Look Out for a Surprise!

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LX, Issue 17060, 13 August 1917, Page 2

Look Out for a Surprise!

WATCH THE MIDDLE EAST-KEEP STEADY-THE DAY IS OURS

By HORATIO BOTTOMLEY, -Editor of "John Bull."

T^ERVES, when tie sun is shining ■*" and the lads at tlj front are fight ing with light hearts and exalted courage! Really, lam ashamed of some of our talkers and writers. Anyone would think that the British Empire was under its baptism of fire, that the British race had never before been " up against" things, that this little island of ours —the centre and soul of the greatest family'of States the world has ever known —had lost its grit and grip. Shame on you, croakers and grumblers; and a double shame on any man or woman who, ..nowing the truth, does not act up to the spirit of the crisis! I know the truth, and I say quite candidly that there is nothing to grouse about. Need for action against the submarine? Oh yes. Imperative necessity for the strictest food-rationing? Again, yes. Do it now, Devonport!" was nny cry and my injunction weeks ago. Well, it is not done yet. And T need scarcely say I am amazed at the laggard ways at the Ministry of Food, and disgusted with all the talk while so little is done. But lam not going to waste my time on recrimination. Really, it is not very edifying to find the Prime Minister and the ex-Prime Minister indulging in jibes at each other. We knoAv who is to blame. All the Old Gang, and half the New, are responsible for the position in which we now find ourselves. We could have had this country smiling today under its mil lions of acres of wheat—great granaries might at this moment be loaded with comfortable' stores of foodstuffs— if those political dolts who put Party ' before patriotism and risked our Empire's fortunes rather than abate a jot of their economic foolery, liad really £3rved the nation whose money theypocketed and forgotten their antagonisms in preparatin for the great struggle. They all knew it was coming. Under the stress of stern facts, and the revealing light of great emergencies, those who held power through the years of menacing preparation are now conlessing that Germany's purpose and aim were well Known. Yet these men, who formed His Majesty's Government, were so bent, on scoring partizan victories and strengthening their hold on office that they were deliberately blind to the truth and, what is more, kept the light from the eyes of the British people.

tliinks he can starve us out. And he could if we were false to ourselves. But while there are food-hogs in our midst, and because the Government has concealed the truth and so failed to impress every man and woman with the danger that faces us, we must be MADE to economise. That is why, knowing the position, my "Do it Now, Devonport," was written. " Now" might have been March; it is going to be July. Four months lost —and how much food wasted!

GERMANY'S PARLOUS STATE

IN THE FACE OF DANGER

One of the most famous of athletes always tells his men tuat in a contest of strength they cannot expect to win without being willing to "punish" themselves. When a man is in a race and feels ready to drop, let him be sure that the other fellow is feeling a good deal worse. Well, we are facing difficulties, but Germany is in them. She is short of metal; she is unable to meet our great gun-fire with equal strength of artillery. She is short of food to the point of starvation. There are no bread riots in this country; —and there need be none. Germany is in a ferment over food—in her big cities trouble is constant; there is rioting and firing on the people. Docile as the Hun has proved himself, slow to realise the miserable failure of Prussianism, quick to believe the lies mr.nui'actured for his deception, he is now learning the truth. Defeat is bad enough, but defeat on an empty stomach is unbearable. And the morale of Germany is deeply siiak^ en. The boiling down of the unhappy dead is less a sign of efficiency than of deficiency. The desecration of the remains of men who have bled and died for the Fatherland is Another act of desperation. Contrast Germany's internal position to-day with our own, and understand there is not the smallest ground for panic or alarm. Reason, I repeat, for the utmost care and economy, pressing necessiL r to save everywhere in foodstuffs. But no occasion for nerves. Toep steady! And look on the best side; realise the wonderful resources at our command; measure at its true value the vast material assistance that America can give vs —in food-ships, in money, in munitions,' in men if need be. Then look at the West —and to the East. Tl.j battle is stern, the losses are big—the West is exacting its dread toll. But we ore winning. Those who talked and wrote so unfairly and so foolishly about the wonderful Hindenburg and his masterly tactics — who dared to suggest.that while, we were advancing the German was winning; that, indeed, the British Army was the mere tool and dupe of the Prussian—must now for ever hold their peace. Haig's fresh and renewed successes are the answer of the guns to the belittlers of British, prowess, the traducers of Tommy's pluck.

But to-day we are face to face with something stern enough and perilous enough to stifle all strife at home, and •■>ig enough to dwarf into insignificance all thoughts of recrimination. In the past the politician betrayed us by his wilful refusal to face the facts; let us see that he does not betray us now by his indifference to the future. And the future I am thinking of is not Posterity—that lusty infant can look after itself. It is our immediate future that is in mind. lam not particularly struck with that sort of patriotism which pretends to fight for our children's children and sings hymns to the century after this. We are in this world to live OUR lives, to protect uUR women and OUo.I children. Posterity won't care tuppence what happened in 1917. It will be just history. But WE care. We ARE 1917, and this war is rioting to its close. We have noly to ~eep steady, tighten-our belts, and be worthy of ourselves, and before the year is nea.r its end we shall have won through, in spite of all the hidous mistakes of the fools and duds of Downing Street. It is the British people, not the politicians, who niust now take things in hand. We can do it, because the fight is now home just as much as it is in France and Belgium, in Salonika and in Mesopotamia. It is you and me —every man, woman and child—who are called upon to defeat the " U"-bqat. Don't let us waste time in denouncing the wicked German. He is a fiend incarnate —that is certain. He is a blood-lusting devil, and in his desperation—for he is desperate^—he is sticking at nothing.

COMING GREAT EVENTS.

WHO WILL STARVE FIRST?

With all necessry caution. I would hint at another success which mar? even put into the shade the immediate military value of the smashing, if toilful, triifmph in the West. Keep your eyes on the Middle East. There we may have a £,-.-eat and splendid surprise at any moment. It may come before these words of mine are read by you; it may be delated a little while. But its advent should alter the whole course of the war. Nations are stronger than rulers; Peoples prevail over kings and thrones. The soul of a country, be it steepcJ in culture or only rudely pure, is 'above the dictates of personal ambitions, is greater than the desigrts of politicians. Things are happening— complishment, which unless something unexpected interposes, will strike fresh terror into Germany, and offer a new and relentless menace to the "Hindenburg Line." News from the Middle East is meagre these days—almost as small and bare as that which is allowed to escape from the cordon-drawn silences of Germany. But no naws may be taken as good news. Do not think that the grass is allowed to grow under the feet of our soldiers around Salonika We went there in association with our Allies. It is not always possible to measure the value of military decisions by immediate results. Enough is now known to make it certain that Greece would liave been drawn along the paths of treachery if Tino had been permitted to obey the dictates of his false heart. Some day the truth will be told. And the world will be ashamed at the hesitation and delays in dealing wifli that Royal traitor—duo to the ].ro-German influences which havfe dogged the fortunes of the Allies, en\ feebled their decision, and sacrificed their interests. But now, Ido believe, Tino—the sycophant of Potsdam—is powerless for harm; his German wife useless as the willing and scheming tool of her brother the Kaiser.

Well, that is the position. Let us face it. The submarine is sinking our food ships and sending other valuable cargoes to the bottom of the sea in hundreds of thousands of tons every week. The wise men of Whitehall hide the truth —a dangerous as well as a ridiculous proceeding. If we had had real live men —not bloodless politicians with soft hearts for Neuti-als; and soft hands, yes, for Germany—in the early months our blockade would have starved the Hun. But we were deceived; our cause —the world's cause — was betrayed. German/ was given time; the Foreign Office refused to allow tha Navy to grip at the throat of-,the Hun —time to turn the tables upon us. And to-day we are engaged in a starving match—the struggle has resolved itself into a battle of stomachs. But Germany will lose —that is, if we at home will it so. I know what lam saying. I don't, need a Secret Session to obtain my. information. If we are anxious about our food—and we have every cause to be concerned —Germany has passed the point of anniety. She knows that she cannot carry until the harvest. Her ruthlessness on sea and on land is the measure of her desperation. Foiled in the West, held up and now menaced in a new w-ay in the Middle East, the Central Powers a:e making their last and final struggle. If Hindenburg could gain a success in the West—if by the bloody sacrifices he is making over that long, swaying line of men and metal, 'he could checkmate Haig or hold up Nivelle—then the end he foresees —his crushing defeat; the doom of German militarism—would at least be deferred. Meanwhile, the U-boat is making great and destructive.progress, '-'hat is part of the enemy's fighting plan. Failing a victory on land, he is.gambling for a success on the sea. But he can only win it if we, the people at home, permit him to win. We oan stop him.^ Nearly everj ship he sinks — and he is sinking them in alarm'ng numbers—means so much less food for us, so much the greater need to eat as little as possible to counteract the losses. Those losses will continue; the Hun

THREE MONTHS MORE

Pending events will prove or disprove my information and my belief—in a little while it will be known whether the startling news which I predict is to quicken the hour of victory and make straigkter and surer the path to our <inal triumph. But of this lam sure — that the warm sun of success is shining down on the Allies. To-da^y, when apparenty so much is dark and depressing, is the time for confidence as strong and assured as the need for determination is great and paramount. We who cannot light with the ordinary weapons of war can join in the struggle and help towards its rapid end. Three months more and the decision will have been made —the great verdict will have been given. Germany cannot hold out —we can. Germany is in want and desperation. Her soldiers are fighting in massed array; tho-- axe being sacrificed with merciless disregard for human life. Our losses are heavy —mournfully heavy—but they are slight compared with the awful toll of German dead. Never before have I felt so keenly the responsibility of those whose du<ty it is to guide and to hearten the national mind and spirit Let Ministers conceal nothing, misrepresent nothing. They need not fear telling the truth. But in informing the people of OUR position, they must tell all they know about the condition of the enemy —all that is happening in Austria, in Bulgaria, in Greece. Secret sessions are an abomination. T~ey tell to the men who have ceased to represent the nation what the nation should know; they merely satisfy the curiosity of politicians, many of whom are suspect, while denying to those who are bearing the heat and the burden of the day t'-e news that would either stiffen resolve or hearten hopes. A.great Empire is not maintained by craven souls. We as a People are worthy of our inheritance, and worthy of the victory which , is within our. grasp»