A GERMAN VIEW OF COALITION.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 26, Issue 63, 3 August 1915, Page 4

A GERMAN VIEW OF COALITION.

Not the least useful of the results of forming a National Cabinet in England was the extinction of the last hope that may have remained in German minds that Britain would not prosecute the war to the end in grim earnest. We were told in a cable message some weeks ago (says a southern journal' of the comments of Maximiliafi Harden upon the rearrangement of parties, and these are worth giving more fully. Herr Harden, who knows English conditions very well, speaks of ■ the formation of the new Cabinet as “ almost more important than the intervention of Italy.” He gives a graphic account of the discords and dangers in British domestic politics a year ago, and adds :

“ The indolent Island Empire of yesterday sees now for the first time that Kitchener’s prophecy of a tedious war was not born of sophistry but of cold-brained realisation of the magnitude of the opposing force, and that hope of victory calls for ten times the effort first thought necessary. Great Britain is at last awake, and will only slumber again in death. This is the determination which has welded her political parties in unity. It terrifies no German. But none shall underestimate its significance. The war will soon be a year old. Unless a wonder comes to pass, our confidence will have to be prolonged over another winter. Many hoped otherwise: and forgot that Empires of hundreds of millions do not hesitate between succumbing in impotence and rash risk, and that a knot twisted eight times does not become loose just because one knot is rotted I”