AMERICA AT WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 January 1918, Page 2

AMERICA AT WAR.

SIR EDWARD MORRIS' ACCOUNT. i DAILY AIR 'SERVICE" TO BERLIN IN 1918. Overflowing with enthusiasm over the United States' prodigious preparations for "Kanning the Kaiser"—the Americans' slang definition of then determination to smash Hohenzollerism—the Right Hon. Sir Edward Morris, the veteran Prime Minister of Newfoundland, reached London at the end of October. Graphic, as have been many of the accounts sent England relatives to Araeicra's plans in the field of finance, food, shipping, and military and naval organisation, Sir Edward Morris declares (says the Daily Mail) that until one has been on the Spot it is impossible to grasp the magnitude of the effort of tlie United States is- getting ready to make in Democracy's cause. He describes it as heartening beyond words. President Wilson is clothed with a mandate which practically has no limits. The coiintry demands of hint-only that he-mobilise every resource and asset it possesses—human and physical—to attain the end. on which every American patriot lias set his heart; to rid the universe for all time of the curse of the Prussian sword. Sir Edward Morris said to a Mail representative:— "I am straight from an extended sojourn in the 'United States, where; at Washington and New York, I enjoyed special opportunities for watching the Americans at the work of gearing up their war machine. Before dwelling on Borne aspects of that organisation, which in many respects is going to he the most powerful thing of its kind the world has ever known, 1 would like to emphasise for the benefit of the people in this country what America's real war aims arcs To begin with, they are absolutely con crete. They were made concrete in order that the simplest mind in the country might know exactly why the nation is fighting. TO BANISH KAISERISM. "The United States is only secondarily concerned with the general war aims of the Allies. She favors, of course, the liberation of' Belgium and AlsaceLorraine. She stands, as Britain stands, for the rights and liberties of small nationfi. She is out, as the rest of us are, to vindicate the elementary principles, of humanity and international law. But all of these aims are more or less incidental to the Americans' real aim. That aim is to banish Kaiserism from the face of the earth for all time to come. Until it is achieved the American people will not rest content. Thev know that nothing short of 9uch a result can or will, in President Wilson's words 'make the world safe for Democracy.' "American mothers are sending r.heir sons to Franco in order that the yoke of Prussian militarism may not only be lifted from the neck of the German people, hut also that it may he broken.and crushed to pieces so effectively 'that it can never be reassembled and pressed down on the neck of any other people. "That is America's war aim in a nilt■shell. There is no diplomatic heating about, the bush. The Americans are intent on 'Kanning the Kaiser" and all his AIR ATTACK IN 1918. ■ "One day at Washington I watched the manoeuvring of three big Italian seaplanes. They were circling round the tall Washington Monument after a hundred mile fight from an army aerodrome in a neighboring tSate. A distinguished United States senator, meditating on the war in the air of which those graceful Italian machines were harbingers, said: 'Air supremacy will belong to the United States before the war is over.' I would like to tell people in Britain why the senator's state nient is no idle boast. It is manifestly nothing hut a pledge of future events, because the Americans are arranging to put on almost their best 'licks' on the air campaign. They have alreadv appropriated nearly £200,000,0011 for it. They aro training 100,000 youths to he airmen. They arc ready to build machines literally by the tens of thousands. The best engineering brains of the country have buried the competitive hathet and evolved tlie Liberty engine from which great mechanical results are looked for. "This time next year at the outside—probably long before that—the Americans, as they put it to me, are going to run a day and night service to Berlin They are going to drop bombs in Germany from the sky at something approximating the rate at which Haig. and. Petflin are now dropping shells over the German lines in Flander.s, and France. Do people in these islands realise that the money America is spending on aircraft and air preparations alone exceeds the sum total of our old Imperial prewar Budget for the military, naval, and Civil Services combined? And does anybody hereabouts know that the Air Bill! appropriating the 'billion dollars' was* passed by the United States Senate, after inst three hours of deoate?

THE MONEY-SPENDERS. "I know that Americans' reputation in Europe with those who do not know them is that of money-grubbers. Well, they are doing their best to become tlie biggest money-speeders in human history. I cannot adequately picture the scenes of enthusiasm which accompanied the launching of tlie first Liberty Loan. J was in Wall Street that day. The fervid competition of brokers and bankers and of all classes of the financial community to. make the loan a triumph was something splendid. I was in .England' last February, during tlie Victory War Loan campaign, but never saw anywhere anything at all approaching the war loan spirit whih the Americans revealed. "I cannotspsak too highly of the missionary work which Lord Northciifi'e is accomplishing in the Unite.! States. The tour he is now making through the Great West is of especial value to the British cause."