"VITALITY OF NATIONS."

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 86, 15 August 1913, Page 5

"VITALITY OF NATIONS."

LLOYD GEGHGE ALARMED. THE EUROPEAN SITUATION. [By Electric Telegraph—Copyright] [United Press 'Association.]

London, August 14

Discussing the Finance Bill in tho House of Commons, Mr Lloyd George said that increased armaments meant increased taxation. The whole thing v, as duo to the mad rumor which was eating the vitality of the nations and creating an atmosphere wherein people cannot judge the situation rationally, and the result was suspicion and war. This could only end in a terrible disaster. The expenditure on armaments paralysed the very force that created wealth. Nothing had done more to create the money stringency and arrest trade development than. tnis wasteful expenditure. Xot merely tho war in the Balkans had done these things, but the feverish expen diture on armaments in France, Germany, and Russia. No doubt thesi things terrified the people, chilled then hearts, and paralysed trade. Tne*growtn of armaments genuinelj alarmed him. Countries were scaring each other into great expenditure. There was no great public opinion in any country having the courage to tel. those responsible for the expenditure ic was time this was stopped. He was confident the expenditure would leac to disaster, not perhaps to England but the inevitable result would be a situation goading people to a sort o' revolutionary protest. One countiy alone did not dare to stop the expenditure. It would be perilous, because once you pass the point of dange and something happens, then disaste is inevitable. With intentional co operation they might do something especially when after recent events it was fresh in the minds of the people what a horrible thing war can be.