Volume 152 — WARS OF THE PAST.

(As recorded in the Press of the period.)

V.

From "The Piræus Pictorial."

GET A MOVE ON.

By Mr. Demosthenes.

[The brilliant Editor of "Pal Athene," who has been aptly styled "the leading light of the democracy," contributes what is perhaps the most wonderful and powerful article which we have had the pleasure of publishing from his trenchant pen.]

Words won't do it, my friends. We don't want speeches. We want action. I ask you to give the Buskers socks. Kick this Chorus of Five Hundred out of the orchestra. Ostrichise the Government! Give them the bird!

If I read my countrymen aright (and who does if I don't?), what they are saying now is, "We must have a definite plan of strong action. We are not going to fight any longer with speeches and despatches." That's the way, Athenians! Good luck to you! Zeus bless you. And the same to you, Tommy Hoplites and Jack Nautes, and many of them! You don't mean PHILIP to be Tyrant of Athens, do you? You're not going to have him turning our beautiful Parthenon into a cavalry stable? You're not going to see the Barbarians hanging up their shields on the dear old statue of Athene. Of course you're not. When I walk through the city and see, as I pass the houses of my humbler brethren, the neat respectable little altars and the good old well-used wine-presses (which I never do without breathing a little prayer, uncantingly, straight from the heart), I say, "It's a foul calumny to pretend that the people are not all right. They are, Zeus bless 'em! All they are waiting for is a lead. And action!"

We've got to have a strong policy, my friends, and my tip to you is—"Trust the Army! Curse the politicians!" It's no use sitting still while ÆSCHINES AND Co. are spouting. You and I, my brothers and sisters, as I'm proud to call you, we don't spout, do we? We mean business! And PHILIP means business too! At any moment he may come down on us and devastate our quiet picturesque little demes which we all love so well and get disgustingly drunk on our wine. So give us the word, ÆSCHINES AND Co.—not many words, please, but just one word—and we'll tackle him as he ought to be tackled and put a pinch of Attic salt on his tail. We don't want this PHILIP, but we do want a fillip of our own. Meanwhile, are we downhearted? I don't think.

(Another powerful philippic by Mr. Demosthenes next week.)

What to do with our Prisoners.

"Private Jones, V.C., single handed captured 102 Germans; limited number for sale, best offers; proceeds military hospital."—Bazaar.

"The towing to Madrid of the Greek steamer Spyros lacks confirmation."—Daily Telegraph.

We always had our doubts about the report.

"Nevertheless, though nobody has ever sympathised with the goose that laid the golden eggs, it is now widely recognized that it was bad policy to kill him."—G.B. Shaw in "The Times."

Even in War-time, you will notice, "G.B.S." cannot get away from the sex-problem.

FREMDENBLATT.—Mr. Lloyd George will recognise one day that the Allies put their heads in a sling on the day they rejected Germany's terms."—Daily Paper.

But we may trust little DAVID to know what to do with a sling.

AN ANSWER TO PEACE TALK.

BRITANNIA CALLS A WAR CONFERENCE OF THE EMPIRE.