WHAT THE PAPERS SAY
Observer, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10, 13 November 1915, Page 3
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WHAT THE PAPERS SAY
TOO Hate we realise that, whilst we offered Bulgaria concessions contingent on Allied victory, the Germans judged the people better, and gave them territory at once. Our efforts to reotofy tbe mistake oame too late — the Bulgars were already committed to join our foes. It may never be too late to save the Serbs. Our hesitancy have lost us the Balkans.—Melbourne ' 'Punch.'' * * » A New Zealainder, writing to a friend, summed up the position accurately when he said that if the Ga_lipoli campaign bad been entrusted to ' Canadians, Australians and New Zealandiens it would have been finished by now.—Greymouth "Argus." * *. » The War Minister stated, once more that tbe flow bf recruits has always been satisfactory, and deprecated the idea that "slackers" form a serious part of tbe problem. The real difficulty, as he suggested, is tbat we have now got down to the bedrock of men who have more or less material reasons for not enlisting. ' 'Obronicle.'' * * • It is difficult to account for tbe satisfaction with wbich the German "concession" has been received in the United States except on the principle that Dr. Johnson applied to the dog walking on its hind legs. It does not do. it well, but we are surprised that it does it at all. Germany's concession is a ivory little one and a. very poor one, but that Germany should make any concession seems so near to the miraculous that it basi perhaps disturbed' the equipoise of American judgment.— Manchester "Guardian." * * * The Kaiser looks proudly back on the achievements of his family, who for centuries past have exhibited qualities wbich, in a less exalted sphere, would have earned for them to-day long terms of penal servitude or in rougher times the attentions of the common hangman.—New Plymouth "Herald." * * Hitherto we have maintained the ranks at the front at full strength by means of reinforcements regularly dispatched, duly arriving at the front to take part in tbe fighting. But the rate of supply is not keeping up with the rate of demand. The Minister has pointed! tbat out. Our honour requires that the supply shall be "speeded, up." That is the plain fact. Nothing else matters. —Wel- "Times." * * * There is no denying the fact that, as far as positive achievements in the land war are concerned, the enemy is a very long way to the good. — Wanganui "Herald.' * * « A Holy PanrGerman Empire embracing iblie greater part of Europe and overshadowing the rest of it, with a few such trifles as Egypt and Morocco, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, and India, and 1 a, fair slice of Brazil and the Argentine thrown in! It sounds like a dream or a burlesque, yet such things have never been long absent from the Kaiser's busy brain and fertile imagination since his visit to Constantinople.—Wellington "Post.' * * * We, as a people, have continued to trust Mr Asquith and his colleagues through fair weather and foul, and there is ample evidence to show that that faith has not been misplaced.— Christchurcb "Sun."
The Commonwealth Gove__ime_-fc, by its action, shows plainly tbat the office (of High Commissioner) is recognised merely as being useful in political jobbery, and thereby degrades it, and, :_neidentally, does a great injustice to Sir George Reid. —<_%ristdburch "Sun," * « • Are young New Zealanders prepared to see the women of their country, their mothers, sisters, sweethearts, treated as was poor Miss Oavellj and as New Zealand women might only too probably be treated, were this, fair land of ours to pass under the awful yoke of German military tyranny? Yet that is New Zealand's certain fate should the Empire 'go down in the great struggle now proceeding—that is the real issue for New Zealanders!— Blenheim "Express." * * » The proper representation of New Zealand in London just now would be by Mr Massey and Sir Joseph Ward', and by the time tbe arrangements for meeting our enlarged military obligations l are in full swing there is no reason why they should not both be sparedl.—Wellington "Post," * - * * Whatever may happen now, this war means tbat for the rest of our lives we shall never again find) the old conditions' recur. Life is going to be harder for vs all, and for many it may even assume a new and unknown squalor. We have not really felt the pinch yet, but it is coming, and it will come to stay.— London "Times." * • • As for the greater fairness of conscription to the individual, for example, its supporters have tied it up with a programme of exemptions that destroys all equality of risk. Workers should be exempted in the coal, steel, railways, munitions, clothing, and export trades, among the bread-winning agriculturists, on every side. The moral spirit of the armies is now undoubtedly better, the interference with the vital industries undoubtedly less, than if the country were to rush into some adaptation of the Prussian scheme of service. — New York "Evening Post." * * * France and Germany are doing their very best fighting with mature men. Russia and Turkey and the rest are fighting with mature men. Tbe boys are eager and willing, and many of them have done splendidly, and iii a charge they are fine, but under the prolonged) strain too many break up, and fill the hospitals. "An old dog, for a hard road,, is a true adage.''—Christchurch "News.'' ■ ■ • Thousands of women are now engaged in strange occupations. For example, over 800 women are acting as condtictors on the Glasgow trams, many hundreds are employed on the railways as cleaners and porters, and! they are also showing their capabilities in other walks of life which have hitherto been regarded as set apart exclusively to the male sex.—Wellington ' 'Dominion.'' * .* • The men who have died on Gallipoli have not died in vain, and if the operations are persisted in it will be after consideration as careful, thorough and anxious as that which was given to the whole enterprise before it Avas undertaken.—lnvercargill "Times." * * * In these days our great men— there are not many of them— speak to a pit -and .amphitheatre whose dimensions are limited only by the confines of the globe itself, and whose (spectators embrace the greater portion of mankind I .—Dunedin- "Star." * * *
Tlie German in winter closes all windows and l doors and lives in stove-heated rooms, whose atmosphere is too thick for the ordinary Britoni to breathe. Men of this sort naturally do not look forward to a winter in the trenches in Russia. — New Plymouth "Herald."
