LLOYD GEORGE ON WAR HORRORS

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21356, 26 December 1934, Page 11

LLOYD GEORGE ON WAR HORRORS

FACTS FOR THE NEW GENERATION "TO KILL, SHATTER AND STARVE" (TROU ova, OWS COMESrONBEXT.) LONDON, November 20. Mr Lloyd George opened the exhibition of war pictures which has been organised by the "Daily Express," to let the present generation know something c. the horrors of war. "We are now getting into a generation who know nothing of war," said Mr Lloyd George. "I have occasionally come across a young man between 20 and 30, and I have said to him, 'You remember the war.' He has but the faintest memory of it. It is, therefore, vital that this generation should know what war means. Frightfulness was not peculiarly German. It is an integral part of war. These pictures are not incidents of war. They are its essentials. It is part of the process of what is known as destroying the enemy's morale, of breaking his will. It is through that breach of horror that victory always marches to its end. So I think the time has come whc;i we should let this generation know what war means. It means to kill, to shatter, to mutilate, drown, and starve.

"There were nations where millions were starved. We escaped it here, and let me say we escaped it largely through the activities of men who, Mr Neville Chamberlain the other day said, were almost forgotten. If there were no danger of another war and the repetition of these horrors, then I should say, 'Let the unknown truth about the war be buried in the same grave as the Unknown Warrior.' But is there no danger? I am not one of those who think that it is quite imminent. I am a little hopeful that it will be put off, but it is there lurking on the path along which humanity has got to tread, and any moment it may spring upon us. Children in the Front Line

"In these circumstances it is vital that the men and women of this generation who determined the fate of governments should know what war actually means—and what it will mean. It is a cruel thing to remind us of them, and especially many people whose grief will be added to bv painful recollections. But we must bear in mind the millions of young men now throbbing with life and hope who have got to be saved from the repetition of these terrible experiences. Did I say young men? Children will be in the front line next time—the front line. The same bombs, the same explosives will kill and mutilate, and they will be liable to be strangled with the same poisonous fumes as their parents." Referring to the criticism of the recent volume of his book Mr Lloyd George said: "I wrote about the war with great. reluctance, and I put it off. I only wrote it under very great pressure. But having written it I thought it essential to tell the whole of the truth as I knew it—without fear or favour, affection, or ill-will. It is vital that the nations, the peoples of the world, in so far as I am able to reach them—and I am glad to say I have reached a great many countries beyond this one with what I have written—it is vital that they should know not merely to keep them off it, but if ever they are forced into it to see that the blunders that were committed that cost lives should never ibe repeated."