THE WORLD'S PRESS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 182, 7 September 1914, Page 4

THE WORLD'S PRESS.

PRE SENT-DAY TASTE ?JN WINES. A Nobody lias the time .and only a fewhave the inclination to cultivate a palate for the choieer and less -recondite wines. The sons and grandsons of the two-bottle men of former days ask merely that what' they drink shall be short afcd fizzy, a pick- , me-up rather than a beverage. Something light and sparkling and effervescing,, "with beaded bubbles winking at the brim," and a little prick and smart and bite in the passage of it, is what the taste of to-day. prefers. Wine is 10 longer a cult ;itis a titillation. —' - Daily Mail." _ /, THE TEUTON'S NAVY.

The Germans have been permitted unchecked to build up a navy so strong that it may dare to take the sea against .Quf>. fleet. They have some 13 ships of the "line (Dreadnought class) already completed, and Britain has not many more. But the maritime genius of the old days is not dead; there is every reason to believe that the morale and spirit and fighting efficiency of the men behind our guns is , what it was. Moreover, as Sir Arthur. Stanley has finely said, "We do not claim, in the somewhat blasphemous language of the German Emperor,- that the Almighty is our ally; we submit our case to His judgment. ~ , ^—l< Australasian.'.' DENMARK A FACTOR.

As long as Denmark, which has announced her strict neutrality, is able to observe every German ship as it passes up or down any of tihe three channels between, the Baltic and the Kattegat, and ca» report that information to the world at large, it is manifestly, impos-, sible for Germany to utilise the advantage that she. expects to. utilise, owing to her possession of two exits from the Baltic. Her surprise attacks can always be met by the v blockader with a superior force, as- long as he knows for certain tkrough which of the two, exits the German fleet is , going to make its appearance. —'' Daily 7 Telegraph. '' "ACTIVE AND AGGRESSIVE IMPERIALISM." Is it not; certain, on the contrary, that "active and aggressive Imperialism'' of this sort is quite sure to evoke in the long riyi the spirit which inspires General Hertzog's new ■ programme in South Africa —the spirit which regards the Empire as a catch phrase and Imperialism as simply a menace to the autonomy of the Dominions? General Hertzog denies that an organised British Empire exists. If the task "of organisation is to be continued in the .spirit manifested by Sir John Willison's dispatches Lord Milner's speeches, there will very soon be no Empire left to organise.—"Daily News.'' THE GERMAN PIRATE. The Belgians have had nothing to do with the quarrel at all. They were neutrals in every sense of the term. The Power which has broken in upon her national sanctity, carrying slaughter and rapine, is no higher in the scale of morality than a common pirate carrying the black flag. In this act Germany has taken from legitimate war every principle which distinguishes it from brutal murder, and the Kaiser is rightly characterised as "the enemy of mankind." This it is which has involved him in an almost universal odium.—" Age." :, FOR THE BOY SCOUTS. He must be kind to animals and chivalroxis to the weak and distressed, he must regard a promise as an honourable bond, he must be cheerful, he must be loyal, and he must be clean in body and mind. Eeally, if these are not the whole of human virtues they are the largest half, and we cannot rate the value too highly of any organisation which makes a serious effort to teach them. It is for these great national objects that £IO,OOO a year is now being asked. Why, it is the expenditure of a single urban district council on the teaching of the three It's. —• "Manchester Guardian."