THE LION'S SHARE.

Hokitika Guardian, 2 November 1918, Page 4

THE LION'S SHARE.

; PREMIER’S SPEECH. j. j (Daily Mail Parliamentary Gorres- j J ponclent) j House of Commons, Aug 7 j On tlie eve of tlie recess, Mr Lloyd j George gave a reasoned estimate of j the war situation. The impression, he conveyed to an intensely interested House was that the anxious doubts of three months ago have been answered by the achievements of the Armies ; that while Germany might conceivably have won then, she has now lost her chance; and that this is no time , to talk of peace, for the Junkers who > provoked the war are still in the saddle. “Ido not wish to exaggerate in the least.” he said, “ what the j British* Army has accomplished, but | a glance at the events of tlie lasjt four j years will show how great and de- ' eisive has been its influence.” First, however, he spoke of the gigantic work which the British Navy has done. “ Two great struggles are being waged, one on tlie land and one on the sea. That on laud is carried on almost before our eyes, described day j by day by men appointed for the | purpose. The other struggle, which j takes place in the vast wilderness of j the sea, over hundreds of thousands j of square miles, has no one to witness j it or describe it. The Navy never j goes to winter quarter. It is always ( - at it. Yet. though few realise it, that i is the decisive struggle of the war. Upon its issue the fate of the war depends. If the Allies are defeated at j sea the war will be over. But until : we are defeated at sea Ihe Germai s J can never defeat ns —(cheers— and in 1 the main this decisive struggle is ear- j ried on by the British Navy. j “There is a disposition even heie to take the British Navy for granted exactly as you take the sea for granted. When the war began the British Navy had a tonnage of 2-1, millions. Now, including the auxiliary ships, it has S millions. Were it not for thnt increase the seas might be barred to the commerce of the world. For four years the patrol ot the seas by our ships has set up an impenetrable barrier for the enemy. “ We have destroyed at least 150 submarines —more than half of them in the course of the last year. L ist June the ships of x the British Navy steamed 8,000,000 miles, to which must be added the great efforts of the Mercantile Marine. At least 1,500.000 men, most of them of military age, are in the service (f the Navy. “During tlie last two years the , Germans have made two definite attempts to force a decision. One was on sea and one on land. They attempted the land offensive because the sea offensive failed. (Cheers.) The land offensive might have been disastrous; the sea offensive would have been final. If the submarine nnlmmiu'm, lio/l CMinnoonorl nmi A imxr

enterprise had succeeded our Army in France would have withered away ; no Americans could have come over to assist ns ; munitions could not have been sent to the fighting front, nor coal nor material. 1 mention these facts in no spirit of boastfulness ; I certainly do not belittle tlie efforts by sea of France, the United States, and Italy ; but the British Fleet is so incomparably the greatest of them that I feel I am justified in dwelling upon it. LETTING AMERICA KNOW. “The American Naval Mission which came here the other day was at once struck by the vastness of the work done, and they were especially anxious that steps should be taken to make known, not only here but in America, the gigantic character of the task the British Navy had undertaken. Unless the Allies had beer, completely triumphant at sea from the outset of the war no effort on land would have availed, and for that triumph the British Navy was chiefly responsible.” (Cheers.) Then the Army. We were not a military nation. We had no compelling appeal of a threat of invasion. We had the smallest Army of any Great Power. Yet in four years we raised in Gfeat Britain alonp, including those already with the colours, 0,250,000 men for the Army and the Navy—most of them bv voluntary recruiting. “ A distinguished statesman of an Allied country tells me there is nothing in the history of any land to compare with it. Let ns see what it menus. If the United States were to do the same, in relation to her population, it would mean an 'army of verynearly 15,000,000 men.” The Dominions have contributed 1,000,000 men. iCheers.) Here Mr Lloyd George paid a tribute to the services of the Dominion Prime Ministers now in England, who have taken their part in momentous and anxious decisions, and said he hoped that it would be possible for them to remain in England for some time longer. India has already raised 1,250,000 men. With regard to the present military situation, the Prime Minister said that when Russia collapsed and welltrained and rested German troops were hurried to the weslern front the flower of the German Army was opposed by Allied Armies tired by a prolonged offensive. On March 21, 1 when the German offensive began, there was only one American division in the fighting line. The weather conditions favoured the Germans. The united command of the Allies was not an accomplished fact, “ The German plan was to obtain a military decision this year, before the • American Army conld come up, first by driving a wedge between the j French and British Armies, then over- { whelming the British and then the French.” * Terrific fighting ensued, such as , had never been witnessed on the face ' of the earth. “ What happened ? At ! first the German Army had a con- ; , siderable success. We experienced ] anxious moments —very, very anxious 1 moments —and those who knew the most were the most anxious. Our j losses wer.e heavy. Had we not, been ? able to make them up the second blow j of the Germans might, well have over- > whelmed the British Army. In a <■

fortnight’s time, before the battle was ! over, we saw 268,000 men across the ; Channel, and 355,000 within a month —one of the most remarkable accomplishments of British shipping and the organisation of the War Office, j Every captured gun and machine-gun was put back—an actual increase, more than the Army in France ever i bad before.” “ That was the first Herman miscalculation—and we owe a debt of gratitude to that section of onr Press for misleading them as to our powers. The Germans were foolish enough to believe it—and no Minister ever contradicted it because it was the greatest service we could desire : this assertion that we could not make up our deficiencies. (Laughter.) The Germans made their plans accordingly; hit all round. They thought there ! was nothing behind us. ,Yet in six ' weeks they were hurled back and j fought to a standstill. That is one of the finest deeds of valour in the whole story of tlie British Army.” (Loud cheers.) Of course our losses were very great. We took a step which only a real emergency could justify, that, of sending out lads of ISA after only five j months’ training. j “ Giving their* mothers nothing !’’ i interjected Air Hodge, who repeated j the remark in a tone of bitter petn;lance. ! THE liOY FIGHTERS. “ That is a monstrous lie!” exj claimed Mr Lloyd George, swinging I round, while the House cheered with j vigour. “ I remember a night in Boulogne seeing these raw lads I marching up by torchlight. No j sooner were they at the front than j they had to face veterans and vic--1 torious troops. No veterans ever I fought with greater valour and gal- | lan try than these laris. We should ! all be proud of the boys who have so splendidly upheld the honour of thennative land and helped to save the cause of the Allies.” (A crashing cheer enforced this tiibnte to the young soldiers.) Describing the great difference between March and now, Mr Lloyd George congratulated Foch on his exalted position as a marshal of France, while members cheered enthusiastically. August was the latest date the Germans marked out for the capture of Paris, destroy the British Army, ami overwhelm the French. It is now August, and they are retreating ! “ The danger is not yet over, but he would he a sanguine member of the German General Stall who would claim that the German plan had succeeded and that the Germans can obtain a military decision this year." That was one of the uses of “a good Press ”! (Laughter.) Soon after the blow of March 21 the British Government made a speoial appeal to President Wrlson to send men over, even if they were not formed into divisions, so that they could be brigaded with British and French formations. President Wilson

j! rencu lormauous. ±'res mem hbuu ; responded by return —(*' Hear*, hear ”) ■ —but he stipulated that we should i take our part in carrying the men ■ over. We did it, at the cost of * 200,000 tors a month of essential ' cargoes. The result justified the decision. Since the beginning of the battle between 800,000 and 900,000 American troops have come to Europe ; —in .lnlj r alone 305,000, ISB,OOO of ilietn carried in British ships. He know how well these American troops have fought. Courage was expected of them. But their proved skill, considering that they ware led by officers of little or no experience, was 1 something which nobody had a right to expect. Unity of command was the next subject discussed. 1 The word generalissimo is misleading,” said Mr Lloyd George. “It implies a man who has complete command over his Army and appoints and dismisses generals. That is not the position of General Foch, nor did he aspire to it. What has been established is a unity of strategic command, and that has answered every requirement, as the Germans know. As soon as General Foch assumed the high command the fortunes of the Allies were restored.” It was too early to predict that the German effort was exhausted. They still had powerful forces in reserve, though not so many as there were. “ But it is not too early to sa v that, the chances of the Germans on March 21 will not come to them again. 'Loud cheers.) Tire Americans have already a powerful Army, a tried Army, a victorious Army in France, equal to the best troops in the field and grooving every day. There will be no break in the increase of that Army till America will have an Army not far short, if at all, of the German Army itself. “ On the other hand, the Germans can never maintain the same number 'of divisions, already reduced since March 21. They are already begging for Austrian support. — begging for that, the greatest army in the -world, which was to destroy all the armies of the earth!” HELPING RUSSIA. Germany promised great things for this year. Suddenly there was a withdrawal of all peace talk. The tinkles of the telephone bell stopped. But the great promise failed. On i the field the Germans had passed their zenith, and at sea they had lost. Russia had become a tangle for their feet. And in the matter of Russia ! Mr Lloyd George said that while we • had not the slightest desire to inter- j fere with her domestic affairs we j should not hesitate to give her any ’ assistance in our power to clear herself from her oppressors. He added, j without developing the argument, j that if the Czeoh-Slovaks had become hostile to the Bolshevik Government I the Bolsheviks had only themselves ! to blame. j As to peace, there were people in this country who regarded all endeavours in that direction as dis- , honourable and traitorous. Thatatti- - tude must be steadfastly discouraged. j At the same time, was this the moment to hope for an honourable peace ? The wrongs against which we were fighting would remain as long as the Ger- . mans who made the war remained in , supreme command. “ I believe in a

League of Nations, but whether it is a success or not depends upon the £ kind of peace set up. Take care that j the power belli ml that League of i Nations is not the sword. What was . I the good of entering a peace confer- I < ence if the Prussian sword ,vus to i clank on the table ? j i “We all want peace,” said Mr j Lloyd-George in an impressive end to bis speech, “ but the peace must be j just and durable, and not one which I will subject tlie next generation to . the horrors of another war like this, j There must be a power ‘behind it to j enforce its decrees. When we have ( demonstrated to the enemy that such | a power does exist, an honourable ! peace will come, but r.o sooner! ”| (Loud cheers.) | Rising later in the debate, Mr Lloyd J George made an explanation of an earlier remark he had made. . When be spoke of the military and naval effort which this country had put forth lie referred to the “ contract ” entered into between this country and France, that if France was wantonly attacked we would come to her assistance. The word “contract ” was too strong. The phrase “obligation ot honour” would describe the position better.