ENGLAND AND THE WAR

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue LXVIII, 3 December 1914, Page 2

ENGLAND AND THE WAR

A CLERGYMAN'S IMI'JtESSIONS

Tlia Re-. E. C. Budd, v.-lio was a passenger by the steamer Niagara, which arrived at Auckland on Monday from Sydney, after a visit to the Homeland, speaking of the war, said to an Auckland Star reporter: "i'ou may take my word for it, the Old Country is going f,o see this thing through at whatever cost. I was at Chatham, the great naval centre, when war was declared, and saw tremendous enthusiasm amongst the sailors and soldiers and civilian population. I was in England until October 9th, and in every part, from Cumberland to Devon, and all over London; there was not only entire unanimity as to the justice of our cause, but a determination, growing stronger every day, to conquer the militancy and brutality of the Power with' whom we are fighting. Many Autralians are thinking that England is not fully realising the tremendous task before us. I found much gloom and foreboding in Melbourne and Sydney. But although Britain was not feeling the pinch as she will do m the future, she had set her teeth I and made up her somewhat slow-movin» I mind to fight to a finish, if necessary^! ior twenty years. From personal observation I estimated that a million men were under training when I left Home. Territorials were seen at every railway station, camps all over the land, men drilling in uniform, or more often without, in every London square and park. Clerks, shop assistants, warehousemen, labourers, men of good ■social Standing, all are coming forward to fight the foe, and of the staff of the London a,nd County Bank five hundred

had volunteered. In Oxford and Cambridge practically every undergraduate, physically fit, has joined what is known as the O.T.C.'s, that is, the Officers'

Training Corps, and it was stated two thousand commissions were to be given to Cambridge men. The upper classes

have come forward splendidly. Few families are without sens or brothers at the front or in training. I have been to villages in Oxfordshire where there was scarcely an able-bodied young man left. The women, too, are doing their part nobly. In every town

and village there are working parties making shirts, pyjamas, knitting socks, sleeping helmets, etc., for the use cf our soldiers. There are also committees for collecting money for the various funds, and for looking after families who are destitute through the breadwinners' absence. j "One word in referenec to the absence of party strife. Now, 'none are for the party, but all are for the State.' Liberal and Conservative, Unionist anJ Nationalist, Socialist and Radical, all are absolutely at one in believing in the justice of our causo, in working for its ultimate -triumph. May we not believe the dear old Motherland and her dependencies will come through .blood and tears, through sufferings unspeakable, to a higher level, a stronger sense of duty, 'of national righteousness, and once more England will stand for freedom, justice, and truth."