POSTWAR PROBLEMS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2744, 12 April 1916, Page 7

POSTWAR PROBLEMS

, AND THE MEN FROM THE -TRENCHES BACK TO THE LAND? MR. ASHMEAD BARTLETT'S VIEWS „ ue ,? f tne most remarkable of many nne addresses delivered to the members of the New Zealand Club from timo to time I, was that delivered by Mr. Aslr■mead. Bartlett. yesterday. There was a very large attendance at the luncheonIntroducing Mr. Ashmead Bartlett, tho president of-the club (Mr. R. H. said that some time ago Mr. Bartlett had been .'severely criticised for his outspoken reforences to affairs in Gallipoli. But those who had read that nycming the dispatch of. General - Sir Charles would find in it an absolute vindication of Mr, Ashmead Bartlett. and everything he had said or writ, ton. ":■- '■'•',- .- •■■ . Great Privilege of His Life. - •Sir.' Bartlett was received with applause and cheers. He said that he to Gallipoli more or less in a privileged position, being the sole representative there of all;the ' London papers,, "It was therefore rather a matter, of luck," ho said; "that; I .was able to record the great deeds of the Australian and .Now Zealand troops there. I shall always esteem,it the. greatest privilege of ray life that'l waa able tO:be fliero ind to do some measure of,justice to the superlative gallantry and fighting qualities shown by your troops in those early days. They were men the majority of whom wore not professional soldiers.'' They had been engaged in purely civilian occupations. 6ix and it is always, a ( great experiment to test men with only that amount of training, with few fighting traditions behind them, and even wjth of perhaps 'unknown quality; and to know how' they will,bear: themselves when they first meet the enein}fin the field, especially under such, conditions as .prevailed in Galfipolt. They fought; like veterans, and like cheerful veterans. They; have, I believe, written their names forever on the scroll of fame. Nothing will, ever obliterate the deeds performed by your troops'in Gallipoli." • (Applause.); ,'. . After the War. 1 \ Mr. Bartlett went on to speak , at length on some post-war problems which, he thought, should occupy the attention .of the nation : at;the present time. -'What'were-we going to get out of this struggle, and how' wore we going to make good the tremendous sacrifices wo had made and the tremendous' expense to. which, wo had beeti put" Most of'the wars of history had been fought either ,'in self-defence or lor gain: , The Allies wore' fighting purely 5 in 'self-defence. ' Germany starU ed.the'.war to light for-gain, but the situation 'had changed materially. .Whatever ; the German leaders might tell: their people and their armies, they kiiew perfeotly well they could get no-, thing whatsoever out of .this struggle. It wasiknown definitely in London from the reports; of agents in Germany :that this was the view of the German leaders. 'They knew perfectly,; as soon'as wo came into the- war;; and when we took command of the sea, that could' no longer hope for: that; world dominion which they led their' people to believe:they were fighting,-for,,, Germany, was in this very, difficult position—that she could not.get,out of her promises to her people,..and :she, could not' fulfil them. What the,, Germans • wore trying to do now was to drag all, Europe ;down into ; bankruptcy, : and into this holocaust where thousands of men were perishing month" after month. 'This the British couldf.; not stop, ,be-' ■ cause they had set out to,fight for definite principles, defined in the 1 conditions of peace —as laid down . by Mr. we wore prepared to accept. These conditions' w'ore) that Belgium and Serbia should be freed and compensated, that .France, should be cleared, and that, she should have Alsace and Lorraine restored to her, and that Russia' ; and Poland should he cleared, that other indemnities.' should he paid, and that we should have some lasting' guarantee that this 'awful state of affairs could, never exist again, in Europe,. , '■■ '■'~. • : . "'• '.■■■ Not Fighting for Gain, j We had some millions of. men in the field; we were spending five millions a day; we were the high seas for all the Allies, but there waß no mention in the terms as stated of any gain to the British Empire except .the guarantee of security. ." It ■-: was' true that wq had the German, colonies, which might be of great value, hut wo could quite well have done without them. We had already as much oversea territory as we could reasonably occupy. : ,AVe could not possibly get a. monotary; indemnity out of the war. Wo had made a. promise,' quite rightly,he- thought, that if there was any money to be obtained from Germany, it must be paid first to Belgium and Servia. (Applause.) Our only advantage was that to be gained by the consolidation of our Empire after the war. : This could be. done by preferential trade within the; Empire, and also with our Allies, Before I the war Germany had a commercial treaty with Russia, which had opened to her the Russian markets, and it Was Russia's refusal to renew that cial-treaty which had. a great effect in bringing about the present war. After the .war there would bo; no more preferential treaties'between Russia ;. and Germany. ; : Our manufacturers were already preparing to invade the Russian market, a market of 100 millions of people, who could be quite as well supplied by England as by Germany. A preferential tariff against Germany was going, to be of-'enormous benefit to industry at Home. Ono of the remarkable evidences of tho change of opinion on'this subject was that tho Manchester Chamber of Commerce, tho home and birthplace of free trade, had passed a resolution declaring that there should never again be free trade with Germany. The World's Carrier. Another way in which Britain, could make' good hor losses was by re-estab-lishing her position, which was gradually being undermined before the war, as the World's great carrier. Before, the war the German mercantile mariuo'waa ' progressing by leaps and bounds. Now the German mercantile marine waa ' bankrupt, and many of her ships were either captured or interned in neutral ports: Many Gorman ships had been seized in Italy aiid in Portugal. Some of the South American States were openly discussing the seizure of German ships in their ports to settle their unpaid bills with Germany. Internationa law decreed that ships seized in port: at the outbreak of war should go bad to their owners after tho war, but International Law had boon overridden si much in this war that it could scarcely be said to exist, and he thought wi could hold the German ships until oin indemnity was paid.' Perhaps, whei after 30 or 40 years,'it was paid, wi could hand hack to Germany hm ehips. (Laughter.) Ho held strongly the opinion that we could rehabilitate ourselves by making a combined attacl on the neutral markets of the world and success in this could bo assuret if we had again control of the carryihf trade of the world: Our great futun would be on the water. When the Soldiers Come Home. One of the most serious problems t< irise after the war would b© that o

how to deal with those masses of men who had boon taken from their occupations and placed in tho firing lino lor a period 1 of two or three years.,- This was a problem tho difficulty of _ which could not bo over-estimated. No war had ever been conducted on such a scale as this one, and it was for this reason iinposeiblo to say what tho economic position after tho war was going to bo. There were, howover, tho precedents of other 'wars to guide us. Tho South African War had shown in a mcasuro the torribly unsettling effect on men of a campaign in the open'or in the face of the enemy. There woro hundreds and thousands of men now in the fighting line who' would not after tie war wish to go back to their normal industrial occupations, faring escaped from the factory they would never want to go back td that life, again.- They had tasted tho freedom of tho open air life, iind if they did go»baek to tho factory tboy would go back very discontented and unhopeful for the future. Unless these men woro dealt with in a satisfactory way .'. -they would become a great social burden _ and an economio loss to the nation. We must avoid loss of men in this' way at the end, of this war. He thought it was the duty of every community,to look after to,the best of its power its men who had voluntarily gone forth to take part in the. struggle,, even, as was the case with tho mon from Australia 1 and New' Zealand, when they were only indirectly or remotely couepmed in it. [t seemed to him thole would be a tremendous desire aftor the war on the part of many of those men to gel; back to the land. This was one of: the ways whioh nature seemed to choose for lighting tho world after great upheav, als of this nature, and the most tempting held, it must be admitted, for tho, average. British emigrant now was America, wßcre they oouldi live a lifo more like that •' they had been accustomed to at home. It seemed to him that it. would be a thousand pities if ivo did not .save the vast majority of I'beso men and keep them within the British Empire. In Canada, Australia, and New Zealand there was certainly, room for them if the right 'con-, 'rtitiono were provided.. . Mr. Pearee (Australian Defence Minister) had told biin that in Australia arrangements had been. 1 made to settle 40,000 ■" returned Australian soldiers on the soil if they wished it. But this was really only i,M! drop in the ocean, because wo must not leave out of account tho Eim-. [ishnieii. There would bo thousands of Englishmen now fighting who would Avish to leave England for a fresh atmosphere, for mpro elbow-room in new lands, and he did hope that Australia and New Zealand would come forward and" welcome a ocrtain number of these'., returning warriors who wished tochange their homes and habitations and occupations. We must not; expect to dump thorn dawn in unproductive territory to struggle for two or three years eking out a bare existence. They would to bo dealt with kindly, and looked after until they settled down, and he thought-Mr. Hughes .(the Australian Prime would be doing one of the greatest works for. the Empire and for the Army if he took up this question, and came to some equitable arrangement with the Imperial Government it.(Applause.) - Tito speaker was accorded a most enthusiastic vote of thanks for his address. .■'.-.■.