Aug.
Sveaxce thoughts crowd the mind on this particular anniversary. When Great Britain took the plunge into war seven years ago the nation was glad: there was relief from one kind of tension, but only to give place immediately to another, a change from the political arena to the battlefield. hen people became accustomed to the latter; and while always hoping for the long-delayed victory, learned how to brace themselves against the news, too often repeated, of reve or what was even more dishearten of success which just fell short of being complete. Behind it all, however, was another feeling, The world had been on edge for many years before the fateful August of 1914, and a sense of impending danger' if not of disaster was present. But then as battle followed battle " feeling took possession of the great majority' that somehow or other the world would be a better place to live in after the war, a more comfortable place probably, with less of that grim struggle which had marked it in the past. Contrast such faith in the future with conditions as they now are, and frankly one has to admit that hopes have been utterly shattered. The truth is that we son our struggle for freedom at such a price that we have little or nothing left at the moment io expend on bettering the lot of the survivors.
Undoubtedly when that view is taken this anniversary inclines us fo pessimism. but we must} not lay too much stress upon it.! However much hopes have been talsitied, there is something bigger in the war than these merely. "We proved to ourselves and the world that there was nothing decadent about ous, and wel ye!" provoked compliments—bardly intentionul—from the. nomy. Admiral von Virnitz was the most lavish of them. and they are all cheerful things to remember. Mor instance. Nobody seems to understand that our greatest: danger is still the polo playing inglishman,"* and while on the subject of sport he adds, "It is maddening to see how these fellows go on enjoying their sport while through them Europe is being torn to pieces." Rather a back-handed one, that was. but he speedily makes
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.