Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1917. AIMS OF THE ALLIES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1736, 2 October 1917, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1917. AIMS OF THE ALLIES.

THE House of Commons spent several lioni's on 2(ilh July in discussing' (lie remit “Peace Resolution” of the Reichstag. It will lie remembered that the new German Chancellor gave it a tepid benediction — such was Mr Asquith’s description —though Dr. Michaelis cautiously added, “so far as I understand it.” The British pacifists showed no such caution. They wore quite sure, that they knew perfectly what it meant. Mr .Ramsay MacDonald, Mr Treve - lyan, Mr Snowden, Mr Joseph King, Mr Morrell, Mr Decs Smith —all these piTdcnd to know to a hair’s breadth exactly what the Reichstag wants and what the German people want. They are a little more modest as to their acquaintance with the real intentions of the Kaiser, Dr. Michaelis, and Ilindcnburg, but during' the debate they gave the House an astonishing exhibition of selfconceited vanity. They got a most patient and tolerant hearing. Interruptions were very few. But they drew no plaudits save from one another, and they could all have Jjoen accommodated in the inside of a ’bus. Mr Bonar Law iuviled them to press their motion to a division, and said that the best service they could do to (he cause of peace was to disclose to (he world the smallness of their numbers. They tried to talk out time, but were foiled by the closure,- and in the division lobby could only muster nineteen votes.

According 1 to iheip, the Reichstag resolution means that Germany does not want annexations. Mr Asquith and Mr Bonar Law read the situation in an absolutely opposite sense. Mr Asquith —who spoke most powerfully and eloquently —said that the outcome of the recent obscure political struggle in Germany was that the military chiefs had gained the upper hand, dismissed the late Chancellor, arid put in a spokesman of their own. The uiHueu.ee of the Reichstag, such as it was, was a negligible quantity. ' 9 * * * Mr Bonar Lave pointedly asked Germany’s friends to tell him whether she was willing'to quit Belgium and the North of France, make full

reparation for the destruction she has Avrought there. Is Germany prepared, asked Mr Asquith, to restore to Belgium "complete and unlettered ' and absolute independence 1 ’” He said he would like the German Chancellor's answer to that direct question, and to half-a-seore others. Neither Mr Asquith nor Mr Bonur Law, nor Mr Wardlc —who spoke with unusual vigour amid the sneers of the Socialist "intellectuals” confronting him—believes .anything of the sort. Ger-many-never states her peace terms, observed Mr Bonar Law. Why? Because the last thing she means is what her never-failing apologists in this country say she means. They do not seem to ('are how the war ends, as long as it does end, believing that if they arc called in to the settlement they can start the whole world on a new basis. The conceit of their pose is ineffable.

Sir Wardle saw no sign of repentance as yet on the part of the Socialist'majority in Germany. The German people sided with the Government, and peace could not come until they enforced on that Government a respect for moral ideas. At present there is none, and the war itself was duo to this very fact. Germany went to Avar because she avus 'convinced that the hour had come Avhcn she could make it pay. It cannot cud, in Mr Bonar La ay’s vieAv, until the German people are convinced by military disaster that war does not pay. But this menus a Avar of attrition, said the horrorstricken Pacifists, and they hinted as broadly as they dared that this Avould lead from discontent to revolution, while in Germany they foster the idea that avc are faltering in our determination. Paltering! Mr Bona r Law repudiated the idea Avith scorn. cfOur resources, he said, Avere fully sufficient, if our hearts did not fail us iioav. The crisis was dangerous, and all the nations avci’c staggering under the load, hut a stout

courage would pull us through, especially us (lie real issue was Eight against ’Wrong and Moral.Forcc against Wickedness.

One sen!cnee of ’Mr Asquith's struck the imagination of the House. “ Wo are lighting,’-' he said, “for nothing but freedom, and for nothing short of freedom,'’ “We are lighting,” said Air Bonar Lav.’, “for the right of ourselves and of others to live our lives in our own way in peace and There is the whole matter in a nutshell.

!i ’Peaee has become the supreme interest of mankind. - ’ .But it must he a real peace, caul not lie under the shadow of German militarism.

The four Russian delegates who sat in the Distinguished Strangers’ Gallery during the debate must have been gratified to note that the references to .Russia were throughout of (he most; generous character, and !lit? header of the House declared I hat he for one did not despair of the part which Russia was still going to piny in the war.