"USES OF ADVERSITY."

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 127, 29 May 1918, Page 5

"USES OF ADVERSITY."

DEFEATS HAVE DONE US GOOD. 1 WHAT SMUTS REAIii , SAID. LONDON, May 19. General Smuts has arrived at Glasgow to fulfil a number of public engagements. Veal day morning he toured 6everal ot the ..ling shipyards and engineering shop*, and addressed a huge gathering of workers at the famous FairSeld iaru during the breakfast interval. He had a fine reception. The enemy, he said, is now delivering his greatest Wow. He achieved a success which few thought possible at the beginning of the present onecsive, but he did not go all the way. He never will. (Cheers.) The reverses we na.e suffered in a sense have been very good for us. There has been a lot of foolish talk about ■beating the Boche and at the same time I enjoying all the privileges of peace time. The Boche has knocked that damned nonsense out of our heads. "IN UP TO OUR NECK." We are now in the war np to onr necK, and we have to strain every nerve to win. If we do that the result will be certain. The enemy has made us realise the great dangers ahead of civilisation. The Americans now fully realise that, and are coming over in tens of thousands monthly to 'bear a fair and proper share of the struggle. He knew that the workers were aH feeling the heavy burdens of the wax, but it was better to live in these times than in ordinary times when nothing really happened. To-day great issues were at stake, and if they did their duty they might look forward to great good. (Cheers.) Civilisation had been worked up to a point where a great change was inevitable, and out of all this slavery and drudgery, all this structure of economic industrialism, better results for the world must come. MILITARISM MUST GO. No improvement is possible in the lot of the men as long as our children are driven to the slaughter, and we have to work year after year in order to be food for powder. (Hear, hear.) The enemy now is attempting, by one of hie gigantic Wows, to break our resistance, and emerge the great dominant military Power of the world. Let him strike. We will stand in the breach liice a wall of iron, and allow mm to knock himself to piece 3. Then his spirit will break, and he will see that it is impossible to win. But the bass of all this was victory— not a victory in the selfish sense, not because we want to trample down other nations, or to rule the world, but fcecaufse we must strfee uown militarism, which is the greatest danger which faces* the -orld. (Cheers.) - A WORD TO THE WORKERS. It would not be necessary for the Allies to march to Berlin, -which may be thought essential in order to annihilate the Boche. That sort of victory, even if it were possible, was entirely unnecessary. If the Allies stood on the defence resolutely, calmly, and confidently, they, would win. "We want no indemnities, no annexations! We are fighting for the rights of the nations, large and small, and lasting peace and security." (Cheers.) A word to the workers. This was not tJ a time for flattery. He did not think f that they had always been right. "Like ; the rest of us, you made too mush of ; your grievances, and your individual i viewpoint. We all have been wrong at , various times, but the struggle is worttf ■ of the highest and most concentrated effort, and 1 appeal to you to make it. (Cheers.) PRAISE FOR LLOYD GEORGE. Speaking later on the occasion of tJie conferring of the freedom of the city ol Glasgow upon him, General Smuts said that the very climax of the war was now upon us. The enemy was trying to smash the British Army because he recognised that it was the decisive factor. The enemy knew, too, that we had been bearing an enormous burden in the battlefield, and that 1917 would remain. J for the British Army one of the Tnosfe i memorable campaigns it had ever been through. (Cheers.) "You have got to prove to the enemy that neither as an army nor as a nation is the British Empire ever likely to get tired." (Cheers.) The country was most highly indebted to Mr. Lloyd George for • his untiring labours to secure unity ol command. (Cheers.) The Prime Minister had his faults, but they were the faults of genius, and at a time, of supreme ! crisis, when a real live man came forward to guide the forces of the nation, 1 he claimed that they should not look a* his mistakes, but at his big worfe.

j This fuller report of General Smuts' speech bears a very different complexion to the short summary cabled last week. In that summary several very important sentences were omitted, and these omissions made it appear that the speech was delivered almost with the object of heartening the enemy. The longer report now civen, however, shows that the condensation in no way represented General Smuts' real meaning.