Kaiser and the War Lords

Levin Daily Chronicle, 9 May 1918, Page 1

Kaiser and the War Lords

LLOYD GEORGE'S INDICTMENT. Speaking at the City Temple, London, on March 15 at a meeting of the Free Church Council, Mr Lloyd George said that the Prussian War Lordß would loudly accept any declaration of most resounding equity as a basis of peace; but, as the Bolsheviks found, such declarations, when . interpreted, were '' like sounding brass and tinkling cymbals. '» Nobody discoursed so eloquently of a league of nations as the Kaiser. (Laughter.) His reply to the Pope breathed the spirit of brotherhood and Christian kindness. There was never a word about giving up Belgium, but there were whole passages of disarmament. Nqt a syllable was said about Lithuania or Courland, but on the league of nations the Kaiser was absolutely sound. (Laughter.) The Kaiser had not only accepted the league of nations, but Germany was prepared to place herself at the head of it. (Loud laughter.) The spirit of dominance was still there —a dagger wrapped in the Sermon on the Mount. Youths from all parts of the Empire, France, and Italy, who would be followed by millions from America, were demonstrating at the risk of their gallant lives that the world had Teached a stage of civilisation where justice could be enforced against the most powerful nation that trampled its decrees. When they succoedcd the league of nations would be an accomplished fact, and not until then could swords be made into ploughshares. (Cheers). '' Great burdens,'' said Mr Lloyd George, "must be carried in the heart, not on the shoulders. Do not discouTage, do not depress, do not always point at the clouds and ask when the dawn is coming. Believe and trust in God, and the light will shine. _ There is no hunger. People are being deprived of what they have been taught to regard as the essential ingredients of a comfortable existence. There is no lack of abundant food, and no prospect of such a deficiency. (Cheors). But certain things which years of prosperity have taught us to expect we see no more.'' Concluding his speech, the Prime Minister said: "I have a terrible task on my shoulders, almost more 'than a man can bear. I ask—in this hour of the nation's greatest perplexity—your help, sympathy, and prayers. You can only wage war with all your strength or not at all. Shew me the way to peace without betraying the great, sacred cause for which we entered tjie war and for the millions of lives sacrificed, find I will listen gladly and gratefully, 'then thank God. Short of that mere peace talk is undermining the fibre and morale of the nation." (Cheers).