THE DOMINIONS AND THE WAR.

Wanganui Herald, Volume L, Issue 14743, 23 October 1915, Page 4

THE DOMINIONS AND THE WAR.

Ihe Chnstphurch Press ■ has some comments of intawst.on the subject. It says: 1 Every New, Zealander will hope that no ' false impression will be caused in Britain I by the anxiety which, according to the I Daily Mail, is being openly expressed by the Australasian colony in Loudon con- ! corning the operations in-. Gallipoli. If, as reported, the Australians and New Zea- 1 landers in London are threatening to hold a public meeting on the subject, they 1 must be very much out of touch with | Australasian opinion, and we view with alarm the possibility that the meeting may be held and that it may be regarded by the British public and the British Government, and represented abroad, in ■ ihe enemy and neutral countries, as evidence of dissension and, distrust within j the Empirp. We confidently assert that almost to a man the New Zealand people, j far from setting themselves up as critics of the strategy of the War Office and the Admiralty, have perfect trust in the British Government and their advisers. This attitude is not one of unintelligent acquiescence in British policy. It is based ’ upon common sense and upon tKe nature ,of the Imperial connexion. New Zealanders are able to see, much more clearly I than the,, colonials at Home or the Daily Mail, that the Government must be I trusted, that public debates on strategy : are at best utterly unhelpful and at the , worst highly injurious to the national ! interest. The people at Home who are so concerned about colonial opinion would lie surprised if they knew that nine out of ten of the inhabitants of this demo- i cratio country feel, when they read of such discussions as are now proceeding in Britain, not that the Government should be criticised and denounced, but that it would not be-a had thing if the British Government took steps to enforce a military despotism for the currency of the war. Out here we realise that if mis- ! takes in strategy or . diplomacy are made. I they cannot be repaired by a storm of , public debate, in . which the palm will | necessarily go to the amateur with ! the loudest voice, and the smallest an: mint of knowledge. We. have not, it is true, hern bombed by Zeppelins: nor do we heal more than a fraction of the mixed truth and fiction that eddies in London outside the columns of the newspapers; but we are not thereby less competent than the > people in' Britain to understand the principles which are independent of Zeppelins and rumours The furthest that , New Zealanders will no will be to hope that the Gallipoli Peninsula will not be I evacuated. We all resent such'mischievous speeches as that in which Lord Milner •'dveoted the evacuation, but if the , British Government decide to leave the | Peninsula, to the Turks,. New Zealand will be full of regret, but will not complain. 1 Wbv should we complain? We owe Great Britain more than "we can ever repay. Our 'soil is secure against invasion, enr commerce is safe from attack; life for us oses on-far more easily and,happily, even i in the midst of this terrible War, than 4 in any other, country on the face of Ore <*°rt.h. For this we have ,to thank the - Naw; which .is the result cf ' British sbater-oanshin working on the s-lf-saorifioe of the British peonK Every New 7,eal"nder is content to put his,treat in the Britidi Government and their miM-,’-tvlvi-o’s. re l - is New Zealand so tthumdii so un-rateful, er so wicked as *0 frel »• moment’s svmoathy with there who : are mg’iating the enemv hv erecting a S’lirit of n«en«iness in Britain and a fe-1-ing. abroad that the nation is we al7 cf the war..-, >