INDICTMENT OF GERMANY.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLII, Issue 11501, 2 April 1918, Page 2

INDICTMENT OF GERMANY.

SPIRIT OF DOMINANCE. SPEECH BY MR LLOYD GEORGE. London, March HI. Speaking at the City Temple last night at a meeting of the Free Church Council, Mr Lloyd George said that the Prussian war lord would loudly accept any declaration of most resounding equity as a basis , of peace; hut, as the Bolsheviks ft found such declarations when inter- | preted, were “like sounding brass | and tinkling cymbals.” Nobody diss coursed so eloquently of a league of | nations as (he Kaiser. (Laughter.) I His reply to the Pope breathed the |! spirit of brotherhood and Christian II kindness. There was never a word 11 about giving up Belgium, but there 11 were whole passages about disarma- | merit. Not a syllable was said | about Lithuania or Courluud but on I the league of nations the Kaiser I was absolute!}' sound. (Laughter). | The Kaiser had not only accep-

ted the league of nations, hut Germany was prepared to place herself at the head of it. (Loud Laughter). The spirit of dominance was still there—a dagger wrapped in the Sermon on the Mount. Youths from all parts of the Empire, France, and Italy, who would be followed by millions from America, were demonstrating at tbo risk of their gallant lives that the world had reached a stage of civilisation where justice could be enforced against the most powerful nation that trampled its decrees. When they succeeded the league of nations would be an accomplished fact, and not until then could a word be made into plough-shares. (Cheers.) “Great burdens,” said Mr Lloyd George, “must be carried in the heart, not gou the shoulders. Do not discourage, do not depress, do not always point at the clouds and ask when the dawn is coming—it is always coming. Believe and trust in God, and the light will shine. There is no hunger. People are being deprived of, a good deal of what they have been taught to regard as the essential ingredients of a comfortable existence. There is no lack of abundant food, and to prospect gof such a deficiency. (Cheers). But certain things which years of prosperity have taught us to expect we see no more, ’ ’ Concluding his speech the Prime Minister said: “I have a terrible task on my shoulders, a lot more than a man can bear, I ask—in this hour of the nation’s greatest per plexity—your help , sympath}', and prayers. You can only wage war with all your strength or not nt all. Show me the way to peace without betraying the great:, sacred cause’ for which we entered the war and for the millions ot lives sacrificed, and I will listen gladly .land gratefully and thank God. Short of that —mere peace ’talk :is undermining the fibre and morale of the nation.” (Cheers.)