ENGLAND AT WORK

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3054, 16 April 1917, Page 6

ENGLAND AT WORK

LUXURY AND INDULGENCE CUT OUT

VERY REAL SACRIFICES

A citizen of the Dominion, not wishing his identity disclosed, 'who has just returned from a visit to the Old Country, is very warm in his admiration of the manner in which the people resident in England are coping with thepresent great war. The whole-hearted way in which they have stripped themselves'for the fray would," he says, amaze any stay-at-home New Zealander. ■ All luxuries have been forsworn by the wealthy people, as a general rule; indeed, for a person to luxuriate in any way is v now considered bad form, which is quite (sufficient to-Tiring many into line without anything further 'as thtf average Englishman, is a- stickler for good form, and lu-ver wishes to be counted one of the "outers." "You may travel all London now," says our informant, "and never' see J what we used to call a. fashionablydrossed man. Now and then you may drey) across a irian wearing the coii-' ventional top-hat and frock coat of prej.war. times, but he is rarity, and has I probably been attending a- levee or i some special function. The sac suit is now the thing—the old sac suit for preference. It is not ijood-form to be seen in a new sac suit. I took all my old clothes Home with me, and have not been called on to wear any others In fact, I think I was a little better dressed than most people I met. You mav. hear some talk of hich living, and to new cploni.il «tcs it-7«i g bt seem so to those who frequent tho tlieaim nuarter m London, but. the experienced Londoner knows that they are not the real peonle. To a large" extent they are people, who,-owing to the war conditions, .are earning more monev than they, ever have in their lives hpfor?. and are having a good time. Thrift hardlv cn+ors into the thoughts of such neople. They have got) the money and have got to get rid of it. .More excusable, perhaps, is the large soldier public that attend-the. theatres. They are probably men who have come over for a spell from France, and the relaxation they set at the theatres is beneficial, besides, where were such men to go,, men .who are-strangers to London? No. believe me, the-well-to-do people /are making very real sacrifices, ihey are curtailing in every way—in clothes, food, arid their recreations, including racing. It gives one quite a shock to come out here and find everything going on as usualwith races practically every day, and' men supporting them who ought to be doing something much more effective tor the Empire m her present great need. ' " '

+t /' + A?O iu e i t^ in ? I refiret t0 see . and that is that all the Germans here have not been- interned: You hear of plots in America; trouble in Mexico, and intrigue m China, and still .think that Aew Zealand should be immune iioni any • suspicion of German hatched trouble. Don't you believe it! ,Every German is a menace to the Empire at the present time, and should be interned. There are many who think that our Germans are quite all right because ihey have nothing personally against them, but when you realise the" nendish plots they have hatched and carried out in other countries, it is simple madness to allow one German his liberty until peace is signed. They have been proved to be absolutely without conscience, pity, or charity, land yet there &re to-day, Germans by the dozen allowed'to roam round New Zealand. How do we know the devices they may..employ to give the enemy information? They should be put beyond the risk of such temptation, ard I wonder that the. Government' does not see to it, before some unlooked-for catastrophe opens their eyes to the danger of ,i'ree, untrammelled Germans in our midst.

"It .was pretty bad in England, but, I understand, that since Lloyd George became Prime Minister the situation is touch, better. The whole nation should be grateful for the existence of such a. man. I don't suppose there was a : man more hated and maligned than Lloyd George before, the war, but his timely action has gone a long, way towards saving the nation. To-day he is' the man of the hour, and many of those who' reviled 'the pettifogging little lawyer, ,, as he was "contemptuously called, "are now prepared to lick his .boots."'...

When' our informant was- at Port Said, on 'his way to England, he had the exciting' experience of seeing a Turko-German airship sailing overhead at a considerable height. She dropped three bombs, presumably trying to hit the shipping in the Canal, but they all landed on bare, arid ground, and did no harm whatever. In the meantime the anti-aircraft guns were doing their be3t to "pill", the visitor. Leaving Marseilles ,-in company with a couple of transports, they were alarmed one day at the officer x on the brid»e announcing the periscope of a submarine some 600 -yards away. The. course of the boat was at- once zigzagged, and the steamer's syren-brought tip one of the fast patrol boats (steaming 35 miles an hour), which formed part of the escort, on which. demonstration the submarine dived for safety, and was not seen again. All the passengers had to get their life-belts oil, the order being that on an alarm being i given all should repair to their cabins for their belts. Some of them wore the belts the whole time, and no one. thought it peculiar.