THE WORLD'S PRESS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume 1, Issue 235, 7 November 1914, Page 8

THE WORLD'S PRESS.

GLORY FOR BRITISH SAILORS. Enormously outnumbered and suffering heavy loss, our troops haye fought with a courage and, determination as fine as any displayed in the history of our nation. They have, up to-the present, fought at the gravest possible disadvantage, having to go into action at the end of a long forced march, sometimes without even the opportunity of entrenching, and the glorious ! stand* of ouf 700 at Tournai against ! 5000 Germans will take rank among the most splendid deeds of our Army in the field.—"Evening News" (London). ! EUROPE'S TRAGEDY. I , It was a tragedy for Europe that Germany should Have so entirely misunderstood the British . character, but the responsibility largely belongs to those foolish people in this country who have continually denounced war under any circumstances and have been less in their endeavours to prevent Great Britain arming herself. Tkeii voice has been loud enough to reach to Berlin, and Berlin quite naturally exaggerated their importance.. It is -tci... them that Germany ? s false move is due/ They have brought Europe " not peace, '• but the sword.— 4 ' Express." : TEE RESPONSIBII.ITY. si/ %• It is for us to see that; we profit some* thing by a war into which we, hay< been foreed in defence of honour, and of the freedom of Europe, and. the cosl of which every man amongst us is already beginning to feel.-—Evening'; News" (London). , v o COST OF WAR. V It is an old calculation that in war a ton of lead and £IOOO altogether, are re'; quired to kill a man. In the German- war the cost of slaughter "was even greater than this; and as in the Boer war the British expenditure was > £223,000,000, and the -estimated loss on : both sideis was about 25,000 lives, a grim, though very easy sum ie set fox*, those who find interest in the hdrroijL of war—"Daily Telegraph." ; A COURAGEOUS DECISION. . ' We must give the highest praise to the Government for its decision-to; lise, Indian troops against the barbarian hordes of the Kaiser. It was a deci6ioa which needed courage and breadth of view, and these were not wanting. Nothing that the Goveratoenthaß done: sine o war was decisired will- more • greatly -to ..its honour.—"Evening News?' (London). - ' i ;

GENERAL DE LA BET. ; There was not a British soldier but loved- Kim foi-the displayed' after the battle Of Tweebosch; when a British cut. up and its commander, Lord Methuen,severely wounded and captured by him. The brief but soldierlike' tribute ■ which his old antagonist pays to him in our : columns to-day will be all who fought in South Africa—"He was ■, a chivalrous enemy and a loyaltnend ; and no man could have a nobler epitaph* "Daily Mail." DEMOCRATISING THE ARMY. A better opportunity for an experiment in democratising the Army could not be desired. For the moment, however, the most urgent difficulty is material rather than personnel.. That too is being disposed of, and Lord Kitchener looks forward to the new armies being ready to take the field by the spring. It niay be doubted whether* any country has ever fashioned in so short a time a formidable army, but Lord Kitchener is not the man to promise what he cannot perform. We shall be ready when the critical stage of the struggle demands it to thiow into thescale a sword not inferior in weight to that of our friends or our enemies.— "Daily News." . ; THE DOOM OF AUSTRIA. Nothing, so "far as we can see, can now avert the final downfall of the realm and dynasty of the Habsburgs. Certainly the conscription en inasse which the aged Emperor is reported to have ordered will avail little. As a military Power Austria-Hungary has already been broken. As a State it seems equally destined to perish in unlamented violence. A congeries of races that have never really fused, destitute of political prescience and national consciousness, maintained solely by the artificial action and reaction of racial antipathies, it lias long outlived its usefulness.—^"Manchester Guardian."