MR LLOYD GEORGE IN WAR AND PEACE.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 December 1922, Page 4

MR LLOYD GEORGE IN WAR AND PEACE.

(By Lord Kothennere). Opinions may differ about the policy of Mr Lloyd Cieorgo during the last few months, and, for myself, I am m profound disagreement with muon that he has done during the last tomyears ; but there can be no question about his incomparable services to the nation during the period of the Great War. lie is assured of a great and permanent place in our history. No other statesman has had to grapple with such gigantic problems. The work of Pitt, masterly though it was, must lie considered as limited in scope in comparison with, the liiightj undertakings which the Prime Minister has had to shoulder. Perhaps the greatest service which Mr Lloyd George rendered to his countrymen was that throughout the tremendous struggle he never once. lost heart. Others faltered in moments of reverse, but the Prime Minister was invariably determined to fight on until victory was attained, and ill this respect lie accurately interpreted the national will. No meed of gratitude can lie too great or too emphatic for the leader who carried us through the dark days of IDI7 and the spring of 1918- At this time of eclipse we greet the courageous mail who typified . Britain duiing the most intense crisis we have ever known. We regret his relinquishment of office, but we are confident that after a period of rest lie will once again take the helm. Mr Lloyd George is not as Gladstone , was when be made bis first withdrawal from public- life. Although greatly in need of rest, lie still enjoys health and vigour, and bis “dynamic forc-e” is a factor which must be reckoned with for many years to conic. There seems little likelihood that the Ministry now being formed will last for a long time, even if it is endorsed by the popular verdict at a general election ; and 1. confidently expect that within a limited period we shall once more see Mr Lloyd George in power, perhaps chastened a littie by adversity, hut still prepared to servo the country to the best of his great ability. Of late there has been a tendency 111 certain quarters to belittle the work clone by Mr Lloyd George during the Great War. Soldiers who differ from his decisions may denounce hint, hut I think the public are well aware that he was more often liglu than some of our generals. Looking hack over the story ul the war, I sometimes feel that it the proposals of Mr Lloyd George had keen adopted at the end of 1911 the conflict would not have been so prolonged. It is common knowledge now that he wanted the forces which we sent to the Mediterranean to land at Salonika and not at Gallipoli. His thoroglily sound idea was to go to the help elf the Serbs and to cut the German rdTTtc to the- Last on the Daim’.c rather than on the- shores of the Dardanelles.

The Salonika scheme was '■turned down” at that stage, apparently owing to the representations of M. Ycuizelos, the. Greek Prime Minister, to whom Mr Lloyd George partly owes his downfall. The soldiers also (injected, because they said that the communications through Serbia were bad and the country was smitten with typhus. My own view, after reading much that lias been miblishcd on the subject, is that if Ihe valley of the Liver Yardar was not easy to traverse, Aclii baba and Sari Hair were far more formidable obstacles. Difficult though the advance through Serbia might have lioen, it was not so had as Gallipoli.

It is not clear that Mr Lloyd George had any large share of responsibility for the attack on the Dardanelles, but we on surer ground, when we recognise that he had much to do with the success of tile Ministry of .Munitions. His methods were perhaps extravagant. for there was no time to count the cost when the ■ Germans were pressing' the Allied line in France ; but be got the shells made, and from the moment he turned his attention to munitions our troops never bad ahv reason to complain that they were (Jeprived of the material which ensured ultimate victory. Tiie name of Lord Nortlieliffe must also be associated with the great effort to keep our rapidly expanding Army well supplied with munitions. These two men. Lord Nortlieliffe and Mr Lloyd George, in certain respects dominated the middle period of the war. Lord Nortlieliffe. was far more indifferent to popular clamour than any statesman, but he took his courage into both hands when lie attacked the War Office for failing to keep the troops well supplied with high explosives.

It lias been admitted in letters which arc now, public property that Lord Nortlieliffe was closely associated with the movement which led to the appointment of Air Lloyd George as Prime .Minister at the end of 191(1. Lord Nortlieliffe was convinced that Mr Asquith’s temperament did not qualify him to he the head of the Government during the supreme crisis of the war. Without the knowledge of -Mr Lloyd George, he bent all his energies to the problem of placing him in supreme control instead of Air Asquith. It was unfortunate that the sympathy thus .subsisting between the two men was subsequently impaired, lint Lord Nortlieliffe never lost bis admiration for Air Lloyd George's brilliant qualities. The full story of All- Lloyd George's influence upon the later phases of the war cannot yet be told, but 1 am convinced that when the whole truth is known it will he recognised that his judgment, even upon military issues, was generally right, and that in all he did he played the part of a great patriot and a great Minister.

I cannot subscribe to the doctrine that in war-time military commanders are sacrosanet and should never bo

interfered • with. If such n stupid theory had heen adopted in tin* (Tnited States, the Civil War of last century might have heen continuing: to-day. Abraham Lincoln changed liis Generals until he found men in whom he coidd repose complete confidence; and such was the courageous spirit in which Mr Lloyd George approached the supreme crisis of the war. My view is that future military historians will condemn unsparingly the methods by which our commanders on the Western front vainly sought to attain victory. We sacrificed great numbers of lives in prolonged frontal attacks which served no useful purpose. The battle of Pnssehendaele in particular was.one long and dreadful mistake after the initial assaults failed, and it is only the singular docility of our people which has prevented the authors of the Pnssehendaele massacres from, being called to account. Mr Lloyd George could not endure the agony of Pnssehendaele, and under the inspiration of the late FieldMarshal Sir Henry Wilson ho felt impel led to deal with the mistakes of our commanders. He saw that the only remedy was unity of command, and lie came to the conclusion that Marshal Foch, the one military genius whom the war had produced, was best fitted to exercise supreme control.

There is no need to dwell here upon the attacks upon Mr Lloyd George framed by General Sir Frederick Maurice aiul other pamphleteering soldiers. It is quite untrue that our own General Headquarters favoured unite of command. The plans devised by Mr Idovd George, including the creation of the Versailles 'Council, wore obstructed doggedly by our generals until the Germans broke through in the spring of 1018. Then the generals acquiesced, but it was almost too late.

It is not my purpose to engage iu detailed controversy upon Mr Lloyd George’s share in the direction of the war.” I content myself with insisting that he guided and shaped the national will, that his remarkable intuitions upon.military matters were generally well founded, and that his intrepid and soaring spirit was a priceeless asset in the darkest hours. There was no Minister like him, not one, and he touched the popular imagination as none around him was able to do. If I have associated with him the name of Lord Nortlieliffe, it is because both men were actuated by tlio same object, both bad no thought but victory, and both rose to very great height's during the war. Lord Northcliffe used all his strength and all his. power for the vttninment of victory, and loading Germans have acknowledged the value of his work. It is admitted that his propaganda work did much to bring about the ultimate collapse of the German Empire. Though the ultimate breach between these two remarkable Britons was not healed, to the end they held each other iii profound respect. ; I have written so much upon Mr I Lloyd George’s work in the war bc- ’ cause it is by the war period that lie ! will he chiefly remembered ; but it is 1 regrettable that in more recent years his services have been less worthy of ! praise. The financial policy of his Government since 1918 has been deplorable, and the waste and extrava--1 gance of the Departments under lus j rule have brought us to the verge of i'll iii- AYc have, never known a more wasteful Administration, and it will I take the country many years to recover from the consequences of its prodigal expenditure, j lu foreign affairs Mr Lloyd George : and his colleagues have pursued courses which f entirely condemn, and it .is not much consolation to reflect that, their mistakes have . brought • about their own undoing. Me should never have stayed in Mesopotamia ! and Palestine, and I trust we shall ! now leave both those countries. We should never have hacked the Greeks I against the Turks. Even to-day the I closest friends of Mr Lloyd George are ! completely at a loss to explain the I misguided persistence with which he j incited the Greeks to advance into the interior of Asia Minor. The Near East policy of the Government has been wrecked, but we shall i not readily regain the confidence ol ! the Mnliominedan world. One reason j why Mr Lloyd George’s resignation ; may have good results is that it ma> eventually facilitate a hotter understanding ' with Mahommedans and also with France. Though T feel strongly upon these grave questions, 1 do not for a moment wish to suggest that the career of Mr Lloyd George is now ended. He I is still full of energy, and though exI tremely tired niter seventeen years of office, lie Js young as politicians go. i lli.s retirement is hound to he only j temporary. The country will need ! him again, and 1 am sure he will : emerge when our people call him. as I undoubtedly they will. J This is not the time to pronounce a full estimate upon him, for his career may still contain many surprises ; lint to me he seems, despite certain faults, to he among the greatest Britons we have known in the last five hundred i years. 1 cannot conceive that any •mere notable figure has appeared in I our public life since the days of CTom- | well.

.Mr Lloyd George is no Cromwell, and the problems lie has had to face and to solve are very different irom those which coni'routed the Lord Protector; but he has vastly grown in stature since 1.914, and to-day there is no other statesman in Europe of his calibre, his experience, or his value. At the moment of his passing the nation should salute him with all repect. lie has made mistakes, but lie is a good Briton, and even to-day not one of the men around him can I‘o called bis equal.