The Evening Star THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1916.

Evening Star, Issue 16237, 5 October 1916, Page 4

The Evening Star THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1916.

Lord Luice has spoken so often and so wisely during the last Lord Bryos two years, and is one of anti tho not too numerous Peace Terms, great Imperialists to whom tho Empire looks for light and leading in these dark hours, that it is a pity that what from its very nature must have been an important deliverance has been summarised in half a dozen lines, which not impossibly may convey an erroneous impression of what he did say. On previous occasions Lord Bryce has deprecated a trade war after tho war, and has given what to many were excellent reasons therefor; and he is merely repeating a commonplace when he says that our chief consideration when considering peace terms should be that the peace is a durable one. With these sentiments, however badly summarised, and therefore possibly unjust to their author, there will be no violent opposition. The last word has not yet been said on behalf of an after trade war by way of hostile tariffs there are other and more direct metnods of making the enemy pay for their crimes than these—and every member of the allied Powers, from the highest to the humblest, is determined, whatever be the nature of tho torms of the peace that they are to exact, that it shall be a durable one. "Where Lord Bryce may have laid himself open to bo misunderstood is in his further statement, in which he is mado to say, without any qualifying why or wherefore ; Wo might be compelled to impose “ severe terras on our enemies, but he “ urged a. repression of passion.” As it stands, tnorc is nothing iu the deliverance to indicate that Lord Bryce has consistently been among the foremost of his fehow-workers in creating and sustaining that determination which has been more than once eloquently expressed" - by the Prime Minister. Let so it is; and it seems a pity that there should be even a passing reason for doubt iu this regard, .tho umpire has not too many strong men upon whom to rely that it can afford to lose even one. And emphatically the present is not the hour when men, speaking with tne authority of Lord Bryce, should publicly express the -opinion that “we “might bo compelled to impose severe “ terms,” and to m-ge a “repression of passion” in our, councils and decisions. ,I!iis is neither the tons nor the judgment that hi 3 countrymen are looking for from Lord Bryce at this hour. They want, «nd the Empire wants, no “ wo might be compelled,” but a- plain, downright “ we “shall impose severe terms on our ene“mies." On what grounds is it urged that the Allies’ peace terms should not be severe? Is all the past to count for naught? Are the millions of slain, of desolated homes, of widows and orphans, of unutterably loathsome and inhuman crimes are these to bo forgotten, or overlooked, or sponged out? We recall no reason why they should be. Wo know that in the Motner Land and the Oversea Dominions there are scores of people who are more eager in the expression of their sympathy with a Casement, or the rebels who shot in cold blood in tho streets of Dublin the innocent victims of their disordered passions, than, they are with their indignation against the criminals and their ..crime. And we know alsr tnat there are others who are so me;:...by and 'morally constituted that tnoy can, without conscious effort, ignore the most appalling crimes—such as the sinking of the Lusitania or the deliberately-planned murders of Miss Cavoll and Captain Fryatt—and fixing their eyes and thoughts upon anything and everything save the crime and its victim can permit themselves to cry: “ Don & punish Germany.” If there were even a remote possibility of England indulging in a policy of murderous reprisal; or of savage vengeance, such a warning as that attributed to Lord Bryce, and that many months ago was uttered* by Dr Lyttelton, would have at least a prima facie reason to support it. But what intelligent citizen of the Empire contemplates any such following in the steps of the arch-enemy as this would imply? W r c do not anticipate, when the hour j comes for tho Allies to dictate their I terms of peace, that they will be so pro- I voksd to passion by the memories of ! countless inexpiable wrongs as to impose j conditions that will be harsher than the | needs demand or than the conditions i warrant. . No terms, however severe, I could possibly excel the crimes which > callc-d them forth; and . oven though the i terms were dictated by the most unmoved ' legalist, provided such a one were guided 1 solely by the equities of the case, the j torms ho would impose or approve must! of necessity be severe. There is no escape i from this conclusion. It will be hopeless j for Germany to attempt to raise the cry ' of “justice.” She has nothing to hope for , on this plea— at most she can only ask i ror mercy ; and even here it is perhaps i as well that when it comes to the drawing ! up of peace conditions there will bo ' others than England to consult. Russia: and France will then be on equal terms ; with ourselves, and it is possible that at I so crucial an hour the delegates of these ! Powers may better express and reflect : the desires of the average Briton than ; those of our countrymen who thus early - are deprecating severity. What the whole > ! world demands is that there shall be no ! make-believe peace, that the ’ men re- ! sponsible for this world tragedy shall be I made to pay the penalty, and that Ger- j many shall never again have it in her power to become a terror and a nightmare to tho peoples of Europe. In the words of M. Fichon, the men who ordained this

■ "’■readful wickedness under which Europe | ■» groaning must never have the chance of doing it ail over again.

These comments were written before the receipt of a. message from which we gather that Lord Bryce has already been criticised severely for his sentiments. We regret that these should have made censure necessary.