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Timaru Herald, Volume CI, Issue 15448, 10 September 1914, Page 6

The King's message to his subjects of the oversea Dominions, read by ]tfr ATassey from the steps of Parliament House last evening, will give pleasure to all ISTew Zealanders. After dealing with the circumstances which made war unavoidable to an honourable nation, and dwelling on the services which have been rendered by the Dominions oversea, the King declares: "It fills me with gratitude, and I am proud to be able to show to the world that my people are as determined as the" people of the United Kingdom to prosecute a just cause to a successful end." Their loyal assistance, hesays truly, has "demonstrated in the most unmistakeable way the fundamental unity of the Empire amid all its diversity of situation and circumstances." ]Sfo subject of His Majesty doubted that that unity would be displayed. The mistaken belief of Germany that the Empire would be divided in this crisis, like her beliefs that Belgium would submit quietly to an j invasion and Italy would take arms against the country whose sons fought for her in her own i war of independence, only showed ' how utterly the rulers of Ger- j .many lacked the quality of in-' sight, more important even than j the faculty of organisation to a nation contemplating war. I

The statement of a Borne news- ! paper " of high, standing- " .that a : -Russian army of 250,000 men is i in France, is probably a great exj aggeratiou. If only 50,000 Rus- ] sians are in Prance, and in the ] right place, the supposition enterj tained a week ago, while the J Allies were -withdrawing steadily 1 from the north-west frontier, that iLord Kitchener had "something Jup his sleeve," will be justified remarkably. The statement of the Italian paper, however, has , been confirmed by a Berlin telegram to Rome, and there are two , separate statements from Amej rica, one of which was " held up " lon the 4th inst. by the British censor, and is now allowed to pa-ss, that a large Russian force has reached Antwem via Ostend. There would be wisdom in using i Russian troops, instead of Belgians, to defend Antwerp, because the Belgian soldiers, abetter than any strangers, will know how to -worry and annoy the invaders among their fields and dykes. The appeal which Mr Henryk Sienkiewicz, the famous Polish author, has issued to the Poles of Austria to fight for Russia, does not seem to be greatly needed in view of to-day's news that—the people of Ofalicia, Austria's most northern province, half of whom are Poles, have been welcoming "our friend the enemy" with open arms and with processions. The Galician Slavs in the Axistrian army " quietened their consciences " by surrendering to the Russians at their first attack. Mr Sienkiewicz has lived in Axistrian as well as Russian Poland, and is less dear to his countrymen, probably, as the writer of "Quo Vadis,"_ the work which has given him a world-wide reputation, than as the author of three great, novels which deal with the heroic age of Poland. The glories of Poland as a kingdom have sunk, perhaps to be revived soon. Her intellectual glories have had no abeyance. The announcement of Italian papers that a serious controversy has arisen between the Kaiser, Herr von Hollweg, his Chancellor, and Herr von Tagow, his Secretary for War. the two Ministers being indicted for the fact thai so many European States have combined against Germany in this struggle, should not be taken too seriously. If the Kaiser is blaming his Ministers for bad management of the war lie is not likely to allow his dissatisfaction to be known publicly just now, while, the German people are being told each day of glorious successes. TVc can imagine that the knowledge of reverses which the Kaiser's armies are now suffering will be broken very gradually to the Germans. Nevertheless the Emperor's Ministers de-serve-to be indicted. The "political ineptitude " which they have shown, to quote the term applied to it by Italian papers, has been stupendous. They forced Great Britain into war as well as France and Russia, they misread the mind of Italy, and they told the whole world plainly that " to Hell with agreements'" was the gui<' ing principle of their cause. In all of which great errors the Kaiser was as g-uilty ns his Ministers. He should resign before they do.