TALK ON ENGLISH SITUATION

England's situation both financial and social was interestingly described by S. K. Ratcliffe of the London Daily News in a lecture last evening under the auspices of the International Polity Federation.

"The great and remarkable thing about this crisis in our country is the unity of opinion and feeling which has been exhibited by all parties and factions in this crisis," said Mr. Ratcliffe. This is the more remarkable because of the domestic trouble and bitter party strife existing just previous to the outbreak of the war.

The governmental measures, passed without parliamentary discussion, met the problems efficiently and quickly. Only in regulating food prices has the government fallen down.

In the matter of the army Mr. Ratcliffe said that conscription is dangerous in that it would almost certainly lead to disunion and the overthrow of the democracy which has been the back bone of England for so many years. Already an entirely new army of over one and one-half millions has been organized from volunteers in addition to the scant million previously under arms, and the war office in England has repeatedly expressed its satisfaction with the speed of recruiting.

After the war it will be the common duty of all civilized nations, he pointed out, to establish the public opinion to drive, and the machinery to carry out a system of more open international debate upon the questions which have heretofore been handled by small bodies of powerful men acting independently of the wishes of the people whom they have been supposed to represent.