WAR PERSPECTIVE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11686, 1 May 1916, Page 5

WAR PERSPECTIVE.

MR ASHME4D BARTLETT OPTIMISTIC. CHEERING ADDRESS TO NEW ZEALAND CLUB. .Mr A&luuead Bartlett was entertain- j ed at, luncheon this afternoon at the Young Men's Christian Association building as the guest, of the New Zealand Club. Mr A. S. Taylor (president of tiio club) occupied the chair, and there was a crowded attendance of members. Mr Ashmead Bartlett was loudly applauded on entering the room. Amongst those present were the Mayor and Dr Tliacker, M.P. The chairman extended a hearty welcome to Mr Ashmead Bartlett on behalf of the club, and in doing so he said til at their guest needed very little introduction to a New Zealand audience. His name had been familiar to New Zealanders for many years, and he had performed a very great service to Australia, and Now Zealand by his very faithful chronicle of events on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Mr Bartlett was especially welcome at this juncture as a visitor from the Mother Country. (Applause.) Mr Ashmead Bartlett, in replying, said he regarded it as an honour to be entertained by the New Zealand Club. He was glad to be present, because ho thought, ho could throw a litt'to light on some very unwelcome war news contained in that morning's newspapers. The news was certainly depressing, and the weather yesterday was depressing. The newspapers had given tremendous prominneo to the surrender, and everything conspired to create a very depressing impression. . It must be remembered, however, that in a war of this magnitude the surrender of 10,000 men was only a drop in the ocean. It had been practically inevitable for weeks, and the stand made by General Townshend's forces had been of the utmost value. Since the general had been at Kut el Amara he had been the most wonderful bait that could bo offered to the Turks. Tho attraction of overwhelming a British force had outweighed the importance of the Russian menace in the Caucasus. The Turks had lost their sense of proportion, and in consequence they-had lost Erzerum and Trebizond, thereby placing Bagdad, the objective of General Townshend's mission, more measurably within the attainment of the Allied forces. After a bad muddle in 1915 there was a. reorganisation of the higher command generally. The expedition in Mesopotamia was in no way the work of the present military administration. The. expedition was controlled from India; and was the last fruits of the blunders made in 1915. There was a vay of brightness in the morning's newspapers in the capture of one of the German L boats. That was a very good sot off against, the loss of the battleship .Russell.

Mr Bart ett said there was never a more futde rebellion in history Ho 2r tic A f si ? on of the PoKticai patties m Irelajid, on the lines of a statement made by him ,"„ m interview yesterday. A feature of the Irish S the lebel forces which were encased purely m looting and robbery he cnnunal classes of the population had f n , M cpportnnlt/ which they couldrhavo been depended to seize npon no matter which political organisation Avas responsible for disorder There might be isolated groups of the real rebel, holding out in a fe«- parts of Ireland but the rebellion was raillv already broken. The worst effects of the effort wolud he in the use of it that might be made abroad. In a few dav* however, ho prophesied that the In«h rebellion would be ousted from its pride of place in the newspapers and would be relegated to the back page-s Deahng with iho early campaign in Europe, Mr Uartlett said that Britain had no military organisation intended to cope with such a war as had broken out. Tnere was a tradition that tlw were always a great fighting race. That was all nonsense. Napoleon was light when he said the English were a nation of shopkeepers. It naturally hurt him all the more when the shopkeepers boat him. Tho British had now proved that though thev were not a fighting nation, thev could fight well when they had to. There had been pessimistic prophecies before the war that in a great war Britain would fail for want of officers. The war had disposed of those prophecies, and it had shown also, that Britain's overseas dominions could produce- citizen armies which would compare favourably with any soldiers in the world. . Those citizen soldiers carried on the mission assigned to them at Anzae even after they had lost their officers. There must be something in the cause for which the nation was fighting which would bring Britain successfully through this war. The British peopb> had made a wonderful response to the call for soldiers in a war which w?„s mainly occupied with the quarrels of ether nations. No Englishman's hearth and home was threatened, yet three and a half million Englishmen had gone to fight on a foreign soil, together with'thousands upon thousands of colonials, to right the wrongs imposed upon certain little foreign nations. There must be some very high motive at the back of all this. Men would not travel i'o.OOO miles to light for selfish ends. The war from Britain's point of view was being waged for humanity and civilisation, with an eye to peace in the years to come. Germany's colonies were of very little use, to Britain, and Germany would be unable to pay an indemnity after her superhuman and exhausting military efforts. Speaking of the fin lire. ,"\!r Bnrtlett said his hearers must not look for a speedy downfall of the enemy. The enemy's resources were not exhausted ; ho was stubborn and well equipped. The blockade of Germany was efficient, lie believed, but the submarine menace was ;i grave, peri!. Britain could not reply in kind, for Germany had no shipping on the seas to destroy. It heemed 'that the limits imposed on the construction of submarines limited the danger at present, but the danger burn what Germany might do in the future were she to concentrate her naval activity upon the construction of a really vast fleet of submarines. That was one of the great reasons why there must bo no patohod-up peace with Germany. The final peace must be one which would ensure the Irwiora of British trade from German molestation in the luture.

Dealing with the matter of provision for returned soldiers after the war. Mr Bartlett said th.it nothing had a more unsettling effect than ;i war. Unless steps were at onoe taken to deal with the discontented, unsettled clement after the war, a new and grave social problem •would arise. Probably an outlet could be found for the unsettled ones in the less crowded life of the overseas dominions, and in settlement upon tho land in those dominions. _ He believed Britain would win in the end, and win decisively. Mistakes had been made in. the past, but thev would not be repeated in the future. If the. British people pulled together and kept a. good heart n. the face of the reverses that still might come, th?y would come out of the war one grent consolidated happy family whieh would stand for right nnd justice for many centuries to come. (Applause.) The chairman in thanking Mr Bartlett for his address, said that the speaker had effectually dispelled any pessimism that might have existed in the miuds ot his hearers when thov entered the room.