THE BITTER COST.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 120, 21 May 1917, Page 6

THE BITTER COST.

LESSONS OF THE WAR. LONDON, May 14. Speaking at a meeting of the League of Nations Society (Lord Bryee presiding! General Smuts said that the war had stamped into the hearts of millions of mon and women nn intense desire for a better order of things. The old order was now useless. All the treaties and optimism of the nineteenth century had ended in suffering and losses that baffled description. It had been computed that 5.000.000 men bad died in the war. A greater number were permanently maimed. It bad been stated that the casualties in this war were equal to the white population of the British Empire. If such wars were allowed to recur the whole fabric of civilisation would be endangered. It was time for action, not f"r the folding of hauls and the bending of beads. If a hundredth part of the thought that had been given to this war had been given to peace there would never lie a war again.

"1 believe," he went on, "that a passion for peace has been born in this war which will prove greater than any passions for gain or cotif|Uest. As far as is humanly possible such a war as this should never he tolerated again. However, there is a danger in believing too much in treaties until we have a radical change in the hearts ot men. I think that a change is coming. There must be no patchwork p.-acc. or a peace which is simply a compromise of conflicting interests. Every nation must have the choice of its own ileatiny, and must not lie cut and carved to please the Great Powers."

Ilcnernl Smuts supported the idea of the appointment of an Anglo-American committee to discuss a scheme ensuring peace. He suggested that if they could bring together practical men who knew the world's bad ways splendid results would be achieved. Any nation not wishing to run straight must be compelled to realise .as a last resource that the world will use force to make it run straight.