"THE MAD DOG OF EUROPE."

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 269, 13 August 1915, Page 7

"THE MAD DOG OF EUROPE."

LORD CURZON'S VISIT TO FRONT. MORE OF THE TRUTH. Lord Curzon, who recently visited the battlefields of France and Flanders, made an eloquent plea for further •' efforts on the part of Britain at the "nnual meting of the Primrose League, he' ! at Caxton Hall. '' Not merely have we to throw back Germany from France and Belgium and drive her over the border into her own country," he said, "but we have to break this idol- with its face cf brass and its feet of clay. "The mad dog of Europe must be chained up. Ho has shown n rnoercy to anybody, and I can see no reason why we should talk o fmercy to him. "We ought to make our calculations for a war that will last, not merely through the summer and autumn, 'but into next year, and perhaps beyond. The question we ought to ask ourselves is not 'Are we downhearted?/ but 'Are we in earnest?' Do we mean to see this thing through? "Our soldiers are all right. Only a fortnight ago I had the opportunity of being among them in the trenches, within seventy yards of the enemy. "Everywhere I found them cheerful, active, uncomplaining, devoted to their task, longing to get the enemy, performing prodigies of valour under conditions enough to shatter the nerves of an} r man, and subject to a shell fire that might more properly be described as 'hell fire.'

"Are we as a nation all right? Only on Saturday last while our soldiers were going through indescribable agony on the battlefields, 30,000 men at Manchester were looking at a match in which 22 other men were kicking about a leather ball. "I have sen the garden of Europe turned into a smoking wilderness—and this within seventy miles of Dover. The sound of the guns can at times be heard from our own shores. But for | good luck and the bravery of our men all these things might have happened to us—and still may conceivably happen to us before the war comes to an end. ' "In these circumstances, it is for the Government td give a lead to the country in helping to a truer realisation of the facts of the situation. The Government ought to take the country more fully into their confidence than the}' have hitherto done. "We want more of the truth. Why do the Government speak with two voices en the question of munitions? Any one who has boeii -at the front, and heard our officers talk, and seen the men, knows perfectly well that the i want of shells is the great need of the day. "The Government ought to contemplate the possibility of steps in the future much more drastic than any they have yet taken. They ought to prepare for eventualities which are more than likely to occur, and the nation Ought to be prepared to submit to sacrifices and to be confronted by dangers and losses incomparably greater than any they have endured during the pest nine months. "Criticism is just as patriotic as, and much more useful than silence,'' declared Lord Curzon, who intimated that ther would be unrestrained criticism of some the acts of the Govern-. I ment after the war was over. ' t

"The oGvernment ought nt to presume on our nature. There are things which may have to be discussed."