CONSCIENCE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 23 August 1924, Page 15

CONSCIENCE.

MR. LLOYD GEORGE ON THE WAR SHIRKERS. Mr. Lloyd George, breakfasting on a recent occasion with the students at Cliff College, Calver, Derbyshire, had something to say about “warshirkers.” “Can any of you tell me which way the nations are going?” he asked. “There is a confusion of purpose—a perplexity. There was an ideal, ism in the war, but there has been a reaction since. Humanity, tired of having been on the wing for so long, has come to earth. There has been a materialistic hardening, but that will pass away. When it does you will find there will he a great resurgence of the spirituality which lies deep in the nature of men, and it will burst forth probably in a current such as has never been seen.” Later, at Merton House School, Penmaenmawr, Mr. Lloyd George unveiled a tablet to the memory of fourteen boys of the institution who fell in the war. He commenced on the readiness of the response which those healthy, weH-edfucated young men, with every expectation of a bright life made to the call of duty. “The valley of life,” he said, “was in front of them, verdant and radiant, when, without warning, the stern finger-post of duty pointed down the vallev of death. Without hesitation, with fearless eyes and dauntless hearts, they swung into it. We do well to assemble here to-day to do honour !to their memory. It is good for all of us. ‘I have never criticised conscientious objectors, and 1 certainly should not- dare to do so now. for this is their day. It would be less majeste, and 1 shall not be guilty of high treason, but I have this to say for those young men who laid clown their lives —that the conscience that impelled its possessor at the call of dutv to face torture and death is nut to a severer strain than the conscience that induces one to escape those terrors. 1 have seen these Avar memorials c\ei\ where I go. Cvinc and sceptic may ask: To what purpose arc the a* raised? The answer is: What would have happened to all that is best in Europe if the sacrifices had not been made.- As it was, it yvas a. much nearer thing than. I care to ponder OAer even now

“AYhat, if Britain had shirked her duty. There would have heeu one land alone left—Erauee. Ttalv would never have eonie in without Britain. AA hat would have happened in Europe-' Aou would have had a military despotism as ruthless as that of Napoleon throughout the continent of Europe. “I am not referring to what would have happened to the interests of this country with the forts of Belguim in the hands of that military jui\ta. A r ou would have had conscription here in order to save us, to save our independence and liberty, and we should have baiely done it then. AVe are too much in the habit of taking for granted the blessings that have been won for us bv the sacrifice of others. The liberty which the struggles of our forefathers have given us we take for granted. AVe assume that they are like the heather on these islands—just sprung up without cultivation, toil or care from the earth. Although it is not five years since the struggle for freedom was closed in Eurone.' we are foigetting the sacrifices that were made and what was achieved through those socrifices.”