MR LLOYD GEORGE’S CALL TO THE NATION.

Hokitika Guardian, 2 May 1917, Page 3

MR LLOYD GEORGE’S CALL TO THE NATION.

Money, Men, Food. The Only Way to Win in 1917 is Not to Lose Time. Carnarvon, Fab 21 For the fir<t time mce tbe_natior. chose him Pttmit-r, Mr Lloyd George came back to speak to his kin and through thorn to tbe world. Ail tbe morning the Welsh people streamed singing into ths towD. For miles as b 6 rode iD his oar tbe Premier himself was singing. Hij high spirits were infections. In tbe pavilicn where tbe meeting was held tbe high spiri s of hopefulness prevailed. A full hour before be arrived the hall was packed, and for this interval it was a hall of song. They just at tbe labt notes of that old hymn “ Aberystwyth” when he appealed, and the hymn eoded in a roar of chbere, With ehining eyes he stood before the acclaiming multitude and smiled. The speech which followed was a fighting speech. Though some of his iare colleagues did not join the non-party National Government, he said, “ thira are just as many Liberals in it as in the old. I specially congratulate the nation on the fact that Labour has abandoned its attitude of criticirm and taken its share iu governing the Empire. The statesmanship of Mr Henderson has ehown its valne.”

Wa are fighting for the Liberal, the Gladstonian, principles of the rights of small nations; that international right ia the basis of international peace ; that the Turk is incapable of governing any other race justly, and his own race well ; and fighting also for all that is best and highest in the principles of Disraeli—the solidarity of the Empire, recognition of its influences and its power in the progress of the human rao?-. BUSINESS MINISTERS “The new Government is rather small, but you must not imagine that very small men or email Cabinet? are least efficient. (Laughter.) Fur the first time success in business has been placed on tbe same footing as success in politics as a claim to high office. Give these business nun a fair chance. They have to straighten out tangles, make np accumulated deficiencies. Some bad work will/be scrapped ; where there was slack work that will be energised ; and where there was no work that wi 1 be initiated, When ho took business men for the Monitions Minif-try, club corners, lob-

bies, dining-rooms, above all drawingrooms, sizzled with whispers of the mess they made of things. But they knew the facts, that “on the lines of communication behind the front the reserves of ammunition were just equal to one-tbird of the total output per day.” The splendid supply at the Somme was “turned out by a Department which was decried within a few weeks after it had been set np by the same met’ who ere beginning clandestinely to do the same thiug with the new Ministers,

“They have already saved hundreds of thousands of tons of our shipping; they have arranged for the oana’.ructiou of hundreds of thousands of new tentage; they have saved locomotives, wagons and rails ; they have set up a great new organisation for the production of food ; they are working, and I think effectively, at the urgent problem of dealing with the piratical brutality of Germany. In every Department of Government there is an intensification, a quickening, a new energy, s'new system and method.

As fo the military situation, tauol iu it must necessarily cause anxiety In the Balkans one advantage aftei another haß been thrown away. A 1 the four countries have undoubtedly been to blame ; the improvident Inch of vision, of imagination, of decision the delay, ihe hesicatinn,have all coon bioed to produce this Balkan muddle, which is tbs or.lv p>rt of the whole battlefield which for the moment need cause hvj anxiety to the Allies, (Cheers,) Un both wester a fronts) Fiance end livly, we nave driven the enemy b«ck in battle after battle. Our great Navy holds ths Boas. (Cheers ) THE NAKED GOTH. (< But J must call attention to the great and growing menace of Germany’s piratical devices. It is the Goth in all its naked savagery. He must stand revealed, now even to the most indulgent neutral. (Laughter.) The Germans have already sunk 570 neutral ships—l think 430 by submarines. Now he will respect henceforth no flag except the Black Flag. I beg his pardoD. He has had the graoiousne»3 to intimate as a favour to the greet Republic of the West that he will a'low an American passenger ship to ply to one British pore provided it bears the mark of a Dutch paddle steamer. (Laughter.) Was there ever such insolence ? It amounts to insanity. “The peril is great, but it can be surmonnted by the grit, the energy, the courage of a great people. The nation must support the Government

in money, in labor, iu land, in the sacrifice of conveniences, nay, of somforts. Then we shall pull through in our deadly struggle with these desperadoes. (Cheers). “The thoroughly understand that their resources cannot command complete victory on land. Peaoa without victory would mean not a peace but a rest for the enemy, time to recuperate. But if we destroy the prestige of the Prussian military idol it cannot be set up again. (Cheers). They could prepare swarms of submarines aud aircraft in order to get over tbo blockade; but if they list confidence in the army it cannot be restored. “The Germane know that, given timo, the great Armies of the Allies will break up their military machine with its terrors; but they know that if they destroy our transports at sea our armies will languish for lack of supports aud sustenance and our people wiil die of hunger. We cannot then keep up our armies in the East and the We?.t, and the barbarian hordes of Turkey will have our Eastern Empire at their mercy, You must uot merely see that this does not happen ; you must make it dear to them that they .cannot doit. .You will get peace in 1917 if the enemy knows that by holding out until 1918 they will ba worse and not better oil. (Cheers.) “ The first thing is—out with,your ready cash! A.big loan will shorten the war. A big number of subscribers will shorten it further. “ The next appeal is to the housewife. I want her to read the national menu. It does not matter how insistent either the husband or the children maybe; show them this regulation and say, ‘ Not more. You have had and not another ounce ! ’ Every housekeeper we want to become a member of the Government; to administer the part of the King’s do,minions which is in her immediate sphere. “Then the Director of National Service has got his appeal. Unless yon are already doing essential national work we want each of you to place

your service at the disposal of the State, to do the thiogs which are essential in order to keep the Army and the nation going. A strong appeal to the farmers followed. “Put your broad baoks into it and you will do muob to help.” A “Time is the deadliest of all the neutrai Powers. Lst us see that we enlist, bina among our Allies. (Cheers) The only way to win time is cot to lose time. You must not lose time in the council chamber; you must not lose time in the departments which carry out the decrees of the council ; you must not lose time iu the field, in the factory, or workshop. Vlf hoever tarries when he ought to be active, whether statesman, soldier, official, farmer, worker, rich mao wita his money, he is simply helping the enemy to secure the aid of the most powerful factor in this war—Time. Act and act in time. That is our appeal to you.” (Cheers,)