The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1917. THE COMING STRAIN.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 35, 9 February 1917, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1917. THE COMING STRAIN.

For the cause that lacks assistants, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we eon da.

The proceedings at the opening of the Imperial Parliament were in keeping with the gravity of the hour. There waa j ' no boastfulnese, but there was a hard and qniet determination to endure and conquer, and full recognition of the magnitude of the task. The Liberal member j who moved the Address-in-Reply struck the right note when he said that all de- • sired peace, "but not in a hurry." There were some things the Allies wished to Ido first, and their instincts revolted at the thought of negotiating with the authors of the atrocities in Belgium and ' the aider* and abettors of the massacres 'in Armenia, until they were soundly and ; decisively defeated. Mr. Asquith's con--1 tribution to the debate was in keeping with the admirable attitude he has adopted towards the new Government. In bis appearance in "Opposition" in December last, just after the fall of bis Government, he said he did not claim! to be in any sense the leader of what was • called an Opposition, for he believed there was no Opposition. He said he • did not even speak as the head of the Liberal party, but made frt clear that be spoke simply as an English patriot anxi- . ous to give any Government I in power the fullest possible support in winning the-war. Mr. Asquith's..speech in the '. opening debate of this session was also I free from criticism of the new Government He went no further than to ask for information on certain points. Am he said, "the nation's only duty was to be united in determination to prosecute the war," and one of the essentials for victory was complete concentration of national resources, involving devotion to duty by everyone in the country. Ministers and private members mads II interesting contribution* to the debate. | Mr. Bonar Law, a member of the War : Council, gave an encouraging review of the military Situation. His statement that the position on tha Western front justifies confidence is borne out by recent developments. We are selting, apparently without very much trouble, jumping-off places on the Somme. That there is, as Mr. Bonar Law says, a complete moral ascendancy on the British and French side has been stated more thth once lately on high authority. "The enemy's power has not yet been broken/ said Sir Douglas Haig, 111 his long dispatch reviewing the battle of the Somme, "nor is it yet possible to form an estimate of the time the war may last before the objects for which the Allies are fighting have been attained? But the Somme battle has placed beyond doubt the ability of the Allies to gain these objects. The German army is the mainstay of tha Central Powers, and a full half of that army, despite all the advantages of the defensive, supported by the strongest fortifications, suffered defeat On the Somme this year. Neither victors nor the vanquished will forget this, and , though bad Weather has given the enemy , a respite, there will undoubtedly be many thousands in his ranks who will . begin the new campaign with little con- ; fidence in their ability to resist our ; assaults or to overcome our defence." ! This statement by Mr. Bonar Law fore- ; shadow* •— early offensive. We started : last year in the middle of summer, and i the enemy would undoubtedly have suf- | fered much more severely had we not l been handicapped both by bad weather I in the summer »a«l by the coming of • winter. This year an earlier start may i be expected. As regard* the submarine _ menace, Mr. Bonar Law was quietly con- : fident, and was supported by Admiral' , r . Metis, a distinguished sailor who may •* jbe presumed to represent Service i 'opinion. _ We lave called this article " The _ Coming Strain," because the leaders of _ the nation frankly acknowledge that the L strain on the nation will greatly increase

in the naming months, and if they did not say so, the fact would be clear enough from current events. In his speech in the House of Lords, Lord Curson used words that should be noted and weighed by everyone. The submarine campaign, he said, was desperate madness, but it was premeditated and organised, and its peril must not be underrated. Possibly the atrocities committed by the enemy in the coming months would surpass anything hitherto perpetrated. We were approaching the real crisis of the war, and we must be ready with all our resource*. A similar warning was uttered recently by Dr. Arthur Shad-well, one of the most levelheaded and best-informed of English publicists. Writing in the "Nineteenth Century** on the ability of the British people to stand the strain of the war to the point of victory, he warns the nation to be prepared for the use by the enemy of all his great resources without any !scruple -whatever. 'There is no outrage iwe may not expect, from sinking every 'ship at fight to systematically starving .the conquered peoples and the wholesale i massacre of prisoners. There is no ! atrocity of which they are not capable, ilt is a truly frightful prospect, and we I must be prepared to take a full share of lit, even in these sheltered islands. We .must be prepared for real privation and .far more effort and sacrifice than have !yet been even conceived by very many .people. We shall need all our strength and fortitude and endurance for this ordeal. There will be great changes before it is done, and people will not be living as they have been." By the time this article reached this part of the world Germany had declared war on the world's shipping. Britain has come through the ordeal of battle nobly. She is now approaching what Dr. Shadwell calls "the ordeal by fire" —a trial of strength to endure suffering at home.