OPINION AND THE WAR.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15356, 13 August 1915, Page 5

OPINION AND THE WAR.

THOUGHTS OF LIADEBS.

THE* SPEAR-HEAD OF VICTORY

(**oll OUR OWNT CORBESPOKBKST.) LONDON, July 2. Mr Bonar Law, presenting a sword of honour to Lieut.-Colonel Fred. Hall, M.P.:— ■. '^ ,e position in which our country stands is serious, but thero is no ground for despondency. Perhaps there is a tendency to be discouraged; but wo see only our own difficulties. n w ° remember that this was war mado by our enemies, afte r preparations extending over many years—when they thought tho right moment bad oome. and when they felt 6uro of victory—and when we realise that though they have not been defeated yet, they arc very far from victory, we have reason to take courago for the future. Up till now the superiority in the mechanical appliances of war has on the side of our enemies. Wo have recognised the position, and we mav be sure of this, that every week and every month that superiority on the part of our enemies will tend to diminish until the time comes when the scale is on tho other side. But, after all, though mechanical appliances and munitions j have counted most, so far, men count, too. Wo know that our losses havo been terrible. Wo know nlso that. tho

losses of the enemv have been colossal; that as nations they are weakened already far more than the Allies, and when thero is an equality, oven in mechanical appliances 0 f war. th 0 superiority of men will tell, and the n will como the victory. Of this at least I am certain, that if the men who control the German Government, who caused this terrible wa r nearly 11 months ago, could have foreseen the position in which they Btand to-day, their decision would have been different, and the world would have had peace. But though there is no cause for despondency, there is no cause for over-confid-enca. I think, as usual with us, we were inclined to take it too easily. We were inclined to think that victory was not only certain, but that it would como as a matter of course. We were wrong. Victory will come, but it will not pome of itself. We have got to win it. and the whole nation has cot to win it. Wo can trust our soldiers. What they have done they will do till he end. They are the spearhead, but' it is the nation at Homo which is ;oing to drive it home.", WOMEN'S ZEAL.

Mrs Pankhurstj afc the W.S.P.TT.:— "Women aro eating tlieir hearts out with a desire to see themselves used In war service. If the war is to be won, the wholo intelligence, energy and capacity of the nation will have to be utilised. How is it that during all these months people have not been put into training to take the place of men? Why have not women been called in as the trade union officials have been? The women have some of the most capablo organisers, and if they had only been given one part of the national service, they, would have dono the work well, and made no fuss about it. They do not look for.placo or reward. They only wish to be allowed to serve. In Germany, 500,000 womeri aro engaged in making munitions, and yet of tho 70,000 women who registered at the Board of Trade Labour Exchanges only about 2000 havo been utilised for national servico. It is ten times more necessary to have martial law hero than in France, in order to bring the situation home to us. We are prepared to organise the women of the country, and. to recruit and enlist women for war service if the Government will only let us know. By* war service I mean either the making of munitions or replacing the skilled men who have I been called upon, so that the business of tho country can go on. We are ''oing to lose the war unless every man and woman is toroperly called upon to j do a J JEWS ANJ> THE ALLIES. Mr Lebpold do Rothschild, to an American interviewer: — * "The Jews of the world aro a comEarativcly small religious community, ut no Jew ever forgets that the sons of David have been a small nation. In the light of that memory, all their sympathies must necessarily go out to persecuted small States like Belgium and Serbia. Tho Jewish sentiment which supports the Allies is not from expediency, but is inspired by causes which lie deep in Jewish character, Jewish history, and the permanent conditions of Jewish communal life. The Jews are essentially a people of peace, and all their talents aro for civilian life. They hate militarism, and the causes and course of the present war have outraged all their historic standards and ideals. There are 12,000,000 Jews, comparatively few of them rich men. The vast majority are associated with occupations in which prosperity is dependent upon peace and the normal conditions of life. The war inevitably, produced a sharp trade depreciation. Thereforo, war, instead of being nn "advantage to the Jews, has caused a verv great diminution of their fortunes, and the poor Jews must have shuddered at the bare idea of war. I do not lay stress on the fact that perhaps half a million Jews are fighting to-day in the armies of the Allies. In everv country involved what the French calj "impol de sang," has fallen very heavily upon the Jews, and in Russia and Austria, where whole provinces are largely Jewish, the horrors of war have overwhelmed hundreds of towns and villages with a severity without parallel in any <jther flection of the vast theatre of hostilities. ' IN MR BRYAN'S EAR. M. d.'Estournelles do Constant, me Fieuch publicist, to Mr Bryan: _ "In combating German militarism I remain faithful to our cause. I serve the interest not only of my own country but of all countries, the weakest, above all. I understand that you should hate the thought of sacrificing your sons by our side, of ranging the ! United States in the ranks of the bel- | ligerents. But there is something more I-repugnant' still —to jcrime by I ensuring its impunity. Less than anyone else, also, I do ask the united I States to declare *ar on Germany. To j what purposeP You have neither an army nor a fleet that could be used in a distant war. The world merely asks the United States not to remain indifferent spectators when justice is vl °" lated. Tho silence of the United States Government when Belgium was invaded was a surprise for all your friends, and was imitated by European neutral countries, feebler, and more exposed to German reprisals. And now, what are you doingP Yon piWh peace, but what peats? Owe which would permit German militarism' to retire from the struggle neither victor nor vanquished the better to chance its luck in the future. Tho peace that y«« P r opose we will have none of. We understand it not. We desire to remain no deeenerate children of the French Revolution, tho defenders of justice and liberty, as von are tfie sons of American independence. We must have done not with war onl- but with the causes of war. with the intolerable burden and.uncertalnxy of an armed peace. We must have done with -violent conquests , we must have done with Prussian militarism.