PEACE PRINCIPLES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18514, 27 March 1922, Page 5

PEACE PRINCIPLES

MR LLOYD GEORGE’S IDEALS i CONFERENCE MEMORANDUM PUBLISHED. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDOin, March 24. (Received March 26. at 5.5 p.m.) A lengthy memorandum, entitled "Some Considerations for the Peace Conference Before They Finally Draft Their Terms, ' which Mr Lloyd Ueorge circulated among members of the conference of March 1919, has been issued to-day as a White Paper.. It , states that it is comparatively easy to patch up a peace which might last for 50 years, but that it is difficult to draw up a peace which will not provoke a fresh struggle. History has demonstrated that a peace hailed by the victorious nation as a triumph of diplomatic skill and statesmanship has proved in the long run to be short-sighted and charged with danger to the victor. “You may strip Germany of her colonies, reduce her armaments to a mere police force and her navy to a fifthrate Power, but if she feels she has been unjustly treated she will eventually find means of extracting retribution from her conquerors. Arrogance and injustice displayed in the hour of triumph will never be forgotten nor forgiven. We cannot both cripple Germany and make her nay. We must offer terms which a responsible German Government can expect to carry out. The greatest danger I see is that Germany may throw in her lot. with the Bolshevists. It is idle to impose a permanent limitation on the armaments of Germany unless we are prepared to impose a limitation on ourselves.’’ Signor Nitti, in his book “Peaceless Europe,” applauded the memorandum, but complained that Mr Lloyd George signed a treaty violating the principle which he set out,—A. and N.Z. Cable. PRAISE FOR MR LLOYD GEORGE. LONDON. March 25. (Received March 26, at 5.5 p.m.) The Daily Chronicle says that Mr Lloyd George’s memorandum is an ideal introduction to the policy of the Genoa Conference. It is a prescient document. It shows that if the Versailles Treaty had many grave blemishes it was not because Mr Lloyd George did not urge his liberal views on the conference. He had to take less than he wanted in the hope that the remainder would be added later. The time had now come when his ideas would have a chance of being carried through.—A. and N.Z. Cable.