The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 1919.

Evening Star, Issue 16990, 12 March 1919, Page 4

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 1919.

Thb 'Pall Mall Gazette' hj responsible lor tho statement that tht> (signing <<f peace " is definitely assured before the end of the month." Ths assertion will not coma jltogethex as a surprise to these who have Endeavored to follow the general trend of ih© more authoritative news that has coma to hand during the past few weeks. The KOtW aa a "whole is not only sick of -war, bat those -who now direct the counsels of the allied Governments are ■unanimous in the belief that if peace does not come, and come quickly, the probabilities are that large portions of Europe may sink back lo that form of human barbarism and semi savagery from which at one time it was their boast that they had long since and for ever freed themselves. Central Europe stands perilously near the brink of a reversion to the darkest ages of its history. "My stay in Germany," recently wrote a correspondent on his return to less chaotic regione, "has filled me with profound dismay at the weakness of the bonds which still hold European civilisation together, and at the slijjhtneas of human resistance against the depressing »ow« of misfortune or the temptation of ..toaiwe WTetQusaee* when it has a prospect

Making Towards Peace.

of realising its desires." Th© present Tintd--ward plight of Germany and the gradual but sure growth of that spirit of despair •which may possibly at any hour burst forth into flamo and leave the Allies (in Ma- Churchill's -words) no Government with whom to make peace are factors that can neither be ignored nor avoided. If Exirope is to be saved from yet further and oven worse horrors than those through which it has already passed for four .years and a-half it must have peace speedily anil permanently. It is this knowledge that is largely responsible for the current belief that mankind is nearing its goal. President Wilson, before leaving America for his second visit to Europe, was himself credited with having asserted that peace was near; and Mr Balfour, more conservative in his estimate, looked forward to an early laying of the foundations of what he hoped would bo a just, lasting, and honorable peace. A peace of almost any sort would not be the simple and ea=y matter that the thoughtless and care]ess assume it to be; while that wh:ch the Allies are bent on securing, and which alone will satisfy the legitimate aspirations of their peoples, has from the first been beset with well-nigh insoluble difficulties. The aim of the Allies and the purple of their preliminary labors have been not merely to confirm their victory by the signing of a treaty of peace, but to make impossible, as far as it is humanly possible to do so, a repetition of the curse of war as the world has known it since the late European summer of 1914. It is imperative that the fruits of victory shall not be lost, and this can only be ; assured to the nations by the complete destruction of that maleficent organism which first called the war into being—Prussian Militarism. To this purpose Conscription —the training and conversion of men into military machines for the service of a callously anti-human autocracy—must bo abolished; disarmament must simultaneously operate; and a League of Nations must mark the sincerity of the signatories to the forthcoming Charter of the Nations. With all of these objects the name and reputation of Mr Lloyd George are inseparably allied. The British Prime Minister, as much as, if not more than, his colleague the United States President, has pledged himself to the carrying through of these three aims on a workable, practical basis, he having long held that without them there is no surety even of temporary peace. The Paris correspondent of the ' Daily Chronicle' advises that the decision of M. Clemenceau, Mr Lloyd George, and Colonel House (who represents Mr Wilson) respecting the future strength of the German army " means the doom of Conscription everywhere." The world will rejoice to hear it, and none more so than the great majority of Mr George's own countrymen, who, amid the tornado of falsehood and abuse that fell upon the Prime Minister last December over this question, loyally stood by him. Mr George has once again shown himself a far-seeing statesman. He was charged by a section of the Labor party and by the Pacifists with intending to impose Conscription in perpetuity upon the people of Britain, and with being " a political Kaiser openly aiming to destroy Democracy." This vulgar political balderdash and falsehood were about the only charges the more unprincipled of his opponents could rake from their garbage heap to hurl at the Prime Minister. Mr George honored them with a reply and a few compliments at Bristol a few days before the election which resulted in his triumph and their overthrow. After recalling why Conscription had to be introduced in England, and restating what his policy was, Mr Lloyd George then said : The real guarantee against ConscripI tion in this country, ana in every other I country, is to put "an end by the terms ! of the Peace Conference to these great Conscript armies. It you forbid Germany to raise an army of five millions, Austria to raise an army of four _mil- - lions, Turkey her army of two millions, and Bulgaria her army of a million, what need will there be for other countries to raise these big s.rmie3? . . . This was a menace to the peace of the world, and unless tho Peace Conference puts an end to it jvou might as well not open its doors. That is the real guarantee against Conscription—to insist when you get there that you will make a condition that these great armies shall not be permitted in the future to organise against the peace of the world. To this Pacifist Labor could only say by way of answer: "We demand the abolition of Conscription, irrespective of what the rest of the world may decide to do." Happily for the Empire and the world, the Mother Land knew whom to choose for the chief of its leaders.