LORD MAYOR'S DAY

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 115, 12 November 1917, Page 7

LORD MAYOR'S DAY

SPEECHES AT THE GUILDHALL IMPORTANCE OF NEW DEVELOPMENTS. (Am. AXD N.t. CABLE ASSN. AMD REUTER.) LONDON, 9th November. There was fine weather for the Lord Mayor's pageant, which, was one of the best, on record. It was entirely military in . character. Detachments of Australians and New Zealanders participated.

LONDON, 10th November. - The Guildhall banquet, which was attended by four hundred guests, was of modest proportions as regards the menu. Replying to the toast of the ''Imperial' Forces;" Sir Eric Geddes (First Lord of tho Admiralty), declared that on ail questions of broad naval strategy there was complete agreement between the Admiralty and the commanders of the great navies afloat. The enemy's submarine warfare had'not been defeated, but at present it was held in check, and would finally Be defeated.

Mr. Bonar Law (Chancellor of the Exchequer) proceeded to pay a great tribute to the Dominions' troops, to whom, he said, Englishmen had never grudged praise. The Germans allegecU.that we had left all the hard fighting to the Dominion forces. None knew better than the men from the Dominions that nothing that they had done had not been equalled by tho deeds of their. British comrades. Reviewing the general military, situation, the speaker ."emphasised the fact that Germany had secured complete control of the armies of her allies.

" Such control has not, existed, and could not exist to the same extent among our Allies,, because we are a league of free ,peoples, step has" just been taken which will make our co-operation closer to-day than it-has ever been. Tlie'Allied military staff which France, Britain, and Italy have created will sit permanently to study our military problems as a whole, and as the result of its creation the whole front from the Channel, to tlie Adriatic can in future be treated as one." He refused to prophesy regarding Italy, but said that he believed that the Italians -would be able to hold the enemy until aid came, from tho ■Western Allies. He thought that the German attack on Italy was partly actuated by a hope of dividing the Allies, and partly to keep up the spirits of the German people, but Germany' could never win the war until she defeated the French and British armies in the West. He saw no prospect of an early peace. It was now a question of nerve and staying power. All the belligerents staggered"'be° neath the load,'and.it-was a question who was going to fall. He knew that the hearts of our soldiers and sailors, and those of our Allies, would not fail them. (Cheers.')

[The new. Lord Mayor of London is Mr. C. A. Hanson, M.P.}