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Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16463, 16 June 1919, Page 2

la the past the people of Britain have often been urged to wake up and have had put before them as examples Uhe scientific , achievemnts arid steady persistence of the Germans and the go-ahead methods of the Ameri-

cans, who are ready to scrap old machines the moment seems more profitable to employ new ones. The people of Britain mgy have been a little slow at times in the past, but the war has shown that when the call comes, they can leave both Germany and America far behind. Britain had practically no array at the beginning of the war, but she produced men and officers capable of meeting the army that Germany had been building up for half a century. She had the largest navy in the world at the beginning of the war, but, she vastly increased it and turned out hundreds of vessels ’to deal with mines and submarines. She had. few guns, but these were tiirped, out in such numbers that she was able not only to provide her own forces but also the, American army. , Start-, ing the war with factories able to produce 100 aeroplanes a year she was at the time of the armistice turning out 800 per week, and has now bigger and better airships than the Germans. In agriculture the people of Britain showed just as great capacity to increase their output, and the system of food-rationing was the fairest and most successful of any nation. This was all accomplished without any fuss and with many apologies for the disgraceful way in which things were mismanaged. And now some people talk as if Britain was in danger of breaking down under the load she has to carry and the problems of reconstruction she has to face. There is naturally a reaction after the mighty, efforts of the lust four years, but tne new tasks are comparatively light compared with those she has accomplished ■ so successfully, and there need not be any fear that the energies which won the war will not be sufficient to deal with the problems of peace.