THE WORLD'S PRESS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 263, 10 December 1914, Page 6

THE WORLD'S PRESS.

BRITAIN'S EASY CONSCIENCE. Great Britain has a perfectly easy conscience. With everything to lose and nothing to gain, she is fighting because of "the paramount obligation of fidelity to plighted word and the duty of defending weaker nations against violence and wrong." As far as Great Britain and her allies are . concerned, this is the most righteous war the Avorld has "ever seen, and it is the measure of Germany's degradation tlmt her ministers of religion are willing to confess themselves the willing accomplices of the buccaneers of Potsdam. — "Express." GERMANY AND THE KATTEGAT.

Only by the goodwill of Denmark and Sweden can German battleships pass through the Sound, which is the safest channel for vessels proceeding from the Baltic to the Kattegat, en route to the North Sea. If either Denmark or Sweden chose to b ar the passage it could be done, in which event Germany would probably be driven to occupy Denmark, at any rate, and having secured possession of the Danish forts commanding the Little Belt, and tj.ie Great Belt she would then be in a position" to make whatever use of those passages she might choose. The recall of the Danish and Swedish reservists suggests that Denmark and Sweden anticipate a German move against them.—' 'Daily Telegraph." - . ■ A PECULIAR NATIONAL CONVICTION.: It is a peculiar ambition,- but it is quite impossible to doubt; they (the Prussians) cherish it sincerely,, and profoundly believe in their right to realist it if they can. Their deepest national conviction is that Might is the only guarantee of Right, and-that in the national struggle for expansion and increase of Might moral. scruples are-a despicable weakness. Weak., naiiops have no right to political; freedom . or moral independence, and theii' sole"title to exist is in their humble acceptance of the nationality and dominion of a stronger Power.- —'' Age.'' RECRUITING IN IRELAND.

Englishmen of all parties will now watch with sympathy, and with nothing more that the most friendly partisanship, the emulation of Ulster and the rest of Ireland in turning their irregular armies into regular ones. They wil 1 be the best of comrades to each other in the field if, as we fully believe, Mr Redmond 7 s cordial offer of brotherhood: inarms is answered in the same spirit .by those who can speak for the Ulster party to this generous, competition.- '' Manchester Guardian.'' DIPLOMATIC FAILURE.

The German diplomatic campaign has failed as signally as the German military and naval campaign. Germany has lost, the friendship of her former ally, Italy, and estranged the sympathy of the United States. Was it for thes'e results that the "Kaiser and the German nation made this,war? No, it is not at all "as in. 1870,": and the-- German nation must be-ruefully reflecting today that the "mantle of William the Great has failed to fall upon William the Little. —"Daily Mail." VICTORY FOR GOOD GOVERNMENT. The discomfiture of such a calculation (a rising in India) is not; only a victorv for England against Germany, but a'victory for good government everywhere, and an argument for the decent use of power by every nation which gains it over another. We have not been saints in our treatment of conquered countries, but at any rate we have persisted in putting some •eonscience into our treatment of-them. .And now, after generations of that persistence, our effort's come back as armies to help us in .our time of danger. —"Manchester Guardian.,"