MR LLOYD GEORGE SPEAKS PLAINLY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3250, 28 June 1916, Page 20

MR LLOYD GEORGE SPEAKS PLAINLY.

LONDON, June 26

The Paris Journal states that Mr Lloyd George, on being interviewed, rendered glowing homage to France and her army. The French nation, which had risen to the greatest height of moral power during the war, had utilised her material resources and her physical forces to the utmost passible limit.

" I cannot," he said, " think of Verdun without emotion. I bow before those gallant heroes, whose almost superhuman courage and tenacity have held the Bcsches at bay. The de= fenders did not anticipate such a per« sistent and prolonged onslaught, in= volving such a terrible sacrifice at the enemy's expense, without military ad= vantage, it is not the ground gained or lest in a short distance that matters on the western front; it is the lives lost. Verdun has been the greatest battle in this war, and will prove de= cisivc. Henceforward Germany's effen= sive will shrink. The lesson of Verdun is that big guns and heavy explosives will play a greater part in the future battles. Fortunately it comes at a time when the production of munitions is increasing, and every week acids to the strength o[ the Allies. I have never taken the view that the defeat of the enemy is a light task, but the victory will be ours. It is sure. though it may not be swift. We must crush Germany's military power. The blockade is a great factor, hut not the factor which will bring complete vic= tory. That must come after military defeat. * would not like it to come any other way. Only military victory will destroy Prussian militarism and protect civilisation from a repetition of the present calamity. Peace forced on Germany because of her impoverished food material would be a moral defeat for the Allies, for the Central Empires would be able to say: * We defeated our enemies in every battlefield. We crushed Belgium, held the richest industrial departments of Fiance, drove back the Russians, hurled the British from Gallipoli, and were forced to make peace only because the enemy starved our women and children.' That is not the kind of peace that will last. Only a smashing military victory will bring peace. Ger«

many will understand that the victory we shall get must he complete and final."