STRONG IN WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 22, 25 July 1936, Page 16

STRONG IN WAR

FAILURE IN PEACE

MODERN DEMOCRACIES

' Mr. Lloyd George described war as ••the worst and the most cruel relic of a savage worship," and appealed for the abolition of "human sacrifice" in a speech recently (says the "Daily Telegraph"), It was'one of the tragedies of the present grave situation, he said, that all the qualities of great leadership were being .displayed by dictatorships, and all the vacillation by. democracies.

Mr. Lloyd George was making a statement of,1 policy to 'a conference of. Council of Action chairmen and other,officers of area committees, held at the Central Hall, Westminster i.

Viscountess; Snbwden, Miss Megan Lloyd George, M.P., Major G. Lloyd George, M.P./were among the forty people present.

Mr. Lloyd George said that they had come to discuss, the future of the Council of Action. He .was more anxipus to hear than to speak.

The;national and district executives of the Council of Action had now associated .. with them, throughout the country, hundreds of local councils. These local associations had come into existence since the General Election.

Ever eince that event the council had been organising quietly and effectively in every part of the country.

FEROCIOUS SUPERSTITION.

"We. are'making a great human appeal to the electorate of this country on the.issues, on the solution of which ■will depend the progress and the happiness, of the human Tace," said Mr. Lloyd George. ■

"One of these issues is the abolition of human sacrifice as a means of protection against the forces of evil that divide nations. This is the worst and the most cruel relic of a savage worship which unhappily survives in the form of war, arid: upon a more tremendous scale than was ever contemplated in the imagination of our fore- ' fathers. "In the last; war 10,000,000 were Slaughtered on the altar of this ferocious superstition."

The ■ abolition of that was one of the great issues upon which they were concentrating.

His second thought was the imperative need of the reorganisation s of the ample resources of society, in such a-way as to ensure a square deal in life for all human beings who conformed to the just rules of a civilised community. '

"The distressed areas have been with us so long that' we are now taking them for granted," he said, "but the bleak' wastes of this country are not confined to districts which are scheduled as ■ distressed.

"You will find them in hundreds of cities, towns, and villages which are not on'the list.

"As long as 20,000,00 ft of our fellovv- , citizens are declared by high scientific authorities to be habitually undernourished, no one can- claim that we have approached the attainment of what is due from a Christian State to its citizens.

"We are non-party, men and women of all parties—and a great many of us not knowing exactly what party ' "But we have felt that while there are several parties there are only two alternative policies; one is the policy of human brotherhood, and the other the policy of inhuman selfishness and indifference. "These were the issues we stood to raise in. the last election. We raised them in definite form in their bearing on current events.v THE REASON. . "Why did we not succeed in impressing them on the electorate? Largely because they were obscured, not by conditions, but by the apparent adhesion on the part of all parties who .were running candidates, and not mere adhesion, but, so far as'words were cerned, devotion. "In, fact, during the election the human issues were blurred by the . lavish- use of soft soap." . (Cheers and laughter.) "We are painfully aware of what has happened in Abyssinia—the delays, the failures, the sham sanctions, the refusal to impose the only sanctions that would be effective, the infamy of the Hoare-Laval partition of Abyssinia in favour of the invader, the poison, gas Which scorched and strangled thou- . sands of. innocent men, women, and children,! and the supply of oil which alone enabled the.poisoner to scatter torture and murder over a land we were covenanted to protect. "Then came the inevitable triumph of plunder, barbarism, and savagery. How many of those who cast their votes on the strength of those exalted and noble declarations made at the last I election are now satisfied with the achievements of those chosen to redeem their professions? "Coming to the other branch of our appeal, the social conditions of the people, of this country, I would like to ask not what has been accomplished, but what has even been attempted to relieve the distress in millions of households. ■ "Wf* are now enjoying a wave of prosperity. It goes in a curve, updown, up-down, but in spite of the fact that we are now almost on the crest of a wave we have 1,800,000 workers Hying on the scanty bread of Idleness, condemned to the demoralising stupor of those who have nothing to do from morn till eve. "We have.it on the authority of men of science, who have devoted the whole of their lives to the study of this problem, that over 40 per cent, of our fel-low-countrymen are inadequately fed in • a land of exuberant plenty • and abounding wealth; ■ "There are .still millions living in habitations that are unfit for human beings .to dwell in, and side by side . with ihese'conditions we have statistical and Revenue testimony as to the enormous fortunes and huge incomes enjoyed by a few. ■: ."FATAL StJPINENESS."' ' '!There is a fatal supineness, a lack »f : grip. It is hot callousness;;it is a lack of energy, a lack of lead, a lack Of.-,.drive, a lack of insight. ' "On the social side we have nothing lo 'show but that miserable little bill tor. the relief of the distressed areas by; spending a million on new industries. It is an insult to the intelligence of a. great assembly. ■'•-..

"Observing things after a long period of public service I will ;'tell you what strikes me. It is one. of the tragedies of the present grave situation that all' the qualities of great leadership today are being displayed by dictatorships, and that all the hesitancy, vacillation, and polIroonery are manifested by democracies.

"In the war—l know it—it .was all Ihe other way, and that/is why the great democracies won, and they were She only ones that survived. The autocracies went.

"It is a sad reflection that democracy should be purposeful, resolute, valiant, and self-sacrificing in war, and be liniless, feeble, timorous, and ■ selfindulgent in the pursuit of peace. It Is a. fact, arid it is the dominant fact af the hour, believe me. ,-'.

"If the churches are united in their fletermination to put these things right Without deference to powerful, interests/ with the influence they wield both outside as well as inside the churches, and also without reference to party prejudices and predilections,