The Waikato Times With which is incorporated The Waikato Argus. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1918. BRITAIN'S ESCAPE

Waikato Times, Volume 89, Issue 13895, 22 October 1918, Page 4

The Waikato Times With which is incorporated The Waikato Argus. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1918. BRITAIN'S ESCAPE

The whole Empire is proud of the part it lias been enabled to play in this war, and we have, especially reason to he grateful for the magnificent share which our brave soldiers are taking in the last and decisive phase of the struggle, one wonders sometimes what would have, happened had Britain kept out of it in the first instance, as the Pacifists wanted her to do. Mr L. .1. Maxse, the editor of the National Review, has recently been publishing some personal reminiscences of what happened in England in those fateful days at the end of July and the beginning of August, 191 i, which show that the Peace-at-any-Price party were within an ace of getting their way, in which case Britain would have been for ever disgraced, and, in all human probability, the Pan-German dream of world domination would have been realised. Mr Maxse in his first article, or "Indiscretion," as he calls it, describes how the idea of the Unionists' offer of support, which saved the situation, was arranged at a breakfast at the house of Sir Henry Wilson, the present British Chief of Staff, the party consisting, besides the host and hostess, of Lady Sybil Grey, Lady Aileen Roberts, Mr L. S. Amery, M.P., and Mr Maxse himself. The French Ambassador had been unable to obtain from Sir Edward (Irey any assurance of British support. In accordance with the week-end habit which prevailed before the war, nearly all the leading public men were out of town, but Lord Edmund Talbot, the Chief Unionist Whip, stayed in London, and devoted himself to collecting his leaders at a meeting at Lansdowne House late on Saturday night, that the situation might be fully considered and action taken. The note agreed upon was drafted by Mr Bonar Law, and undoubtedly saved the position. Mr Maxse, says, it "aroused the Prime Minister from his lethargy, and for the lirst time he seriously asserted himself as he now saw daylight. To a skilled Parliamentarian the exhortation from 'the other side' indicated an escape from the impasse—namely, a 'coalition,' which was rendered all the easier by the close and confidential relations which Mr Churchill had established with Mr Balfour." At first, it will be remembered, the promise of our Covernment was confined to action on the part of the British Fleet if the German Fleet came into the Channel, or through the North Sea, to undertake hostile operations against French coasts or shipping. This pledge was given by Sir Edward Grey to France after the lirst Cabinet Council of August 2, at which Mr Bonar Law's Note was read. On Monday, August .'!, the Daily Chronicle, which Mr Maxse describes as the newspaper in most intimate touch with Lord Haldane, announced, through the pen of its Parliamentary correspondent: "Whatever the outcome of the present tension, I believe that the Cabinet have definitely decided not to send an Expeditionary Force abroad. Truth to tell, the issues which have precipitated the conflict which threatens to devastate the whole of Kuropc are no! worth the hones of a single soldier." That same afternoon Mr Maxse learned from the War Office that Lord Haldane had taken Mr Asyuith's place as War Minister, and that he was com:: n ading the Expeditionary Force.. \ ■ '•■- ■ !eh of the Belgian Minister in Lomi-o ->mws thai so late as August i the Urilish Government was still withholding military support from France. Mr Maxse. greatly concerned at this |>o-.ilion, left m stone unturned. He communicated wilh lead-

editors in London, begging them to make ;i public protesl against Loni Haldaue as War Minister, and to back up th> appointment of Lord Kitchener, which had already boon advocated by Colonel Hepington in the Times. He made ro headway until be got into personal touch with Lord Northcliffo, wlio 'gave him the Interesting information tb.it fht! Government bad been afraid of etuning British troops abroad because tlir-y feared riots at home, as the poopi' would be. furious on finding themselves at war, and, moreover, when the Thames was blockaded there would be a famine in London, and.no one knew what might happen! A more staggering instance of the "little wisdom with which the world is governed" could hardly be conceived. Fortunately the blunder was put right. Lord Kitchener, who had been appointed to Cairo, was stopped on the way, and installed at Whitehall, and the Expeditionary Force—the "Contemptible Little Army" —was despatched to the front, where, as all the world knows, it crowned itself with immortal glory. Those troops saved the British name, from everlasting shame, and what the world has been saved from owing to their gallantry can only be faintly imagined. When we think of the abyss on whose we stood in those critical days, we have indeed ground for profound thankful- ' ness that we did not fall into it.