THOUGHTS OF LEAADERS

Hokitika Guardian, 11 December 1920, Page 4

THOUGHTS OF LEAADERS

LONDON., October 14. j Mr Lloyd George at Llandudno: “When there is a storm, it is all I lmnds on deck. Every mariner, every old salt, is pulled out of his bunk. He puts his sou’-wester on to face the ricane. You don’t ask him. what watch lie belongs to. They arc all wanted there on deck, every one of them. I am standing on the bridge. I have stood through bad weather, and it has rather bleached' my hair. (Laughter). I The weather is not settled yet. There are more hurricanes ahead, and we are not out of the danger zone. Hut look, i and you can see typhoons on the horizon. I can see gallant ships like Russia, and others lying dismasted in the | trough of the waves. Do not send anyone down until the ship is saved. The men who think the time has come to return to the old .party quarrels, are they innocent of what is taking place in the world? In four or five years you have had more colossal changes crowded into them. Where is Germany, that great miltary Empire that threatened the world? It is broken and shotted in the dust. Three of the greatest military Empires—if you put in Turkey—have fallen. They held two thirds of Europe and one-half of Asia, and combined they could have dominated the world. Where are they? They arc in the mud, out of sight and in ruins. You have a Republic set up and conscription abolished in Germany. Look at the local conditions. I remember from 1909 to 1914 Wc- fought ferociously for timid reforms, but, timid and over-cautious as they were, they created a shudder not merely in one party, as I can tell you, but in both parties. W.lrnt has happened now? Eighthour days, aud wages revolutionised. In 1914, when the deluge came, I was fighting for a minimum wage of 21s for tlw agricultural labourer. The deluge has come. There is a rich alluvial of a new temper that has come from the war, and you can grow, richer harvests, more abundant crops, if you only cultivate together and make the best of the conditions which Providence has, without any foreknowledge on the part of- • man, suddenly called the world to. I am all for strict fairness, for justice, for equity in dealing with every demand which conies from men who contribute to the wealth of the nation, but I am equally resolved that, whatever happens, you cannot surrender the rights-of the community to any minority, however powerful. (Cheers). If a minority can hold lip the conimun- . ity by denying to them the necessities j of life there is an end of democratic j government in this country.- That was the beginning of the Soviet in Russia. Wc are not making sufficient allowance for the changes by the war—not in empires, not in labour, not in legislation, hut in what matters more than empires, the healt of man. There is nothing that exalts, that purifies, that cleanses the vision like sacrifice. There is a greater sense of fraternity. Do not let us crush into the rigid, narrow , mould of party the gift of the great sacrifices which millions have made, | and which has pointed the way by which Providence will yet save the people. Let us, as we stood in the hour of peril together, stand once more together until we have solved the problems, some of which are darkening our horizon, until we have solved the difficulties which stand in the way of humanity, reaching higher things.'"