NO SHAKING HANDS WITH GERMANY.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 November 1918, Page 6

NO SHAKING HANDS WITH GERMANY.

LORD DERBY OX TRADE AFTER THE WAR. Lord Derby, British Ambassador and Minister Plenipotentiary to Prance, made an important pronouncement at Liverpool on July 22, when he was reelected President of the Chamber of Commerce. Speaking of the war, he said that the greatest of modern battles was now being fought in a way that was, he hoped, bringing the end nearer. The brilliant counter-stroke of General Foch had resulted in a great change in tile prospect, and he hoped they would note that, in this great battle, the unity of command was .being exemplified with gjeat advantage by the fact that, although the bulk of" the fighting naturally fell on the" French troops who were situated in the area where the battle was now raging, they were being assisted by Americans, English, and Italians. In the position to which, about four months ago, he was called, he felt that the first principle he had to adopt was: "Does the country tj'which you are accredited thoroughly understand the cour'ry whose representative you are?" and "Does your own country understand the country to which tou are accredited?" He asked himself those two questions, and he could, in the main, answer in the affirmative. Ho cotfld safely say at the present moment that there was an excellent feeling in France towards England, and a great belief in all England was doing to bring the war to a successful conclusion. (Cheers) If he might say so. it was a little extraordinary that they should have that feeling, because we were a very curious nation, Our mentalitv was something extraordinary. "We know," he continued, "we are doing a bi<r thins in the Army, in the Navy, and in munitions of war, and yet the one thincf evervbodv seems to set themselves out to prove is that we are not doing a big thing. In other words, to try to get another ounce out of the country, a great manv people arc engaged in belittiinsr out efforts. We see through it all. but other nations do not see through it so clearly. They take us at our word and then wo are rather angry hceauso thev do so. But, notwithstanding that, I am perfectly • certain that France at the present moment realises all that Fnsdand is doing." He did not think it was quite bronsht home vet—he was not talking of educated neople. but of the masses of the country—what our Navy had meant in the war. He was not sure whether ther realised what our women were doing in the war. and he was not ouite sure, for he bad not realised it himself until the last three or four days, that they realised what privations in the way of restrictions we were willinglv and cheerfnllv undergoing so as to have enough food and ships to keep the war going to the bitter end.

THE SPIRIT OF FRANCE. In tills country wc did not realise the picture in France, and what a blessing it was to us that the invaders had never set foot in this country. If they saw, as he had seen, stream after stream of refugees with their poor little belongings on their carts, men, women, and children leaving the homes which they knew by the time they came back would be destroyed by the fire of either friend or foe, they would have intense sympathy with the French people who were undergoing such hardships. The Germans, with their usual wrongheadedness, thought that the shelling and bombing of Paris would unnerve the people of that city. Not a bit of it. They thought that the driving out of the people as refugees would embitter them. Not a bit of it. What it had done, and what it would continue to do, was to harden French opinion to go on until a victorious peace was secured, and he had absolute confidence that just as we were with France to the bitter end, so was France with us. (Cheers) Referring to trade after the war—"the war after the war"—Lord Derby said that there were some people who thought—there might he some people who hoped—that we, should be able to shake hands with the Germans after the war and go on trading with them. I No, no, lie added. There have been some foes who fought cleanly and with whom we have been able afterwards to make up our differences, but I hope and believe that in this country nobody will ever forget, and that every one will hand down to his children and his children's children the memory of the sort of fighting that the Germans have indulged in. Do not let us forget it after the war, and let us hope, that some of those gentlemen who are now, or who are being, interned raav find that they have a happier home on the other side of the water in Germany than they are likely to have in this country after the war. lam perfectly certain that this war has been a revelation to one and all as to the amount of peaceful penetration into our businesses which the Germans had obtained. Well, we have obtained the information, obtained it in time, and I sincerely hope that peace, when it comes, will not find us as unnrenared as war did when it came to fight the battle of commerco with the Germans after t!i« war. In the Allied nations we have the monopoly of raw materials. ' Let us make use of that weapon. Let us make +he Allies of war the Allies of peace, and do all we can to cement in peace the friendships and alliances that ■war has broueht us. (Cheers.)