THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1911. THE WAR SCARE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10309, 9 August 1911, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1911. THE WAR SCARE.

In. .the ©ounse of >ah "article on the. swan* scare, tlie Taranaki (News' points ouit itfhat both Britain <ajid Germany possiess uiiipreoedienied .meauis of; destroying meni .and property. It points out that "The Germani liavy is new, its isailors are mew, its sentiment is n©w, its handling of ships is now—it is new from keel (to ponnlaaiit, rfil-wm gunner to admiral, from A to Z. Tli© matjon which do going to lower the flag of an enemy nation is not necessarily (the nation that has the greateslt weight of ironmongery or the longest-range gums, or 'tin© most destructive explosives. The nation that hais the latter-day Nelson is the naltiom that will continue to dominate the sea.. Th© .spirit, mot the ironmongery; the' men, (rather than .the guns; .the loader, rather than any other .consideration, will dciteiiimin© victory. The terrible power of the German army is assured because it as, a.s> far as on© knows, as! perfect ia machine' for its purpose as any existing. Its embodied units are vastly imar© numerous .than our own. But it ha* never yet beeu proved that tuiis great machine, because it consists of compulsorily enlisted .soldiens, is a bettor' machine) m«m for maw, .than the shore-fighting maohinie of any other Power. People who i get hold of th© fact that Germany can mobilise a million trained men. at b> given point in. Germany i witfliin. 24 thiouris iseie in .this .simiplie fact the ini&vitabality of .her .amashinig a Bjitiisk army of 300,000 ©mhodiecl tiroops' It is -no* to be forgotten that, baanr-

ing the 'specialists,' the rank and file of an .army is not 'trained' in any extraordinary sense. Tlieire is, indeed, mothing to prevent, an intelligent and able-bodied recruit of three months' service- toeing as useful It© sua army as a veteran private with a quarter of ia 'century's iservice. If we allow that Britain has 300,000 embodied regular troops prepared to take, the field ibwnediately we aiie a,pt—not knowing Britain— to assume that the rest of the population of Britain j is wholly incapabiLe of istrikiing a blow for freedom. Britain contain® hundreds otf thousands of isoldiers wlio i are mot serving with the colouns and whose iservice in the reserve iis completed. When. Britain calk .she does not Ibeg tliese oneni to help her. They simply gallop to trie colours. For every man An fclie embodied army. ' there are ten who would he very angry to be left out when the -call dame. Most people do wot realise the fact, 'once a soldier, always a' soldier.' The uriti&h army, wililatever its weaknesses aire, is to the man wlw> criticises it from his lack of knowledge of iit, an organisation, every file of which is imbued for the I whole of his .Life with its sentiment and discipline. There are mo party politbs in Britain) when, the guns begin to .shoot. The people, Umionislt or Liberal, are just Britishers—that's i all. We sdiiicenely believe in. the day of her peril even the Labour Party wiH i&lwnv it is not afraid to help in the .saving of an Empire."