Rangitikei Advocate. TWO EDITIONS DAILY. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1916.
ONE of the best descriptions of the great offer; - What Is It Like? sive we have
read, and which at the same time leaves
everything to the imagination, was recently given by an army officer. He was asked to tell what the Push was like, and this was his reply: “What’s the Push like? It’s like everything that'ever was, as well. It’s all the struggles of life crowded into an hour; it’s an assertion of the bedrock decency and goodness of oar people; and I wouldn’t have missed it for all the gold in London town. I don’t want to be killed; not a little bit. But, bless you, one simply can’t be’bothered giving it a thought. The killing of odd individuals such as me is so tiny a matter. My God, it’s the future of humanity ; countless millions; all the laughing little kiddies, and the slim, straight young girls, T and the sweet women, and the men that are to come. It’s all humanity we’re fighting for, whether life’s to be clean and decent. free, and worth having—or a Boche nightmare. You can’t describe it, but I wouldn’t like to be out of it for long. It’s Hell and Heaven, and the Devil and the World; and, thank goodness, we’re on the aide of the angels—decency, not material gain —and we’re going to win.” That is a kind of Futurist or Impressionist sketch in which you have all the great outlines marked in. but which leaves you to fill in the details from your own imagination, As a matter of fact, however, it is as impossible to put a description of the details of the great war, which includes in it all the horrors and emotions, the glories and the tragedies of humanity seven times heated in an article than you can put the universe in a match box.
WE have received from the Royal j Colonial Instij The Deportation tute the Eej Scheme. port to the Institute by Sir Rider Haggard on the results of his visit to the Dominions for the purpose cf interesting overseas governments in a scheme for providing land tor time-expired British soldiers on the conclusion of [the war. As might have been expected Sir Rider Haggard was able to furnish a very satisfactory report from the point of view of the Institut 0 . All the governments interviewed were only too pleased to do what they could to find room for the priceless human material which some people in England are desirous of throwing away, if the proposal had been made to the Premiers of the Colonies for the dividing up among them of all the population of the British Isles they would have gladly availed themselves of the offer. Why, however, the Colonial Institute should be so desirous of getting rid of what will be the sadly decimated remnant of British manhood after the war it must take one mentally constituted like themselves to understand, in spite of the waste places of the Empire that seem to yawn for inhabitants Britain needs men more than any of them. Placed as it is in juxtaposition to mighty potential enemies in Europe and, from its affluence of raw materials, capable of being the workshop) of the world under scientific management, the country absolutely needs all the brain and muscle that will be left over after the war. And a country that can sp)end thousands of millions in the destruction of men and material will certainly be able to spend another thousand millions,, if necessary, to conserve its manhood and build up its industries, and make their own country sufficiently attractive to men to bold them there. Consequently, at the close of the struggle, wo hope to see the British Government bidding against the Haggards and the other deporting agencies for British men and bidding higher than any of them.
THE Gorman commercial submarine
scheme is certainly They Go. not so successful as the optimistic Hum Imagined it would be. Apparently
the hopes and the submarines together blander into the nets which Jellicoe spreads for them, like the spider of the waterways that he is, the whEe over on the American coast Fritz and his friends shade their eyes with their hands and scan the Atlantic to the sky line for the sight of an approaching periscope. When one does actually appear the natural question on the part of Fritz is, “Where are the nine?” Jellicoe could say if he would, but he and his are as silent as the Sphinx as to their doings. He is moro sparing of words than Haig, who generally tells us when he is deluging the trenches of the Huns with fire and iron, and the very heavens shake with his thunders, that there is “Nothing to report.” But the Germans in their strafed dugouts could a tale unfold if they had the opportunity. It is now stated that two Bremens have been captured, almost on their own door-step, when setting out for America, and another is en route, having apparently escaped the dangers of the Channel to, perhaps, fall into the hands of the British sea-sweepers off the American coast. Considering the very small number of vessels sunk by German submarines lately 7 it would appear that the Huns have very few left,and thought to make use of these, or some of them, to obtain supplies. But whether as merchantmen or as warshipsjfate, in the shape of a jolly British Tar, compasses their desrnction by ways as mysterious as those of the gods.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/RAMA19161021.2.10
Bibliographic details
Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLI, Issue 11700, 21 October 1916, Page 4
Word Count
933Rangitikei Advocate. TWO EDITIONS DAILY. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1916. Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLI, Issue 11700, 21 October 1916, Page 4
Using This Item
See our copyright guide for information on how you may use this title.