiive not exchanged spat, for pi:t!e<s. What is it .1 hear? Thev will toil vn:; that Germany has "shot her b, P.' !":••!: Russia and Belgium thai A:- can cii(ii:er. That she ha- ' ■:<! to put boy... Thai, she has abandoned all hope of inking Pari,, Warsaw, am, Calais. That sle knows that sin- is beaten. That .'vrupps are short of copper and saltpeter and iierli.i is on tiie brink ef cat ami (leg rations. That the German pi ople iire seivhing with discontent and despair which they dare not utter, and hanker is a discredited and disgruntled ruer of a mmo.lcd and ball'k'd nation. That its collapse, though ..hrewdly veiled, i, ill progress, and that ".larva! ion" will siiortlv am! il.cisivelv complete the worn which Nen.e Chap, lie bgan. ■oni (i:i,i;,;o,i)(Ht Foks. Xow. 1. hap'pen to know a bit about Germany: not everything, but a bit. I lived lliere the best part of a dozen V'ars. They were the years when Cormunia was finishing her battle toilet and crouching for tiie attack. She had been at (lie dressing-table for twentylive, or thirty years before that. Dor-; any liriton who does not do his thinking in his boots imagine that these toiling years and decades of preparation for war contemplated "collapse" just because Germany, after eight months of lighting' and the loss of l,i);i(),0(lO or so lit lighting men, has only hem able to eononer Belgium, the industrial provinces of France and most of Russian Poland?

Do people, in these unrutl'h d isles know that storage of shot anl shell and tlie other implements of man-killing is only a microscopic part of what Germany calls preparation for war? Do Pnglishmen realise thai they are fight-, dug not 4.1)00,(11)0 or .i;n()Ci,,<li)lf uniformed', armed Germans,-but (K,00(l,()00 or (KI,(HIHUliil who have never smelt gunpowder?. \

Preparation? Viewed Toutoui.-allv, we here in 'Muddh'i and i.Meddleland \lmit know the meaning of tlie tcrtii. lon are reading 11 good deal about-War Babies'' in England jiist no\v. Germany has been breeding \rarT)aliies for half a century. If they arc war babies thev grow in'ii'i soldiers'. -'lf they are girl''bailies, they become" mother's of soldiers. Babies have always been .No. 1 in the long list, of German preparations .for, war. That is tlie. reason why Germany and Austria combined, when war broke out, are reliably reported fo have had only 711.000 less trained soldiers than Russia, France, Great Britain, Belgium,, and Servia combined.

We laugh hereabouts at German' thoroughness and far-sightedness— have called it over-organisation. \;i the orgy, of efficiency in which Germany, normally? has its being, f used myself in antebellum days to thank Heaven that I came from a clime where easy-going, while not exactly a venerated, was a' tolerated virtue. It needed the red perspective of war to permit me to see the real meaning of it all—to understand the actual goal in view. 1 know now why Germany, for instance, has been labouriously card-in-dexing not only all her own docile people, but CTcry foreigner who arrived within her gates before lie had been there long enough to change a collar. I know now why Germany for years has taken the trouble to keep track of the pudigrccs and whereabouts of every pig, bullock, sheep and horse, every waggon, motor-car, van and lorry in the country. I know now why the Government in Berlin was ablu at any time to figure, almost to 11 bushel, how much wheat, ryo, barley, oats and corn was at the disposal of the population or would be at any given date in the future. I know now why the Imperial Bank for more than two years before Uft August—for all

iinlHii tn read and punder if it only v.niilil ii poliry «f systematic ■iiii:iM.-ial ie.nniii.-uCon'' wire!: found i.'..- ■!'.. i, .■:.■;!., i. v,:i:, violated, ii, u ; ium. t!: ' ■.. '!' f-.\.:u l-.a-iami's, i..--fc Ce'- „;:,! I.r-i, ' -:W, u'naio'imL ill.'iiu"'h-/i'.v (•aviicuiy i-.purlin- up, : in- \.-...i!<l lie in .--■i-.-ili!;. dik-i ;!:.-.' i- :■."...":.-" i;; i"c-r f V-: ■"■ liim thai .;. = • v. a- is isp-i:,:;; i.i i - Llii'.i:;'-:i'.vi' i i'.!,iHi i-.iirl s-lf-ure; piien ueil iiriMi::..-,:.,!,-..-,!-,.'. T rauii,,; iu-ip isi:vins.:,ti:Ar*..- l :-:-.i'.vi ; .,l.iH- of (i-.-..M:-.ii \ iia'ii v l!;:hvj M;e has Ii:':! iiyu- P. beiu- ':!uv,i! lUit'e/'r'nnaVi. i'.' I :.-;■'■ os ti: fill! hue!-: n:i. I.i ;;nii--- to k- enisli-d in six mouths- k is too turned from (ii-nimny—every day. I [hey s.iy ■■«■),. nut u-hooil, ui:il crimed four niiii livi'i'i.i.;. hv iiiijin.-jmlir.-d poo ]ili- cniuinu nut -if (h.-niiany. l-'ar fro;,; ;:>n; hlcrii::; themselves !i-ii.eu, tin- <!cr(nruiuuy i-. mii. -h-i-d up." y-hr is lint -e'iu'; i 1111;■;;■; 1-■-. .-••hi- is il'.,-tillVc!liellc cd -Hid she is in-.;.!, more sn than ever, I immeasurably lin-ri'. li'.ii. when Mill have Mii.l that. y..:i hiivc- K-iid it 'nil. I'.-ir outrankim/ all these lun-annv preparations nf !n-rs ;'.,i- 'l'li;. Day—i!n- stored I shot :iiid .In-!!. Ilu- win- l.aim-s. tin- train--1 id li- ; ;.ii'-, in- tabulated livestock, the iniid r.-i-rv far above HI these physical and material war assets- is tin-indomii-Me spirit of the Cenn.-iM people. It is i! U y!.ieii Li:-.- Allies iiave to break ln-1. ;-i- U;e wav v. ill lie won.