THE NEW YORK TIMES, Nov. 5, 1914.

Mr. G. Bernard Shaw thinks that "the time has now come to pluck up
courage and begin to talk and write soberly about the war." Our readers
will find in THE TIMES Sunday Magazine this morning some of the fruits
of this auto-suggestion. They are very remarkable. While Mr. Shaw can
hardly be called a representative of any considerable class, the fact
that one prominent writer, always much read, can assume Mr. Shaw's
attitude and make public Mr. Shaw's comments throws a strong light on
the spirit of British society. It is true that he intimates that he ran
the risk of "prompt lynching" at one time, but that was probably the
suggestion of a certain timidity and vanity to which he pleads guilty.
His safe and prosperous existence is really a striking evidence, on the
one hand, of British good nature, and, on the other, of the indifferent
estimate the British put on his influence.

Like Iago, Mr. Shaw is nothing if not critical, and in this crisis his
criticism is for the most part bitter, extreme, and in purpose
destructive. He particularly dislikes Sir Edward Grey and the Government
of which he is a leading spirit, and the class which the Government
represents. He singles out Sir Edward as the chief "Junker" and among
the chief "militarists" who brought about this war. Mr. Shaw's attacks
on the Foreign Secretary are savage, and, as often happens with savage
attacks--they are far from consistent. For example, Mr. Shaw paraphrases
at some length the interview between Sir Edward and the German
Ambassador, in which the latter made four different propositions to
secure the neutrality of Great Britain if Germany waged war on France,
all of which Sir Edward refused. Mr. Shaw sees in this only evidence of
determination to take arms against Germany in any case, carrying out a
long-cherished plan formed by the Government of which Sir Edward Grey
was, for this matter, the responsible member. He does not see--- though
it is so plain that a wayfaring man though a professional satirist
should not err therein--that what the Secretary intended to do--what, in
fact, he did do--was to refuse to put a price on British perfidy, to
accept any "bargain" offered to that end.

On the other hand, Mr. Shaw paraphrases at still greater length the
report of the interview in which the Russian Foreign Minister and the
French Ambassador at St. Petersburg tried to induce the British
Government to commit itself in adva