THE WAR IN ENGLAND.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 November 1915, Page 10 (Supplement)

THE WAR IN ENGLAND.

CHANGED CONDITIONS. INFLEXIBLE DETERMINATION. Writes a firm of Birmingham merchants to a New Plymouth business house:— Since our last letter we believe the newspapers will have informed you of all concrete events which have happened. You will have been a3 fully inform ed as we have of the heroic work on the Gallipoli Peninsula, and in the waters surrounding it; of the continuous stubborn struggle in Northern France, Flanders and Belgium, where, the Allies are still obliged for the main part to remain on the defensive and hold up the foe pending the arrival of necessary ammunition; of the equally stubborn resist-1 ance of the .Russians, and their ultimate retreat behind Warsaw, also made necessary by want of ammunition; of the Bplendid finish Botha and his South Africans have made in German South-West Africa. CHANGES IN LIFE AND CHARACTER. But the newspapers nave ijot perhaps spoken of the changes in British life and character which have been and are being gradually evolved during these days of novel and dreadful experiences. This evolution is quiet and unobtrusive; it lias to be looked for before it is discovered; but it exists. To describe it correctly is difficult—it would be easy to exaggerate and easy to give a false impression. It can be found all over the country, but chiefly in London. The nation has waked to the knowledge that it is in travail, and each individual man and woman has realised that each and every one has to bear the pain and the labor. The nation has become serious; the ready smile and the little joke, which used frequently to accompany work and business are missing; faces are set and somewhat stern, they reflect earnest thought and solemn responsibility. Many show signs of weariness begotten of prolonged overwork—and this, it should be laid, applies equally to the manual worker as to the mental. A very large proportion of these workers are not able to And relief in the usual summer holiday; an odd afternoon or a short weekend is all that can be snatched. And the weary ones are living carefully and frugally, husbanding their strength and stimulating themselves by a dogged determination to hold out to the finish. There are heroes at home here without uniform or trumpets. All people are quieter than of old; all relations and actions between man and man are gentler; one can sense an intangible sympathy of feeling, inarticulate but real,, drawing men unconsciously together as a great common sorroy will re-unite or strengthen family ties. There is an absence of any appetite for the usual amusements and recreations. The theatrical 1 world is disbanded, and few performances of legitimate drama are given. The variety stage and the picture houses flourish because of manual workers seek relaxation there; and with them money is at present plentiful. Theatrical celebrities are driven to seek a living there. All men's thoughts when not engaged on their work or business are engrossed by the war; there is room in no man's mind for other things. Even golf is never heard of in the railway carriage, and when a man plays a round it is not so much for the pleasure of the game as a reasonable desire to keep fit. We are all learning to think. And the intense fact that we are waging this stupendous war, with its sacrifices and pains and weariness, primarily for the sake of honor and righteousness—a fact grasped and assimilated—is having a wonderful moral effect on the people. It has brought home to men the eternal truth that there are greater and worthier things than wealth. It is true that we are also fighting to beat a bitter and dangerous foe, and that had we not fought some day we should have gone under; but that is a necessary corollary to the outstanding prime fact that we declared war for honor's sake and for the defence of the weak, and for the maintenance of the sanctity of a plighted word. That is the loot idea in every Briton's mind, and from it conies the driving power. And so every Briton the world over is doing something, and nearly always a big something, to promote goodness and truth, and we venture to think that the change in British character which we have endeavored to outline is the natural reflex effect of this mighty effort to do good.

THE LABOR TROUBLES.

In case it should be thought that anything we have said is out of harmony with the newspaper reports of labor troublei which occurred up to some few weeks ago, we would like to say very positively that all the labor troubles were caused by a small number of men, mainly young impetuous fellows who used their powers as officials of the men's unions in an irresponsible and even illegitimate manner. The most conspicuous trouble was that of the South Wales miners, and we must confess that in our opinion the week's strike of a large body of men is unpardonable But to believe —as would be the natural inference from reading the newspapers only—that the whole of these men were unpatriotic, is a great mistake. The responsibility of that strike lies entirely with a small majority of a men's delegates' meeting of less than 200 in number, who very arbitrarily refused to discuss or even listen to the- proposals for a settlement of the dispute which the President of the, Board of Trade put forward. A large minority of this meeting pressed that the suggestions of Mr. Runciman should be submitted to a ballot of the miners, but they were over-ruled, but by a small majority the meeting passed a curt resolution that the miners should come out, in three days' time unless the demands of the men were fully conceded. That the Government proposals for a settlement were at least fair is proved by the fact that they were fully accepted by a meeting in London of the men's executive and masters' representatives, presided over by Mr. Runciman. The whole of the South Wales miners did coine out at the expiry of the three days, whereupon Mr. Lloyd George and Mr. Runciman went down to South Wales. The owners were persuaded to yield absolutely to all the demands of the men, quite irrespective of the merits of the ease, and purely constrained by patriotic motives, and work was fully resumed within a week. The small majority of the delegates', meeting acted strictly within their legal rights as defined by the. rules of the men's union, but they committed a grea', moral wrong, and no one doubts that had the question been referred to a ballot of the men, the strike would never have occurred. In like manner the publicity given to the vaporings and balderdash of the Union of Democratic Control may be equally misleading. So far as can be learnt, this Society consists of not more than two or three score members, rakeil together from the corners of the big

towns throughout England, the most notorious of whom are the discredited and rejected Socialist labor leaders, Keir Hardie and Ramsay Macdonald. The society attempted to hold meetings in various cities, but according to the n«wspaper reports the number attending any meeting never reached 200, the majority of whom went for the purpose of protesting against the utterances of ■ the speakers, and we believe every meeting was broken up. It is some weeks now since anything haß been heard of the out.

THE UNITED STATES' ATTITUDE. I The official attit*dc of the United States Government is causing increasing surprise here People look in vain for a satisfactory explanation of the complete absence of any official protest from the American Government against Germany's violation of treaties and her atrocious outrages against the peoples of Belgium and Northern France; and we arc beginning to look with wonder upon the American Government's apparent complacency iinder the insolent and insulting replies which Germany has sent to the American Government's protests against Germany's submarine tactics. Wei have fceeu looking for and expecting some serious action after each of the strongly-worded Notes which Washington has addressed to Berlin, but bold words have not so far been backed up by any action. It is well known that there are a large number of thoughtful, Americans equally perplexed as ourselves, who feel deeply the undoubted loss of dignity and prestige which their nation is suffering, and who resent the remarkable actions of the German Ambassador in Washington, who, it has been clearly demonstrated by the New York World, is at the head of a campaign of interference with the home politics of the country to which he is accredited: his unprecedented and improper action in the diplomatic world is only to be compared with Germany's outrageous conduct in other spheres of the struggle. One is particularly surprised that the very eminent ,and highly respected magazine, the North American Review, has given hospitality in its pages to a violent and hysterical storm of abuse against England by the renegade Englishman, Houston Chamberlain. A striking example of the dissatisfaction of the best men of America with its Government is the action of Mr. Henry James, who has relinquished his American nationality and become a naturalised Briton. This is about equal to Mr. A. J. Balfour or Professor Sir Oliver Lodge shedding their British nar tionality and becoming Americans.

THE QUESTION OF CONSCRIPTION. There is considerable agitation throughout the country over the question of conscription. Our personal belief is that the majority of the people of the country would welcome it. There is one amongst other very pertinent reasons for its establishment, and that is, under the present conditions,, the best and bravest are filling the trenches, whilst the ne'er-do-well ia still slouching at home. This i 3 neither fair to the individual nor to the nation. Every good strong man lost in the war is not only a concrete loss of a productive worker, but it brings down the average of the morale of the nation. We often wonder whether people in general understand that every emigrant is a loss to the nation at home, because it is only the strong and best of us who go away; the slackers and slouchers remain, and thus is our average of efficiency steadily reduced. The collection of the registration papers, which in effect constitutes a census of the country, with particulars of each one's employment, age and other data, has been completed, and the enumerators are now hard at work collating the particulars obtained. Our own opinion is that when this collation is completed, every man, who, according to the informatios obtained, is eligible for enlistment, will be approached by recruiting officers, and if the result of this pressure to enlist should not produce as many men as Lord Kitchener wants, conscription will follow. THE BELLIGERENT FORCES. Since we wrote the preceding part of our letter, the position of the belligerent forces has become much altered, and great as is the successful forward movement made last week by the Allied forces in France and Flanders, as well as by the Russians (who have reconsolidated their army with wonderful quickness), the strategical improvement is of still greater importance. We believe that the long-looked-for general forward movement has begun, and we trust that from now onwards we shall ready of steady pressure upon the central empires by all the Allies—that is to say, Belgium, Britain, France, Italy, Serbia and Russia.' Very little definite information is vouchsafed us by the Press Bureau, so that we have to read a great deal of correspondence from all the different centres to keep a clear knowledge of what the actions are like and where they have occurred; piece what is written and what is omitted together, and -on this insecure basis form an opinion. There is no doubt that Italy is doing well, in addition to recent forward movements on the east and west of the central Powers; also, streuous and sanguinary as is the fight on Gallipoli Peninsula, we are steadily beating back the Turks and moving towards Constantinople. We luok forward to serious movements in t-hrf Balkan Peninsula. The mobilisation of' Bulgaria, which they call, an "armed neutrality,'' is probably intended for an Attack upon the south of Serbia, whilst the Austrians and Germans renew their attacks upou Serbia in the north. Greece has countered by mobilisation and a general preparedness for war. She says she shall not fight until Bulgaria moves, The correspondence from Athens reports and emphasises the that King Constantino and M. Vcnizclos are in agreement on all points. One may doubt this as an absolute fact when remembering the dismissal of M. Venizelos, and the continued illness of the King after the general election, which strongly emphasised that the people of Greece wanted M. Venizelos and his policy back, [lilt the solid fact remains, whicli is mure important, that Greece lias mobilised. When Bulgaria and Greece start fighting. Rouniaiiia must eoiue in or be wiped out as a nation, and so we have every reason to look forward to stirring time;; in the Balkan Peninsula, all of which will hasten the finish of the struggle. In fact, when the Dardanelles are forced, and Russia can be supplied with ammunitions ad lib. one has no hesitation in saying that the beginning of tlie end will have come.

PARTY POLITICS.

Party politics are still perfectly restrained; naturally there is some amount of cirtieism of the Government both in tile newspapers and in the Commons, but this criticism is from a purely patriotic motive: there is no attempt to embarrass the Government, but rather to stimulate and assist them. And the ab-

sence of any party spirit is remarkable amongst individuals; it is a very real and complete absence of party feeling and all questions of home politics, which will certainly break out afresh when the war is over j are now tacitly left alone. They are lnjng up on a very high shelf and never brought down. There has been no alteration in the increased cost of living and the increased wage rates since we last mentioned these subjects. THII BUDGET. The Budget, with its very drastic and additional taxation, has been accepted very quietly, and although a good many of us agree that its incidence is hardly just, we keep silent and emile as we pay —we have simply got to pay. That part dealing with what is called excess war profits has undoubtedly been very loosely drawn, and will probably provide a good deal of argument and litigation on itß application. It would make our letter too long to enter into details and explanations of this belief, but we may mention one, vi., that there are so many loopholes through which fat people as well as lean people can wriggle to escape .from what the Act wa9 intended to mean, that it is fairly certain the expected proceeds will not be realised.