HOW THE WAR WAS RECEIVED IN ENGLAND.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue LXVIII, 23 September 1914, Page 5

HOW THE WAR WAS RECEIVED IN ENGLAND.

The following extracts from a private, letter written by a \ew Zealander brought up "in Hawera now resident in England is of interest as showing the feeling in England at the time or the outbreak of the war and the outlook as it presented itself fe^S^lalie^ Shawn.^ nd t aT Wo en the British ultimatum was sent to Germany the majority of ThS^L 6*? ga,m our neutrality, lheie is a great calm sense of right and justice amongst the people. However much as Christians we may dereel tiiat the Government made every possible effort to avoid becoming £ volved and only the appalling mad conduct of Germany prevented thSr efforts being successful. It was not alone the invasion of Belgium which forced the Govei-nment's hald, but tS almost insolent diplomacy of the GervZlTT i9 ffice ? n 6^ting that England should receive a share of the Irench colonies as the price of her neutrality. I hope you won't all blame the Kaisar. Things certainly look black against him and some of the paS here lay all the blame upon his shoulders but only yesterday I was in " conversation .with an English lecturer at the Berlin University. He has only just returned by one of the last boats to leave^Flushina, and is a very wellinformed man. lie tells, me that the Kaiser is being made, a cat's-pa-w. by the ultra-military junta of aristocratic Germans: that both the Kaiser and the urown Prince are genuine in their love of England and the English, but have boen unable to stem the strong wartide which .has been eet towards .trance and England of late years Of course, one does ccc the German point °t view, unscrupulous though it is u-t. c, a ra P3'dly-growing and wealthy population and no prospect of expansion. They want colonies so that their thousands of thrifty, able emigrants will not have to lose their national identity 'when they emigrate However that may be, and justified as we believe the Government to be in entering the conflict, it is too late or too sooti to argue the merits of the case. Historians will decide xmon them in the future.- The two fleets race one another in the North Sea, and everything depend* upon the success of our navj. If it is defeated or outwitted by the Germans —and nobody dreams that it will be—but if it is I tremble to think of the horror and misery and starvation which are lurking no long-distance ahead of us. First of all"'our food supply;'will .be cut off, and there is not reckoned to be more than two months' supply in the country. If we retain command of the! sea all will be. we11...', = , There .is another danger which threatens if the i navy is not successful: that is invasion. I do not see how that is possible while Germany is occupied on the Continent with France and Russia, but she could do incalculable harm to all the east coast towns, ports, dockyards, and so on. The fortifications, are not considerable; even at the mouths of the Humber and the Tyne one does not feel that they could offer much resistance. In these east coast towns there is a great deal of excitement and activity. Only to-day we hear that our friends on the sea front at Shields are having to turn outi of their homes to make room for,the soldiers. At Sunderland and probably at Shields they are feverishly busy tearing up the "sea front," the promenades, that is, and making 3ft txenches for shelter for the artillery and riflemen. Here in Manchester the town is full of Territorials saying good-bye and going off toHheir stations. lam besieged by young \iriiversity students coming to have applications for' commissions coun'ter^ signed. Such boys they seem, most of them 20-22, full of excitement and mercifully without any imagination of the horrors they may have to face"