"RABBIT TACTICS."

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 15989, 25 August 1917, Page 5

"RABBIT TACTICS."

* THE GERMANS DRIVEN UNDERGROUND. V.'IIY BIHTONS MUST ENDURE. Following is cne of tho most biting and at the same time most inspiring passages delivered by Mr Lloyd Georgt in his speech at Dundee, on being presented with the freedom of the city ■ It is :::y special pride in reference tiMinitions thai from the first I advo catocl a g:vat programme of big gur and superabundant missiles for the pu p-'j.-o of destroying the barbed-wire an the trenches of the enemy. As Minis tor cf Munitions I Lad to make enormous arrangements for manufacture on a great scale. At the time it was subject to a nood bit cf criticism, much of it rather scornful, hut I think that is past. There is r.o doubt that tiio fact that wo have got such a numbec of big guns of the heaviest calibre and abundance cf ammunition hns not merely enabled us to triumph over our cruel foes, but it has also saved life. You have heard of Hill 60, I havo no doubt. I rather think tho Scottish regiments were there. In 1915, 1 think about the end of April or the beginning of May, tve attacked that j hill, and after days of the fiercest lighting 'we were unfortunately driven back. A few weeks ago merely as an episode in a greater battlo we captured that hill in half an hour or threequarters of an hour, and tho losses were only one-fourth what it cost us to be beaten from that hill a year before. That was duo to the fact that when the nrst attack was made we had an inadequate supply of heavy guns and ammunition, witereas when the attack was made this year we had an overwhelming supply of both, and that made all tlio dillorence.

\Ye have driven the great army of Germany underground. It must be a huaiiluviiiig tnougut for that proud army tna t it has to dig in the ground to aide itself from uu army uiat it despised a year or two ago. ((Jneeis.) Ca.li you nuiiguio tne jvaistsr beioro wu war m one oi n;s swaggering speecaes suymg to tiiis ell'act, bay, to Prussian uuard: "-Uy gaUaut warriors (lauo,nter), descendants or tiic men wiio lougat under my ancestor I-reaeriek t&o°Great, the time nas come tor you once moro to face the foes of the Eatherland. When tnat time comes 1 will see to it that deep caverns are made in tho ground to iiido you from all your enemies, and especially from that very contemptible British Army which is seeking your life. But I will do more than that. Should they by somo diabolical machinery bo able to destrov these shelters I will see that vou have got behind other to which vou can run (laughter and cheers),* end if yon cannot tafeo .your guns with you —leave them behind. When an army, a proud army that talked for years of trampling on tho nations of Europe, is driven to these tactics it is the beginning of the end. (■Cheers.) They are rabbit tactics, and it means that we are pounding a sense of inferiority into every poreooft f tlio German military mind. That is good for the war. It is even better for after the war. (Cheers.) It was one of the tilings that .was necessary. As long as tho Prussian had got that idea in his mind Europe was nob a place for decent people to live in in peace. It will be easier after this. (Cheer?.) The Prussians have many virtues, nut a sense of humility has never been among them, they have been taught that virtue with a fierce and relentless lash. It only requires that wc should hold fast and hold together.