TO A FINISH.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17287, 30 September 1916, Page 9

TO A FINISH.

BRITAIN pETERM I NED. LLOYD GEORGE’S WARNING. 1 ‘ . ~ i ~ L ~ ' 1 NO OUTSIDE INTERFERENCE j TOLERATED. ! PRUSSIANISM MUST.BE SMASHED. TIME NEEDED IT WILL BE DONE.”

Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Received September 29, 5.5 p.m.) NfcW YORK, September 28. In a striking interview given to the London Press, Mr Lloyd George said:— . The British soldier is a good sportsman. Ho enlisted in this war m a sporting spirit to see fair play 'for a small nation trampled on by a bully. He is fighting for fair play in international dealings. Ho has fought as a good sportsman, and 'by thousands he has died like a. sportsman. Ho has t never asked anything moire than a sporting chance, and he has not always had that- But when he could not get it ho did not quit. Ho played tho game. He has not squealed and he has not asked anyone to squeal for him, and now* that tho fortunes of thp game turn a bit the British soldier is not disposed to stop because of tho squealing by tho German* or for tho Germans by probably well-meaning but misguided sympathisers and humanitarians. The British soldier for two years had* - a bad time. Nobody knows so well as ho what a bad time it was. Ho was sadly inferior in equipment and on tho average inferior in. training. He saw the Allied cause beaten all about tho ring, but ho made no appeal to tho spectators or to tho referco to stop the fight on tho ground that it was brutal, nor did he ask that the rules should be changed. He took his punishment. Even when he was beaten like a dog, lie was a game dog. When he was forced to refuge in a trench, when too badly used ‘up to carry ‘tne. fight to the enemy, ho hung on without whining and fought off every attack. Ho bided his time. Ho endured without wincing, ho worked without flagging. , . ' And at this time, what was the winning German doing? Was ho' worrying over tho terrible slaughter? No. He was talking of annexing Belgium; and Poland as the results of his victory, and while he was remaking tne map of Europe without the slightest regard for the wishes of its people, tho British people were preparing to pay tho price wo knew must bo paid for time to get an army ready, It is one thing to look back on tha pounding the'British soldiers took in their first two years of the war, but it is a different thing to look forward, as ho did, and know that tjhe beating could not bo avoided. During those months when it seemed as if the finish of the British Army might come quickly, Germany elected to make it a fight , to a finish with England. The British j soldier was ridiculed afid held in con- j tempt. Now we intend to see that Germany has her way. The fight must be to a finish, to the, knock-out’. j The whole world, including neutrals of the highest purpose and humanitarians with the best of motives, must know that there cannot, be. outside in-

terference at this stage. Britain did not ask for intervention when she was not prepared to fight, and she will tolerate none now when she is prepared to fight until Prussian military despotism is broken beyond repair. There was no regret voiced in Germany over the useless slaughter, no tears by German sympathisers when a few thousand British citizens, who never expected to be soldiers, went out to' bo battered, bombed and gassed. People who are gow moved to tears at the'thought orjs'hatTs to come watched the early rounds of the unequal contest dry-eyed. None of the carnage which is to come can be worse than tho sufferings of those Allied dead, »vho stood the full shock of the Prussian war machine, before it began to falter, but in the British determination ■ to carry the fight to a decisive finish there is something more than a natural demand for vengeanco. The inhumanity and pitilessness of the fighting that must come before a lasting peace is possible is not comparable with the cruelty that would be involved in stopping the war while there i remains a- possibility of civilisation . again 'being menaced from the same quarter. Peace now of at any time before the final complete elimination of this menace is unthinkable. No nation with the slightest understanding of the temper of the British citizen army, which took its terriblo hammering? without a whine or grumblo, will attempt to cal! a halt now The time consumed in achieving the result does not count. It took England twenty years to defeat Napoleon, and the first fifteen of these were black with British defeat. It will not take twenty years to win this war; but. whatever the time it will require, it will be done, and, I sav- this recognising that we have only begun to win. There is no disposition on our side to fix the hour of ultimate victory. We have nodelusion that tho war- is nearing its end. Wo have npt the slightest doubt as to how it is going to end. There will be no quiters among the Allies. “Never again” has* become our battle cry. This ghastliness must never bb. re-wine tod on this earth, aud one method, at least, of ensuring that end is tl\f infliction of such punishment upon the perpetrators of this outrage against humanity that the temptation to emulate their oxploits will bo eliminated from the hearts of the evilminded among tho rulers of men.