The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1915. "OUR BEST AND UTMOST"

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2567, 15 September 1915, Page 4

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1915. "OUR BEST AND UTMOST"

The attention of the British-Press and public is just now riveted on Mr. Lloyd George's heart-searching preface _to his war speeches. So., doubt his main object was to rouse tho attention of tho people to the urgency of tho situation, and to mako them realise that it is no exaggeration, no mere play on words, to say that the fate of the British Empire is trembling in the balance. In order to do this he has endeavoured to state the position as it actually appears to him, and not as he would like it to be. He resolutely declines to prophesy smooth things, Hewants to make the Empire face the stark facts. He speaks plain literal truth when he' declares that "nothing but our best and utmost can pull us through." Is Britain, is New Zealand, doing its. best and utmost at the present moment 1 The peoplo of the United Kingdom are beginning to understand that the Empiro must win this war or come under the heel of Germany with all that th'is means, and yet Mr. Lloyd George has still' to implore trade unionists not to lessen the output of munitions by insisting upon rules and regulations which are disastrous in days of national peril, however justifiable they may be in normal times. Some British newspapers interpret Mr. Lloyd George's appeal as a- declaration in favour of compulsory national service, and hint that a Cabinet crisis is imminent. It is well known that there is much difference of opinion among British Ministers on the question of compulsory service. Some are in favour of it, some are opposed to it, while others are prepared to agree to it only as a last resort The suggestion that a Cabinet crisis is imminent must at present bo regarded merely as tho deduction of a section of the Press from its' own interpretation of certain phrases in Mr. Lloyd George's preface, combined with other indica: tions of tho trend of events. Tho Minister of Munitions certainly refers to the imperative; need for the more complete organisation of all the nation's resources; he speaks most gravely of the consequences "if tho nation' hesitates when the needs are clear to take the necessary steps to call forth its manhood to defend its honour and existence"; he asks some thought-compelling questions; but he makes no direct reference to compulsory service. On this point both the Government and_ the .country are divided, and if tliis war can bo won without departing from tho voluntary, system so much the better; but if the Empire is faced with the alternative of defeat or compulsion, then compulsory service must come. The British Nonconformists are no lovers of militarism, jet a leading Nonconformist paper recently declared that though compulsion was bad, defeat was worse. The wisest course at the present moment is that attributed to Mr. Bonar Law? Mr. Long, and Mr. Chamberlain, who favour compulsion, but are said to bo disinclined to press for it if it would cause a serious schism in the Government, and in view of the fact that the country is not committed to it and Lord Kitchener has not asked for it. Lord Rosebery stated tho position with admirable lucidity in his recent speech at Glasgow:

We Have established, after a great effort (he said) a National (.loverninent in which we might put unlimited confidence --positively, bceatise it is a collection of nWast men! negatively, bsc-suse no other (tovernweni wuW nil Its fnocr. Wo knew

crossing a stream. If the Government did not represent _ the United Kingdom, it represented nothing, and if we had confidence in the Government all questions relating to the war must be left to tliciu. We could trust Lord Kitchoner to say, exactly the moment at which, if ever it occurred, he thought compulsory servico should be enforced. Ifo believed that if Lord Kitchener found that the moment was ripe, and tho need imperative, he would not scruplo to ask the country to give him the power requisite for. the application of compulsory service. We have sufficient confidence in tho patriotism of the people of the United Kingdom to justify tho belief that the vast majority of themwould accept and endorse the principle of compulsion if Lord Kitchener made a definite announcement that this war, could riot be won without it. In such circumstances it would bo suicidal to claim in the name of freedom the right to vefuso to fight for frfiedom. If, as Bishop Sprott recently stated, the British idea of freedom is merely the liberty to do what wo like, there is nothing more to be said save this: That the Empire will perish.