BRITISH ELECTIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18750, 2 January 1923, Page 8

BRITISH ELECTIONS

EXCERPTS FROM THE SPEECHES. DANGER OF VOLCANOES. • From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, November 10. Viscount Gray: “I hope there will be a fresh start in foreign affairs. The recent Near Eastern crisis provided a scandalous exhibition, of the strongest nations in Europe taking different sides. Had Britain not been encouraging Greece I would have. laid all the blame on France for supporting Turkey, but if the British Government pursues a different policy other countries will do the same. Moderate men were driven ayyay from the Coalition because it had too many volcanoes. What makes me anxious that they should not return is that the volcanoes are not yet extinct. Mr Chamberlain and Lord Balfour, who are not volcanoes, think that by remaining round they may bo able to control the volcanic energy. At present we want, steady concentration on economy, steady avoidance of adventures, and a rest from volcanic energy.” WHO MUDDLED US INTO WAR? At a meeting at Finsbury Park the chairman of the meeting produced a poster, which read: ‘‘Who muddled us into war? Asquith and Gray. Never again !” Lord Grey threw the poster from the table (o the platform, and Lady Grey afterwards picked it up and tore it into shreds. In his speech. Lord Grey maintained that any historian of the future who reads all the documents would be convinced that the British Government did its uttermost to work for peace up to the last moment, and that on our hands there was no blood guiltiness for the war. Why, he asked, was the name of Mr Lloyd George omitted from the poster? When people talked about war “never again” they should remember that the Coalition Government had. the other day, brought us to the very brink of war —a war in the Near East singlehanded, without the support of any. allies. DAZZLING BRILLIANCE. Sir A. Griffith-Boscawen (a member of the late Cabinet): “It was the dazzling brilliance of certain nersons in the late Cabinet which brought us within an ace of war with Turkey last month, when the situation was only just saved by Lord Curzon and General Harrington. It was this more than anything else which made me feel the impossibility of my continuing under the existing regime.” MR CHAMBERLAIN’S RETORT. Mr Austen Chamberlain: “It is not usual nor constitutional that a Minister or ex-Minister should. give an account of what took place in Cabinet without having first obtained the permission of his Majesty. I do not know whether Sir Arthur Griffith-Boscawen look that precaution, but I am certain that the permission would only have, been given for a truthful and accurate account, and I wish to soy at once that that account is wholly untrue. No military order was given in connection with the recent crisis in the Near East except upon the advice and in accordance with the advice of the chiefs of the three General Staffs of the three great services, acting upon information supplied by' the general in command at Constantinople.. And I wish to say, further, in the most explicit terms, that the policy which the late Government were pursuing was agreed to by every member of the Cabinet, including the late Minister of Agriculture. And I would remind ~ir Arthur Griffith-Boscawen. since in the turmoil of an election and in the anxious momenta when he has to explain to himself, or to others, how he comes to be where he is after being what he was—l would remind him that he told me that he went to the Carlton Club meeting not having made up his mind which way lie was going to vote, and that he only took his decision within that meeting in consequence of what passed there.” A SLEEPING CABINET. Lord Birkenhead: “We are indeed to be treated in the next few years to an illustration of the policy of inaction, as the new Prime Minister quoted from Mr Disraeli a statement that what the country wanted was quiet at home and peace abroad. Well I should think it probably did. I don’t know tries or many peoples, fxcent Pfrhaps tha Angora Turks, who don’t. You don t make a policy or a programme out ,°M a j k t £* that kind. W1..1 i fe *h* ,‘„ h | going to Pi" fty 1 ” foundations of the nations! life-what;* the good of saying to them.- No, you can - JoriVWt™ .. nnhion »“ or^™hi™ £m. P Cabinet "they, were just going , te .j£g tt e U° U of C ‘r Turks fresh from the smouldering ruins and^jna^rea^J Smyrna. ' vhe V^ ey : n v o lved in a similar might have b f® n f , ‘ n ®i ea t city of Conhidcous crime *o the g • * nets an d stantinople. S’^, o others British eo<k ®, r jeave— averted this hideous had happened to leave-a HcenhoUS misfortune. ' ? torv , ‘We have no soldierv, flushed aro no l warmongers, troops here, becau e . s ] eC p in nGo straight away. * cared sickness.’ had a brass farthing ,-* onlv 0 nlv thing he cared sleeping ™‘men who knew about was thatthe e e dod to K i vo teTthd? on demons and maintain effect to tneir nreatice of this th. ancient hono„ and , country. ... • • . : auae d me less anxiety, take a decision which use regret eince less doubt before I took u. . g true> I have taken ha m 6t ;n the captain the Woolsack, b have recaptured the 0{ my own soul. ™ ist aR it right of speaking which I may astonish y«ou. t whenev<M . I think it !3V°h out of Parliament and m ParUam “s!o.S. TO THE DOMINIONS. Lord Derby: mistake we were on “Do not make w l. at the brink of jvar. P { to the do . they called their BU*. than a minions as being • Turkey—a war in ■WiIS"SnSSf thw would which I pone y suncorfc of the : have had . n ? n ®, ° thought P they would country w ’ conduct of their policy with have had. ine conai , mind, been 1 regard to Turkey with another war. and the dangerjs not over. THE IRISH TREATY. M “Tho“ l who W nre carrying on the government Ireland may. think that the new Government is hostile in its heart. It is not. When we say we wish it ~~~ are hoSes^J 1 And j Thire I 'wero to two S things"i? connection with the Treaty which, after it was introduced, made me unhesitatingly accept ! -«.;■ tial things. The first was that TlNer. if she was over to come into an All-Ireland Parliament, must come of her own will, without compulsion, and after she had decided for herself. The second, and not less vital, was that the men who acted for the Free State meant to carry out the ’peaty m. the strict letter, and would put all their efforts into carrying it out. . ■ ■ Kcstor-

ing order will be a terrible task. The head of the Provisional Government in Dublin and one of his colleagues were kind enough to corns over and see me when I became Prime Minister. The conversation was informal and private, but I am sure they will not object to me saying this: They gavo me tie conviction that they were.ui earnest in carrying out the Treaty in spirit and in letter. There is great disorder. It will be a great struggle. Things are going on which we all abhor, but my opinion is that there is a growing feeling in Ireland that they must have peace, that they can only have it by the Treaty, and there is growing a public opinion behind the policy it contains.” MESOPOTAMIA AND PALESTINE. Mr Bonar Law: “I daresay.some of you have noticed that we are being asked to say we will get out of Mesopotamia and Palestine. I wish we had.never gone there. We will certainly examine it. We will examine it with a perfectly open mind, but we must consider—a nation with our traditions must always consider—not merely what will pay us best at the moment, but what obligations we have incurred which we cannot pay. But that does not mean that I admit—l have not given it enough examination to say—that we have obligations which i keep us there. . . . “It is very likely I may have to |go to Conferences, for no Prime j Slinister can over be free from responsibility for foreign affairs, and at no time can there be friction between, the Foreign. Secretary and the Prime Minister without worse results following to the country; but it is my intention to leave the main direction of our foreign policy to a man who, I think, has done it very well—to our present Foreign Secretary—and to do nothing without at least having the benefit , of his advice.” | A VAIN AND FOOLISH DREAM, j Lord Carson: ; “There are still foolish people who imagine that Ulster can be driven under the Southern Government. I think that hallucination does probably more harm than any other. It holds out vain hopes to those in your community who resent your j Government, and it holds out still more j vain hopes to the community in the South, j and West who have dreams of your conquest and of having you submit to uieir I authority. No, any such idea is absolutely | out of the question, 1 “Friendly co-operation, friendly intercourse, all that can be brought about by brotherly love, ought to be in existence between the North and the South, but any man who dreams that Ulster is to sur render to the South dreams a vain and i futile and—may I say?—a harmful and I dangerous dream. Ulster was unconqueri able in the past., She is unconquerable j now. She will remain unconquerable in j the future.” I WHY THE COALITION DIED. Sir George Younger: | “Last December the Conservative Central Office informed Mr Chamberlain that djffi- , rulties were arising in the constituencies. In July I told the senior Conservative j Ministers how imnossible was his- task in i trying to keep the party together, and | how it appeared to me they were posting on to an inevitable split in the party, a | split which would have been disastrous not i: only to the party but to the nation. -*.hafc . meeting in July was inconclusive. In Sep--1 tetnber a week-end meeting was held at 1 Chequers, at which two or three Conservative Ministers and two or three of Mr !. Lloyd George’s supporters decided on the i policy announced by Mr Chamberlain at I Birmingham as the policy which they intended to go to the country upon ana impose upon their followers. I was in Scotland. and wrote: Tam appalled to hear of the decision which has been, taken; it will break our party in twain if persisted in.’ • “I knew perfectly well that the policy decided upon would never get. a majority, or anything like it. at the election. I also knew that the party would be smashed to atoms, and I made up my mind that if ! there was to be a split it would be a split from the top of the ‘ party, and not from, the bottom; that: the leaders who had chosen a foolish and disastrous policy would be the men to go. and not the body and the tail. And we have maintained the solidarity of the nartv. I care nothing for the result of the election in comparison with the vital necessity of maintaining our party intact.” DON’T WAKE THE NEW GOVERNMENT. Mr Lloyd George: “You must consider conditions, you must adapt yourselves to them. As a very shrewd man said to me: ‘When you are out on a voyage the tranquillity does not depend upon the ship, but upon the sea.’ And if l t happens, to be rough you have got to. bustle about. You cannot lie down on the bridge or in your cabin. The policy of'tranquillity is a dangerous one in view of the situation with which we are confronted. It is really not a policy, it is a yawn. You are electing a Parliament for five years —to stretch on the green benches of the House of Commons and on the red benches of the Lords, and to meet every new problem with * gap. You cannot do that. The middle classes come and say: ‘Our taxes, are high. AVe or© being crushed with taxation in«* working classes come and say; ‘We are out of jobs—over a million of us. We have expended our reserves-the trade union reserves—the little reserves we had saved up in the good times. Even the little ornaments we had have gone. I have heard some tales of that. . , , , “Thev were telling me m Scotland how the poor men’s bankers’ shops were glutted with tie little things bought in the war--just enough to enable them to go on. Vr ith all this they come and say: What are you going to do?’ and somebody says: _ Hush. Don’t wake the new Government. Ah. Gan you really approach the future with a policy of that kind? You cannot, do it. GALLIPOLI GRAVES. Mr Lloyd George: ' , , “Whatever happens, the flag must not be let down Sir Charles Hanngton, whose skilful and firm handling of the situation was one of the most notable features of the recent negotiations, attributed the success of the Mudania Conference to two thing-. The first was the admirable behaviour of the British troops, and the second was the firmness shown bv the Government —the wav wo sent reinforcements to him and showed that Great Britain was not to be bullied in either the East or the West “No one doubts that if we had not done sr . we should have been swept out ol Chanak. Gallipoli with its graves won d have I 'f en . S X I hlnd^ O f tLse tarred 1914. Constant.'. nooTe would have been m the hands of those who burned Smyrna, and General Maurice said that the fires of Smyrna wou}d ‘ I before what would have happened m JU cfnnthmnle War would have spread (,on..tan cgi Q oc j alone knows where the° conflagration would have stopped That tne couu h . ac j m irable conduct of th? British teoopl and by the firm, promnt *-■ Vkv th© Government at the time, Wo We accepted the responsibility and we stopped the danger.