MR ASQUITH’S REVELATIONS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1307, 6 October 1914, Page 3

MR ASQUITH’S REVELATIONS.

BRITAIN’S DECLARATION OF 1902. WHAT GERMANY DEMANDED. London, October 4. The Prime Minister, Mr Asquith, addressing a meeting of 10,000 persons at Cardiff, said that in 1912 the Cabinet laid down the terms of Britain’s relation with Germany, communicating the following declaration to her:— Britain declares that she will neither make nor join any unprovoked attack upon Germany. Aggression upon Germany forms no part of any treaty, understanding or combination whereto Britain is now a party, nor will she become’a party to anything having such an object. Mr Asquith added : “ There is ambiguous nor equivocal about that. Yet Germany asked Britain to pledge her neutrality when she herself was enormously increasing her aggressive resources. We were asked to bind ourselves .absolutely to neutrality in the event of war, and Germany asked for a free hand when she selected the opportunity to overbear and dominate the European world. Only one answer was possible, That answer we gave. “Now we see written in letters cf carnage and spoliation the signs and methods of Germany’s longprepared scheme against the liberlies of Europe.” After referring to the sanctity of treaties and the rights of small as well aP large nationalities to live, Mr AsqJilth said: “That is the reason why we extracted from our most distant oversea Dominions the best of their manhood.” At the end of the war Mr Asquith said he looked forward to seeing Europe safeguarded for ever from a recrudescence of the era of blood apd iron, and he concluded

“Had England foresworn her word, deserted her friends and compromised the plain dictates of duty, there would have been nothing for her but to veil her face in shame, be ready in her turn to share the doom she richly deserved and go down after centuries of glorious life to her grave, unwept, unhonoured and unsung.”