JOSEPH MAZZINI

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 46, 23 August 1922, Page 16

JOSEPH MAZZINI

LLOYD GEORGE A DISCIPLE

THE PALLAC^ OF HATE.

. A striking tribute to Joseph Mazzini and his ideals was uttered; by Mr. Lloyd George at a ' Mazzini celebration organised by the Italian League in London recently.

Mr. Lloyd George, who wag given an enthusiastic reception, was presented with Mazzini relics. Like all yottng men, he said, he was a,great reader'of Mazzini, and the ideas with which Mazzini imbued him in his earlier years (he had had little time to read Mazzini*! of late) were the leading'ideas which M. Schanzer and himself did their best to carry out at the Genoa Conference.

"When you are hustled by remorseless events," Mr. Lloyd George continued, "there is very little time to do justice to a great theme like Mazzini. He was one of the greatest .men of Italy.. The results of his teaching-, are more manifest to-day than they were even in his own day. I doubt whether any man of his generation hag exercised as profound an influence upon the destinies of Europe. He has re-written, he has reconstructed the map of Europe. He was the prophet of free nationality, but a free nationality based on right, based on duty; above all, the rights and duties' .of individuals, of races, the rights, the duties, and ideals of humanity. "'

"The liberation movements of the last eighty years throughout Europe were inspired by his fervent teaching. You will find in every land where there was a great national struggle for free-, dom, that the young men, more particularly those who took an active part in the promotion of those movements, used the. writings of Mazzini as their textbook and their New Testament. They carried those'; Books with them, they read them, they re-read them, they quoted them; and you! will find that the, thrill that came from the words of Mazzini was wha? gave nerve and power to the men who had beep straggling for centuries for the emancipation of suppressed nationalities of Europe. ■,'.'- . "He said in one of his books thai we were on the threshold of a great age—the age; of the people. His doctrines, his ideals; his appeals, his example fired the hearts and led the peoples across the threshold'into: the new age. Italy has crossed it. The , oppressed races of Turkey have been emancipated, the oppressed races of Austria and of Russia— and, let me frankly admit, Ireland has also gained by the doctrines of Joseph Mazzini. The inspiration of the. men of young Ireland came largely, from his teachings. ' .„.-••' „-,' " Whether the age is a great one or not, as he predicted,' will depend entirely upon the measure upon which the precepts of Mazzini are followed. He taught not merely the rights of nations, but the rights •of other nations. 'Not only the right of your own nation to be free, but thei right of ithe next nation to be free.; \ You are to win honour, power, and independence for your own land, but you are to respect the rights, freedom, honour, and independence of the other land as Well. •.

"Whether this age is the Golden Age which Mazzini depicted depends entirely to'what extent we have learned the other half of. the lesson. He was a religious teacher; his principles were' the principles of Christianity, but if humanity is to enjoy freedom it can only do so by loving its neighbour as itself.; It can tolerate no mean hatred. "He did not believe in building nations upon the ruins of another nation. He.believed in the individual liberty and the justice of,the ideals of other nations. It was!' an age of fierce hatreds.. Mazzini said, 'You can build nothing'that lasts upon hate.' ' Hate,' he said,' 'will destroy ultimately the very, thing that you love.- You hate that because you love this, and you destroy this because you hate that.. < ■'.'.• "Mazzini said, 'I want free .nations, I want a Europe of free nations, But I do not want a Europe of free nations hating each other. I want a Europe of free . nations that would be a biotnerhood of peoples.' Mazzini is the father:of the idea of the League of Nations.' (Applause.) His writings are full of it. Free nations we have got. Poland is free, .the Balkan nations are free, Jugo-Slavia is free; Ireland is free "if she wishes it, and if she proves that she is fitted for it. ■.-.'•■•■.■:■..■'•"• ■."■-. "'.. "They are all Tree, but that is not the end of. the teaching of Mazzini, and now more than ever it is worth reminding the world of the whole of his teaching. There is a real peril that nations having won freedom . for themselves should indulge in suspicions, dislikes, detestations, and greed and hatred towards each other. Believe me, standing on the. watch-tower as I'have, done for five or six years, I. say now solemnly that if that goes on, the freedom will be torn from them in: some tumult which will be brought upon Europe by themselves.'. ' "Oh, how right Mazzini is! Read him; read him again. I read him while I was young. I had no idea how topical he was, how up to date. Jqeeph Mazzini, dead fifty years and lying in Italian soil, has written for this hour and has written for this phase. He has said, 'The.: morrow of the victory has more perils than its'eve.' '.'The day after the victory is more dangerous.than the.day beforo it. How true! The day after victory is full of perils. It is the spirit of remorseless pride. It. is a danger,' and Mazzini pointed it out; and there is no, greater menace to the life and liberty of nations than racial hatred against and. between nations." . „ •