The Evening Star MONDAY, AUGUST 21, 1916.

Evening Star, Issue 16198, 21 August 1916, Page 4

The Evening Star MONDAY, AUGUST 21, 1916.

Loed Drain; h?.s Tendered many services t:> bin country during Absolutsfy the,-;- years of war in Satisfied. helping to gather and

putting into tangible shape those- arinie-; which, the foresight or Lord Kitchener from the first saw would be absolutely essential if we wore to sew "this thing; through '' to its only conceivable end. 'But. m-.'ur. and practically beneficial as Lord Derby's .services a;; a recruiting organ k?r and agent were, we doubt, whether these have proved more helpful to the Empire as a ■whole than have the idvery and emphatic nature of his lorcl-hip';; deliverances from time to timo on the progress and. duration of the wa.r. Such utterances as those ascribed to Lord Derby serve a very definite and important purpose. At all times and in all parts of! the. Empire there are large numbers of well-meaning, thoroughly loyal riieu and women who are temperamentally unable to take the larger vision. They view even- phase of the great conflict from the purely local and personal standpoint, and are seemingly incapable ot arriving at a satisfying conclusion, or one that i-; in any way helpful to tbem, from their study ot the disjointed, contradictory, and scrappy items of information that too frequently constitute portion! of the day's new.-;. To such persons, therefore, the- statements of the Unrier-S-eeretary of War conic as a strong shaft of light piercing a cloud of foa;. Lo T d Derby, alike by liis character, his cities. j and his record, is- not- only in a position i to know whereof ho speaks, but is a man who von!(I not speak unless ho did know. | And what he has been telling bin country- | men, and through thetrt the world at | large, is free from either ambiguity or j qualification. There are many who "read | their war news with hesitating lips and

j shaking heads.. They can make little or [nothing of it. They see in these daily 1 tales of "heavy losses.'' " m.thleJs ! j slaughter," •" sangnhmry repulses," | ["enemy everywhere driven hack. 1 ' alter- I j Eating with captures of 500 yards of ! trenches on a two or three mi'los front ' land some few hundreds of prisoners, a, | j something that leads to nothing: ;i largely j i meaningless series of tragic incidents and j jhomhlo cvmdw that bring them no j nearer vi-Uny and peace.. It is to such'! • as tries'-! that (he pithy comments and j j vigorous pronouncements of an alert in- j I telligencc like that- of Lord Derby come | \ with the bracing effect of an electric shock. ! { In those same detached messages, which I j convey neither hope <>£ finality' nor assur- j { a:icr of victory to the. reader, Wd ! i Derby, flr.d with him ?.!V Lloyd George, j j finds the. sure promh.o of not too distant ! i triumph : "The high military authorities, : ("both of Frr-iuv and Great" Britain, aro i j "absolutely satisfied with the way in! : " which the Allies' offensive is working ! ! "<>i;f. and there i-t not the least doubt j i '' ur theirjedgment; that the war is turn- I j " ing gradnaily in our favor." i \ There n;t«i he no hesitation hi accepting j ;at tli-ir faee values. such authoritative j judgm*>:•*■.-. Tkov are not the rash utter--1 aiav.; <•: ii r.s iK.nsble men eager to score j j a rheir-rirjii jas of the flifiiculticfl. the trials.! |nnd the- dangers that yet lie ahead as are j : any men of h.i.gh position among t-ira belli- \ j .ecrcnts. Lullke. however, the statesmen! jand publicists of Germany, those who ; STioak fcr the. Mother Land studiously- re-! J Train J 7 l, = sii. toasts and threats. The* Km-!

j vivo mid. in r Allies are content to r&si ! i!j!o:>. Tim CV,.u=(? I'Y.r which they ( -Un<l. j If tha.l- docs not jurt.ifr them, then nothing hvill oi'-...,n. TV- v-h;it clow Gcr.mn.ay ; jlo::d'.' lias <.oe a single principle whereon ; lo liii.so an ;u!p-?n! in defence of her on- ! rhviight np-.n Europe? AI! the world knows | for vi:?.t tho Ailio.; are fighting. But for | what is Gc-nuaivy iisktiiig? And .(what is j of equal importance, through it we shall j find a:i answer to ( ,:iv ■first question) in j j what spirit is Gcnncny fighting? Happily | for Urn fatv.ro of the race, the German | (ipirit, has hff.ii expressed in terms of such ' impreecuentcd and unparalleled inf.r.nv, j jmd on such an- appallingly colossal' scale j of cori:;j.:-(«iit. savagery, that none at this | hour dure, plead ignorance of what a Gorj manifod Eitropo wo'ild be to Uliristlan civilisation. German success means a return to that state of being from which, through the agony n.nd sacrifices of the centuries, mankind has -slowly emerged. How inhuman and .-..bhorrcnt that spirit is w-e are again reminded by the worse- than bestial comments that ha.ve been made o:; Mx Asquith's announcement that Grant Britain, and her Allies will insist on repara■ticn from Germany for the cold-bloodad murder of Captain Fryatt before resuming diplomatic le'latipns with licr. The statement, we are adviuxl, has been received,

with, "cavago derision,'"-and with threats to "shoot as mamy more Captain Fryatts as wo can. catch"; which i 3 just -what a, people would, cto who struck a medal in honor of the edhfcfog of tho Lusitaraia, and who sang at public resorts a new ' Song of Hate' in their rejoicings over Lord Kitchener's death. What would or could be the dominant fooling throughout what •might bo left, of the Empire if to-day its people found themselves face to face not with a beaten but with, a victorious Germany? That we are not so placed, that we are more confident at this hour of ultimaite victory than to have beers at any time during the Jaat two years, is due in a large part to the fact that [we stand fast as the representatives of a Cause that is not dependent for its triumph on the degradation but on the npHftmenb of humanity. When that end will come, as ooino it assuredly will, Lord Derby Bays he does not know. It is, however, sufficient for the moment thai we are assured that the end. will come, and not impossibly coma suddenly—at least, such is the belief of the present Under-Secretary of War. v