The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. SATURDAY, JULY 31, 1915. A SOLEMN WARNING.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 181, 31 July 1915, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

SATURDAY, JULY 31, 1915. A SOLEMN WARNING.

Fqr the cause that lacks a&aiatanee. For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we oan 4a,

The speech which Mr. Lloyd Ocorgc has just delivered before v national confer-

'enre of mincowners and workers cannot fail to appeal to every loyal and patriotic man and woman throughout 15ritain'.« ■worldwide empire. F»r it is clearly something more than an emotional har angue, inspired by the fervid enthusiasm which is the special characteristic of nil .Mr. Lloyd George's public utterance.*. It is a message from the rulers of the nation to the people, pointing to certain portentous facts that Kngland and the Umpire have to face, und drawing with irresistible cogency oiid force the only possible conclusions. It is in a sense remarkable that Mr. Lloyd George, rather than the Prime Minister, should be the medium so often selected to transmit official and authoritative information about the war and its conditions to the general public. But the reason, of course, is that, in such an emergency as this, wha. Government most desires is not t-imply to give the people information, but to make certain that its full significance will ho clearly interpreted and adequately impressed upon them; and for such a task as this no man in public life at [lonic to day is so well qualified as Mr. Lloyd George. He appears to combine with the fen-id temperament ami the (low ing eloquence of the typical Celt a singular capacity for realising facts and a remarkable aptitude for appreciating their relative practical values; and this exceptional endowment, it is no exaggeration to say. hn.s made him one of our greatest national assets ever since this crisis firat came upon us. This is no partizun estimate of Mr. Lloyd George's, public importance; for it is endorsed by even his most determined political opponents. Nothing in the> history of the past momentous twelve months has been more extraordinary than the testimony borne to Mr. I.lovd George's splendid personal and publis qualities by newspapers like the •Pal! .M.ill Gazette" and the "Daily Mail," which a year or two back never wearied of denouncing him as a revolutionary anarchist or an incendiary agitator, but have now come to recognise that he is not only the greatest orator, hut the best business man on the public stage to-day, and have insisted with ever-increasing vehemence that he., and he alonp. must take charge of the most important department of that svstern of practical organisation on which our chance of victory in this \rar must depend. For these reasons, everything that Mr. Lloyd George has to say about the war should be accepted as one of the most authoritative expressions of opinion that we are likely to hear on the subject j and the speech that he has just delivered k and personal message to us noljSSJJthan to the thousands who heard it in, London two days ago , . Tts general purpose and intention is to drive home the lesson that Mr. Lloyd George has so often striven-to impress upon the nation before— that though we can attain vie tory h, this great conflict against the evil strength of our enemies, our triumph cannot lie achieved without vast efforts and terrible sacrifices. These palpable trutlu ehould have appealed long since with irresistible force to the imagination of the British people. But it needs the pressure of imminent danger, or the menace of grave disaster, to rouse to the highest pitch of energy the great reserves of strength concentrated behind the somewhat impassive and stolid selfpossession of our race. Mr. Lloyd George is no sensational alarmist; few men are in a position to know so accurately the actual position of affairs by land and sea in thi« great war; hut he warns us, with the struggle for Warsaw before hi* eyes. thai a larger share of the burden than ever will soon be cast upon Great Britain's shoulders. And so he lias appealed once more to tlu workers of Britain, and more especially to those on whom the siipplv of coal depend-, to strain every effort to keep faith with the men in the firing line, and to shrink from no sacrifice that they may be called upon to make in their country's cause. The example that the enemy lute given ua—"the Westphafian miner working in cooperation with the Prussian engineer, without stint anil without regulations, putting all their strength at the disposal of the Fatherland" —might well inspire men of British blood to renewed exertions, and ehould, ; fot very shame's sake, render impossible the disputes as to trade regulations and small margins of wages and protits that have fco far interfered with the fullest employment of Britain's immense indue i trial resource. The Government must pledge itself to soe-ure equitable treatment for workers and employers alike, both during and after the war. But thie guarantee given, the only hope of Britain lies iii the devoted and self-sacrificing efforts of her people throughout her Empire; for their failure to realise the truth now would mean for the Allies a rtisaatroiie overthrow, and for the whole world the jeopardising of human freedom and the setting back of human progress perhaps for centuries to come.