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Colonist, Volume LVIII, Issue 14292, 22 December 1916, Page 5

CABLE NEWS.

[Press Association—Copjtbighx.]

free will to tho Old Country in its championship of the cause of humanity, ihe great ideals of national fair play and justice .had appealed to the Dominions just; as insistently as to Britain. The Dominions recognised throughout the fight that it was not a selfish one, that the .quarrel was not merely European, bv.,t that great world issues were involved, with* which their children were as concerned as ours. The new Government was as full of gratitude as the old for the supervalour which our kinsmen had shown oh so many stricken fields, but that was not why he introduced the subject. The reason v.as that the Government felt that the time had come when the Dominions ought to'be more than formally consulted as to tho progress and course of the war. 1 They proposed, therefore, at an early date to summon an Imperial Conference and' place the whole position before the Dominions, and take counsel with them as to what further action they and we should take together in order; to achieve an early and complete triumph of the dealb they had so superbly fought for. Mr Lloyd George then dealt with tbo relations of the Allies. We had already achieved unity of; aim, .but when A

.came-to a.-question of unity of action he still thought a good deal was left to be desired. He had only 'got to refer to the incident of ltoumania, and each man could spell out for himself what it meant. The enemy had two supreme advantages'. He~could act on interior lineh, and there was one great dominant power that practically directed the enemy's forces. We had neither of these advantages. Therefore- we must achieve the same end by o^her means. The advantages the Allies possessed were advantages which time would improve, and no one could say that we had made the best of that time. There had been tardiness in decision ' and action. ' There must be some means for arriving at quicker and readier decisions and carrying them out. He believed it could be done.

There must be more real consultation between the men who had the direction of affairs and less feeling that each country had only got its own front to look after. The policy of a common front must be a reality. The enemy realised this policy. AYe must secure it more and more, instead of having overwhelming guns on" one side and bare breasts and gallant hearts on the other. That was essential for the Allies and for the curtailment of the period before victory was arrived at.

These were the issues he wanted to keep in front of the nation so that \\e should not falter or faint in our resolve. There was a time in every prolonged and iierce war when in the passion to wage the conflict men forgot the high purpose with which they entered is. This struggle was for ' international right, international good faith, the channel along which peace, honour, and good-will must flow amongst men. The embankments laboriously built up by generations against barbarism had been broken, and" had not Britain passed into the breach, Europe would have been inundated with a flood of savagery and unbridled lust for power. The plain sense of fair play amongst the nations, the growth of international conscience, the protection of the weak against the strong by the stronger, the consciousness l that-justice had a more powerful backing in the world than greed, the knowledge that any outrage, great or small, would me&u with prompt and merited chastisement, those constituted the causeway along which humanity was progressing slowly to higher things. The triumph of Prussia would sweep all away and leave mankind struggling helpless in a morass. That was why, since the wav began, he knew but one political aim, for which he had fought with a single eye. That was the rescue of; mankind from the most overwhelming catastrophe' that ever menaced its wellbeing.

He would conclude with a personalnote. Ho might say in all sincerity that one of the regrets of his life was to part from Mr Asquith and some of his, friends. He knew how he strove to avert it. For years he served under.Mr Asquith, and there was never a: kindlier or more indulgent chief. Any faults of temper were entirely his own. His was a deep genuine grief that he felt it necessary to tender his resigntttiou; but there were moments when personal or party considerations must sink, and if he had paid scant heed to the call of party during the war it was because he realised that from the moment the Prussian cannon huried death on a peaceable and inoffensive little country a challenge aad been sent to civilisation to decide an issue higher and deeper and wider than all the party issues, and upon- the settlement of which depended" the fate of j men of this world for generations,when the existing parties would have falien like dead .leaves on the highway.