THE GREAT WAR.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 16021, 6 January 1923, Page 7

THE GREAT WAR.

LLOYD GEORGE'S EXPLANATION OF ITS ORIGIN. CONSTANT INCITEMENT TO GREED. DANGER 0!? GREAT ARMIES, LAND DISARMAMENT NECESSARY. (Copyright.) Elec- Tel Copyright-UniteJ Press Assn.' lAustraiian and N.Z Cable Association. LONDON, Jan. 4. In his fifth article Mr Lloyd George states : "Marshal Poch once told me he considered the German army of 1914 the finest the world ever saw in numbers, training, and' equipment. , Much has been written and spoken as to the origin of the Great War, and as to who and what was responsible for so overwhelming a. cataclysm. No one ever believed it was the assassination of the Royal Archduke. Some said' it was working out of a pan-German scheme to rule the earth; some that it was the German fear of growing Russian power, hut the great French Marshal's dictum is the real explanation, and unless due weight is given to this outstanding fact the diplomatic muddle of July, 1914, becomes unintelligible. Were it not that the German army was more perfect and more potent than either the French or the Russian army, and' were it not that every German officer was convinced that the German military machine was superior to all its rivals there would have been no war, whatver Emperors, diplomats and statesmen said, thoughb, or intended.

RUTHLESS GREED AND AMBITION. "All nations have ambitions, but they are not tempted to impose them upon their neighbors if tho hazard is too obviously great, but the sense of overpowering forcei is a constant incitement to ruthless greed and ambitious patriotism. The more one examines in growing calm the events of July, 1914, one is impressed with the shrinking of the nominal rulers of the attacking Empires as they approached the abyss, and with tho relentless driving onward of the military organisation behind these terrorstricken dummies. Navies are essentially defensive weapons. No capital in the world' can be captured by navies alone, no country can be annexed or invaded by a- fleet, but the armies are grabbing machines. A transcendent army has also led' to aggression; no country can resist the lure of easy triumph paraded before its eyes for two successive generations. The inference is an obvious one. To ensure the peace of the earth, nations must disarm their striking forces. Without disarmament pacts, treaties and covenants are unavailing. They are the paper currency of diplomacy. THE GREAT MENACE.

"A statistical survey of the Europeai armies to-day is calculated! to cause alarm. Europe has not learned the lesson of war, but has rather drawn n wrong inference! from that calamity. There aro more, men under arms in Europe to-day than in 1913-14, with now of the justification which could be pleaded then, when Germany and! Austria created great armaments because the frontiers were open to attack bv tho twr great military powers who bad eneajed to pool their l'esources in the event o. f war. France and Russia raised' huec armies because Germany possessed' the most formidable army in the world, but since the war there mutual excuses do not cxisb. The two, great military Empires of Central Europe have disappeared, and their equipment has been reduced to modest proportions. In spite of this France has. still 736,000 men under arms, with a trained' reserve of two tc three millions more. She is strengthening and developing her Air Force as if she feared or contemplated an immedi ate invasion. Amongst her llf>2 air machines to-day are to bei found bond onof destructiveneas undreamt of in 1914. Should human folly drift once more into war these preparations are frj] of evil omen. As to flic character of the conflict, where is it to stop, what is it all for, where is tho enemy, where is the menace, which demand's such gigantic military development? WHAT IS THE PRETEXT? "Not one of France's neighbors ha? a force reaching one-fourth of her formidable army. Germany no longer affords r\ decent pretext. Her young men are no longer permitted to train, her military equipment has been destroyed, her arsenals and workshops 'are closely inspected' by Allied officers against clandestine preparation. The only other formidable army is Russian. It is difficult to gather reliable facts about her. The mists arising from that unhealthy political and economic swamp obscure and distort all vision. The latest figures given by the Russians are 800,000. On paper that indicates an army as formidable* as France's, but the events of the past few years show clearly that Russia is powerful only for defence. She if valueless for invasion. She has neither the transport mobility nor the artillery that makes an army redoubtable in attack. Her army therefore does not afford any justification for keeping up European armaments on the present inflated scale. The fact is that Europe is thoroughly frightened by its recent experience, and, like all frightened things, does not readily listen to reason, but is ant to resort to expedients aggravating the evils which terrified it. FRANCE'S GPEAT ARMY AND BIG DEFICIT.

"Militarism reduced it to its present plight, and to save itself from a similar disaster in futiure it has become more militarist than ever. Meanwhile nn rountry in Europe pays its way except Britain with her reduced' navy and army. France, in many ways the richest country in Europe, displays a ganincc and growing rent in her national finance which has to ho patched up with paper. Her deficit frrowg in spite of the facA that ft large part of the armv is quartered on Germany to the detriment of reparations. That German contribution conceal? much of the cost of the larp* armv. The economic recovery of Enrona is seriously retarded' by the cost of tly> new militarism. Tho old Continent i r with lwth hands thrmwinf to- the o f "•ar hrcad that should" feed l its children. One of these will in its arrogant savagery turn and rend) (lie children."