The North Otago Times WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1917. CALL IN JAPAN.

North Otago Times, Volume CVI, Issue 13975, 12 September 1917, Page 4

The North Otago Times WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1917. CALL IN JAPAN.

Another foreign newspaper,' this time, The Corriere della Sera, senses the growing gravity of the military situation. Mindful that so appalling are the consequences not only of defeat but even of a draw, the Milan journal urges that preterhuman efforts are required' to make sure of the result of the war. "If is incredible," the paper says, in an inspired article, "that the Entente 'is postponing the. supreme battles of the war to allow the United States to transform her commercial population into soldiers, whereas for three years the Entente has refused to use Japanese soldiers. Not only would a speedier victory have been won, but i innumerable lives would have been saved.'' This is not the first time a similar agitation has been raised. During three years of terrific struggles, torrents of the best bldod of many nations have flowed but with the end not yet in sight, the Allies are inflexibly determined, that no meed of success that falls short of a complete and crushing' defeat of the enemy would compensate them for their losses or secure them from further aggression in the near future. The Allies must face the rough edges of unpleasant facts and deal trenchantly with difficulties in-' stead of having them belittled. The present military, position and the immediate outlook furnish puissant motives for exceptional measures oil the condition that these would conduce to the achievement of our end. Obliquity of .vision can alone account for the aberration of those who fancy that a military miracle will bi'ing the early downfall'of the Germanic Alliance. Today the Allies need all the help obtainable. In short, the time has arrived for a change of front, on the.part of those who have scrupulously refrained hitherto from'soliciting the aid of Japan. The polyglot armies of the Entente completely answer the objection that the coloured races should not be used iu the lighting lines; indeed the varicoloured army fighting under the British flag—all the dusky soldiers are volunteers—is the'wonder of the war and a memorable tribute to the success of British colonisation. It is clear, however; thatin the minds of many Allied statesmen there are cer(:;in absurd prejudices against the despatch of a Japanese expeditionary force to Europe; of w.hich, it is regrettable to have to admit, the woof is commercial-'of the warp politico-racial. But in view of the prolongation of the war, these prejudices should no longer, be^; allowed to sfaud'iii the way oF'tiio hearty co-operation and mutiJV aid of-all the'forces of humanityregardless ■.-.. of colour—fighting against the tyranny of the Central Empires; in .fact, to-day practically, every race, colour and creed

untie!'/ the sun is represented* in the Entcnte'-armics. If Japan' 1 sends an array to the battlcfront in proportion to New Zealand's contribution of 100,00 men from a population of one million, no fewer than 6,800,000 "little Brown men" would be fighting against the Germans,: while an additional monthly*reinforcement' draft of 170,000 men would have to go forward to equal our nvofithly quota Of 2500. The immediate and. hearty co-operation of Japan on the Russian and Italian fronts, ■might quite conceivably prove the turning point of 'the war,'and herald the quicker downfall, of the coalition of the powerful nations which struggle not for the noble ideals of justice and -liberty, but in the spirit of ambition 'and cpnquestto establish by the force of arms the right of forty million Prussians to hold dominion over the whole of humanity.