PRUSSIAN MILITARISM

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2745, 14 April 1916, Page 5

PRUSSIAN MILITARISM

MR. ASQUITH'S SPEECH

WIDESPREAD COMMENT

By Telegraph—PreEs Association-Copyright

London, April 12. Mr. Asquith's explanation of the phrase "Destruction of Prussian Mili. fcarism" has been widely commented on in Allied and neutral countries. French newspapers believe the word 6. will bring home to the German peoples the dangers of their constitutional system'.

.Amsterdam, April 12. The "Nieuws van der Dag" emphasises the passage, and remarks that if they are the interpretation of the Allies' aims and were known earlier, tie legend could not have taken shape that Britain and! her Allies would not sheathe the sword until Germany had been disintegrated. . •

[Mr. Asquith, in Ms speech at the dinner .in honour of the Visiting members of the' French Parliament, said; "The Allies intend to pave the way to an international system of securing the rights of all civilised States, and intend to establish the principle that international problems must be handled by free negotiations on equal terms between free peoples, unhampered and ur» swayed 1 by the over-mastering dictation of a Government controlled by a military caste. That is what I mean by the destruction of Prussian militarism—nothing more and nothing less. We are in this struggle as champions not only of treaty rights, but of the 'independent status and free -development of the weaker 'countrios.]