€Untng pst THUKSDAYj NOVEMBER 13, 1919. THE CALL TO UNITED EFFORT

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 116, 13 November 1919, Page 6

Evening Post. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1919. THE CALL TO UNITED EFFORT

The often-quoted stentence in which Mr. Asquith, at the first Lord Maybr's banquet during the war, declared the conditions oil which alone Britain would sheathe the sword, was followed by two others which have not been in such frequent demand. "Thatj" said the then Prime Minister, "is a great task worthy of a great nation. It needs for its accomplishment that every man among usj old ov young; rich or poor, busy or leisurely, learned or simple, should give What he lias and do what he can." , During more than four years this ideal of unity and concentrated effort fflay be said to have been realised in a manner which exceeded Mfi Asquith's stipulation; for it is noteworthy that his appeal, comprehensive as he intended it to be, was limited to a single sex. Little did Mr\ Asquith or the nation dream at the time that the patriotism of the women would have to be mobilised on a great Bcale, in order to release men for the front, or that their j answer to the call would prove so enthusiastic and so effective as to convert such stubborn opponents of their political claims as Mr. Asquitb himself and the House of Lords? The ideal of national unity was so wonderfully realised as to aiifficß not merely for the winning of the war, but for the institution of great social and political changes, of which the consequences defy calculation. The experiences of the first year since the Armistice have, however, been of snch a character, both in Great Britain and elsewhere, as to give the talk of national unity almost ah ironical sound, and to make, us feel that the peace for which -we were all yearning lacks some of the fundamental merits of the time of calamity from which we have emerged. Reaction from the strain and the ex^ liaustion of war seems to bo imperilling the unity which was essential to the winning of the war j and which is obviously just as necessary for the solution of the tangle of difficult problems that the war has bequeathed. Thus it is that at the first Lord Mayor's banquet since the cessation of hostilities, Mr. Lloyd George has had to make the same appeal for unity which his predecessor had made on a similar occasion five years before. He bespeaks for the problems of peace the- same national unity and the same high standard of duty which Mr. Asquith declared to be necessary fbi1 the conduct of the war. " The common sense and good-will which carried lis through war will,1' says Mr. Lloyd George, :I early us through peace." Are- these qualities, which carried tlie nation triumphantly through the most terrible- .of ordeals, going to fail it now? Though the demands of the war upon the soldier wefG»infinitely more exacting than those 'which are mado upon the average citizen in time- of peace, there is no longer the iisnle UrnmaUo and compelling civil WsaiS' sacrifice aiid united tHoti which w*s

sounded by the war, and thus it is that tho failure of tho nation in what on the face of it is an easier task has sometimes Eeetaed probable. Even the robust optimism of Mr. Lloyd George must have been sorely tried on more than one occasion during the pa-st year. With no pretensions to eloquence, but in a singularly persuasive and inspiring fashion. Sir Andrew Russell, in his address to the New Zealand Club yesterday, repeated Mr. Lloyd George's call to unity, and sought to a-pply the lessons of tho War to the problems of peace. As a General who served with distinction throughout the war, and by his skill, his grit, his kindliness, and his consideration for his 'men, admirably realised the ideal i of the commander of a democratic army, G-erteral Russell has some obvious qualifications for this task which Mr. Lloyd George himself does not possess. At the same time, the character of the community tb which his message is addressed should make his task a lighter one than that of the British Prime Minister. The rigidity of British discipline, the marked distinctions of class and rank which pervade both the military and the civil life of Great Britain, and tho great extremes of wealth and poverty, which the war has done little, if anything, to abate — all these are points which impress the visitor from the Dominions to the Mother Country. It'is the relative freedom of his own democratic'land from these evils that focussss his attention upon them, and this immense initial advantage shbiild greatly facilitate the task of the overseas reformer. It muEt nevertheless be confessed that General Russell's call to unity, to mutual understanding and forbearance, and to the revision bf old ideas in the light of the experience that the war has brought to the soldier and the lion-combatant alike, seems to be just as badly needed in New Zealand as elsewhere. What evidence is there that the lessons of the war, the inspiration of a common purpose, the comradeship and sympathy which established a much stronger and safer bond between a democratic General and the rowdiest of his recruits than any, Prussian discipline, the feeling that the side and the cause was everything afad the individual nothing—are being applied to the tasks of peace? Industrial life seems to be pervaded by an unrest founded on suspicion and mistrust which is in some respects worse than open warfai'e. Labour and Capital seem to be as far from an understanding as ever, and it is from the extremists on both sides that We hear most. Each is keenly alive to the feelings of tho other, but pays little heed to its own, and under such conditions even well-founded criticism tends not to remove differences/ but to enlarge thfcm. The gospel bf reconciliation, of tolerance, and of sympathy which General Russell expounded so admirably yesterday is exactly what tha country needs. It is to bo. hoped that he may s&q.h bo given the. opportunity of expounding it from some position of higher authority than that bf a private citizen.