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Press, Volume LII, Issue 15747, 14 November 1916, Page 6

Lord Rothermere's article in defence ! of Mr Winston Churchill is evidently a reply to some attacks made upon the ex-First Lord since the latest-arrived English papers loft London. Of course, attacks upon Mr Churchill are no new thing; he has been a subject of controversy for years; out of one acrimonious discussion his name has immediately got into another. Lord Rothermcre claims for him the credit for urging a strong airship policy and making an aeroplane policy possible, for fathering the conception of the "tanks," and for having the.Navy ready for war. On the first point, we believe, there is little dispute. The preparedness of the Navy, also, is certainly something to iVIr Churchill's credit. The order that kept the Fleet ready for action • was first credited to Mr Churchill; subsequently Prince Louis appeared to claim it; and finally it was established that Mr Churchill was really at least equally responsible. As to the "tanks,'' there has been a father unseemly quarrel about them. Mr Lloyd George, in a statement to the Press on September 19th last—and he ought to know— made a very clear statement. "Don't you think," ho said, "that they reflect some credit on those responsible for them? It is really to Mr Winston Churchill that the credit is due more than to anyone else. He took up with enthusiasm the idea of making them a long titne ago, and he met with many difficulties. Ho converted me, and at the Ministry of Munitions he went ahead and made them."

Mr Lloyd George's statement was promptly contradicted in various places, and it was positively 6tated that Colonel Swinton—"Eyewitness" in the early days of the war —was the real begetter of the tanks. Everyone whose reading of the English newspapers is fairly wide is very familiar with the heat and bitterness with which any attempt to claim any special credit for Mr Churchill is assailed. His name is still a red rag to many people, partly because of hi s flightiness and partly because his change of political faith was too striking not to be keenly remembered. The other dqy he made a speech, the burden of which was, "Look after the war, and after-the-war will

look after itself," and the "Morning Post" instantly expressed, for the n-th time, its "superstitious horror of his oratory." His speeches of as long ago even as November, 1914, when anyone could, and everyone did. make mistakes, pre quoted against him. The "Post" gives him c-recjjt for having been a strong joint in the Cabinet's backbone from August 2nd to August 4th, 1914. but it will concede nothing more. We may quote part of its comment, in the article referred to, as a sample of the anti-Churchillites' criticisms:—"But it must be added that Mr Churchill as a War Minister failed. He failed not through lack of courage, of which ho has abundance, nor through lack of energy, of which he has even too much, but through lack of judgment, of which ho has little, and discretion, of which he has none. When he left the Admiralty the nation heaved a sigh of relief; when he entered the Army they felt a shade of apprehension. The Army has evidently been a disappointment to Mr Churchill, since he is not yet Commander-in-Chief; and once more ho changes his vocation with a facility which others must envy. Now he is

again making speeches, and there we might bo persuaded that he could do no one any harm were it not for that superstitious feeling." Mr Churchill's case is one which the plain man will not undertake to decide. But Mr Churchill himself has tho consolation, at least, that when ho can still be fought about after two years of war he cannot be thought to be on the sliolf.

We print to-day a resolution in whic-h a Dunedin trade-union unanimously condemned the action of the executive of tho '•'New Zealand Labour Party" in forwarding their anti-conscription manifesto to Australia. The union secretary was instructed to write a stronglvworded letter to the District Council protesting in particular against the part played by Mr J. T. Paul, M.L.C.. and Mr Walker. M.P., in this matter. Here is one trade union definitely opposed to the mischievous ideas and methods of tlie "New Zealand Labour Party." but still it is only one. We shall be interested in the action that the Otago District Council may take, but in tlje meantime it must be observed that the patriotic action of this union only serves to emphasise the acquiescence of tlie other trade unions m the course adopted by the Red Fed clique who manage the "New Zealand Labour Party." Most people will think that if organised Labour in New Zealand were unfavourable to the issue of tho manifesto and to the sentiments expressed in it, an immediate and emphatic protest would have been made by trade-unions throughout tho country. The occasion was clearly one in which disapproval necessitated some conspicuous form of protest; it was not an incident that "did not matter." How can .the unions expect the public to form an opinion favourable to them if they keep silence P

Very little notice 9cems to havo been taken of the fact that the Nobel Prize for Literature this year has been awarded to Romain Rolland, a French man of letters. Yet M. Holland is not only perhaps the most brilliant living writer of Frcneh prose, but he is notable in other respccts. Born in 18GG, he became, after a distinguished academical career, first a Professor (of the History of Art) at the Ecole Normalc Superieure at Paris, and afterwards at the Sorbonne, -where he introduced the teaching of *.ho History of Music. Turning to fiction, he produced a masterpiece in tho shape of "JeanChristophe,''. a novel in ]0 volumes. It is divided into three series—"Je-an-Christophe," Jean-Christophe at Paris," and "The End of the Journey." It literally traceg the hero from his cradle t 0 his grave. .It is a marvellous study of modern life, character, and manners. Its stylo is equisitely limpid and simple, and an English student of French could select no better book to read. It fcives a particularly interesting insight into the life of musical circles of various grades in Paris.

The outbreak of the war revealed Romain Holland as an idealist. One ■would havo thought that it would be impossible for a Frenchman to view the ■war from a detached point of view, still less that he should give utterance to pacifist views. Romain Holland to this extent achieved th© impossible, and no doubt finding himself utterly out of place in France, holding the views he did, betook himself to Geneva, where we believe ho still is engaged in tho work of "The International Agency of Prisoners of "War." Last year he pub. lished "Above the Battle," the English translation of "which was reviewed in "The Press" a few months ago.

Strangely enough, in "Jean-Chris-topho'' Rolnain Holland appeared to have a presentiment of the awful struggle which is now devastating the world. ' In Volume X. (published in 1912), ho describes an approaching cataclysm—"The fire smouldering in the forest of Europe was beginning to burst into flames. In vain did they try to put it out.- in one place; it only broke out in another. With gusts of smoke and a shower of sparks, it swept from one point to another, burning the dry brushwood. Already in the East there were skirmishes as the prelude to the great war of the nations. All Europe, Europe that only yesterday was sceptical and apathetic, like a dead wood was swept by the flames. All men wore possessed by the desire for battle."

In "Above the Battle," as we have said, Itomain Holland, although L■» addresses some scathing remarks to Gerhart Hauptmann on the bombardment of llheims and other atrocities, takes far too idealistic a stand to please his fellow-countrymen. Mr Lowes Dickinson his point of view as follows:—"M. Rolland is one of the many who believe, though their voice for the moment may bo silenced, that the spiritual forces that are important and ought to prevail are the. international ones; that co-operation, not war, is the right destiny of nations; and that all that is valuable in each people may be maintained in and bv friendly intercourse with the others. The war between these tiro ideals is the greater war that lies behind the present conflict." From this it will be seen that M. Rolland is in another world in which he dwells apart. Possibly in ages to come his ideal may be realised, but in the immediate present thero is much bloody work to bo done by men of action before there can be any chance of the smallest fragment of his dream cominjr true."