AT HOME.

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 2464, 5 October 1914, Page 2

AT HOME.

WARNING AND ADVICE. HER POLICY TOWARDS GERMANY.

THE PREMIER ON TREATIES. (Received Oct. 5, 8.45 a.m.) London, October 4. The military correspondent of the Times warns the country that the war will be a long one, and urges tho adoption of corresponding measures. (Received Oct. 5, 9.10 a.m.) London, October 4. Premier Asquith, addressing a mass meeting of Iu,UUU people at Cardiff, said tnat in 191,2 his Cabinet laid down the terms of Britain's relations with Germany, and communicated the following declaration to the Kaiser;. "Britain declares that she will neither make nor ]oin in any unprovoked attack upon Germany. Aggression upon Germany forms no part of any treaty, understanding, or combination with other nations to which , Britain is now a party• nor will she become a party to anything having such an object." Mr Asquith added that there was nothing ambiguous or equivocal about that—yet Germany asked for a pledge of neutrality. When she herself was enormously increasing her aggressive resources, Germany asked us to bind ourselves to absolute' neutrality, in the event of war, and asked for a free hand when they selected the opportunity to overbear and dominate the European world. "Only one answer was possible,"" he added, "and that answer* we gave. We now see written in letters of carnage and spoliation tho methods of Germany's long-prepared scheme against the liberties of Europe." After referring to the sanctity of treaties and the right of small as well as large nationalities to live, the Premier said that was the reason why, Britain brought the Indians to Marseille, and was extracting from her most distant overseas dominions the best of their manhood. ' At the end of the war, he looked forward to seeing Europe safeguarded for ever from a recrudescence of the era of blood and iron. "Had England forsworn her word, deserted her, friends, and compromised the plain dictates of duty, there would have been nothing for the country but to veil her face in shame, and be ready, in her turn, to share the "doom so richly deserved,, and go down, after centuries of glorious life, to the grave, 'unwept, urn honoured, and unsung.' "