The Dominion TUESDAY, JULY 24, 1917. AN INSPIRITING SPEECH

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3144, 24 July 1917, Page 4

The Dominion TUESDAY, JULY 24, 1917. AN INSPIRITING SPEECH

At a time when the war outlook is clouded for the moment by the turn of events in Russia, Mn. Lloyd George's latest speech is opportuneand splendidly to the point. Apart from its lucid treatment of much larger questions, it will correct any tendency to take an unduly gloomy view of Russia's military failure and tho extent to which it is likely to influence the general trend of tho war. Sir Edward Carson's speech at Belfast, with its curt intimation to tho Huns that if they wish to open peace negotiations they must first withdraw behind the Rhine, will contribute valuably to the same end. Both Ministers, of course, were aware when they spoke of tho developments in Russia which threaten to eliminate that country for the time boing as an effective military factor. In spite of Russia's failure their faith in the ultimate victory of the Allies is unshaken. The grounds upon which this confidence is based wero set forth by Mr. Lloyd Gkokgb in words which will do much to stimulate and inspirit tho people of Allied countries and to awaken dark misgivings in Germany. Tho British i'rime Minister's speech' arrests attention equally as a clear statement of essential war issues and a most definite assurance to the autocrats still dominant in Germany that there will bo no faltering and no thought of compromise in the determination of theso issues. It is at once an indictment and exposure of tho attempts recently made by the Imperial Chancellor and others to cloak and disguise tho true character of German militarism and a noblo vindication of the Allied cause.

So far as the military outlook is concerned Mb. Lloyd George was manifestly on firm ground in assuring tho German Government and people that their remaining topes

of success are illusory. He was able to point to a series of facts relating to the construction of ships and tho produotion of food in Great Britain in which the failure of the submarine campaign is plainly written, and with this failure Germany's last hope of forcing a decision in the war is destroyed. Sho may gain meantime a measure of relief in the Eastern theatre, but this at most postpones her fate. She must still look to the day when sho will be faced in the Western theatre by a combination of force ensuring her overwhelming defeat. Granted the failure of tho submarines, which Mr. Lloyd George tells us is assured, it is tho commanding fact of tho war that while Germany's military resources are dwindling rapidly those of tho Allies aro capablo of almost indefinite expansion. Against tho loss of Eussian co-oporation—and the loss may be only temporary—tho Allies are able to set the prospective assistance of America. Mr. Lloyd George's definite assurance that the submarine campaign has failed is in tho fullest sense, an , assurance of Germany's ultimate defeat. It was, however, in dealing with the moral issues of tho war that ho most effectively contrasted the strength of the Allies with tho enemy's sham pretensions. Jsxcept to those who will not see, it is perfectly plain, as Mr. Lloyd George remarked, that the war is now a struggle between the group of democracy and freo men and the group of nations governed by military autocracy. It is presumably not without significance that the British Prime Minister in his recent speeches has emphasised the fact that the Allies are prepared to draw a clear distinction between Germany dominated as she now is by tho exponents of Prussian militarism and Germany reformed and democratised. In his latest speech ho declared that the Allies could make peace with a free Germany but not with a Germany dominated 'by autocracy. This statement carries a.i very plain message to the German people, and it is probable that in making it Mr. Lloyd George was influenced in no small degree by a belief that there is a limit to tho servile obedience the German nation has thus far rendered to its military autocrats, and that the timo is approaching when it' will recognise in these autocrats the actual and only enomies of its freedom. As Mr. Lloyd George pointed out, the Imperial Chancellor's recent speech showed that tho military party in Gormany has momentarily won, but the actual merits of the case have not been entirely hidden even in Gormany. A' remarkable proof of the fact was supplied in a recent article by Maximilian Harden in Die Zuhi/nft, in which ho pointed out that Germany was fighting without prospeots in the war, and concluded with the following plainspoken advice:

Wliat now is our best couirse? It is a clear recognition of realities, a return to the freedom of dignified criticism, a setting in order of Germany's house, that it may no longer be an abomination in the eyes of the world. Democracy rings us round. The responsibility for the peace.which, will be concluded must be borno not by one Prince, nor by one family, but by the entire nation with unbonded neck. Democracy is irresistible, and its help may to-morrow become urgently necessary to princes. Germany's people can only concluxle this peace when they have reached a full realisation of the facts, ami this they must and will do.

From this it will be seen that tho .cardinal fact so clearly brought out by Mr. Lloyd George—that Ger : many and her vassals are fighting in this war as the enemies of freedom and against its champions—has found expression, though it has not yet commanded acceptance, even in Germany. In lucidly, stating the central issue of the war at a time when determined efforts are being made to obscure it, Mr. Li.oyd George has perhaps done something to hasten tho day of democratic revolution in Germany. He has certainly rendered a signal service to the Allied cause by throwing into high relief the principles which make for the solidarity of the Allied nations leagued against Germany. His speech should tell with full effect in Eussia, and it is calculated also to defeat any such peace manoeuvre as is predicted to-day in a message from Now York. Mit. Lr.ovD Geouge has made it perfectly dear that there can be no peace nntil Germany sets her- house m order and amends tho conditions of government which, as Herr Harden puts it, make her an abomination in the eyes of the world.