The New Zealand Times. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1923. PEACE

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11685, 24 November 1923, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1923. PEACE

Mr Lloyd George, who has been down quite an appreciable time, is proving, with his old energy and picturesqueness of language, that hd is not out also. Whether he will rise again, as the result of the election fight into which he has thrown himself with characteristic thoroughness, remains to be seen. At any rate, one smiles a little sardonically it must be confessed by the average onlooker, inasmuch as it can be said tjiat his counterfeit presentment has* been restored to its old place of honour in the great hall of Liberalism, while he is campaigning politically once more by the side of his old colleague, whom he supplanted under circumstances which have been very bitterly discussed. One can truthfully say that his portrait has recovered in a way denied to the muchpondered portrait of another leading celebrity—Marino Falliero—which has remained with its face to the wail, a blank reminder of his failure. And one realises the reason, which plainly is that the disgrace of the once-great Venetian Doge was due to a- conviction of dishonour, a thing which has not stained the Lloyd 'George record. We mean that the Welshman’s career may see a rehabilitation impossible in the case of tlie famous Venetian. Whether rehabilitation will come now or ever remains, as we have said, to be seen. For the moment the practical point is the restoration of peace in Europe, which is the theme of the Lloyd George appeal to the electors of Great Britain.’ Sweeping aside all the main contentions of the electoral campaign, the fighting ex-Premier de-. dares that the restoration of peace will cause them to he forgotten. The Conservatives are proposing to meet the European chaos by certain fiscal policy proposals. The ex-Prime Minister declares that, if peace is restored, this chaos will disappear automatically. His charge against the Government is that they have failed to bring this peace about. ‘His conclusion is that they must go. His appeal to the electors is to dismiss them summarily!. It is something of the irony of fate that the chances of . peace have begun to look rosy just at the moment of the raising of the question by Mr Lloyd George. He, of course, ought to bo the first to welcome those sighs. Consistency requires that from him, even though these' signs are a corroboration of the French policy to which Mr Lloyd Georg© has been strongly opposed. Moreover, the fact that the Government preserved good relations with Franoe may discount a good deal of the criticism of their failure to bring about European peace. And this discount is likely to be increased by Mr Uoyd George's candid admission of the difficulty of the task, an admission implied by his frank declaration that, while criticising the Government for its failure to secure peace, he was certainly not an applicant for taking their job over. All this gives emphasis to the signs of th© coming of peace. Of these the chief is the agreement of the Allies on the question of the military control of Germany. The agreement meets the alleged possibility of a hidden German army, ready at all points to strike, when the favourable moment comes, for a blow for freedom from the treaty and revenge on France. The importance of this agreement is shown by tlie immediate rise of sterling in the international exchange. In the agreement, the Allies gave way on the question of the ex-Cfown Prince, a concession which is a credit to their commonsense. The main point is that, whatever military preparations may have been going on underground in Germany, these are countered by the Allied agreement on a line of policy accepted by the German Government. It might have been better to have fixed a definite date for the Allied control. But, after all, the establishment of a definite right of control—the reaffirmation of the treaty right, in fact —is a substantial gain, with a direct favourable bearing on the restoration of peace. If this works out, it will be a feather in the cap of the Government. Events, therefore, seem to ho favouring the Government in the matter of th© Lloyd George charge of failure to bring about peace. In that event, Mr Lloyd George’s charge will he proved to he belated, and to have missed the target at that. The exPrime Minister will not get hack to power by a miss of the bull’s-eye of his choice. That, however, is a minor matter. What counts is the restoration of peace, and it looks as if peace is going to he at last restored. There are other signs than the agreement on a policy of final coercion, in case of necessity. This one is the touchstone. The others are corroborative, but subsidiary. One sign is the

chastening of the industrialists, who played the crooked financial game, after the murder of Rathenau, who was going thoroughly with all his prestige in favour of acceptance of the position under the treaty. This is followed by the French seizure of one of the Stinnes mines, without the help of a single soldier, and signalised by the offer of the workers to resume work. It looks like the beginning of the collapse of the policy of passive resistance. Then there is the release of the Krupp directors, with its implication of loyal acceptance of the French demands. These are all signs of coming peace, with the triumph of the French policy of intervention. The wool prices of to-day have shown that the elements of industry and commerce are alive in the country of the muchdescribed chaos. These peace signs encourage the hope that these elements may very soon acquire convalescence enough to assure normal conditions to the world.