LLOYD GEORGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 300, 19 December 1922, Page 5

LLOYD GEORGE.

■ THROUGH NEW ZEALANDER'S EYES. WILL YET BE ACOCAIMED. That England will yet see that Lloyd George handled the Near East crisis in the only practicable way, and will do in years to come what America is already doing, that is, acclaim him the greatest statesman of any nation evolved by the ■war, is the expressed conviction of Mr. j J. T. Martin, who returned by the lonic from a tour of Great Britain and the I United States. I "A strong reaction against the Lloyd • George Administration was in full force I when I reached England," said Mr. Mar- I tin, when asked by a "Dominion" repre- | sentative to discuss tho political situation. "So strongly was it backed by the Northcliffe combination of newspapers that not only was the country unsettled, tout our prestige abroad seemwl to be imperilled. Nothing Mr. LJoyd George said or did was right; everything was wrong. Returned soldiers in restaurants, in offices and factories, in the streets and parks, swore vehemently that they would never leave England to engage in a 'war over the Straits, that the Turks could have the Straits, for all the use they were to England, that they were absolutely fed up to the neck with war and its after-conse-quences, and now wanted to be left alone in peace and quiet. The Northcliffe Press fanned the flame of indignation against sending an expeditionary force to Turkey, and helped largely to bring about the fall of the Lloyd George Administration. "I heard Lloyd George deliver his speech in tho House of Commons on the Greco-Turkish position, which occasioned such comment in the East. He has a splendid delivery, easterly style, clear and resonant voice, and refers occasionally only to rough notes, scribbled on slips of paper or the back of an envelope. His enemies admit he has a Bplendid personality, is quick and clever in debate, and possesses a great capacity for absorbing information and grasping facts, for delving to the heart ' of any subject under consideration, stripping it of all its externals and unnecessary trammellings. You do n%t think while you are listening to Lloyd George; you are carried away by his reasoning, and you think afterwards. 'FRANCE LACKS JUDICIAL MIND." "The French hate Lloyd George like poison, and show it to such an extent as to embarrass Englishmen in France, while Germany, on the other hand, has a great admiration for him, and says he i is the one sensible statesman at the con- ■ ferenee who rightly understands the German position. The French have suffered so much at the hands of the Ger- I mans, have had their towns devastated » as no other nation, and are so afraid of Germany's desire for revenge that they I are determined to give them such a set- | back as will make them stagger under their financial bur'jen, and prevent their restabilisation in industry and finance for the next twenty years. Frenchmen are so blinded by their hatred and resentment that they cannot bring to bear on reparation questions a judicial and open mind. They 'jate also the coun- j tries that do not see eye to eye with them, hence they feel anything but kindly 'disposed towards England, America and Italy. American and English financiers, who alone are credited with a proper appreciation of the position of Germany and Austria, have very little tolerance for French opinion, though they are sympathetic enough with the nation over its frightful war losses in men and property. France, however, is not a great trading nation like Germany; her population declines while Germany's is on the increase; France buys little from us, while Germany is a heavy buyer from the British Empire, I especially in raw material. "It seems to me that trade is going to | draw England and Germany 'together, j and, if France persists in her present \ attitude, she will surely alienate the ■good sentiment and feeling which has actuated England towards her for the last ten years, and America since tho days of Lafayette. I found throughout the United States a splendid feeling towards Britain, partly the result of American soldiers mixing with Tommies ! during the war, and partly on account of | the liberal terms England has given Ireland. It is no longer possible for Ireland to receive financial help from I I America."