NAVAL AND MILITARY SITUATION REVIEWED

Waikato Times, Volume 88, Issue 13667, 22 December 1917, Page 5

NAVAL AND MILITARY SITUATION REVIEWED

BRITISH FOOD PROBLEM ACCENTUATED BY ALLIED SHORTAGE.

RUSSIAN COLLAPSE RESPONSIBLE FOR NON-REALISATION OF

ALLIED HOPES

(Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) Received December 22, 8.50 a.m. LONDON, December 21

Mr Lloyd George addressed a full House on the naval and military situation. The people did not mind shortage so much as a suspicion that others aggravated. The first was the failure to get butter and margarine from Denmark and Holland, and the second the Allied food shortage was greater than had been anticipated, therefore Britain was compelled to sacrifice some of her own resources in order to supply the Allies. The responsibility rested on those possessing stocks of tea, margarine and butter to ensure a fair distribution. The people did not mind shortag so much as a suspicion that others were getting more than their share. He hoped it would be unnecessary to take control of large multiple stores. If they took steps to secure equal distribution there would be no need for queues and the discontent which they created. The food position was steadily improving. Although we were unable to obtain adequate labour and steel for shipbuilding, this was being remedied. Construction was increasing, and was greater in 1917 than in the boom year of 1913. Since June the shipping losses had decreased steadily, and our margin of loss was now a narrow one. The estimate of our shipbuilding programme had not been quite realised, although tonnage was down 20 per cent., and the loss of tonnage of imports 6 per cent, compared with 1916. Thus we had really grappled with the most menacing situation with which we were confronted in the war. Practically the whole of the nation's shipping had been requisitioned. It was idle to pretend that our Hopes at the beginning of the year had been realised. This disappointment was attributable entirely to the Russian collapse. At the beginning of the year the Russian army was better equipped with guns, machine-guns, aeroplanes and ammunition than ever before. Nevertheless the Germans had not even held their own on the West front, and if the Russians had fulfilled expectations the pride of the Prussian military power would have been completely humbled. The Allied successes in 1917, the capture of Bagdad and the surrender of Jerusalem will have a permanent effect on the world's history. The capture of Jerusalem, which will never be restored to the Turks, had, rightly or wrongly, added more to the prestige of British arms than any event of the war.