OPINION AND THE WAR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17105, 10 September 1917, Page 8

OPINION AND THE WAR

THOUGHTS OF LEADERS. (Fkom Oub Own Correspondent.) LONDON. July 13. General Smuts, to Tho Observer: "The struggle of the Teutonic Powers is the last effort of old, feudal Europe to block human progress, and now all progressive humanity is arrayed in opposition to it. After this vast task has been well done real co-opera-tion betweon free nations will be possible. Then for tho first time will it be sane and reasonable to talk about tho end of wars. If America had not come in there would have been tho gravest danger that the combat might havo lost its real perspective and true setting, to degenerate into a mero Old World struggle, certainly for liberty and for democracy, but sure to terminate in an Old World settlement. Now for tho first time tho New World will actually redress the balanco of the old. Tho war must end in the triumph of democracy, but that will not mean the universal democratisation of the nations which will bo affected. Humanity does not work so fast. Tho French Revolution required a century 'of timoin which to find fruition. Tho world required this shock to wake it up. England herself was slipping from tile track. Und«r Disraeli she thought sho must bo a military nation bent upon Imperialism. She went in for it, and the trial oamo finally in South Africa. Tho British victory over the Boers was a great test. A cheap and easy victory would have strengthened what were then tho Imperial tendencies of England and tho_ British. But that tremendously exhausting struggle, maintained by one of the world's smallest peoples, taught the British that tho Boers were fighting in some measure for Britain's own traditional ideals. That meant that when the British won tho military victory, so great a change was found to have been brought about in their morale that not only the two small republics, but that which needed to bo conquered in Great Britain—all three had met defeat. The Boer war forced anew upon tho British people the realisation of those fine ideals for which at bottom they invariably feel sympathy. This war is not directed oy the Allies against the German people. Military imperialism is the foe the Allies fight, and within another 10 years, had the war not come, freedom, which has never been properly organised, would havo fallen a prey to her great enemies, In such a space, short though it seems to be, Germany might well have grown so powerful that she could have put humanity in bondage for another century. Democracy was not prepared for war, autocracy was ready; but democracy fought bitterly for time, and won it. Give democracy time, and it will always win." DEFEAT HUNS FOR THEIR GOOD. Lord Hugh Cecil, in the House of Lay--men, of the Province of Canterbury: "The Germans say there is no superior to the State and that the State was entitled to do whatever is necessary for the life of tho State. That is a system of thought which has now been turned into a system of action. Germany is undoubtedly conducting tho war as if there were no God and no

moral system regulating the relations between nation and nation, and as if it were quite permissible for a nation engaged in war to do anything, however barbarous, however contrary to the pledged word of the nation, however recklessly extravagant in human suffering, if the smallest advantage could he obtained by such method for the State. That is to set the State in the place of God. It becomes necessary, therefore, for us to assert tho contrary principle. We must come to regard international war, not as absolutely wrong, but a thing to be endured and engaged in only for the purposes of defence or for the limitation of some evil the endurance of which will bo greater than the evils of war. That is not tho position in which the German people regard war, nor the way in which even Rome of our own people regard it. We are bound to love the disciples of Christ because they are members of tho Body of Christ. ' We do not make war on

Germany as an expression of our hatred of Germans. Wo are not entitled to hate Germans. We are bound to love them and to defeat them in this war for the good- of the whole of Christendom, including Germany." THE COMING REVOLUTION. Viscount Harcourt, to his former constituents at RaiwtenstaU: "There is a revolution that may bo revolution to secure the immediate resumption and re-establishment in peace of personal freedom. During the war personal freedom has ceased to exist. I do not complain. We are all in for the utmost exertion and 1 sacrifice which will give us a conclusive victory; but when it is over then at once, without a moment's

delay, we want recovery of our personal freedom. It is well that our rulers should that our present method of government is not one that we will tolerate for a single day after the attainment of peaceEngland to-day is governed by ukase as drastic as any issued by the Emperors of Russia. That is all very necessary in war, but I warn you against the possibility that individuals ox groups of parties may desire to retain some of those powers in times of peace. Then, indeed, me people shall and moist revolt. The real and only control of the democracy over its governors is in the House of Commons. The first and List effort and fight when peace comes must be for the re-establishment of parliamentary control. For that policy after peace I will carry the flag with you—not against the Crown, which has never coerced and has never in our days had the power to do 60, but against the personal autocracy and assumption of power by jacks-in-offico who derive their authority not from their capacity but from the Ordors-in-Coun-cil which are the source of their creation.— (Cheers.) I do not suggest that all that will be necessary or will conceivably happen after the war; I only warn you that on you is a great responsibility to see that in the happy times to come there shall be refunded in this ancient land the priceless gift of a true system of democratic government sensitive to the will of the

people and responsible to tho voice of Parliament. '' —(Cheers.) A NATION UNDER ORDERS. General Sir William Robertson at the 4th July dinner: "It is now an accepted fact that this is not merely a war between armies and navies, but a war between nations and Empires, and every part of a nation must u- 1 1,1 ;„4.~ „!„„ T J«„I,J. m V,„4-W— ,•,.

be brought into play. I doubt whether m this country of ours all has been done that ehould be done in respect of organising tho nation. It seems to me the first thing needed is that the nation must be given clear orders as to what it has to do, and sufficient information to enable it cheerfully, patiently, and intelligently to carry out those orders. In tho second place, those orders must be obeyed, not only when they are congenial and convenient, but when they are the reverse. In other words, you requiro discipline in the nation. You also want mutual confidence between all classes and ranks in the nation. There is a great deal of difference of course, between dealing with an army of soldiers and an army of industrial workers, but I know that our armies are almost entirely composed of officers and men drawn from these industrial workers. The discipline and spirit of these armies of ours have never been called in question by anybody. Is it not possible to employ similar methods to those employed in the army to a greater extent than 5 now done in regard to the army of industrial workers at home? It is quite clear that without mutual confidence, without discipline, and without fair play all round, tho unity of the nation and co-operation are mere phrases and mere phrases will never win the war. There comes a time in every war when each side has to put forward its greatest effort, when tho strain becomes greater every day, and when a little extra effort will suffice to turn the scale. That time has now come, and in this war, as in all wars, victory will turn to that side which can retain its cohesion and tho confidence of tho nation." AMERICA'S HIGHER CRUSADE. Dr W. H. Page, the American Ambassador, at the 4th July dinner:

"Every American present can picture to himself the august spectacle of millions of our fellow citizens assembled to-day in every province to celebrate with reverence, if with noise, the immortal structure of government and of society which our fathers fashioned out of their ideal. We have begun a new era in the history of the world. Hitherto wo have been concerned chiefly with the development and the extension of liberty at home. We have now entered upon a higher crusade to help an extension of liberty in this Old World, since the foundations of liberty throughout whole world have been assailed. Wo have committed ourselves to this crusade because otherwise we could not keep our future birthdays worthily. And whither docs this commitment lead us? It leads us first to victory and then it leads to our making sure that this victory shall bo permanent. And then whithor does it lead us? ]t must lead us inevitably and joyfully to a definite and a permanent understanding with all other steadfast friends of freedom. This kingdom is the steadfast friend of freedom.—(Choers.) Wo have tfhe pleasure, therefore, to dedicato ourselves not only to oar own ideals, but likewise to the additional task of strengthening onr close friendship with this other great branch of

the English-speaking world._ I call on every American who hears my voice thus solemnly to dedicate himself to this most important task in the whole world. Let us now, realising that in the years that ore gono we in particular have enjoyed tho hospitality of this land and made lifelong friends hero, give (Cjrsclves to a closer understanding, that tho unity of these two peoples and thoso two Governments shall be the immutable basis of symapthetio relations for ever." THE ABSORBING THEME. Mr Balfour, on the same occasion: "Wo are not brought together in this colossal struggle; wo aro not working together at this identical moment —this great and' unsurpassed moment in the history of the world—aiming at narrow or selfish objects; or bound together partly by antiquated traditions. Wo aro working together in all tho freedom of -great hopes and with great ideate. Those hopes and those ideals we have not learned from each other. We have thorn in common from a common history and from a common ancestry. Wo havo not learned freedom from yon, nor you from us. We both fw-incr from tho same root. Wo both cultivate the same hopes as regards tho futurp .of Western civilisation, and now we find ourselves united in this great struggle against a Power, whioh if it bo allowed to prevail is going to destroy tho very roots of that Western civilisation from which wo all draw our strength. We are bound together in that. Aro -wo not bound together for ever ? Will not our descendants, when they cofne to look back upon this unique episode in tho history of the world, say that, among the incalculable circumstances which it produces, tho most beneficent and the most permanent is, perhaps, that we are brought together luid united for one common purpose in one common understanding—the two groat branches of the English-speaking race. It is a theme that . absorbs my thoughts day and night. It is a themo which I hope you will dwell upon; a themo which I hope and trust you will do your best to spread abroad in all parts of the world, so that from this date onwards for all timo we who apeak tho common language and havevtheso common ideals may feel that wo aro working not merely for ourselves, but that we aro working together for the best intereste_ of _ the whole, of mankind, and for the civilisation of not only t>e Old World but of the New."—(Loud cheers.) LONG ROAD TO TREAD.

M. Yiviani, French Minister of Justice, at an Anglo-American press luncheon: "Wo aro fighting because wo were provoked. Wo wish to decide once for all the conflict between autocracy and democracy. We shall fight so long as preying nations exist, for it is necessary that free men should be able, to live freely under the sun, respecting other nations, but respecting themselves, and should bo able to continue carrying on the part assigned to them by history.» All the free nations are on their feet, the weaik as well as the strong. But let us not delude ourselves. The struggle 'will still be severe and long, although we have already dealt formidable blows to German autocracy, which, perhaps, the German people are beginning to realise. What does it matter? We all prefer death to humiliation, for the supreme good is not life—it is honour for individuals and the independence for nations. Moreover, today, when we know the manly resolution, of President Wilson and the. confident ardour, of the American army, wo aro more than ever certain of victory. We shall beat down the preying race which menaces humanity, and_ when, to avoid_ a recurrence of such' crimes, we have inspired democracy among all' peoples—that is to say suffrage, freedom of the press, and responsible government—then we shall havo finished our work and will be content."

THE SOCIALIST STANDPOINT.

MM. , Vandervelde and de Brouckere, Belgian Socialist delegates to the. Stockholm Conference:

" The war appears to us ,to be less a war between peoples than a struggle, probably decisive, between two political principles. It is in this sense that it has been justly called civil war within the society of nations. The Russian Revolution and the entry of the United States have had the effect of ranging on one side all the fre* l nations, and, on the other hand—almost entirely isolated, —the last three semi-feudal, semi-absolute Powers—namely, the Empire of the,. Gorman Empire, that of the Sovereign of Austria-Hungary, and that of the Grand Turk. German Imperialism has been able to carry out its plan, thanks to a popular passivity which would have been inconceivable in any other country. Attack and invasion have placed upon us the burden of the most crushing of tyrannies—the German military tyranny, whose object, as defined by Bismarck, is to leave a people only their eyes with which to, weep. Belgian Socialism has not for one moment believed that it ought to bow before external oppression when 1 our villages were burnt, our women insulted, and our dearlvaequired liberties brutally It has not admitted that it was 'a simple bourgeois quarrel which ought to leave the proletariat indifferent.' It it had abandoned the struggle under the pretence that tho soldiers of William n were too numerous and his guns too powerful, it would have been dishonoured in its own eyes. It lias never reckoned cowardice among revolutionary virtues. Defence against aggressive Imperialism implies for us something more than the mere repulse of the invader. The destruction of German Imperialism might have been the business of the Ger-

mans alone, if their Imperialism had stayed at homo. But it crossed oar and wt> want to break tlio power of our tyrant. Our desire is as legitimate aa that of the Russians, who have broken the power of their tvrant; and the fact_ that our tyrant is enthroned .at _ Berlin is _ not sufficient reason for changing our opinion. We do not, of course, refuse to meet the Germans, but what we decline is to associate ourselves with German Socialist supporters of tho Imperialism of the Emperor William and of the Emperor Charles. We should not decline to meet tho German Majority Socialists if they renounced the error of their present ways and_ took an open and manly part against their Emperore."