LLOYD GEORGE'S POWERFUL PLEA

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 132, 5 June 1915, Page 5

LLOYD GEORGE'S POWERFUL PLEA

MOST URGENT MESSAGE EVER TQLD BRITAIN'S PROWESS DEPENDS QN MASTERS ANP MEN. LONDON, 4fch June. Mr. Lloyd George, the Minister for Munitions, accompanied by 001. Sir Edward Girouard and Lord Derby, addressed at Manchester a private meeting of one thousand of war munitions. ' , Mr. Lloyd George said he came as the emissary of the State to carry the most urgent message ever told to a Manchester audience. It depended more upon the mast-ers and men running the workshops than on almost any other section of the community whether Great Britain should emerge from the present colossal struggle beaten, Humiliated, stripped of power, honour, and influence, and a mere 1 bond-slave to a cruel military tyranny, or whether she should emerge triumphant, freer, and more powerful than ever fqr good in the affairs of men. "Our Russian allies," he said, "have suffered a severe set-back. The Germans have achieved a great success, not be cause of the superior valour of their soldiers, but by pouring thunderous showers of shot and shell against their opponents. BATTLE WAS WON FROM THE WORKSHOPS ' The Russian protecting trenches were demolished ; yet, when the Germans advanced, there arose from the shattered earth legions of dauntless men to fa^e the foe. The German triumph was due entirely to their superior equipment, their overwhelming superiority in shot and shell — the munitions of war. "The battle was won by the skilled industries a.nd the superior organisation of the German workshops. Two hundred thousand shells were concentrated in a jingle hour' on the devoted heads of the gallant Russians. "Had we been, in a position to" apply the same process to the Germans on our front, they should have been turned out of France, aad well out of the country which they have tortured and tormented with dastardly cruelty. More than that, we should have actually penetrated Germany and the end of this terrible war would have been before us. THE QUESTION OF CONSCRIPTION "I am not here to brandish the great powers imparted under the Defence of the Realm Act.' To what extent, and in what direction, the moral duty that each citizen should give of his best to the State, should be converted into a legal duty shall be decided as the necessity may arise. "There has been great discussi.on over conscription. We are discussing it, as if we were discussing Land Ryform or Home Rule, in leisure and tranquillity. One cannot argue under shell, fire. One cap only decide, but the introduction of compulsion, as, an, important element in the organising of the. nation's resources in skilled industry, does -not necessarily mean conscription in thr 4 ordinary sense. "We have saved the liberties of this land more than ojnee by compulsory ser- i vice. All the same, it. would be a great mistake" to, resort to 'it unless it were absolute^ necesaacf C? I