THE WAR SPIRIT IN ENGLAND.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4317, 28 March 1901, Page 7

THE WAR SPIRIT IN ENGLAND.

The war so opportunely closed for the purposes of the general election is proceeding with undimiuished yjgour bn both rides, writes Mr Henry Lucy to the .“Sydney Morning Herald.” At Homo the War Office staff are almost as busy in the way of preparation as they were a week.after the ultimatum was flashed .across the sea by Mr Kruger. Troops are being hastily embarked tor the Cape. A body of SOOO Yeomanry is being raised, and appeals are made to the Volunteers to step, into the fighting line. The patriotism of the colonies is stirred afresh, and there is no falling oft in the response. We read with pride and pleasure how in Sydney, so great is tho rush of -volunteers, would-be recruits have enjoyed a kind of rehearsal of military operations, carrying by storm the office where-enrolment is made! The same spirit predominates at Home. At this time of day there is no misconception, of the life that awaits the soldier in South Africa, Eighteen months ago the expedition was regarded in.the light of a picnic, pleasantly culminating at Pretoria. Toiday there is scarcely a home in the Moth ex) Country or the colonies that is not familiar, either through private correspondence from the front, or through the agency of newspaper correspondents, with the hourly danger, the unrelieved misery, of a soldier's life in camp or on the march. Yet to-day the eagerness-to rally round the colours is not less pressing than it was in the autumn of 1899, The spirit is reflected in the mind of the gtaider citizen who stops at home and earns money -to paw the cost of the war. They are all sick of it. are irritated with the Ministerial trick played in -the matter of the general elec? tion, and grow]'ominously in contemplatibii of the maladministration-that has marked the course of the campaign. But there is no flinching from the resolve that the tiling shall ho fought out to the end,' however bitter, and that there shall be made a settlement that will render impossible recurrence of what has come to pass in South Africa during the last five years. ,