THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1917. THE LESSON OF THE COVENANTERS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17104, 8 September 1917, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1917. THE LESSON OF THE COVENANTERS.

In the great speech at Glasgow to which, we have already made reference—a speech which, says The Times, held an audience of over 4000 people for an hour and a-half in an unrelaxing grip—Sir Lloyd George was careful to remember that he, a Welshman, was addressing a gathering of Scotsmen. The "ingenium perfervidum" of Scotland meets a kindred quality in the characteristic spirit of the principality, and the Prime Minister, in his felicitously bold fashion, made telling use of the spiritual relationship. He did not disdain to touch lightly on one of its homeliest features. Scotsmen and Welshmen are alike fond of porridge, and alike flourish on that wholesome and palatable fare. Did the Zeppelins threaten a shortage of bread?—what of that?

You might be driven to eat less wheat and more barley and oats, the food of the men and women who made Scotland; yes, and mado my little country too. That was our food as boys, and it has given all the staying power one has. I am running the war on the stock of energy which I accumulated on that fare when I was young, and I am not going to weep over the hardships of a country which is driven back to oats and barley.—(A Voice: " Gie's a haggis."} We were never able to aspire to those luxuries in' Wales.—(Laughter.) We never got further than a bannock. —(Laughter.)

Speaking at Dnndeo a few days lator, Mr Lloyd George remarked: "The Lord Provost has told you that William Wallaco started his great struggle here. Wβ in Walos are accustomed to boast that WSliam Wallace was really William of Wales—(laughter), and that he came from that part of tho world." Equally effective, but in a different and more exalted strain, was the Prime Minister's fervid appeal to the lessons of Scottish history applicable to the present situation, with special reference to the indomitable zeal and unlimited self-sacrifice of the Covenantors. Wo shall quote the full passage, because we are sure that tho words will find ready echoes in the hearts of many exiles, or descendants of exiles, in this city and province,-—men and women whose thoughts constantly revert, as Stevenson's at Samoa did, to those soulhaunted places " whore round the graves of the martyrs the whaups are crying,— my heart remembers how!"

This war involves issues upon which will depend the lives of our children and our children's children. Sometimes in the course of human events great challenges are hurled from the unknown amongst tho eons and daughters of men. . Upon tho answer which is given to these challenges, and upon the heroism with which the answer is sustained, depends the question whether tho world would Oβ better or whether the world bo worse for ages to come. These challenges eud in terrible conflicts which bring wretchedness, misery, bloodshed, martyrdom in all its myriad toruas to the world, and if you look at the pages of history these conflicts stand out like groat mountain ranges such as you have in Scotland —scenes of destruction, of vast conflicts, scarred by the voloanoee which threw them up, and drawing blessings from the heavens, they fertilise the valleys and the plains perennially far beyond the horizon of the highest peaks. You had such a conflict in Scotland in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a great fight for the right of men to worship God according to their consciences. The Scottish Covenanters might have given this answer to tho challenge; they might have said: " Let there be peace in our time, 0 Lord." They might have said: " Why should wo suffer for privileges that even our fathers never enjoyed? If we win we may never live to enjoy the fruits of it, but we have got to face privations, unspeakable torture, the destruction of our homes, the scattering of our families, and shnmciess death. Let there be peace." Scotland would have been a thing of no account among tho nations. —(Cheers.) Its hills would have bowed their heads in shame for the people they sheltered. But the answer of 'tho old Scottish Covenantor, the old, dying Covenanter Cargill, rings dnwn the ages even to us at this fateful hour. " Satisfy your conscience and go forward." That was tho answer.

The lesson conveyed in that fine passage is not wholly tmxseeded in New Zealand at the present time. There are, we believe, very few people in the dominion who are consciously willing to accept an unsatisfactory peace; but there are many who talk glibly and complacently about the prospects of a very early peace, without reflecting that a very early peace must necessarily be unsatisfactory and inconclusive. This idly hopeful attitude of theirs they dignify with the name of "optimism." It is nothing of the kind. Optimism is the desire and expectation of "the best" ; and who can suppose that the best, or even anything tolerably good, would be obtainable from the only kind of peace settlement possible at the present stage ? War-weariness must not be allowed to induce forgetfulness of the stipulations laid down three years ago when Germany's arrogant challenge was reluctantly, but unhesitatingly, accepted. " We shall not sheathe the sword

until"—Mr Asquith's famous formula is, or should be, too familiar to require repetition. "No doubt you can have peace; you can have peace now—at a price," the Prime Minister tola the people of. Glasgow; but present peace, with German militarism scotched not killed, could only mean that the young boys of to-day would have to fight the battle over again. As the wounded Scottish soldier observed to the author of "Somme Battle Stories " : "We carry on, an , break the Boche machine for good an , all, an' so get peace that is peace, an' that can be kept. Or we patch up, leavin' the Boche his machine, and his e poison fangs —an' we start the whole dirty business over again in a few years, with every chance for the Boche to take us separately instead of havin' all the free peoples together. There's no third way; not for the cleverest diplomatists and statesmen in all the world. . . Any who are for patching up peace wi , the Boche, why, they're for sellin' an' betraying every French, or British, or Belgian soldier that's fought an' died in France or Flanders, to keep his bairns an' women safe from the Hun." Any peace which failed to obviate the like> lihood, or even the possibility, of a subsequent renewal of the struggle would bear the stigma of the Hebrew prophet's indignant judgment: "They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace."

At a luncheon ("a modest meal'*) given by the Lord Provost, Mr Lloyd George paid a glowing tribute both to the bravery of the Scottish soldiers and to the loyal industry of the workmen and working women of Glasgow. This, he remarked, in his. fresh and vivid way, had become almost the battle of the rivers. "The Elbe and tho Vistula and the Rhine were arrayed against the Clyde, the Wear, the Thames, the Medway, the Tyne, and the The Clyde built ships, and She Elbe said, ' Wo will build craft which will sink your ships' and the Clyde said, 'We will build ships for every ship you sink. Nay, more, we will also build craft which will chase your ocean vermin out of the deep.'" In this struggle he backed the Clyde. " Speak up, Davie," cried a volatile student, exercising his traditional rights while the new Doctor of Laws was returning thanks at the University; md the latest alumnus genially replied, "This is my first lesson as a student, and I am glad it is a lesson in elocution." Figuratively, at least, the Prime Minister has " spoken up " during these last months with superb efficiency.