A FIGHT TO THE FINISH

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 60, 8 September 1914, Page 6

A FIGHT TO THE FINISH

Mr. Asquith's great speech at. the Guildhall has been followed by a speech from Lord Rosebery and a, letter I'rom Sir Edward Grey. 'It is am odd coincidence that we should have heard almost simultaneously from the three men who at the time of the last war notified their dissent from the general attitude of their party towards it by founding the Liberal Imperialist organisation. Mr. Asquith and Sir Edward Grey have since then been expounding Liberal Imperialism for nearly nine years from its proper pulpit — the Treasury benches. But their friend and former leader hae drifted further and further away from the old moorings. It is largely to illhealth that Lord Rosebery's recent isolation from public life is to be attributed, but another contributing cause has undoubtedy been a certain sickness of the spirit which has made him better able to see the shortcomings than the merits of party politics and better fitted to criticise than to construct. EsTeut for the temporary and partial reconciliation produced by the fight for free trad©, Lord Rosebery's estrangement from th« party that he once led has been almost complete during the last ten years, and in his lonely furrow the brilliant powers which few men in public life or out of it possess have Tieen doomed to melancholy ineffectiveness. But now that an issue has arisen which has made al' Liberals Imperialists and has even converted the Trade Union Congress into conditional advocates of conscription, iLord Roeebery comes forward with much of his old power to act as the spokesman of the nation. His attitude to the war is exactly that of the Prime Minister in his Guildhall speech. W« could not in honour have stood by with folded hands while, a treaty that we had signed was being violated and a territory that ire were pledged to protect was being ravaged with fire and sword. The sufferings of the Belgians must ultimately have broken down any unworthy hesitation that delayed immediate action. "We should have gone in," says Lord Rosebery, "but too late, and skould only hay» Had th# lemqrse of our first hesitation. "' But, to the honour of the Government, there was no hesitation, and equally unhesitating and equally honourable was the enthusiasm with which the action of the Government was approved by the country and the Empire. Nothing could be more impressive than the language in which Lord Rosebery declared that the war, now that we had gone- into it, could not be ended by the cession of territory or a money indemnity. "It is a fight to a finish," he said. " If we go under now we go under for ever. . . . If we are reduced to an inferior Power, living at the good will of our superior lord, with our Empire cut up and divided among plunderers, 1 would rather that all British people, as they now exist, were to pass into exile and death, leaving this island vacant for some superior race." This is strong language, but to few of us will it appear the language of exaggeration. Britain has elected to stand by Belgium, and the Dominions have elected" to stand by Britain. Belgium, Britain, and even New Zealand, may become an annexe of the German Empire, like Schleswig-Hol-stein or Heligoland, if the Kaiser"s armies are allowed to prevail. Belgium has played her part, and we have only to do as well in order to put the issue beyond a doubU Are we to suppose a touch of characteristic irony in Lord Rosebery's reference to "leaving this island vacant for some superior race"? Without indulging in the ness which has made Britain a byword among the nations, it is at least permissible to hope that our peaple are not altogether inferior to the violators of Belgian neutrality and the sackeis of Louvain. But no national self-complacency should blind us to the fact that in the careful, systematic, self-sacrificing preparation for a life and death struggle which both nations have long regarded a3 inevitable, the Germans have entirely eclipsed us. It is not that the lighting qualities of the race have deteriorated. The thrilling gallantry displayed' by our soldiers on every battlefield, from Mons to Compiegne, have given the lie to any jsudi u'uven fear. All bhut is wrong; w .^

our soldiers is that there is not enough of them ; and this defect must be made good at an even more rapid pace than that hitherto displayed, if the destiny of this great Empire is really to raise gallant little Belgium instead of lying down beside her.