"ALIEN'S" LETTER FROM ENGLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3380, 25 December 1918, Page 51

"ALIEN'S" LETTER FROM ENGLAND.

(Specially Written for the Ladies' Page.)

JUSTICE, NOT REVENGE. October 7.

The splendid victories in the west have brought not only relief to the Allied. countries, but to the civilised world. But we must not detract from- the greatness of those victories by thinking it has been "a walk over" the enemy.. The tales of the return wounded tell differently; also the blanks in the family circle, the mourning worn by women, the crowded military hospitals, the crowded incoming Red Cross trams. The enemy is resisting, and resisting strongly. It was, of course, to be expected that at the first conviction of defeat the Hun would cry "Pax," but the sudden conversion of the Kaiser and his Reichstag to democracy deceives no one but the olind. Germany's hand is still in the nut-jar of the world, as full of nuts as it can hold, and if he can escape a beating he promises, not to take any more (this time), but he must be allowed to keep what he has, and the German colonies, he affirms, must ,be given back to him. But Australia and New Zealand must be got into the mood first, and France must agree to let the pillager and destroyer and desecrator of its fair cities and picturesque villages go scot free,, and Belgium must take the hand that destroyed her if the wish of Germany is to be granted. Germany is not beaten yet, and never will be if the tears in the Kaiser's eyes are to move us. Germany—the German people—will never know that they are a beaten people while their country is uninvaded, while every city stands, and the desolation is only in the wake of their own armies. To save Germany and the Hohenzollerns while technically unbeaten is the peace dodge—to preserve the autocracy in Germany practically intact. The new policy of the Reichstag is a " democratic' pose which is not likely to deceive President Wilson, nor any. of the Allies. " When the devil is sick the devil a saint would be." But ,the devil that has deluged the world in ■ blood and sorrow must be sick unto death and powerless further to -destroy before a truce is called. . And as to giving him back the conquered German colonies to make military bases for the future, he must think us fools to dream of it. Germany's "peaceful penetration" can never be trusted again. '

With the retirement of the Huns from the Belgian coast the air-raid peril almost disappears for London is the view of an authority, for the loss of the aeroplane bases on the Flanders coast will make it impossible for him to send Gothas over from the opposite coast. It does not mean a certainty that the air raids are entirely over, but even if the enemy establishes aircraft bases further back, he will have twice the distance to travel. The easy cross-Channel trips are over, so that we are justified in thinking that, now the Huns cannot use their coast aerodromes, we can sleep if not in absolute, in much greater safety. While the armies are pushing the enemy back on land the fleet is breaking his grip upon the coastline. , With what different feelings we hear the guns from the opposite coast to those of last May! We are told that a big bombardment of Ostend may follow the fall of Lille—our bombardment. The enemy is already removing his guns. This packing up of the Huns on the Flanders coast means evacuation. Will they cast longing eyes on the Channel they boasted they would cross? Paul Marinvovitch, Serbian Minister in Rumania, writing of the sorrows of his country, says:

Over a million and a half of our race have perished out of five millions. We have the dreadful memory of the 30,000 of our boys who to escape slavery left their country and tried to reach the coast through the mountains of Albania, where their bones now lie. We do not know how the population still remaining has existed. We. do know that thousands have died of starvation.

Poor, martyred Belgium, whose hour of deliverance is also at hand, was blessed by a great Relief Commission, which regularly fed every man, woman, and child sufficiently to keep body and soul together.. Serbia, alas! was too much isolated to be able to share in this beneficent work. No food and no clothing could be sent to our afflicted people. We were an agricultural community and all our cattle were taken from us. Every house had at leasj; two oxen, and there were 600,000 houses. We had 100,000 horses and a friiilion swine. They were all taken. Every piece of agricultural machinery was taken. We had thriving clothing factories. They were emptied of everything. Every house, every cottage, every' pig-sty was looted.

They did not even spare our libraries. Actually—priceless old books were taken, together with the rest of the contents of our libraries and reduced to pulp to make into paper for the books of our enemies. Thus, when wo go back to our land we go back to an empty shell. Over 300,000 of our kinsmen are slaves to-day in Asia Minor, where they were sent by the Bulgarians. But we do not seok revenge. TV© only want justice. It may be a long time yet

before the Peace Conference assembles and metes out that justice. Meanwhile during the armistice is it too • much to ask that what has been.taken from us shall be returned? . If our country is shortly to be entirely delivered from the invader, it will be useless to us unless wo have the machinery and the implements to start industries and to till the soil. In the darkest hours Serbia has always had absolute confidence that England would see tiiat justice was done when the hour ca?ne. Wo have that confidence to-day. We know it is only necessary for the English people to. know all the facts about the records of Bulgaria and Serbia before . and during this war in order to ensure that full J'ustico is done. Serbia would never put lerself into the moral position. Bulgaria occupies to-day. Bulgaria was treacherous to the Entente, and now she has betrayed the Central Powers. To her honour means nothing. To Serbia it means everything.

Shall Germany not pay for these things? " German politics and commerce alike are cursed with dishonour, cheating, subterfuge, and any and every device which can be invented for evasion of a bargain, even when it is in writing." They will get out of this terrible debt they owe the world if we will let them. We must not let them. By the bleached bones of our friends, by our beloved dead, we must vow ourselves to justice, even though the execution of justice defer our own personal happiness. After a night of watching, of suffering, it is the hour before the dawn that is the coldest, the longest, and hardest to bear. We know the dawn is just there, and if our impatient hands could rend the curtain of the night we should force the light. A little longer and the sun will rise to the new day for the world to the freedom for which ; the oppressed have hungered and thirsted, and for which our heroes have died. We women have been strong through the night watches, quiet in the hours of our danger, generous to give of the best of ourselves to those we love. We dare not spoil it in the last hour by impatience. It is not over yet. There is more to give, and more to do, and more to trust—and more to sacrifice. Some of us may not see the dawn from this side of the curtain, but we shall have helped to free the world from despotism nevertheless—our little piece of patience and work to build the great temple of freedom, to make a better world. Not a sock has been knitted for feet chilled in the trenches, "holding the fort" of Right; not a flower or kindly deed has brightened the hospital ward of our suffering soldiers; not a letter or parcel has gone to camp or prison, or word written or spoken to inspire, but has helped to cement the wonderful fabric of Right together. Our own little piece is lost in the great whole ; but it is there. So we must pray God for the strength not to cry for the dawn till the dawn is due. There is something worse than pain—not to have the courage to bear it. There is something worse than war—a cowardly peace. Ihere is something worse than the death of the body —the decay of the soul. And the soul of the nation has been saved alivealive to resist and achieve; alive to cast off sloth and achieve strength in endurance and struggle. The pacifist suggests that there is nothing worth suffering for. uut there. is something bigger than our own feelings, and that is the country that gave us our heritage.

This week there is a fresh call to the country for " food for the guns" which are to set us free. They have eaten much already, but must not fail through starvation at the eleventh hour. And, although it means a further self-denial to raise the millions for the war loan, it is confidently anticipated that it will oe raised, and all claims cheerfully met. Decisive days are approaching. Millions of pounds' worth of shells will be needed to bridge the gap between us and victory, and our patriotism and determination and unswerving loyalty will not fail at the end. The progress made has put the nation into good heart. This is probably the last war loan before peace. The campaign to raise the second one thousand million in war bonds at the rate of £26,000,000 a week is expected to be successful. Trafalgar square, transformed into a ruined village on the western front, is ready to receive the investors in war bonds. The investors will pass through sand-bag trenches to the big guns, across which will be received the cash shells and powder, and where the certificates will be issued. Then the purchasers will pass out along another, trench. The square is unrecognisable, ruined churches, blasted trees, and shattered dwellings covering Gordon's statue, the lions, and fountain from sight. " On to Berlin " is the Empires desire, and there is only one way there. . That we are going to feel the pinch of the war more severely this week than before is certain. Butter is to be reduced to a 2oz ration, but supplemented by margarine. Meat is very scarce. The ration is only enough for two meals; but there is unlimited bacon of very coarse quality, and n> supplies the need for fat. Mr dynes, in a letter to the Food Committee relating to the food prices said that he feared those who stopped work as a protest really did not know how absolutely impossible it is to reduce prices as they would desire, and that the quickened competition between tonnage for food supplies and the transport of American troops and munitions will create new and serious difficulties of food supplies. So there seems little likelihood of prices easing till the ships are not needed any longer for American troops. The nature of the winter before us we do not know, but whether the cold be severe or not, it will only be possible to warm that part of the house we chiefly occupy; the other rooms will be at zero. But it will be colder in France and Italy and in America, where an effort is being made to save 50,000,000 tons of coal. As it is pointed out, it will be coldest in Germany—with fear. If the homes fires are fewer this winter there are fewer women to sit by them as the demand for their activities grow. The national kitchens help out with the cooking difficulty in more ways than one and are so popular in the localities

where they are situated that those dasirou3 of purchasing have to be early in the dinner hour" or they find everything "off." I visited several while in London, and streams of people were carrying off the meat pies, puddings, etc., as fast as they ooulfi be YJerved, and, although there appeared to bo more piecrust than meat, the smell was most appetising. I had an opportunity on several occasions of sampling some of the lighter dishes such as fish, fishcakes, rissoles, potato pie, etc., and found them excellent. Jam-roll, ric« pudding and jam tarts disappeared with, the meat course as if by magic, and a saleswoman (the wife of the vicar to whoso church the kitchen was attached) told me that it was the same every morning. And the purchasers were by no means belonging to what we understand by the "lower" classes. The fish later on would be heated and served with fish knives and forks, and defy anyone, save the hostess, to know where it was cooked. And the prices for the cooked foods are as reasonable as uncooked food, for the national kitchens, of course, purchase in the wholesale markets, and are not out for profit—■ only to clear expenses. They are. a great boon to the women who occupy flats and apartments, and occupied all day at warwork or other work. The great hive- of women-workers must be fed ," and "board" as well as lodgings has been out of favour with landladies since the difficulties of the rations. But it is reallv remarkable what excellent meals the cheaper restaurants serve rfor the cost of Ls 6d. If butchers' • meat is supplied half a coupon is claimed. The portions are not large, but larger than private purchasing would _ supply for the money, with the advantage* of the hot meal already cooked. The result is that hundreds of thousands of the workers, both men and women of the busy metropolis, get the chief meal of the day-either at a restaurant or from the national kitchens, with good results to health, for, despite hard work (probably because of better pay for it), I have never seen the London workgirls looking so well. The restriction of the tea meal has emptied the tea shops, except for refreshment, and filled the cooi>! .houses for meals.' ?