PRIME MINISTER REVIEWS THE WAR

Southland Times, Issue 17659, 17 February 1916, Page 5

PRIME MINISTER REVIEWS THE WAR

Censor Not Concealing Reverses Western Line Safely Held Mesopotamian Situation Improving THE NEED FOR PRIVATE AND NATIONAL ECONOMY i Liabilities Stagger Imagination Large Additions in Taxation LONDON, February 15. Received February 16, 9 p.m. In the House of Commons Mr Asquith said that regarding the censorship it was important that people should be enlightened and fortified by the knowledge that they were being told the worst as well as the best. Since the adjournment little had taken place in the various theatres calling for special mention. There had been a recrudence of activity on the west front, in which the Allies well held their own. The Serbian Army; thanks to the assistance of Italy, safely evacuated Albania, and was now being reconstituted and refitted. The operations in the Cameroons had been brought to a triumphant conclusion. The situation in Mesopotamia was distinctly improving. General Townshend was holding his own. and General Aylmer’s reinforcements should have reached him by this time. There was every ground for hoping that the forces would be reunited, and that anything in the nature of a serious British check would he averted. There was no prospect of the reduction of the cost of the war from five millions daily. He would ask for a very large vote of credit next week. The nation’s liabilities on Ist January readied a figure 'which would strain the resources for a generation, and which staggered imagination. The expenses must go on because there could be no faltering or flagging in the prosecution of the war. How is it to be met? I am no pessimist and have no more doubt about our ultimate triumph than about tile righteousness of the Allied cause, but the people must be got to realise the position. The Chancellor would have courage to propose large, additions in taxation, but this would not bridge the huge and ever widening chasm. The only other way of maintaining our credit was to cut down all unnecessary imports and the consumption of luxuries, and bring the expenditure in every phase of public and private life. OUR RESOURCES. GLORIOUS WORK OF TSE NATT. BRITAIN'S GIGANTIC TASK. DOMINIONS’ SELF ACKNOWLEDGED S LONDON, February 16. Received February 16, 9,50 p.m. Mr Asquith said that during the last three months he had taken stock of our resources in men ' and -munitions, and, our industrial and financial capacity, actual and prospective, to enable us to ,contribute our maximum effort to the common cause.

The Navy had performed its duties in a manner worthy of the best traditions of the Navy and of Nelson. The Army had grown immensely. We entered the war a Naval Power only, but now we had an army tenfold larger than at the commencement of the war. In addition to these gigantic duties Britain has taken the leading part in providing the Allies and the dominions with the sinews of war. M. Briand’s cordial welcomes at London and some were a matter for congratulation, and ho hoped that at an *arly date there would be a general conference of all the Allies at Paris, reviewing all the political and strategic questions, and thus effectively counteracting the enemy’s early, advantage of centralised control. Britain’s responsibilities were more varied and more complex than those of the Allies. For example there was the Navy, which was the most powerful and most diver combination of fleets that ever sailed the ocean, With unexampled efficiency it had defended our shores, neutralised the aggressive power of the German fleet and cleared the high seas. He acknowledged the extent to which the dominions had swelled the army of Britain, and they had been supplying the Allies with the necessities of war. Shipping had been a gigantic and unprecedented task. There had been mistakes and miscalculations, but long strides had been taken towards a solution.

FINANCING THE ALLIES. PRESSURE ON GERMANY. LONDON, February 10. Received February 16, 7.35 p.m. The Earl of Crewe emphasised the financial assistance England was giving the Allies. If the Allies had been self supporting the present taxation would enable us to pay a far larger share of the current expenses of the war than it was ever supposed conceivable any Power could pay during the course of a groat war. H was our duty to exert upon Germany every sort of pressure, naval, military and commercial, and to do it quickly. GERMANY’S SCHEMES WASHINGTON. February 15. The Senate’s Foreign Committee has received documentary proof that Germany before the war tried to acquire the rights to build an inter-oceanic canal, with naval bases, in Colombia and Nicaragua, and a foothold in Hayti, with a naval base on the mole of St. Nicholas.

[A Nicaragua Canal project dates back several centuries, hut no important constructive work has ever been achieved on it. United States surveys wore made in ISiiO and again 1870. and in 1876 a United States Commission reported on it as the best isthmian canal route between the Atlantic and the Pacific. The subsequent work by the French company on the Panama Canal revived the Nicaragua project in the States, and a United States company obtained concessions from Nicaragua in 18SG, and was incorporated by charter from the United States Government in 1899, during which year operations were begun. In 18911, after spending about f 1,000,000, the company became bankrupt, and work, which was even then still only of a preliminary nature and on a modest scale, ceased, and lias never since been resumed. The proposal (going from east to west) was to construct a short canal from Greytown, near where the Hio San Juan enters the Carrihbean Sea, join that river higher up, instal a series of Jocks, and follow the lit er some 100 miles back lo its source in Lake Nicaragua. That lake, about 105 ft above sea level, and of ample depth, would provide 70 miles of waterway. An outlet was to lie out from the lake through a ridge only 160 ft high between it and the Pacific, and the short 11 io Grande was to he used to complete inter-oceanic connection, this last-stage amounting to about -0 miles. The actual work so far done consists of 11000 feet length of excavation inland from flic Atlantic side to a width of JSOft and depth of 17ft. besides some route-clearing and raii reading, harbour improvements, buildings, etc.]