WITHOUT SENTIMENT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9644, 9 November 1909, Page 4

WITHOUT SENTIMENT.

"The Englishman's Home" in manuscript is understood to have been a rather different thing from the play .that set England talking. Major du Maurier is believed to have left England in the grip of her conqueror, but the producers decided that national self-esteem must not be treated so rudely, so the play was provided with a happy ending at the expense of a guud deal of its force. The National Service League, however, has no room for such sentiment. It is producing for propaganda purposes in England a play which marches to an extremely unpleasant and, to many minds, perfectly logical conclusion. There are no victorious British bluejackets at the end. Otherwise it bears much resemblance to the older play. Invasion is the key. The invaders are styled "The Aggressors," a title that apparently satisfies the Censor's peculiar conscience, for, of course, everyone knows that the Germans are the people the author has in view. They descend on J Yorkshire like a bolt from the blue, while the Army is engaged in Abyssinia, and the Navy somewhere abroad, and the joy of wedding festivities gives place to tbe horrors of, war. Out of seven hundred men in the village only fifty are Territorials, and the fate of civilians caught with arms is swift and tragic. The price exacted by "The Aggressors" is the surrender of the colonies, the Navy, and our keys of the world, and the payment of £2,000,000,000. The play Will tour the provinces, and be seen in London in January. "We expect a little opposition," says a member of the National Service League, "but we shall not* mind that. We can stand anything but apathy." The steady progress of the League certainly shows that its ideas are striking root. It now numbers 50,000 members, and has an income of £IO,OOO.