The
theatrical profession was quite sure that the amusements tax would
involve utter ruin for the theatrical profession, and the match trade
was quite sure that the match tax would put an end to matches, and
some unnamed modest individuals had apparently decided that the travel
tax must and forthwith would be dropped. The story of the evacuation
of Gallipoli had grown old and tedious. Cranks were still vainly
trying to prove to the blunt John Bullishness of the Prime Minister
that the Daylight Saving Bill was not a piece of mere freak
legislation. The whole of the West End and all the inhabitants of
country houses in Britain had discovered a new deity in Australia
and spent all their spare time and lungs in asserting that all other
deities were false and futile; his earthly name was Hughes. Jan Smuts
was fighting in the primeval forests of East Africa. The Germans were
discussing their war aims; and on the Verdun front they had reached
Mort Homme in the usual way, that was, according to the London Press,
by sacrificing more men than any place could possibly be worth; still,
they had reached Mort Homme. And though our losses and the French
losses were everywhere--one might assert, so to speak--negligible,
nevertheless the steadfast band of thinkers and fact-facers who held
a monopoly of true patriotism were extremely anxious to extend the
Military Service Act, so as to rope into the Army every fit male in
the island except themselves.
Pages:
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222