Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, JULY 28, 1916. BRITAIN'S MILITARY POWER.

Nelson Evening Mail, 28 July 1916, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, JULY 28, 1916. BRITAIN'S MILITARY POWER.

THE war has proved the manhood of the British nation. The position, had been admirably stated by the Telegraph, and we give here the main portion of its remarks: —The discovery that the ancient spirit of the nation still survives in undiminished vigor, and that the outward appearances' of slackness, sloth fulness, feebleness, and lack of martial vigor all fell away when the time came for girding up loins for battle, is as reassuring to those who look forward to the triumph of the British ideals of justice and freedom throughout the world as it is disconcerting for those who affirmed so loudly that "the twentieth century belongs to Germany," with the coi> templated condition of a race of German supermen in the ascendancy and the vanquished nations humbly acting as their hewers of wood, and drawers of water. It is the men of "Kitchener's armies" fighting shoulder to shoulder with the gallant troops of Franco who have hurled the Prussians out of their trenches with shell and bomb ai;d bayonet. It is important to note that "•Kitchener's armies" consist of young and untried troops who have been trained in England for the most part, and the .greater number of whom have only recently been sent across to France, The magnificent Regular Army of Great Britain, consisting of long-service professional troops, practically ceased to exist after the first six months of the war. They saved Europe in the retreat from Mens, they tasted victory at the Manic, and they died fighting in the series of great battles that terminated with the final failure of the 'Germans to break through at the Yser and seize the Channel ports. Those heroic men have passed away. Their regiments remain, but new men have taken the place of those who first faced the. well-prepared. German fury and l unchastened' arrogance. The men of "Kitchener's armies," by their brilliant victories in over the very much disillusioned "supermen" whom they have chased out of the German field-works, have testified to the profound! wisdom and military capacity of the great soldier whose name is recalled in the appellation of the British Field Force, as well as> to the inherent soundness of the British people, from whom these young soldiers who have fought like veterans are drawn. Every class of the British population is represented in the British armies now fighting in France. Those armies are truly democratic, for Lord Kitchener's principle, that command, .must go to those most fit to wield it, irrespective of social or any other considerations, has been strictly carried' out. The defeat of an army ' organised on the German plan, which regards the officer as a being essentially different from and superior to the men whom he commands, by an army organised on the democratic principle of "Kitchener's armies" is a portent of vast significance. When the success which has already been gained has been extended, so as to be the complete and overwhelming victory for which the AJliea arc fighting, autocracy in Germany will receive a blow from which it can hardly recover.

The direct cost of the Franco-Prussian war* was not greatly in excess of £600,000,000; that of 'the Russo-Japan-ese war was £500,000,000; and that of the South African war was £250,000.000.