The English View.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15395, 28 September 1915, Page 6

The English View.

Although there are still a few people in New Zealand obsessed by tho idea that it is necessary to maintain a steady hostility, on tho old party lines, towards tho Prime Minister and the Hon. Colonel Allen, the disappearance of party conflict and party feeling in New Zealand is happily very complete. In this wc aro much more fortunato than our friends in Australia. Last week wo wero told that Mr Holman has declared the political truce "off"' in New South Wales. We had news also of the establishment of a precarious kind "of truce in Tasmania, and, as a sot-off, tho development of a new political troublo in Victoria. In Federal politics, of course, there has been no truce. A good many peoplo who aro glad of tho hafmony so wisely Secured in New Zealand have yet "doubted whether it really mattered to anybody but ourselves Whether Mr Massey and Sir Joseph Ward were fighting or not. That the reverse is tho caso is made clear by tho effect which tho deplorable continuance of party strife in Australia has had upon observers in Great Britain t In its issue of August 13th "Tho Times" dealt with this subject in an article which should deeply impress thoughtful. Australians. "Tho Times" made ample acknowledgment of the patriotism and enthusiasm of Australian politicians in furthering the Imperial cause in this war, and disclaimed any desiro to thrust advico on tho Australian Parliament.

"But," it added, "wc may l>e permitted to observe that to read its recent debates in tho official record of its proceedings which has just reached us is to experience tho feeling of having stepped into another world. For us, since this time Inst year, the thought of Australia has been thrilled 'through with a feeling, part gratitude, but chiefly pride. Her men camo to our aid so freely and so gaily. Their very known independence of spirit and outlook made tho .'■need end the spontaneity of their rally a particularly splendid thing. We of tho British Isles realised—in our slow And voiceless way —all that it meant. Then camo tho landing in Gallipoli, -with its bright, light-hearted heroism, accomplishing tho almost, impossible through sheer gallant refusal to see how impossible it was. Our minds are still full of tho golden memory of that great feat of arms when we think of Australia. Wo turn to read tho debates of its Central Parliament. Hero all is controversy; violent, partisan, remote altogether, as it seems to us, from the high vision that sent men—clear-sighted and joyful and unafraid —to their death on the dreadful beaches of Gallipoli. The game, of party politics goes on. We nave no concern .with that, but feel impelled to record our opinion that there is something particularly grim about the printed records of such a game, played in these days with so complete au apparent forgetfulness of what is happening in the world outside. . . . The stream of abuse, innuendo, recrimination which has already flooded tho House of Representatives will flow over the whole of Australia. And, meanwhile. in the trenches of Gallipoli. Australians. forgetting all these dusty conflicts of a momentary strifo. Will be fighting side by side the preat finht for freedom under an alien sky. Tho contrast, we can only suppose, does not seem so strange to the leaders of Australia as it does to us. It is for them to judge. But is ib worth while?"

Wo hope that this grave and dignified roblike has received due attention in Australia, for wo can hardly conceive that any politician engaged in rancorous party warfare at this time can read tho passage wo havo quoted -without feeling ashamed of himself. Mr Fisher, whoso insistence upon ''politics as usual' 7 has made him chiefly responsible for tho situation that jars so painfully on English feelings, may hold that on a question of decorum tastes can legitimately differ, and that in any case Australia will not accept advico from anybody in another country. That is a point upon which we need not express an opinion. .But there is something more than decorum involved. The public, when they rco the Government and the politicians wrangling over referenda and other things equally trivial when the fate of tho Empire and of human progress is in tho balance, are apt to think that after all the war is only a colossal nuisance which will end as a matter of course in a victory for Britain and her Allies. There cannot be anything very terrible about tho war, they will think, if the politicians, who ought to know the facts and tho right conduct in tho presence of those facts, «©o no reason for making a change in their ways or for laying aside their party interests. And, thinking

thus, tho public cannot bo expected to attain to that mood of grim earnestness which ; s the necessary mood if victory..is to come to the Allies. The maintenance of ordinary party warfare in any Dominion is therefore not only a shameful and disgusting thing, but an evil thing, a thing which operates against the national efficiency that is impossible without national earnestness. In New Zealand we are already witnessing the good results that have been produced by the suspension of party warfare. Wo am much mistaken if there is not steadily growing in New Zealand a spirit of sober determination and of willingness to make large sacrifices for the great crusade. The nation is gradually realising the vastness of the task before the Allies, and the full horror of the peril which only the utmost constancy and courage can avert.