THE ALLIED PEACE TERMS

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 7, Issue 345, 15 January 1918, Page 2

THE ALLIED PEACE TERMS

The speech of the British Prime Minister to the delegates ot the English Labour Unions, in which he outlined the peace conditions which Great Britain and her Allies were willing to concede to the enemy, has been vastly reassuring not only to the Empire generally but also to the French and Italian nations. Mr Lloyd George has the happy faculty for clothing his thoughts in eloquent and forcible language that is given to few but the still greater gift of convincing friends and enemies alike that his words are not merely the insincere frothing of the politician, but the honest and settled conviction of the statesman who has finally determined upon his course of action. One of the most remarkable triumphs of the war has been the evolution of Mr Lloyd George from the pushful and resourceful party politician, intent on gaining for his side temporary political triumphs by fostering class-wars, into the cool and sagacious leader of an Empire that has done more than any man of his time to weld into one resolute and united people, intent only upon upon presenting an undivided front to the bestial tramplers upon human rights who have been striving for over three years to lay the civilization of the world in ashes.

It is comforting to find at the moment ot the defection of Russia from the Allied cause that there is no faltering note iu the utterance of the leader of the British Empiie. England once more reiterates her ungrudging loyalty to France, whose superb self sacrifice and gallantry will

remain an object lesson to the ages till we cease to revere noble deeds and brave devoted men. England has fought in no spirit of aggression, and with no desire for self-aggrandisment, but to defend the rights of friendly nations and to punish the foul violation not only of treaties that any honest nation would consider sicr.d obligations, hut the in-

famous trampling under foot of the public law of Europe that centuries of tradition and custom had made as binding as the most carefully drawn written constitution ; and it is gratifying to find that her aims are still as clear-cut and her determination to right the wrong as inflexible as on the j latciiil day when she ranged the handful of trained men she then possessed beside t lie defenders of Injured, insulted Belgium and invaded France. The key-note t > tlie Prime Minister's speech is that there is r,o royal road to peace. The German military machine must be hammered to pieces before a last- i in« and binding covenant can be j arrived at. Willi it still in existI ence what reliance can there be that any terms agreed on would , be kept by a nation whom oaths ' cannot bind nor plighted troth : restrain from the foulest deeds ot ; blood guiltiness. That we are competent to carry out the task we have set ourselves only the most faint-hearted can for a moment doubt ; that we have still

great sacrifices to make to ac ; coiuplish it only the' ignorant or llu- mendacious would deny. Hut the Umpire is not likely to sin ink from the filial test of its endurance, it for no other reason than that the blood of its heroes . shall not have been spilt in vain, j