"NOT A SHORT WAR"

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 229, 15 June 1918, Page 8

"NOT A SHORT WAR"

* ME. LLOYD GEORGE'S DISBELIEF IN .COMI'EOMISE. ' . "Tho Great Crusade," extracts from speeches delivered during the war by Mr. Lloyd George, and arranged by Miss F. L. Stevenson, ono of his secretaries, will shortly be published. For this volume Mr. Lloyd Oenrge has written a I special preface, in which he says:— I "I have never believed the war would I be a short war, or that in sonic mysterious way, by negotiation or compromise, we cauld free Europe from the malignant military autocracy which is endeavouring to trample it into submission and moral death. T havo always believed that the machine which has established its despotic control over the minds and the bodies of its victims, and then organised and driven them to slaughter in order to extend that control over the rest (if the world, would only be destroyed if tho free peoples proved themselves strong and steadfast enough to defeat its attempt in arms. The events of the last few weeks must have made it plain lo every thinking man that Ihero is no longer room for compromise between the ideals for which we and our enemies stand. Democracy and autocracy have come to death-grips. Ono or the other will fasten its hold on mankind.' It is a clear realisation of this issue which will bo our strength in tho trials to come. I have no doubt that freedom will triumph. But whether it will triumph soon or Into, after a final supreme effort in the next few months or a long-drnwn agony, depends on the vigour and snlf-sacrifice with which the children of liberty, and especially those behind the lines, dedicate themselves to the struggle. There is no time for ease or delay or debate. . The call is imperative. The choice is clear. It is for each free citizen to do his part."