FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7. 1917.

Free Lance, Volume XVII, Issue 907, 7 December 1917, Page 6

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7. 1917.

THE "PETTY" PATRIOT. Lord Landsdowne as a Pro-German. 11 TffFi original family name of the Lansdownes was Petty, to which, in time, probably as the result of a marriage, Fitzmaurice was added. The Fitzma-uriee strain has apparently been weaker than- the original stock, for if ever an Englishman was well named Petty it is Henry Keith PettyFitziaauriee. fifth Marquis of Lansdowne. Lord Lansdowne's pro-German letter, for no other adjective can properly apply, is a disgrace, to its author, and should bring about his formal expulsion from the Cabinet—he is a Minister without portfolio—and from ■ the ranks of the Unionist Party. He was always a weak individual, this precioiis British peer, who has really, . if not nominally, allied himself with the Ramsay Macdonalds, Trevelyans, Snowdens, and other mischievous and unpatriotic British Bolsheviks, who favour an inconclusive peace, a peace which could not fail to be a delusion and a snare. He was a Gladstonian Liberal _ in his youth, but went over to the Unionists on the Home Hule issue. As Governor-General of. Canada and later as Viceroy of India, he displayed no striking ability, and Chamberlain's weakness for a lord was doubtless the reason why he was made Secretary for War (in 1900) and. afterwards Foreign Secretary. His bungling and blundering during the Boer War were notorious ;• so much so that his popular nickname at the time was ."Lord Land-us-down." * * * * It has been reserved, however for him to become a true Petty, the most pettifogging creature that ever posed as a British statesman. The American press hits the right nail on the head when. it. calls - him plain and straight "a German partisan." What on earth is the use of Lord Lansdowne advocating that the Allies should negotiate with an enemy who has point blank declared that he cares nothing for treaties? What does this "Petty," though lordly, person mean by talking about "the freedom of the seas?" Be-, fore the war the seas were as free to/ German, ships as to those of any other Power. What Germany means by "the freedom of "the seas," so Tirpitz ' has told us, is freedom for her to use her submarines to destroy all other commerce but her own. Is that the sort of "freedom" Lord "Petty Land-us-down" wants England to agree to? Were it not that the British nation — or rather a large majority .of the nation —still' believes in the' . silly old fetish, of a peer's sanctity, there would, as there ought to be, a widespread popular outcry that the King should divest Lord "Petty Land-us-down'' of his marquisate, that he should be expelled from his clubs, andbranded as a pro-Boche by all decent society. • * * « Berlin, we read, is delighted with the "Petty" letter. Exactly so. That was only to be expected. No doubt, long before this millions of copies of a German translation of His Lord High Pettiness's letter have been circulated throughout the Fatherland, as a con-

vincing by a highly-placed British statesman, that England desires an early peace. Fortunately, Mr. Bonar Law has made it clear that Lord - land-us-down expressed no opinion but his own, and it is specially cheering that American criticism of the fatuous production production has been so severe. To "talk with a tiger" is sheer insanity, unless as an., easy way of suicide. Great Britain's duty and the duty of her "Allies is to shoot the tiger first and talk to him.: afterwards. -