NO PATCHED-UP PEACE.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 16 December 1916, Page 6

NO PATCHED-UP PEACE.

MR ASQUITK'S HISTORIC SPEECH IN PARLIAMENT. 3IR LLOYD GEOKGE'S REPLY TO CRITICS. «....The land and sombre procession of >.cruelty and suffering, lighted up as it is by deathless examples of heroism and chivalry, cannot he allowed to end in some patched-up precarious, dishonourable compromise masquerading under the name of peace. This was Mr Asquith ' s crushing reply to the peace cranks,, in the course of hi s historic speech in the House of Commons, reviewing the financial and military operations of the war. He asked for a now vote of credit of £300,000.000, which will carry on the war until Christmas, and brings the total since the outbreak of the war to £3,132,000,000.

The average expenditure for the whole 190 days was almost exactly £5,000,000 a. day. Our armies are steadily and continuously going forward. • The enemy hav e been thrust back seven miles on a front of nine miles. Mr Lloyd George spoke decisively on the subject of his recent warning to any neutral Power against intervention:—

Intervention now would be a military triumph for. Germany. Intervention for us would have been a military disaster. "What I did was essential. It wa s the expression of opinion of the Cabinet. Mr. Asquith's Speech.

Alluding to the progress of tlic war Mr Asquith gave the following survey from information supplied by the General Staff:—

Mesopotamia.—Hot weather has ham.pered active operations. Substantial progress has been made in the improvement of railway and river communications. Th e health of the troops has also greatly improved. General Moore assumed command on August 28, and lis most recent reports indicate that leal headway is being made in overcoming difficulties. Egypt,—The Turkish defeat on 3rd August has gone far to remove the danger of an attack on the Canal, and has impaired Turkish prestige in Syria and Arabia. The weather has not allowed of any extended operations since, but. steady progress is being made with the railway from the Suez Canal to Katia. On the western front of Egypt the Scnussi has been reduced to impotence, and this, combined with the successful operations from Darfur, has put an effectual check on the Turco-German in-

trigue. Salonika. —Our operations have not only entailed heavy losses on the enemy, but, by preventing him from transferring troops from Macedonia to help those engaged in the Dobrudja, have rendered valuable assistance to our Russian and Roumanian allies.

East Africa. —The enemy's forces liave been separated and compelled to retire in various diretions, and are unable to conduct combined operations. The main enemy force has been driven into the lower Eufigi delta, an extremely unhealthy area, where it is likely to lose heavily from sickness. The difficulty of the country and of the rains, and the necessity of organising our communications may entail some delay before tlie enemy is disposed of, but all the most valuable parts of the colony, with the main communications, are in our hands, and its complete conquest is, in the view of the military authorities, only a matter of time. Allies' Success. The Prime Minister referred in glowing terms to the success of the Allied offensive: — The total captured of the Allies on the Somme from the start, he said, have been 60,474 prisoners, 304 guns and 1030 machine guns, and the British share is 28,050 prisoners, 121 guns and 397 machine guns. Sir Douglas Haig during there operations summarised his opinion in this way. He said: "All the arms and all services proved equal to the test, and the ability of our new armies, of all arms, from all parts of the Empire, not only to drive the enemy from the strongest entrenchments by assault, but to maintain the offensive under the most difficult conditions for many months, has been placed beyond all question.''

"We are working shoulder to shouldder with the gallant and invincible army of France. But we watch, day by day with sympathetic interest and pride the magnificent contribution of valour and tenacity and of strategic skill that is being made to the common cause of the Allies in more distant fields by Russia and by Italy. There is com"plete intimacy and mutual confidence between the General Staffs of the four Powers, Avith the resulting co-ordina-tion of purpose and of effort. -.. In an eloquent peroration Mr Asquith said: —

.-.-In my judgment, and in the judgment cf the Government, this is n t a moment for faint heart, faltering ] ur-

pose, or wavering counsel. War i; a terrible thing, justified only by the greatness of its cause, and that grcatness is measured not merely by the costliness of the sacrifice which a nation is ready to incur, but the Avorthiness cf the end for which those sacrifices are poured out.

The strain which the war imposes "en ourselves and on our Allies, the 'hardships which we freely admit involves to some of those who are not directly concerned in the struggle, the upheaval of trade, the .devastation of territory, the loss of irreplaceable life, this long and sombre procession of cruelty and suffering, lighted up as it is by deathless examples of heroism and chivalry cannot be allowed to end in some patched-up—(prolonged cheers) —precarious, dishonouring, compromise— (cheers) — masquerading under the name of peace. (Renewed cheers). No one desires to prolong for a single unnecessary day the tragic spectacle of bloodshed and destruction. But we owe it to those who have given their lives for us — the flower of our youth, the hope and promise of the future —that their supreme sacrifice shall not be in vain. (Cheers.) ADEQUATE REPARATION.

The aims of the Allies are well known. They have been frequently and precisely stated. Thej r are not selfish aims, not vindictive aims, du: ehey require that there shall be adequate reparation for the past and adequate security for the future. On their achievement we, in this country, honestly beleive depend the best hopes of humanity. For them we have given—we are giving—what we can least afford to lose. We give it, one and all, without stint and without , regret, but only as the price by which the world will purchase—and surely nold in the years to come—protection for the weak, supremacy of right over force, and free development under equal conditions, and each in accordance with its own genius, of all the States, great or small, that make up the family of civilised mankind. (Prolonged cheers.) Mr. G. J. Wardle (Lab., Stockport), oiybehalf of the Labour party, said he had listened with the profoundest satisfaction to the clear, straight, and ringing message which the Prime Min ister had given to the nations.

"The Government have our fullest

support in carrying on this war to i final and successful conclusion," he declared, "and there is not one of the objects which the Prime Minister has stated with which we are not in the

heartiest and completest sympathy." Mr. R. D. Holt (L., Hexham) criticised the recent interview which Mr. Lloyd George gave to an American journalist. He hoped that he would welcome anyone who came with a message of peace, whether from the Old World or the New. MR LLOYD GEORGE. "INTERVENTION WOULD BE A TRIUMPH FOR GERMANY?' In reply, Mr. Lloyd George said: The Prime Minister's thrilling peroration to-day is a complete -and authoritative answer to all those who have been trying to sow and spread disaffection by saying that I made this declaration without consulting my colleagues, and was speaking only for myself. This is the first time 1 have heard it laid down 'hat a Canuiet Minister is never to make a speech which is not strictly departmental. May I suggest that, after all, it has something to do with my department'? Whether there is going to be intervention and pourparlers and an arrest of the fighting at the moment when we

are gripping with the enemy :'s much more a military matter than a diplo-

matic matter. It is essentially a iniM

tary matter. Intervention now would be a triumph for Germany—(cheers)—a military triumph—(renewed cheers) —-a war triumph. Intervention for us would have bee.* a military disaster. Has the Secretary of State for War no right to express an opinion upon a thing which would be a military disaster? Tfi&t is what I did, and I don't withdraw a single syllable. (Loud cheers). "It was essential. I could tell the lion, member how timely it was. That is a matter which will be revealed in due course. It was not merely an expression of my own opinion, but. the expression of the opinion of the Cabinet, of the War Committee, of our military advisers. It was the opinion of every Ally." I can understand men who conscientiously object to all war, saying; "You will never redeem -humanity except by passive endurance of every evil." I can understand men—even though I don't appreciate the strength of their arguments—who say they dc not approve of this particular war. 1 can understand it, and it requires courage to say so. But wJmt I do not understand, what I cannot appreciate, what I cannot respect, is that men who preface their speeches by saying they believe in the war, they believe in its origin, in its objects, and its cause, and who during the time the enemy were ascendant never said a word about peace, yet the moment our gallant troops, through endurance and suffering, are climbing up the path to ascendancy, begin to howl with the en,emy for peace. (Loud cheers).