New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-08-05
BRITON'S VIEW OF WAR
DETACHED, MPERSONAL
Business as Usual" Still the Favoritc Cry in England
Whereas in France the Great Conflict Is
the Nations Only Care.

farlS, July a.. nc HVS'
thing about Paris to-day is that France
is country at war seriously AT war
IL is worth while mentioning that
France is seriously at war for the sake
Of the contrast between Paris and Lon
don. England also is country at war;
but at the present moment. about twelVe
months after the beginning OF the con-
fict, there is a vast difference between
France at war and England at war.
When ! left England. ten days ago.
the War Office was putting out ne"
recruiting poster, which read: lake
your holidays in France" This is the
beginning of the annual holiday sea
son in England, when the city clerk
takes his regular ten days at Margate
or along the Norfolk Breads. AS our
train rolled into Folkestone ! saw two
huge posters on the railway arches,
reading. Business as usual
On the Boulevard Haussmann yesteI-
dav I PASSED a store closed and with
the iron shutters fastened tightly over
tho windows. Above the door was
notice which read: "This store is closed
because the owner and all the clerks
are at the front"
Detached View of War.
The basis of the difference lies, per-
haps, in the fact that France is coun-
trv invaded. with her richest provinces
in the hands of the enemy, while Eng
land is a country taking detached'
impersonal view of a war across inc
Channel. When England is invaded II
She ever is. it may be that her people
Viu wake up to what is gong on IN
their immediate neighborhood and we
will hear no more of 100000 Welsh
coal miners going on strike and tying
nm the supply of ammunition ior the
men at the front.
And there is no doubt in the minds
If the British government oil the uah-
cor Of invasion. Four weeks ago the
intellipence departments OF the BRIT
isb War Office and the Admiralty re
co;vod information which led them 10
exnoct as an imminent probability what
had before been looked upon as ae-
batable possibility. The lniormatIo"
was that when the Germans had m
ished their great drive against inc
Russians they would transfer the VIC
torious phalanxes to the west ana re-
neat against the British what mad peeh
accomplished against the Russians
with the result that they woulo Pioush
choir way through to Calais, and once
Of Calais would cross into England. and
"Cott strafe England" would cease TO
be joke. f., .ho+
the War Office intelligence department
suddenly stung the headquarters stan
into action, and Sunday morning the
ROYAL Engineers were busy laying out
two concentric circles around London,
ono close in-not as close IN as the
Zennelins got TO the Bank OF England,
but still within easy reach-and the
other several miles further out. ne
northwest sector was then eliminated
from the calculations, for II the Gef-
mans ever got around to the northwest
T.ondon was gone, and the rest OF the
country in between the two circles was
nIotted out into sections one mile
eonare. into each of which were put SIX
men from the Royal Engineers to learn
every tree and house that would nave
IN como down in case London was be-
sieged.
For Defence of London.
1obr Ward. the Labor Member of
Parliament. now Colonel John Ward,
commander of the navvies, was called
ON TO furnish a gang of navvles ready
70 report at an hours notice TO each Oh
tho six men in each district, while on
Tuesday morning he furnished men 10
begin preparing the gun emplacemehts
for the defence OF London "
As imminent as that did the BrItlsh
War Office regard the invasion OF Eng,
land a month ago, and they calculated
that the Germans would be IN the SUD
urbs Of London within four months or
NOT al all. For if Mackensen and HIM
denburg could finish up the Russians
in four months they would find 75O,OoO
british soldiers in Flanders without
shells and cartridges to hold their ilnes
and 100000 men in khaki IN England,
two-thirds of whom had never handled
q rife But they hoped in four months
70 he able to supply the army in F!an-
ders with the means to Keep the haiser
from Calais.
Yet. great as the danger is, and thor,
oughlv as the government. realizes ana
appreciates it, the people OF England
are still only half awake, stlIl only
nIaving at war. That is The difference
between France and England, between
paris and London. The English people
are nlaving at war, and their motto is,
"Rreiness as usual" Six weeks ago
the Bishop Of London said: Not ~
per cent of our people realize that Juht
across the Channel England is taking
mart IN the greatest war in the worlds
history, a struggle for the nations
life"