The New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9, 1920. WHOLESOME TRUTHS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10611, 9 June 1920, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9, 1920. WHOLESOME TRUTHS

At tho New Zealand Club General Birdwood delivered a breezy, commonsense speech, which deserves the attentionof every person of sense in tho Dominion. First, wo will, notice among tho many memorable things he said-'his description of tho state of Lillo at tho close of tho, war. Tho General entered the place a few 7 days before tho Armistice, and saw it again a year later. His description is, therefore, that of an eye-witness, and at that a witness competent in every pos-sible-way—of ability to form opinions; of honesty to declare them; and of a character guaranteeing freedom from bias. When ho entered Lillo at tho head of the' Army Corps under his command,, he had come with his men through tho conditions brought about by. the war, and found them in the town itself. What the general conditions were has been the theme of much descriptive writing. Perhaps the best summary of these is Lord 1 Haig’s, as he gave it oh the occasion of the presentation of an address by comrades who had served with him in the war. “Lot them think,’’ ho said, “what tho conditions would have been in London to-day if it had 'become a German city. It was impossible. to imagine the terrible state of want and misery from which wo had been saved by our gallant troops in heating the Germans.’’ This has the convincing comprehensiveness ot tho mastersoldier. General Birdwood’s “ditto” was in tho same strain.

He added* a detail which his Com-mander-in-Chicf did not.go into, as it concerned a matter which lay within his experience of tho French town of which he was speaking. At Lillo, as in all tho manufacturing towns of their ruthless occupation., the enemy looted the factories and sent all tho machinery to Germany. Therein they broke tho rules of civilised war, with tho intention of makiag > the industry of their country paramount in the world. All tho world knows how, after their defeat, they whined about their inability to pay the indemnity imposed on them. And what .value there was in tho whining the world learns to-day from tho report recently cabled out—that German textiles aro now underselling tho British production in tho English market. This is tho effect of the shameless, illegal looting described by General Birdwood. On his first entry ho found tho factories all crippled by that looting, and a year later he found industry paralysed in tho great manufacturing town for lack of machinery, for it h’ad been impossible—as tho Germans had fiendishly calculated—owing to war disturbance of the world’s work to replace that of which the town had been robbed. Tho French industries will ho helped to recover, as tho Belgian industries aro being helped after identical treatment of lawless freebooting. Tho point will, wo doubt not, have its proper influence at the coining Spa Conference, when the question of tho war indemnity is considered, and- the bluff of tho German whine is exposed. But tho point of tho episode referred to by tho General concerns not so much the actual facte —bad as they are—as the possibilities of the worst period of . the war. That point is that it is now clear that, -bad the Germans won tho war, there would have boon no recovery for tho French and Belgian industries. No amount of complaining” would have averted the economic slavery deliberately designed for them by their ’German victors. Their fate would have been the fate outlined in the old Homan maxim of “Woo to the vanquished.” As Lord Haig said: “Think what tho conditions would have been in London if it had become » German city.” We may well add: “Think what the conditions in Wellington would have been.” In that case the moral of tho war would have been drawn for the Now Zealand Club, not by a British General, but by a German Governor, and the club

would have trembled instead of ap-

plauding. The General gave the appropriate warning, after eulogising, as Lord Haig had done, tho splendid troops who had saved us from this awful calamity, which had actually cast the shadow of its swift approach over us. Peace is not assured, as wo had all hoped, for ever. The League of Nations is not more than a potential fact. Human nature has not been changed by tho war. This country, like all others, must, as tho General said, bo always ready to defend its liberties and those of tho great Empire with which onr interests are inseparably interwoven. On the other hand, our defensive preparation must stop short of all forms of militarism, so that our best energies aro given full scope in developing the splendid resources of our country towards tho rapid fulfilment of its great destiny. On the one hand, we must be ready to promptly repel tho assault, of a freebooting, misapplied civilisation; on the other, wo must perfect our own civilisation to its utmost strength, commercial, social, industrial, agricultural. Selfreliance was tho keynote of the General’s speech. As, for example, his, question about that great boon, the electric accumulator, desired by all — “Why should not a Now Zealander invent it?” This covers tho whole question. Settle tho soldiery; bring more of them; brighten the broad acres with the faces of children; turn the wheels of industry; lot all rejoice in the glory of work. That is the fine gospel preached by the General, whose success in war has opened his eyes to the benefits of peace and tho need for organised enterprise in the securing of them. To realise it requires ' a mighty effort groat leadership. Tho effort must find us inflexible in the grasp both, of our weapons of war and of the implements of husbandry and the tools of industry.. If wo make the effort we shall rise to be a great star of tho Pacific constellation. If wo neglect it, wa sink to nothingness.