BRITAIN AND WAR.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 May 1918, Page 1

BRITAIN AND WAR.

bPEECTI BY MR LLOYD GEORGE

[rER PRESS ASSOCIATION. COPYRIGHT.J

LONDON, May 24

The Hon. Mr Lloyd George, in receiving the freedom of the City of Edinburgh, so id that the collapse oi Russia was an enormous help. to Germany, it came at a time when the man power o c the belligerents was almost at a point of exhaustion. American help, he said, could not ha reckoned on for some time. America, after Ml her exertion, did not at the present moment occupy what was earn valent to one-fifth of the accession of the fighting strength which the enemy had received owing to the Russian collapse

The second adverse circumstance was Germany's unexampled submarine warfare. which was unprecedented in the whole history of his piracy. If it- had succeeded he would have cut. off the ■transport of men supplies, and munitions. The British mercantile marine vis the Allied Army's windpipe. Wo lmd set every Government to deai with the menace.' \Ve had to organise our merchant shipping. We had next to cut down the imports and increase the homo products, and since lM*o wo had increased the tillage by four million acres iU'.l had doubled the output, if the ship,7mlib hoped this year that, it would he treble if not quadruple.

The hi aval staff was now confident t.l it we"'a re building more submarines than the enemy were able to ‘mild, and wfh'o building merchantmen quicker than the Germans were able to. sink them. Admiralty returns frr April show a re- oi ci destructi m of submarines. The submarine was still a menace, hut not a peril, and as a meins of inflicting, m jury it was still formidable, hut as danger, which would cause the winning or losing of the war, we cm rule our submarines.’ The Germans recognised its fuiiu-e and that accounted fw the pro sent western offensive, the enemy having been driven thereto as a last, resort. We were on the eve of a great attack, he said vnd he was able to tell then, that, those, who best knew the prdspects fell confident of the result. lie felt happier than he had felt since the commencement of the war. He had tried rer.eatediy to achieve the unity of command. It «n» incredible that- they nod for months to fight o rr*’ inch of the. way for unity, hut it w.:..; no.y a fact, and it added mightily to their fighting strength. General bV‘h was one of the most brilliant strategists of the age and They were new approaching the third stun- of the greatest battle ever fought, and he wu•_l ,d to thirl- they had a man of Fuch’s getihlS. For the Germans, as veil as for u«. the next few works were a rate b'>tKwa Yon Hindenburg* and President "Wilson, and the Germans were rtratiling evey muscle to reach" the goal first bob>io American help was available. Trie Prussians did not intend to end the war until their basket was as full as it could hold, without hr?'!:in.r Prussian militarism. To achieve freedom and securing o| the world against war, we should remember what befell Russian democracy. Speaking at a luncheon at Edinburgh Air Lloyd George said there wfis no doubt about there having been a conspiracy for a great Irish rising. He. had perused the evidence, and some of the evidence could not he published because it. would disclose sources of our information. No taunts would drive him or the Government to publish that portion. The Government would have deserved impeachments if it had shirked action. ITe added that the Nationalists were not- involved in the conspiracy.