THE LESSON OF HISTORY

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 107, 6 May 1916, Page 5

THE LESSON OF HISTORY

COMPULSION ESSENTIAL FOR

DEFENCE

LLOYD GEORGE'S SPEECH.

LONDON, sth May.

Continuing his speech in the House of Commons on Mr Holt's motion to reject the Military Service Bill, Mr. Lloyd George said: "The country as a whole favours the measure, which is not contrary to Liberal principles. No nation faced with a great military peril ever saved itself without some sort of compulsion. This is truer of democracies than of autocracies:' Britain is not so paralytic that she cannot demand the services of her citizens. France, Italy, and Servia are defending themselves by compulsion. If anyone says that conscription is against the-principles of true democracy they are talking in defiance of the teaching of history and of common sense."

"If," he said, "we summoned men from the Empire to the colours in the same proportion as has France, we would still have a substantial margin to make up before we should have made the same sacrifices as Prance has made." Ho did not want the Germans to make any mistake. He wanted them to know that in order to make the difference between victory and defeat, between liberty and submission to the Prussian yoke, this country would summon the whole of its manhood to the colours. It was said that if we did that there would be trouble amongst labour. But the working classes had accepted the position patriotically. -

Mr. Lloyd George, in conclusion, protested against the talk about the attitude of the workers, as if they were not an essential part of the nation, and were only to be regarded as doubtful neutrals who at any moment might be converted into a formidable foe. The workers knew that they would lose more by Prussian domination than under any other class; they knew that if the Kaiser triumphed it would but be the beginning of war, for humanity could not endure the yoke. COMMENTS ON THE SPEECH. Mr. Lloyd George had been so long silent in the House that his speech was awaited with intense interest. He spoke for three-quarters of an hour, full of passion, energy, and conviction, and said not one word' which suggested that he had gained a victory in the Cabinet. On the contrary, he referred to the Cabinet as a perfectly united body. His peroration denouncing those who represented the working "classes as neutrals was highly effective, being greeted with long applause. Sir John Simon led the opposition to the Bill. He denied that it would increase our national strength. Mr. Arthur Henderson wound up the debate. 'He said that Lord Derby had estimated that there were 650,000 single men of military age. It was now found that there were 750,000, of which number the military authorities'expected to obtain 340,000," and of whom 187,726 were already with the colours.

Tho Daily News points out that Mr. Lloyd George has dissociated himself from Cabinet's limitation of the recruiting of tho unattested men to 200,000, and declared for unlimited enlistment.