NORTHCLIFFE SATIRISED.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144851, 1 December 1915, Page 5

NORTHCLIFFE SATIRISED.

AN ANTICIPATORY EXTRACT.

(From a leading article in the Dail£ Mail oh tlio day after the Allies have entered Berlin.)

It is reported that the Allies have entered the capital of the German Empire. We accept the report with caution. The efforts of mir optimists to throw dust in the eyes of the people have been too persistent for us to receive in blind faith a piece of news like this, which may tend to encourage a complacent belief in the ultimate, if not in the immediate, success of the allied arms. Nevertheless, there is some reason to hope that it is true. For our own correspondent, Mr. G. Valentine Williams, in the brilliant dispatch which we published two clays since, has already described the arrival of our advanced guards at Potsdam, which is well on the way to the capital’ Let us assume that it is true. Lei us assume that the allied armies have already marched with colours flying down the leafy avenue of Enter don Linden. We as a nation have still, we fear (and wo intend to say it oven a? the risk of being burnt once more orthe Stock Exchange), very little upon which to congratulate ourselves. Om effort at sea has counted for something. perhaps for a great deni. Our strong, silent Navy—the task of which has, incidentally, hern rendered immeasurably loss wearisome by the broadsheets provided by our contemporary. The Times—has Kept the snr faco of the seas clear, and done much to minimise the dangers of the submarine menace, to cur commerce. But on land we have done virtually noth ing: indeed, for the greater part of the war, tho front hold by hr in Flanders was positively shorter than that hold in another theatre by the noble army of gallant little Serbia. Our Expeditionary Force fought heroically; but heroism is no substitute for numbers and adequate munitions. Had it not been for the efforts of patriotic newspapers like The Times and the Evening News. Britain’s share in the war would have been even smaller. And tho most tragic thing about it is that the British people wore willing to make efforts equal to those of any of tho peoples engaged. It was not tho will that was lacking, it was a lead. To the jack of a lend, and to that alone, is failure to be attributed. We do not at present wish to discuss tho oxtent of Lord Xvitchencr’s responsibility. All wo will say is that the reflection is not complimentary to our statesmanship.

It ts therefore with a certain sorrow that wo think of that parade through the streets of Berlin. Our troops have no doubt taken, part in it. Our Allies, however conscious they may he of tho lamentable part we havo played, are nations almost quixotic in their courtesy, and they will not have attempted to exclude the British Army from the procession.. But they cannot rf*nect ns. And onr soldiers rust kncf.V it, ’.and must have, hung their heads with shame— not. for themselves, hut for England—as they tramped into the city side by side with the men who have’ won the war. For it is through the mighty tenacity of groat "White Russia, the dogged perseverance of La Belle France, the splendid struggles of Belgium, Italy. Japan. Serbia, and. last hut not least, sturdy little Montenegro, that this war has been brought near to a successful issue. As far as England Is concerned, tho war will have been won by a fluke. J.C.S., in the New Statesman.