OUR TASK.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16755, 25 July 1916, Page 9

OUR TASK.

DO WE REALISE ITS MAGNITUDE ? ORGANISE! ORGANISE I (By Captain Be«*\ Official Correspondent with tho Aiibtiahan Forces) (Copyright Reserved by tho Crown) British Headquarters. ERANCE, May 23. I sat down to unto an article about a log-chopping competition, but the irony ot ■nriiui" buch things, with other things, on 01 Js uimd is too much even ior a war correspondent. One's pen rocs on strike. One impression abo\e all has been biou"ht homo in tho two months wo kno ipont in France For .some reason people at home aro toloas-ally ignorant o£ the Us>K. now in front of them. Wo have now seen three theatres of tho war, and it was the same everjwiioe. Indeed, in Galbpoh_ iu' j y. ere just as ignorant of the state, of affairs j elsewhere. All tho news wo had of Salonika came from tho English newspapers. Wo thought "however difficult things mav be hero, at any rate the Salonika army is only waiting for a lew more men before it cuts tho railway to Constantinople." Then somebody came from Salonika, and we found that the army there uab comforting itself with exactly tho wme reflections about us. As. for England, ©vcrvone who reached us from there, armed with tho conviction that we needed onlj a few more men to pufch through.. i:\urvbody in England seemed to think it For some reason it seemed to bo considered good for tho Empiro that they should thmk it. HY OUR SOLE EFFORT. When tho attempt to get through from Suvla loiled, the public turned to iSulg.uia, and, on tho strungtn. ot what they read, many of tuoso on tho peninsula could not help doing the same. Now that we see with our eyes the nature of Britain's task in Fiance, there is. only one depressing tliiiijr about it, and that is that one doubt* it tho British people has any more idea of its magnitude than it had of the difficulties ot Galhpoli. The world hears from tho British public vague talk of some future ottensive. It goes without saying that wo hear nothing of any plans here. If there ■were any it would be m London that they ■would first become common knowledge. But it ouJi an offensive ever does happen, lias tho British people any idea of its difficulties/ in this warfare, when you have brought up such artillery as was unbelievable, even in the farst? year of the war, and reduced miles of trenches to powder and have walked over the last lino of the works in front of yon, a handful of batmen and headquarters cooks may still hold up tho greatest attack yet delivered, and you may spend the next month dashing your strength away against a barrier of ever increasing toughness. It an offensive ever is made wo know it will not be made without good reason for iis success But everything which one has seen points to the conclusion that a vague belief in the success of such an offensne ought not to be the solo mental effort that a groat part of tho nation makes towards winning tho war. And yet from what I wiv lately during a recent visit to Great Biitam 1 should say that such was the cose. "If we fail to break through," the public says, "surely the Russians will manage it, or the French will succeed this time." Wherever wo have seen the war there is always this tendency to look elsewhere for success. There is not tho slightest doubt we have it m our power. Tho game is m our hands if wo will only play it. The talk about our resources and staying power is not all "hot air" as the Americans say. The resources were there, and it was always known that in the later stages of the war, when Germany and our Allies who entered the war at final strength, had used most of 1 heir resources, then those of Britain would become decisive because she had not yet u»cd them. That stago wo are reaching now —Britain's resources measured against those- of Germany. We have the advantage of entering it. The danger is that •while wo squander our wealth without organisation the German, by bringing all Lis brains and resolution to bear on the problem, may so oko out of his strained resources as to outstay our rich ones. THE CONTRAST. One sees not the least sign that the British people understand this. J do not know how it is now in Australia, but m lir.tain life runs its. normal course. Oigantic sums now away daily, and the oni> cltort at economy one lieois oi are a Daylight rfawng Act (adopted only because Germany adopted it inst), a list ol prohibited imports, and petty economies which we mistook when first wo iea*l it lor an elaborate satire, and a pious hope in tut tiue voluntary and official British s>t\tle,' tuat must would be shunned on two elajs oi the week. By way ot contiast, there are dished out for our eneouiagemunt l (.ports, of all the pains which the Germans aie pat to to economise food in their country. Potatoes, instead of flour, meat twite a week, food str.ct'y regulated by ticket, thildieu taught to count between each nioutiiiul m order to avoid over-eating Y\ c ,ue supposed to draw comloit fiom this contiast. It is the most literature we have. The obvious comment is: "Well, there is a nation organised to win a war— that is the t>ort of nation which the men iu the opposite trenches havo behind them— a nation wliKh has organised itself for war, and is aheiJy organising itself foi peace aiter the wai." And all that we, who are Oiganised neither lor war nor peace, have in answer to a national efloil like'that it, an ignoiant jeer at what is really the most formidable of tho dangei& thieatcnmg us. If tho Bnti.sh Empne took the war as business, were ready to disturb its daily life, alter its daily liabits to throw on the su'ap heap its sacred individualism, and do and live for the national cause, no one doubts but wo could win this war so as to avoid an inconclusive peace Somo of us were talking to a middle-aged British meichant. We had left our fellows in Franco cheerfully facing unaccustomed mud and fiotts, cheerfully accepting the chanco of being blown into undiscoverable atoms or liviiig horribly maimed in mind or body— cheei fully accepting all this with the set deliberate purpose' of fighting on for a conclusive settlement, —one which put out of question for the future the rule of bruto force, or tearing of treaties, or renewal of the present war. Wo had left those fellows fighting for an ideal they perfectly well realised, and cheerful in tho belief that they would attain it. A RESPECTABLE CITIZEN. 'JLlic meienant was dressed m black morning coat and black ue, and looked in way a veiy respectable merchant. He was full ol respectable nopes. But when we spoke ot a war he drew a long la<o and talked lugubriously ol dislocated trade and stiain upon eapitui, doubted how lory the indiistij <a.uM ttand it, and shook his head. Whenever one liinAs of that worthy man onu is oveicome with a great angel. What he m«.ant vv.is that, if tho wai went on, he might be bioken, and that was a ealanuty which he could not be expected to lace. We thought of all those fellows in Fiance - Biitith, Australians, Canadians—cheeiloll) offering their lives for an ideal at whim this v. oi thy cituen shied because it miglit cc-t him ins fortune. Suppose it did; suppose he had to leave his hue homo and end liis dayc in a villa; suppose he had to start as a cleric in someone else's countinghouse— what was it beside wnat thoic bov o were ofl'eiing.' I think oi a fair head 'which I have seen matted it; red mud, of vouns; mrv(s t if steel shattered beyond lepair, ot a wild night at Hellco, when 1 found stumbhng Jje-idc me in the hist bitterness of realisation a young officer, who a fewyards back, had been _ tliroudi both eves. And hero was this woithy man sinking his hrad for fear that their kUmls might interfere with his business. Theie are good reasons fo" suing tint the shuiglc s now with the Buiisu pire. With your staying pov,ei you fin win But in Heaven's mm", if vou \u'-h to win -if jou have >n vou anv of (ho idraK for which those bo.vs have died, -ca'-t ;our old prejudges to the winds and organ ,p your staving pou^r.