LLOYD GEORGE ON THE WAR

Evening Star, Issue 16625, 7 January 1918, Page 8

LLOYD GEORGE ON THE WAR

S**:'V. , THE DUTY OF ENDURANCE, ~ y'Vv'. ARTIFICIAL PROSPERITY. 'ii i-"'. Before a great gathering in the Albert V',' Hall, London, on October 23," the Prime j \-. Minister (Mr Lloyd George) delivered an '.""■ address on the war in the intery-' ests of the War Snvings Committee. ' The .Times ' report says : *i , ' Mr Lloyd George' said: "One of the . " perils of war, one of the greatest perils, i is that it creates a kind of artificial prosit perity, and that prosperity leads to.extra- . ' vagance, and individuals are too apt to forget, that there is a fundamental difference between the prosperity of war and the prosperity of peace. The prosperity of peace comes from the creation of wealth, and the prosperity of war comes from dissipation of wealth. It ought to he brought home* to every man and woman that they , must/not be deluded by the enormous expenditure which is going on into an'extravagance that will burden our estate for ourselves and for our posterity. Individual extravagance injures the nation in two ways. First of all, it absorbs financial resources essential to the prosecution of , the war. It also absorbs labor, material, - energy which ought also to be devoted to the same purpose. And whether the war is to be a long war,.or whether it is to be 6hort, the way to shorten it is to prepare as if it were going to be a long war. [Cheers.) NO SIGN OP PEACE. "I ask those who are pressing, shonld there be any, for a premature peace to reflect for a moment what might happen if . we made an unsatisfactory settlement. All the best scientific brains in all lands, sti- . mulated by national rivalries, national hatreds, national hopes, would be devoting theii; energies for 10, 20, 30 years to magnifying the destructive power of those horrible agents whose power has only just been disclosed to the belligerents within the last few months. We must settle this

once and for all. (Loud and prolonged cheera.) The power of the air in its initial ~ stages, the infernal weapons of the deep basely developed, all those chemical elements which have been utilised for the first time—if this is going to be repeated after 30 years of scientific work and application, believe me there are men and women in this hall now who may live to see the death of-civilisation. It must be the end of conflicts of this kind now. (Cheers.) And that -is why it is essential for the future well-being of the human race that such a decision should be reached now in this struggle, that brute force shall be dethroned for ever, so that our children may not be condemned to horrors and terrors which even the most vivid imagination dare not portray. Germany, in my judgment, would only make peace now on terms which would enable her to benefit by the war into which she has wantonly plunged bhe world. (Hear, hear.) That would mean that Germany would profit by her own wicked venture. Tt would be an en-

couragement for every domineering empire in the future to repeat the experiment. (Cheers.) GREAT PURPOSES OF THE WAR,

"The failure of Napoleon taught France a lesson she never forgot, and a similar lesson—it took 20 years then and more; it will not take that now—but a similar lesson must be burnt into the heart and memory of every Prussian before this war is done with. (Cheers.) Amidst all discussions about terms and concessions here and there we must keep our eyes steadfastly on the great purposes of the war. Tt is not a question of territorial readjustment, except in so far as that is necessary for the recognition of national right. It is not a question of indemnities, except in no far as that is essential in order to compensate for wrong inflicted. (Cheers.) It is pre-eminently a question of the destruction of a false ideal, which has intimidated and enslaved Europe, or would*have done so had it been triumphant. The real enemy in the war spirit fostered in

Prussia.. It fe (q Heal of a' world in which force and brutality wign supreme, as against a world, an ideal of a world, peopled by free democracies, united in an hor.orablo league of peace. That ideal, that war spirit, has its 'shrine in Potsdam, where for 50 years they have been incessantly plotting, planning, scheming, how to-invade this country and to trample down another. Russia, Belgium, Serbia, Prance { Great Britain—ell their energies, all their thoughts, every ingenuity has been exhausted in devising machinery"; all their energies absorbed iri manufacturing machinery. German industry, Gejrmea education, German science, German politics, German diplomacy. German flesh -and' blood for generations" have been devoted to the destruction or the enslavement of their neighbors. That has been thei>dream, and it has been bur nightmare. (Cheers.) That is the war spirit enshrined m Potsdam. Thflre will he no peace in the world, no liberty. untiU that shrine is shattered and its priesthood dispersed and discredited for over (Cheers.) This year I had hoped that we might have broken that terrible Power. We had all looked forward to the great converging movement which would have accomplished that purpose. The temporary collapse of the Russian military power has, I will not say disappointed, but postponed our hopes. But time is on our side. There was a moment when time was a doubtful and dangerous neutral, rather disposed to favor our foes. Two things have changed his disposition. The first is the advent of America. (Cheers.) To realise what that means you have only got to follow the rapid growth of our own little army to the position of one of the most formidable armies in the field. America is now starting. Its resources in man-power are twice as considerable as thoso of the United Kingdom. You have got there about the best'fighting material in the world. We have good reason to know that. (Laughter.) For ingenuity, resolution, bravery, tliev are indeed a formidable people,' and their mechanical resource are unequalled in the whole world. They have come in—(cheers) --and thev are throwing the whole of their volcanic energy into preparing for the conflict. Time is on our side. LESSON FROM THE MAP. I

" May 1 give you another circumstance—a cheering circumstance? (Heur, hear.) Oh I I have given you both sides;' I have not dwelt' entirely upon the cheerful circumstances ; I have given you the exact facts. Still one likes to dwell with the cheerful side. (Cheers.) There is another circumstanqe. Germany indulged in a, hoarse Laugh when she read of China, Brazil, Peru, and Guatemala declaring war. Ah! They laughed; was there ever such a joke? Their laughter is becoming hollow —they are ; beginning to realise what, it means. "When you go home to-night, take down your atlas, open it on the map of the world—the two hemispheres—and mark in the brightest colors you have got the lands that have declared war against Germany. Judged by the standard of military prowess they are insignificant compared with Germany; yet they produce the food of the world, the raw material of th« world, not merely luxuries like tea— (laughter)—and coffee, and I ought pot to mention cocoa, and above all tobacco, but grain, cotton, wool, hides, oil, gold, copper, tungsten', manganese, essential minerals and metals,' and raw materials. These are under the flag of' Germany's, enemies—(cheers) —and even if the Prussian military machine were triumphant, which it will riot be—(cheersi —this federation of free peoples of many races, in many climes, some great, some small, whose coiiscience has been revolted by Prussian barbarity, can by the mere process of withering their products and of refusing to grip the hand of a- Prussian in any market in ths world—(cheer?) —can reduce Germany, with all her boasting, with all her pride, with all the insolence with which she regards small people —they can reduce Germany to impotence and desolation; and they will do it, if necessary—(cheers)—before they accept any terms except those which will make the renewal of this savagery impossible. Again I say time is on our side, but we mast make a good use of it.

To win through you moist List out. Waiting means winning (Cheers:) Let us kei>p together. Beware of people who try to sow dissension, distrust, suspicion, disunion. The enemy, beaten on, most of the battlefields, are organising with deadly care and ingenuity an offensive behind the lino. I know what I am talking about. See what has happened in France—they discovered it in time—and look out for Boloism in all its shapes and forms. It is the latest and most formidable weapon in the German armory. Dissension among ourselves will be fatal to any and every campaign. Wait and have patience, endurance, concentration, unity. Personal and sectional differences, suspicions, resentments' miist be forgotten, or at any rate postponed. This is no time to talk of parties; there must be one party, and that is the nation, (Cheers.) Let us help to defend the nation,'the State, the allied Governments—America,. France, Italy, Russia—resist the attempts to sow mistrust among us and to seek to shake our nerves, keep steady, and we shall win. (Cheere.)