PASSING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3215, 27 October 1915, Page 5

PASSING NOTES.

(From Saturday's Daily Timca.),

There are many ways of losing a war; the handiest, also the cheapest, is disunion. If press and Parliament at the centre of things mean to go on as they are going—falling out among themseives and publishing their quarrels to the world, —there is no need to fire anotner shot; the war is lost already, and the three million a day we are spending on fleets and armies may be saved up for the indemnity. As colonists and outlanders, albeit citizens of the Empire, we in New Zealand have no say on war matters; our part is to send our young men to the front and then to listen meekly when we are told from the benches of the House of Lords or the columns of ine Times that their lives have been thrown away. Also we may look on with horror and amaze while politicians and newspaper men assume the conduct of the war, debate questions of strategy, call to account the generals in the field, and proclaim for the comfort of the enemy that “ any day proposals may be made which will end instantly the political truce and rend the British people into contending factions.” All these things, and worse, are in the cables. Not easily shall we oe driven to despair of our country; still less disposed are we to be ashamed of it. ivt any rate, I for one will make a stand. But only on condition that the present mad fit pass.

Naturally, whilst this mad fit of. ours lasts the 9 enemy is cock-a-hoop. “Vienna is very gay,” —say the cables, —“ Berlin openly exultant.” Not because of triumphs past, —of late there have been none, —but in foresights of triumphs to come. “ The British side of the war is to be conducted by lawyers and editors,’ —chuckles the Kaiser; —“Ja wohl! to meinself und Gott comes a soft thing at last!” A soft thing indeed,_ if British military experts were ousted in_ favour of such strategists as Lord Milner, Mr Ashmead-Bartlett, and Sir Edward Carson. Lord Milner, a retired woconsul who should know better, publicly condemns the Dardanelles adventure and demands immediate evacuation. Mr Ashmead-Bartlett, a newspaper war correspondent, pronounces pontifically in the same sense; —the Dardanelles adventure is a failure, and deservedly a failure: —“Apart from the conception and doubtful paternity of the expedition, we committed every conceivable blunder in the methods of carrying it out.” Pretty good that for a newspaper man. Then because of the Dardanelles adventure and our persistence therein, together with our Balkan policy generally, Sir Edward Carson resigns his_ Attorneygeneralship. • What is to he said to these things? Clearly this, —that the Dardanelles expedition may have been had from first to last—useless, costly, anything you like, but that these gentlemen are not the judges. - Sir Edward Carson, though a lawyer of distinction, has no better title to determine questions of military strategy than Lord Kitchener has to conduct pleading at nisi prins, or to operate for appendicitis.

To recover any feeling of national selfrespect it is necessary to look away from the politicians and the journalists to the sailors and the soldiers. “ Our disciplined forces are unrivalled; our free-and-easy forces are a national danger all day long. Thus a candid critic in one of this month's magazines. He continues: —“To those hysterical sections of our public who believe in voluntaryism at any price Germany offers grateful thanks.” To Mr Massingham of the Nation,” for instance, of whom the editor of the Spectator remarks that he il would rather the country should perish than that it should be saved by what he would consider illegitimate means” —namely, conscription, and yrho boasts —falsely, wo may believe — that “the anti-conscription trenches are lined by three million trade-unionists.” If the Allies are defeated it will not be by Germany, hut by Britain, and to tins ignominy Britain will be reduced by fanatics of the Massingham kidney. It is sheer cussedness that the Ministry should he threatened with disruption and the country with chaos over a dispute about conscription. Sana men, of every school

and party may surely consent to say with Loid Derby—Voluntaryism, if voluntaryism will give us the men. When voluntaryism has made its last effort and failed —then conscription. One way or the other the country mnst be saved. _ Nowhere more urgently than at Westminster and in Fleet street are the virtues that go with military discipline needed. “ Gentlemen of the press and the political stump Line up—Keep step —and —Silence in the ranks I” At this distance in time and space it will hurt nobody if I illustrate the amenities of British politics by an example. Mr Hilaire Belloc, with a reputation as patriot and war critic, writes to the Morning Post from the Reform Club, September 7: Public confidence in this country has been undermined now for some months by the action of one man, whose motives I shall not here judge, but whose incapacity, violence, and (until very recently, at least) unfortunate power for evil are familiar to everyone. That man is Alfred Harrnsworth, Lord Northcliffe. The newspapers controlled by this man are numerous. The most conspicuous are The Times and the Daily Mail. There are, perhaps, a dozen others. The record of those papers during the last few months is notorious. A violent attack upon the head of the British army, incomprehensible to our Allies, and impossible to conceive in any part of the Alliance, long ago gave those in authority their first and best opportunity to act. They were within an aco of acting, but under the test they failed to act. The penalty that they and the country they govern has since paid is heavy. Week after week the progress of the war has been misrepresented in a fashion no other censorship in Europe would tolerate, and that particularly by the most offensive method of staring headlines and posters calculated for depression or for panic. All that could shake or lower the general resolve was emphasised. All that could comfort or even appeal to reasonable confidence has been suppressed. These things are a mystery. The leading articles of The Times, as I read them, seem written with dignity and patriotic feeling. The Daily Mail’ does no doubt luxuriate in a wider freedom and in looser speech. But, anyhow, what motive can Lord Northcliffe have to ruin his country? Or for ruining Lord Kitchener? That Lord Kitchener has been seriously attacked is of course notorious. There are hints also of lukewarm support from his colleagues in the Cabinet. Lord Esher an old official whose words have weight, writes to the Glasgow Herald, August 10, a letter which had been “practically boycotted by the London press.” From the outset of the war I have been thrown into the company of nearly every one of our leading statesmen, and 1 have found them all wrong in their forecasts without exception. They genuinely believed in a short war. They prophesied its conclusion . in anything from three to nine months. They jeered at a lees optimistic view, and hardly one of them but held that before now the British army would be marching through Berlin. There was one exception to this host of miscalculators and optimists. That was Lord Kitchener, and to him we owe the army we have got. If he . is not interfered with, and if ho is supported by the spontaneous gift to him of the supreme effort of the nation, ho may even now avert a defeat, which otherwise is inevitable. Why inevitable? “ Because ' Germany is stronger than we are in the personal guidance of the war, as well as in the concentrated purpose of her people.” And this uncomfortable witness who has “ seen more of the war from diverse aspects along the line of the Western front than any one of our countrymen,” has “ been with the French and English armies for many many months, and come into contact with nearly all those engaged in conducting this vast military operation.” sums -up by staking everything upon Kitchener; Within those islands Lord Kitchener is the only man who appears to possess the insight and judgment necessary to control world-wide military operations. Why these opinions from a responsible source shopld have been “ practically boycotted by the London nress ” does not appear. But it is pretty plain that Kitchener’s work is being done in face of opposition both visible and invisible. Dear “Civis,” —In reading a book of Gertrude Page’s I came across two lines of poetry that would not come amiss at a recruiting meeting. Although really meant for the man who would like to enlist and cannot, they would be quite applicable to the “shirker,” who, doubtless, will “bitterly regret” being “left behind ” and out of it when the war is over: — “ Medals for this, medals for that in the thrill of the firing-line; But what shall assuage the bitter regret of the man who is ‘ loft behind.’ ” It is useless to quote poetry at the shirker who is a shirker in grain. Nothing will move that kind of shirker but compulsion. But the shirker who is merely hesitating may be reached by appeal. Already it is touch and go; there needs but the final impulse; a speech or a song may do it. If we are to stave off compulsion there will have to be improve ment in our recruiting agencies. Where is the recruiting sergeant, old type, swift to palm you the King’s shilling and twine the R-val streamers round your hat, whilst apt with words consol’; g f r th te rtul girl who looks on and sees it don.': Recruiting is my trade, and you shall shortly see. Our views, my pretty maid, on many points. agree. In men who fear the fight no woman can delight. But by women all adored arc the herpes '■-.f die sword. . . We shall not look tiro • his Lire again. Bui there sh <dd bo an ever-open recruit--1 um office with official flag; at set times

should play the best band to be had for nrney. Mo e music is wanted, more and Inter. Patriotic mu.-ic wa d scoursed oo the Trafalgar Day crowd at the Ganison Hall, but how is that on an occasion of that kind no Dunedin singer has the wit to sing Handel’s “ Sound an Alarm ” and “Arm, Arm, ye brave”? Sing it? —he might declaim it, take liberties with it, preach it, —and fairly lift the audience to their feet. The ancient Scottish gospel of thrift needs preaching in Scottish Otago. It is patriotism just now to abate luxury m food and dress and amusements, to spend less in whisky and tobacco, to shun the picture show, to eschew the cheap dranery sale. It is every man’s duty to save hio bawbees and lend them to the State ao per cent., —see pro pectus of Sir Joseph Ward’s two-million loan. The Times Literary Supplement reviews a volume of gossip about the Scottish peasantry, in particular the fishermen and small farmers of Aberdeen and the country round it. The old charge of want of humour persists : A humorous speech by a minister at a social meeting was spoken of in my hearing as “just trying to mak’ a fule o’ the folks.” In tolling a story of a witty nature about King Edward to a fishorwoman the only remark made was that she feared I was worldly-minded. There is a commendable zeal for orthodoxy;— “Yo‘ may preach anything else ye like, but if ye toll them there’s nae dcovil the folk o’ this pairish will never come near a kirk again.” But the de pest characteristic is a genius for thrift. The Scottish peasant saves by instinct, persuaded with Cicero —of whom he never heard —that thrift is itself an income—“ parsimoma est magnum vectigal.” And the sense of possession helps his self-respect: “I can gie yo a braw curd fornervishncss, an’ ane that I’ve proved tae mascl. Juiet tak’ some coppers i’ yer pouch, Robbie (Robbie was a newly-electcd precentor), an’ . when it’s near time for risin’ jingle them up i’ yer ban’, man. It’ll gte yo a gran’ feelin’ o’ independence, and it hes a winnerfu’ effect upo’ the nerves.” Courtship and marriage are not apart from thrift, —how should they be! “A thrifty, canty wife is a gweed revenue,” runs the proverb. The wooer looks to find in his bride a frugal housekeeper, and is disposed to grudge her her honeymoon as expensive and unessential. But the lady has been brought up to hold the same views. “ Maggie, I want .you sair; but I’ve to spoor this at ye first, what can yo dae withoot?” “ I can do withoot a’ thing but ycrscT, Donald.” From scenes, and sentiments, like these old Scotia’s grandeur springs. Let us reproduce them here, take up Sir Jo eph’ 4-i per cents., and so, as his prospectus says, “ assist the Empire.” Cxvis.