The Daily News. TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 1918. A CALL FOR GREATER EFFORT.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 January 1918, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 1918. A CALL FOR GREATER EFFORT.

Tlie British Prime Minister spoke plainly to ttie representatives of the trades unions affected by the Man Power Bill. The occasion called for plain speaking. A section of labor does not favor the Government's new proposals, and seeks to use the power wielded by labor as a whole to prevent the Government putting those proposals into effect. Said he: "You have either got to put your whole strength into it, or just do what is done in the Russian army, and tell those brave fellows- in the trenches they can go home whenever they like, If there are men who say they will not go into the trenches, then the men in the trenches have the right to say 'Neither will we remain here.' That would be the end of the war. But what sort of an end?" It should not be necessary for Mr. Lloyd George to speak like this to the workers at Home, who are intelligent enough to understand the issues and also to know t'hat unless they back up the men in the trenches with all their might we go under and Germany wins. After all, no sacrifice can be too great that will achieve victory for the Allies, and the most the workers can do at home is, by comparison with what the men are doing in the trenches, small indeed. Britain bag done a great deal in the war. She fos raised immense armies, she has more than doubled the personnel and strength of the navy, she hag financed her allies as well as her own prodigious operations; yc', much more has to be done and greater sacrifices made before victory is assured. From 400,000 to 500,000 additional men are urgently required, and they can only be obtained by further dilutoni of laboor or by raising the recruiting age. Clearly we have got to put iftto the fight our utmost ounce. America will soon be in. a position to 'help the Allies with men and material -as she has already done with money, but the fact is obvious to the meanest intelligence that the crisiß on the Western front will come in> the course of the next few months, when we can expect little support from the armies of the States. The bulk of the load must be carried by the British. The Germans will see to that, for they recognise that the keystone of the Allies is Britain, and once she is put out of action the rest will be easy. Britain has had to help Italy with men and material, to what extent is unknown, but it must be considerable, and until Italy fully recovers from her set-back Britain must continue to give that assistance. ' It has to be remembered that Britain at the same time is conducting big campaigns in Palestine and Mesopotamia, requiring considerable forces of first-class troops and immense quantities of materials, all of which have to be transported thousands of miles by sea and land. The strain put upon Britain's resources, therefore, is great indeed, and notwithstanding the fact that she has raised seven and a half million men already, equal to about 12 per cent, of her white population, she must do even more in order to attain victory. As Mr.-Lloyd George so forcibly said on -Saturday to the trades unions, we must either go on or go under. There is no middle course. We can end the war to-morrow, on German terms, which would place the world's democracies "at t'he mercy of the most cruel military autocracy the world has ever seen." We have seen from recent cables that the Prussian military »nd agrarian parties remain as-firm and uncompromising in domestic, as in foreign affairs, as ever, and they will not risk anything which would deprive them of the political power which they regard as their right. An Allied peace means the righting of eld wroagt wfajch made the

peace of the world unstable before this war —the rule of Germans over Alsatians and Poles, the rule of Austrians over Czechs and Italians and southern Slavs, I lie abominable rule of Turks ovei Armenians and Arabs and Syrians—and the righting of new wrongs—restoring Belgium, Serbia, and Bomnania. Germany will not face that kind of peace whilst she lias even the faintest chance of winning. Such an end would mean that she had manifestly lost by her criminal adventure. The Prussian militarists are dominant, and Germany's answer to civilisation would, said Mr. Lloyd George, be given from the cannon's mouth. Unless she is forced by the Allied guns to a peace with enduring qualities, based on terms such as those outlined bv Mr. Lloyd George and President Wilson, the rulers of Germany will be able to boast that they have repelled the mightiest coalition the world 'has ever seen, and in greater security than before will begin again to ccftisolidate and organise a domineering power in the centre of the European continent. A compromise peace is therefore out of the question. If Germany is not decisively defeated she will have won. The fact cannot be stressed too frequently when there is becoming manifest in some quarters a kind of warweariness and a desire to stop further bloodshed. The men who have fought and are fighting in the trenches have been true to us, their nation, and humanity at large. Surely we can in turn be true to them by carrying on the war until Germany, which stands for all that is wrong and sinful, is beaten to her knees and pleads for the mercy she has never shown towards her unfortunate victims. Mr. Lloyd George has the vision to see the real issue, and his words to the trades unionists' should open their eyes, strengthen their will, revivify their patriotism, and act generally as a clarion call to the Britisli Empire to put forth even greater efforts than it has done in the past