IN LIBERTY'S CAUSE.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 August 1915, Page 9

IN LIBERTY'S CAUSE.

what bfjtaix has do.xk ax american view. London, June 22. Some of our Continental friends are, it would seem, not quite content with what the liritish Empire has done and is doing in the war. They should be given the chance of perusing an article which recently appeared in an American journal—the' Daily News of Chicago, to wit, It is a striking tribute to the part Great Britain has played in the war, and howshe is "bcnilinjj her energies to a colossal task." It is not always bad for people to hear their praises sung bv others, and certainly this American newspaper's appreciation of Britain's efforts makes

rateful and comforting" reading, after »o have had to swallow such heavy doses of criticism from Home and Continental sources. Here, says the Chicago Daily Xcws, are some of the things Britain is doing: 1. Holding the seas for the .ships of her Allies as Well as for her owii. 2, Protecting the coasts of her Allies as well as her own. , 11. Struggling in co-operation with the French to smash the Turks and win the Balkans for the Allied cause. 4. Rendering great aid to French and Belgian troops in resisting thc-.terriblo onslaughts of the Germans on the Allied left wing in the west. 5. Making loans and supplying ammunition to nearly all her partners in the war. (i. Pursuing a financial policy in Southeastern Europe likely to promote the cause of the nationalities. 7. Putting into the held more than ten .times as many men as she ever promised. S. Guarding her own soil and people against an invasion, which, if it came —and it is believed to be far from impossible—doubtless would be the nust savage, the most unsparing ever known. With how many men? Well, with enough. To hear some people talk, one' would suppose that upon Britain were laid the duty of defending every land but her own.'' THE ONE SURE SAFEGUARD* The Chicago Daily Xews continues:

'•Britain's wealth and sea power and .military power are the one sure safeyuan! against the triumph of Germany's unparalleled war maehine. Without Britain's help France and Russia certainly must have been crushed. Without Britain's wholehearted participation in the war, who will say that Italy would have ventured to challenge the' mighty and liioi'cilc-s Germanic coalition? With Britain out of the struggle, would-there have been any hope of the Balkan Slates daring to move? "And Britain—never forget it—was nut compelhd to go to the aid of frame. Conic what might, the most that ever Britain promisid France were six divisions—h'O.non men. She was not ill honor hound in scud a single soldier more. She could have stayed'out of the war. Germany had begged her to >-(; iv out of the war. Disgraced she might have been —as Britons think she must have been —if she had left Belgium and France and European liberty to their doom. '■But she eouid have done this. Britain was not attacked. France and Russia were attacked. Britain might have awaited the onset, as America is awaiting the onset. Britain might have stood clear, might have husbanded her resources of men and money, .might swiftly have prepared, and ever might have loomed over the stricken adversaries in the end and claimed tkc hegemony of Knrope for herself, Britain did not do so. ALT, FOR LIBERTY. She threw her trident into the scale. She threw her sword into the scale. She threw her gold into the scale -and 'he is incalculably rich. "She threw into the balance her lire, pressive racial record, her prestige, her unrivalled diplomatic skill, She threw —is throwing—will thro* into the balance the whole puissance of her Empirc. All for what? For the principle —the fruits of the principle—of the. liberty of the individual against the despotism of the State. "Britain, one can believe, may be the ■author of some acts of which she is not proud—may have done some things to cause her, looking back upon them with full light, to wish they never had been done. But in this war this old and proud democracy is unfolding, applying, a material strength and a moral splei"! dor that for countless ages after this conflict is stilled will ho shining vindimmed amid the first glories of history."