AMERICA IN WAR TIME

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 257, 18 July 1918, Page 3

AMERICA IN WAR TIME

NEW YORK ACTIVITIES. Writing to a relative in Wellington, a lady at present in New York makes (he 1 following interesting comments:— 1 "£ re- i cently enjoyed an evening of what Dr. ' Johnson would call 'good talk' about _ Russia. The most interesting speakers ; were a Russian lady and gentleman and j an American lady who had been in , I'etrograd during the first revolution. ■, 'i'iic l(u<sian lady said that wo should ' not judge.tho Russians by the specimens i we see here, because thev were of an • alien element., whoso 'push anil acquisitiveness' were entirely foreign to the truo Russian. Her Russian friends wero bitterly ashamed at the way Russia had 'cone back' on the Allies. On tho Siberian part of her journey back lo America she saw on a station platform a crowd of familiar-looking figures. 'Surely these are East-side New Yorkers,' phe thought, and, going to tho door oi her car, she called ont 'Who's 'from New York?' She immediately had a group round her, and found that they were turning to help along the revolution, wo are going into the army, not to light, but to spread pacifist doctrine, among our own men and among the Germans for that our leaders tell us is how to help Russia,' said the younger meu of the party. By the time she got- to San Francisco t'ae authorities had 'got wise, and passports were refused to this class of Russian patriot. She met many furious Russian pacifists railing against the 'Tsar republic,' as they call the United States. Both revolutions, the_ Russian said, had taken turns not anticipated by the lenders. Ker(>nsky believed that his personal influence would keep the army together, and Lenin expected that when the land-hungry and war-weary Russian peasants laid down their arms the Socialist leaven in the German Army would work and that it too would melt away. "The lady's compatriot said that through reading Russian newspapers and 'he manifestoes of Lenin lis saw a certain glimmering of method in what, judged by reports from American newspaper correspondents, appeared simple madness. He spoke of the stormy yeais that followed tho French Revolution and the bitter wrangling among the thirteen revolutionary American colonies before a

Constitution was evolved. llussia would in the some way, lie believed, work out her own salvation. . "Many Britishers, from the Archbishop j of York to Charlie Chaplin, have spoke , in New York for the third liberty Loan; the latter retired from the campaign a ; nervous wreck; he says a crowd frightens 1 him. The Archbishop at a dinner related some of the pleasant things said to him during his American tour, no was complimented on his resemblance to George Washington, on his almost perfect' English, and on the possibility of t>eing mistaken for an ordinary cultured American. Another fervent .friend, moved by a lull in the submarine activity, said earnestly: 'Beat it home "Arch,," while the goings good! "A great many well-known men are here officially to promote a better understanding between Unclo Sam s family and the M/ther Country. Some recent visitors were Mr. Alfred Isoyes (his stories of how some submarines men their fate make one's flesh creep), Mr. Ratcliffe (ex-editor of the Manchester. Guardian'), Sir John Foster Fraser, Miss Helen Fraser (who Works under fills. Pember Reeves, of whom she sneaks most appreciatively), Mr. Masefield, ami others. These speakers all quote Abraham Lincoln extensively, and their audiences almost always appear to be ot the cultured class, whose travel and reading leave them with few prejudices against England. .. "Sir Frederick Smith, another propagandist, arrived with a great nourish ot , trumpets, but departed quite nnobtrusive. ' lv. recalled by his Government, the New r York papers said, although this was contradicted by the Embassy in Washington Soon after his arrival, at the annual dinner of the New York Law Society, b\i Frederick Smith made a long speech, 111 which, speaking of the war situation, lie beeeeched his hearers to keen cool, for if wd lawyers lose our hends, bod ha\o ' ' pitv on'other people'! Within a week lie * was recalled for verbal indiscretions ■3 in Boston and in Canada with reference | to President Wilson's definition of wai t' "'"'Mr. Hoover recently gave a luncheon I at which canned wliale-meat was tlie only flesh served. We were promised i that whale-meat at 15 cents a PO«".d \ would soon be on the market, but it w i a case of'first catch your whale. lhc ■ wheat in bread has been cut down to 5 per cent., and the substitutes are so linsustaining that we ask ourselves, Why spend money on that which is not bie.td 3 and our substance on tliat which .snti.- | fieth not?' Sugar for w obH tainable only by requisition. Amon the neglected foods urged upon the people are shark-steak. whalerineat, snails, and seaweed. Complaints are made ; tlint sauerkraut has become unsaleable i and provision sellers want to change the ! name to liberty-cabbage, but the *ow ! York 'Times' makes a grave protest.