New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-09-13
American Peace Talk
r TIFF ENGLISH THINK OF THE TALKERs-THEIR Be
irp ~ AWFRICA-THE wRITERTHE ALLIES
nrcoI vF-ENGLIsH REvERsES-GERMAN FICTONs-THE REAL

Copyright 1915. BY c. W. smAilsy)

Gently been the pOruOn OF huhslA, OF
of the deadlock in France, Is to harden
the English resolve. Her own losses,
her $4,000 casualties, the present diff
fculties in France and the Gallipoll
Peninsula, have the same effect, and
more. Not only her resolve but her
confidence is mistaken. Nothing was
so helpful TO her as the loss of a
SQUADRON off the CHILEAN coast or the
first failure in the Dardanelles. With
each reverse her courage rises. The
invasion by sea or q successful Zeppe-
lin raid on London would bring home
to her, as it has not yet been brought,
the lesson of war. II might even nerve
her Government TO a decision. It would
certainly stiffen the souls Of her peo-
pie.
The seventy men, women and chill
dren-mostly women and children and
all civilians-murdered by Zeppelins
in their fifteen raids on open coast
towns are to the Englishman so many
martyrs to the cause To him, now as
Of old, the blood Of the martyrs is
the seed of the Church. Louvain, the
Lusitania victims, Americans included,
and now Warsaw with her doomed
hostages they are all martyrs. But
they are distant martyrs. They are
not before his eyes. His defect is, as
] am always saying, a defect of i'm
agination. He is insular and he sell
dom looks far beyond his insular hori-
zon. Even where his own men are
fighting, in Flanders. at Ypres, at
Neuve Chapelle, at Festubert, he thinks
of the war as something that is 60
ing on abroad. 1t does not come home
to him. These battles in the trenches
are realities, but they are remote
realities.
German Fictions.
The Germans believe, or profess 10
believe, that England is in distress, IN
terror, in want. An American who,
after some weeks stay in London, went
to Germany was assured by his Ger
man business friend in Berlin that now,
after all his suffering in London, he
should at last have a good dinner
When the American answered that he
had not suffered, that food was album
dant, he was told sternly that could not
be so, because the German blockade"
had cut of the food supply Of England.
1--WE know it," said he. Our govern
ment tells us. No food reaches Eng
land" In that kind of Fools Paradise
does the German live: on diet Of fool
ish falsehoods.
The Real Truth.
It is almost a pity the falsehoods are
not true. ! 20 much about London.
In another hour | shall be walking up
Piccadilly, as | do daily. 1t looks very
much like the Piccadilly Of peace;
shops and hotels all open; the traffic
perhaps a little less congested; men IN
khaki flooding the pavements, and
khaki is not a peace dress; the women
wearing less vivid colors than usual
and often in black; the Green Park an
artillery camp. But the West End life
of London goes on as before, and so
does the East End. | shall lunch at
club. The lunch will cost few pence
more, in the shape Of wartax, but 1t
will be as abundant and varied and
good as last year. II | lunch out
shall perhaps be warned / must be con-
tent with "war rations," but the war ra-
tions will not differ perceptibly from
those Of peace.
After a year OF war the aspect Of
London is, with the exceptions | note.
practically unaltered. The people you
meet may or may not talk TO you about
the war. If they do, it will be in the
Unconditional, cool tone in which they
are wont to discuss such matters as in
terest them. OF the panic or distress
which the Germans believe as
said, profess 10 lieve-prevalls | have
never once seen trace. The Engllsh
40 not even trouble themselves to say
hard things about their enemy. The
6octrine OF hate is not preached nor
practised. They think the German
6Gott strafe England" shows pltlful
M
Cerman Professor-well, he is Pro-
lessor. and what else could you expect
Wherever have been in the country
i, ;s the same. You have the utmost
Sp3cultv in realizing that the nation
Which dwells in these smiling land
scanes and delightful old villages IS at
var. You see at once they do not
Themselves fully understand II. lhey
hardly take even business view OF
his huge world conflict. The gardens
and parks are untouched by war except
whore the houses have been turned INTO
bospitals. The work of the farm goes
neaceably on; the daily business OF
England goes peaceablv on: az least
in the inland counties. On the East
Coast. on the South Coast where yep
pelins have flung their bombs, practis-
INC murder as a pastime with no mil
tary object or result, the conditions are
not the same. Not the numbering en-
emy. but a protecting Government nave
changed them. The one real result the
numbering Germans have attained is
to lessen the prosperity OF seaside
towns like Scarborough, which depend
en- GUNNER visitors. At Z.
The real change will come with IN
vosion. IL invasion there should De.
Then will it be seen and felt-what
war as conducted by this savage race
is ike. And then also will the muir
dering Germans discover that murder
and arson and rape and robbery and
torture and other the like diversions
with which they amused themselves IN
Belgium and cannot with impnnity Ds
practised in England, since England
LII H.. In n atatA Of defence.