The Otago Witness. (WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1916.) THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 3261, 13 September 1916, Page 35

The Otago Witness.

(WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1916.) THE WEEK.

WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY.

"Nunqtiam allud natara, alluJ sapientia dixit." —Juvenal. "Good nature and good sense must ever join."— POI'E. According to that usually well-informed paper, the British Weekly, The Wastage whose editor, Sir William of War. Robertson Nicoll, is a personal friend of the Minister of War, Mr Lloyd George, there is a likelihood that the British War Office may consider it necessary to call up another million men, which would bring the British army up to a nominal strength of six millions. In the early days of the war Mr Lloyd George, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, declared that the victory would be won by the last million men and the last million pounds, and there appears every prospect of the prophecy proving true. The wastage of war. especially during the recent desperate fighting on the Western front, must be very great and very terrible, and the only consolation amid the bloody slaughter is that the Allies are belter able to stand the wastage and still conquer than are the Central Empires. It is more than two months since the combined FrancoBritish armies assumed the offensive on the Western front, since when they-have everywhere had the best of the fighting, and have made considerable captures of prisoners, guns, and other material, besides occupying some valuable strategic rjoints formerly in the possession of the

enemy. It is nevertheless a melancholy fact that the progress made, substantial as the cable messages represent it to be, is scarcely traceable upon an ordinary map, so slight is the difference between the fighting line of two months ago and the fighting line of to-day. -There is therefore just reason for assuming that the suggestion made by the British Weekly will prove to be correct, and that another million of men will be recruited in the United Kingdom, partly by extending the military age to 45 and "partly by enrolling more men from the old lists' rejects for home service. This statement should serve to emphasise the necessity for New* Zealand keeping up its reinforcenients and to dissipate the idea current in soma quarters that no more men will be required. It is evident, after taking tint most favourable view of the situation, that it will be well on in 1917 ere anything approaching a final decision will be reached. The enemy is hard pressed on all sides, and the Kaiser's difficulties wilt increase as the months go past; but Ger« many is a long way yet from being beaten. Mr H. 6. Wells, whose vogue as a prophet is considerable, after a visit to the Western front, declares:—'"The Germans will begin to squeal in November, and seven months later the war will end." The Russian Commander-in-chief, General Alexiefi', and who is probablv a greater authority than Mr H. G. Wells, when asked about the prospects of peace, said:—* "Probably peace is still some distance off. Neither side has attained its object. There can be no thought of peace now. The war must follow its inevitable and historic course." General Brusiloff, whose recent victories entitle him to speak, is more optimistic. " The war is already won," he declares, " and I believe that peace will come in August, 1917." Whether it is safe at this juncture to attempt to fix a date for the conclusion of peace is open. to discussion: but all will agree with Colonel Churchill in the opinion expressed at Chelmsford when he said: —"Never had he felt surer than now that the course taken by England in August, 1914, was absolutely right, and our children would live to bless the day and glorify the deed."

According to the Paris correspondent of the London Daily Chronicle, A Dizzy Dance the speech in which M. of Millions. Ribot, the French Minister of Finance, will present the French Budget, will be " a dizzy dance of millions." The credit which he ia asking for the last quarter of 1916 amounts to £334.000,000, the total of France's war expenditure to the end of 1916 will be £2.430.000.000, of \which £880.000.000 was for last rear and £1,320,000,000 for the current 'year. In the face of such figures there is a general sense of wonder at the way in which the money is forthcoming to continue the war, upon which all the belligerents are lavishing wealth in a most prodigal fashion, and it is quite true that the war has demonstrated, as nothing else could have done, the immensity of the accumulated wealth of the world. It used to be held as a canon of belief that no great European war could be carried on upon the modern gigantic scale without, it bringing bankruptcy upon the entire world. It has always to be borne in mind, however, that destructive as war necessarily is, a, very large proportion of the money actually spent in munitions is directly reproductive. What this war has done, and is doing upon a continually increasing scale, is to divert most of the wealth ordinarily spent upon luxury and pleasure into more useful channels. There pro* bably never before was a time in the United Kingdom when unemployment was unknown and when the workers were earning better and higher wages than has been the case since the war began. And there never has been a time when tho wealthy classes were being mulcted of their wealth by direct taxation to & greater extent than at present. Thus when the Trades Union Congress at Birmingham carried resolutions advocating the. conscription of wealth and urging that the cost of the war and of reconstruction after the war should be met by the taxation of capital and personal wealth, they are only affirming a process which ia actually proceeding under their eyes. There can be no gainsaying the fact that one of the crying evils before the war was the accumulation of r too great wealth in too few hands. The war has done, and is doing, much to correct this evil, and the correcting process will continue after peace has been proclaimed. Mr H. G. Wells thinks that it will take the form of a Socialistic development, and he foresees, after the war, an Allied Communism of Right. A good many very good people are greatly troubled over the The Attitude attitude of America, and of America. think that President Wilson has played a craven's part, and all through his negotiations with Germany has adopted the line of least resistance. In his address when accepting the Democratic nomination for the Presidency, Mr Wilson took high ground and defended his policy of neutrality as in the best interests of the -ultimate peace of the world. Whatever be the motive underlving the policy, there can be no doubt that from the Allied point of view America's neutrality was the very best thing that could happen, and for many obvious reasons. Critics are not slow lo declare that this neutrality had as its main objects the opportunity to make money out of the war. and there can be no doubt that America has profited hugely, and that many of her manufacturers have pocketed large fortunes as the result of supplying Great Britain with munitions in her time of need. This, however, also applies to Japan, which nation, although not a neutral, but one of the Allies, has since the war repaid £7,000.000 of her external indebtedness, the result, we presume, of supplying Russia with greatly needed munitions. Nor should the fact be forgotten that

many British manufacturers and shipowners have profited by the war to an even greater extent than their American confreres. When the attitude of America towards the war comes to be reviewed dispassionately, and when President Wilson's policy is considered historically, it will probablv be judged as wise in the extreme in the face of an exceedingly delicate situation. We believe that at heart the American nation takes sides with Great Britain because she believes that the Allied cause is the cause of right. The explosion of feeling over the blacklisting incident does not after all amount to much; it may be compared to the complaints of the New Zealand hotelkeepers over the anti-shouting regulation; and has really no significance in value.