The Evening Star TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1018.

Evening Star, Issue 16662, 19 February 1918, Page 4

The Evening Star TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1018.

The coming European spring is the fourth to which tho Empire, The Fateful in common with the / Hour. rest of Christendom, has i looked, forward with eager and (in one country, at least) with confident expectancy of finally crushing tho fell Power which in tho lato summer of 1914 spTang Iko a tiger from its lair upon an unready Europe. That expectancy has not been realised : on the contrary, if we are to accept the teaching of certain degenerato souls within our own ranks, here as well as elsewhere, we are as far from nearing definite finality as ever we were. Tho millions of lives, the countless millions of treasure, tho prolonged night of human agony—if theso are to be believed—have been spent and endured in vain. We do not for one moment accept any such soul-destroying doctrine. To do 'so would be to despair of ourselves, to despair of the race, and to despair of the faith which knit the Empire and the nations in one in those epoch-making days three and a-half years and more ago. The expression of this faith assumes anoro than one form. Much depends upon the personality and temperament of tho individuals affecting it. The pessimist is always with us, and may be dismissed as practically of no account. Nor need we greatly concern ourselves with the more or less avowed open opponents of their own country and their country's cause. These, too, have been with us in every stage of our island story; and that island has survived and persisted in spite of them, to the everlasting glory of the race. _ Tho danger most to bo feared at the present and in every hour of the immediate future is that some within our own midst, who entered upon the war with the ardor and enthusiasm of the crusader of old, and burning with indignation against the authors of this crime of the centuries, may permit themselves—some, in fact, have already done so—to grow weary and their determination to slacken. Of these are born "Lansdowne" letters, questioning criticisms, war-weariness, and a too frequently expressed wish that some means, no matter what, be taken to end this well-nigh unending story of death, blood-shedding, and misery—all of which plays directly into the enemy's hands. "The only peace you can have now is an. enemy peace. Are you prepared to accept that?" It is Mr Lloyd George who asks this most pertinent question. The Allies to-day are not in a position to enforce those terms of peace to which they are pledged ; peace now would mean the triumph of that cause and those things against which they drew the sword, for which they have- sacrificed and suffered, and the continuance of which would mean the ultimate destruction of everything that the nations outside the Central Powers have' regarded as alone worth having. Is Christendom, therefore, to lay down the sword it has drawn? This and nothing else is what is meant, knowingly or not, by all who say: '' Let us have peace. We cannot get what we wanted, so we will make the best bargain we can, and be content."' Christendom is not prepared to make any such answer. The great nations who took up the challenge of Germany in 1914 are not, after three years and more of the most destructive warfare in history, going to retire from the sanguinary conflict with their objects unachieved. To do so would he to betray not only the cause to which they stand pledged, but to abandon to individual slavery and national obliteration those smaller peoples who look to them for help. And this they will not do. What hope, then, have the Allies of final victory? It is a pertinent question, and the more so that it is asked at an hour when the clouds seem darker than they have been, perhaps, at any previous period. There is a general consensus of opinion that a great blow—perhaps a series of blows—is about to be struck by the enemy against the Anglo-French lines .on the western front. Tho reason, of course, is obvious. And, simultaneously, there are all sorts of rumors and reports of a lack of unity of policy among our own military and political leaders. With these we" need not anxiously concern ourselves. The men in whose hands rests the supreme direction of affairs may be trusted to take no step that involves danger to tho country's -needs in this most fateful hour. The/ know what victory means and how much depends thereon; yet they are deliberately taking all risks without fear or hesitation. To the cry "We cannot win; we must compromise," the answer is clear and unfaltering. "If I thought that things would get no better the longer you fought not merely would there be no object in prolonging the war, but to do so would be infamous," the Prime Minister told the Benchers of Gray's Inn. "It is because I am firmly convinced that, despite some untoward events, despite discouraging appearances, we are making steady progress towards the goal we set in front of us in 1914 that I would regard peace overtures to Prussia as a betrayal of the great trust with which y e are entrusted." There spoke not only the soul of the Empire or the soul of the Allies, but of humanity. We are going to win this war against the sinister Power which menaces the world With enslavement if—there has always been this proviso—we are worthy of the heritage and destiny with which we are charged. °