VICTORY OR VASSALAGE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLV, Issue 3991, 26 July 1915, Page 3

VICTORY OR VASSALAGE.

PRUSSIAN MILITARISM RESULTS “The press never had a greater responsibility cast upon it than at the present time,” said Rt. Hon. D. Lloyd George (Minister for Munitions) at the annual dinner of the Newspaper Press Fund in London. “It is not for me to engage in any lecture on the functions of the press. I don’t mind criticism myself; in fact. I rather miss it. I am so accustomed to it that I take it there is something wrong with the weather if it is not forthcoming, and therefore I do not mind very, very much the press engaging in a little criticism.

“ ‘How long will the war last?’ That is the question asked me yesterday—is tho question asked me repeatedly. That question was put to Abraham Lincoln in another war full of triumphs, full of vicissitudes, full ot moments of depression, and this is the answer: ‘When will this war end’” said some one to him, and his answer was: ; We accepted this war for an object, a worthy object, and this war will end when, it is attained.’ This must be the sentiment of every truehearted Briton to-day. “The Prussian means to dominate the world. That is a mania which has possessed military castes in almost every century. To overthrow that ambition- will cost Europe a ghastly price in blood ~and in treasure. Our share of that price we must be prepared to hear or for ever sink into a degrading vassalage. “INDIGESTIBLE BRITAIN.” “Dr Dernberg has said that the%ar can only end by the command of the seas being wrested from Britain and the power of the only two or three oountf.ies who could resist .Prussian militarism being destroyed for ever. Me will not annex Britain. That is good of him. He :s not going to absorb Russia or France, but he explains that the only reason is that the meal would be an indigestible one. But the command of the seas lias to bo taken away from ns as tlie price of peace. Yes, Britain is to. be a Belgium, a land at tho mercy of the Prussian warlords.

“London is to be as Brussels, Ox-* ford as Louvain, and the tramp of the Kaiser’s legions is to resound through the, roads of Britain. That is tho price! And is there anyone so mean as to pay that price? Russia is to be broken; France, and if there is any other nation that will,stand up to this mighty power, they must go. • Russia, the toothless bear chained in its pit ,• France with no wings to soar or spurs to defend itself; Britain, the harmless whale i t the German Ocean fit only for blubber for the Germans. A pretty picture*

“I will tell yot. wnat our duty is. Our duty is this: Each of Us in .his sphere—you of tho press, we in our Departments, people in every sphere of life —must so act- that when the last of. our men has left for foreign lands to fight for the flag it shall be said that not even then all the heroism has quitted our shores.”