THE BRIGHT SIDE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 45, 16 November 1917, Page 6

THE BRIGHT SIDE

A BOUT WITH A PESSIMIST

(By "Wi.")

I found him sitting all hunched up in a chair, with his chin on his chest, hands dug into his pockets, legs stretched out, feet crossed, and gloom-deep, dark, dogged gloom-on his face. "Pretty., pretty," I said, looking down at him. "Humph!" he grunted. "Is it liver, creditors, the frosty mitt, or just plain hump?" I asked him. "Humph!" he repeated. "Have a cigarette?" "Nope." , .. . "It's a bad case, mv friend, 1 said, slinking my head. "Here's the sun shining awny in the bright blue sky, y ie birds are going it for all they're worth, the Quay's full of white dresses, Spring is springing, the sap's rising in our bones, and —" . "Shut up, for Heaven's sake, no snapped, or 150 away, one of ilia two, He sat up with a vicious jerk, and turne'd round at me. "You re cno of those cheerful idiots who fiddlo while Rome burns. Has it ever occurred to you to sit down and try to realise just exactly how this infernal, everlasting war really is going? Has it?" "We're winning, of course, I earn, cheerfully. 1 ...» "Ha!" he gibed. "We're winning, of course. Of cpurse! Of COUKSE! Wish I could sit down in n fool's paradise and wbistlo Tonnessee' and other silly rot like vou and other self-satisfied, unthinking llng-vaggers. Bead the paper tins morning?" "Yes, I think so." . „„ Ho waved his arms despairingly. *■« only thinks so! Ye gods!" - "Well," said I, * r if you really want to make a song about, it, T did; carefully, deliberately, judiciously, as one partaking of a diminutive glass of rare wine, 1 perused my paper from the births, marriages, and deaths to the uttermost auctioneer's advertisement. Satisfied. "IN-cluding the war news? "IN-cluding the war news,' I mockwl. "And we're winuing-of course? He said this with a sneer. ~ "We're winning-of course, 1. saw, sweetly. "Ever tried horse riding? He stared. "No-why?" "Good for the liver," I said, or gardening, tennis, or any other vio cnt kind o" exertion to mnke the corpuscles dance through those sluggish veins of Win. Why don't you cheer up, you blighted old pessimist? It's your sort that helps to InsD the, game." ~ „ "Now, look here, my cheerful idiot, he said. "Let us look faeU in the face. Left'drop this ostrich .business and get down to brass tacks." As he said this ho waggled his linger at inc. . I selected a comfortable chair, lit a cigarette, put my feet on the mantelpiece, and grinnod at him. "Shoot! I said. ( "Isay," he went, on, "let's get down to the bed-rock of the situation, and consider how badly we are: off.' "Not how well we are off? j "We're not well off,' "ho said, irritably, 1 "and you simply won't attempt to rca- 1 Use it*." I 'tio on, then,' I said. , 1 "Take Russia," ho said. Russia s ( down and out so far as wo are 0011- 1 cerned." ' , , i "Better a certain, sure, down-and-out , than something'that is ostensibly on our . side but roally is working for tho Ger- , mans. I'd sooner have Kerensky with all his faults than Rasputin with all his sins. When that beast of a monk was running tho country we didn't know where we were. Now, we at least know this—the Russian people, having picked out the Romanoffs, are not going to hand over their country to the Germans 11 thev can help it. Next?" "Humph," said the Grouch. ' All very fine, but what about Italy? You've got to admit this, anyway: Italy has landed the Allies in tho soup. Tho spring offensive, so far as I can 6ee, is well gone. I'm only hoping, that next year we'll bo able to hold oil to what wo ve got. Dash it all man, dor.'t you seo what these critic? are saying in the papers about Die business? Its as bad as it can be." ' "All right, we'll take Italy." Things were going on. swimmingly in _ Italy. Cadorna was pushing into Austria, the Austrian people were scared and yelling for peace and food, principally food, but peace also, for there was no other way of getting food than by settling up a peace treaty. Then tho Germans. circulated among the soldiers forced newspapers chock full of lies about what is going on m their homeland. That started a rot. Im not surprised." What do you Hunk would happen if forged copies of the Daily Mail,' ihe "London Times,' and so on, were circulated on a certain sector of the Western front, forged copies full of lies about tvranny and oppression in the Uld Gountrv, the poor people oppressed by the rich, the Government offering to hand over New Zealand to Germany if sho-would ease up and make peace? Do you think tho men on that particular sector would hnve ant heart for fighting? Wouldn't they feel like throwing down their rifles in disgust, and saying to this, that, and the other place with the King, the Government, and the Empire? Wouldn't fhey? Well, that's exactly what happened in Italy, The providential thing about the whote business is that it happened vrhen it did, and not when the Italians were further into the enemy's country. We know now exactly whero we are, and so do the Italians, ifs probably the best thing that could have happened to the Italians. Thev re been fooled, and they know it. Its umpty-do, I'll admit, but not, as you seem to have convinced yourself, irretrievably and hopelessly bad. The best thing Vet has come,out of it. Weve at last'taken a leaf out of the enemy e book, and done what we ought to have done, and what Lloyd George says we ought to have done, years before. We ve created a central War Staff to supervise all the theatres. "Humph!" said the Grouch. What I'm wondering ib, where are we going to get it next? Can vou tell me that? "No," I said. "I can't tell you that, or whether we will get any next; but 1 can tell you this: Every time these cheats and spielers have done us in the eye with a dirty-dog trick, the chances of their getting any sort of a hearing for anything less than peace on our terms, dictated terms, recede further ■ into the region of impossibility, the pacifists sing smaller, and the great mass of tho pub. lie grows more determined."

"All vorv well," said tlic Grpuch. "But what I'd like to see is a few items on the credit side of the hook to balance things a bit." "A few items!" I exclaimed. There's awliolecolmtm. Hearken, my pessimistic friend, while I recite a little list which the state of your liver won't let you reflect upon, so engrossed are you with tho things that have happened' to us. Now this is what has happened to Germany: She has lost the whole of her colonial empire, and she is worrying about it worse than anything. She has lost her sea trade and au enormous tonnage of shipping. She has lost valuable territory in France and Flanders, valuable because it meant the loss of commanding positions of great military strength and tactical importance, and these losses have been our gain. Whera previously sue held the advantage, that advantage is ours. Incidentally, 6he has lost an appalling number of men and munitions, and the morale of her armies in the West has been visibly shaken. Even the Belgians have proved too much for her. Formerly tho vanquished, now they are the victors. Every time the Germans liavc attacked their line, they havo been beaten, it has been demonstrated to the Germans that (he British, the French, nd the Belgians, individually and collectvely, are too "ood for them. And, please remembcr° that on the Western front « auont She's bad mutiny in her fleet 2nd in some of her garrisons. TTavo we ever had a mutiny in o.ir licet, or amongst our troops? The very .dea is ri Trt™uol.' 5 face visiblv bri«Mene«l. "Wait a minute." I said., "I'm not nearly finished. While jfltt'io groaning

in spirit over what's happening jn Italy.« do you trouble yoirajelf to rear} about, wnat we're doing in Mesopotamia and-: Paleatine? w/ve got «,c Tnrta well | on the run on both these fronts, n German trickery lias temporarily put. Russia out of action, we are prtfii*, Turkey out of action, not by tnctaiy,, but by a. conquering superiority of men, munitions, ami generalship. Tho Grouch's face brightened sonif! ""More yet," I said. "We haveprov-' ed beyond all question our supremacy in | the air. That supremacy is so dehmts aud unassailable that in the West w*. can blind the enemy, destroy ™° C F S °>, his guns, and compel him to fight in thH dark and at a disadvantage. _ What have his air raids on England gained tor him ? Nothing but the hate and condemnation of civilisation. when war raid Germany wo do things that we .can.. boast about. In the whole of his raids on England he has not accomplished one) particle of the damage we did in one ot our raids over his frontier. , A gleam came into tho eye of thai Grouch. • t "Hold on," I said. "Now for tlie ; ; trump card—America. The whole of America's resources are coining into tho scale—millions of men, vast munitions, fleets of merchant ships, battle fleets, aircraft fleets, and practically unlimited'! cash. All this we've still got up our; sleova. It's our biggest reserve asset, j this huge, brand-new war machine. Just", think what the Teutons are already up; against, and trv and picture to yourself what is going to happen when, on ton;, of thai, America puts in the whole of her weight. It'll be a knock-out blow. Now, these aro facts, not opinions, and nobody knows it better than the' Ger-. mans. They're bluffing all the time to, save their skins from the wrath of the. populace. They're meeting with success-, here and there, all right, but you;have' to look at tho position broadly, rhcir game now is to endeavour to gull tiiepeople by showy and spectacular sue.. cesses, and to do that they have to resort on eacli fresh attempt to a dirtier

trick than tho Inst. "In the meantime," I smd, in conclusion, "see to your liver, lh.it s all that's wrong with von. To-morrow or the next day, old Haig will say in hie dry, Scotch wav: 'We attacked at dawn, on a wide front. Satisfactory progress is being made.' It doesn't look much on paper, but it means that tho Germans are gone a million."