AMERICA'S ENTRY

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15193, 13 April 1917, Page 5

AMERICA'S ENTRY

A NOTABLE GATHERING. LLOYD GEORGE WELCOMES AMERICA. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. Received April 13, 10 a.m. LONDON, April 12. Mr Page, American Ambassador, orcsiding at an American luncheon to Mr Llovd George at the Savoy, proposed his health. He said that America was coming to the Old World to answer duty's call to succour democracy. One of the foremost consequences would be a better understanding between the free peoples of Europe and America. Mr Lloyd George, replying, said that he was proud to be the first British Premier to welcome Americans as comrades in arms. He rejoiced at America's advent in the war because it finally stamped the war as a struggle for human liberty, against military autocracy, and because it would have been a tragedy if America did not sit at the peace conference. The Kaiser had promised that Prussia would be a democracy after the war. Mr Lloyd George added: "I think he is right." (Cheers.) HINDENBURG'S HOPES-

Mr Lloyd Gearge went on to say:— The Prussian ideal at present amounts simplv to constituting an all-conquer-ing a'rmv and intimidating the world. The Kaiser, intoxicated by Prussianism, delivers a law to the world as if Potsdam was the new Sinai, and he was uttering law from thunderclouds. Two facts clinched the argument in this struggle for freedom—America's advent and the Russian revolution. If the Russians realised, as apparently they were doing, that national discipline was compatible with and essential to national freedom, they would become a- free people. Hindenburg recently disclosed the real reason why Germany had provoked America, and showed that he was relying on one of two things—either submarines so as to destroy shipping so that England would be put out of action before America was ready, or. when America was ready, that there would be no ships to transport, her army. Hindenburg had drawn a "no-thoroughfare" line across the Allies' territorieSj and the Allies must make a similar line at Germany's legitimate frontiers. Mr Lloyd George went on to say that it behoved the Empire, and America principally, to make Hindenburg's reckoning as false as his computation regarding his vaunted line, which we had already broken. What is the Hindenburg line? It means a line across other people's territories, with a warning that the inhabitants shall only cross at the peril of their lives. Europe, after enduring this for many generations, had now made up its mind that the Hindenburg line must be drawn across the legitimate frontiers of Germany herself. (The audience here rose up, for several moments cheering loudly). America's advent meant that the Hindenburg line must not be drawn across American shores. Its proper place was on the Rhine. THE NEED FOR MORE SHIPS. Mr Lloyd George added: Hindenburg relies on England becoming helpless before America is ready, or an America, having no whips to transport an army. Absolute assurance of our victory is summed up in "more ships." ASSURANCE OF VICTORY. Mr Lloyd George concluded that our absolute assurance of victory he found in the one word. "Ships." The German military advisers must already be realising that this constitutes another tragic miscalculation on their part, which was going to lead them to disaster and ruin. He paid a tribute to the assistance America had already rendered the Allies. America would not only wage a successful war, but would also ensure a beneficent peace. He concluded: "The British advance on Easter Monday began at dawn. It was a work fit for dawn. Our gallant soldiers are the heralds of the dawn from which the Ames will soon emerge into the full radiance of the perfect day."