Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 285, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 December 1917 — LLOYD GEORGE AGAINST PEACE [ARTICLE]

LLOYD GEORGE AGAINST PEACE

PRIME MINISTER ALLIES SHOULD NOT CONSIDER NOW Lloyd George, the British prime minister in a speech, Friday before the trenches of the Grey’s inn, pro- ' nounced his latest word in the new phrase of the peace discussion which was launched by the marquis ot Lansdowne’s recent notable letter. Former Premier Asquith had followed the marquis of Lansdowne with an utterance which coupled the policy of the marquis with that of President Wilson, and found agreement between the two. The premier’s statement of his platform had been awaited with great expectation and was heralded by eager discussion. His speech was pointed, as all his words are. He also endorsed President Wil

son, but found no common ground in the paths of the president and the marquis of Lansdowne toward peace. It was with “painful amazement,” the premier said, that he had read the marquis of Lansdowne’s letter. He declared that the danger to the country was not from the active minority of extreme pacifists but from “men who think there is a half-way house between victory and defeat.” The premier warned against ‘ peace overtures tc Prussia at th? very moment when the Prussian mil itary spirit is drunk with boastfulness.” The premier said he saw no prospect for world Safety in a league of peace in which the criminal was stronger than the law. He saw the critical sta?.' « of the w» r at this time v 1 en Germany is stra’ning to strike between th, withdrawal of the Russians and the entrance of American democracy and said the destiny < f the world depends cn what Great Britain can accomplish during the r< xt year. Abe aims, wl ich th- marquis of Lansdowne hud and for which pacifists are making “demands.” The words of Lloyd George follow: “It is because 1 am firmly convinced that despite some untoward events, despite discouraging appearances, we are making steady progress toward the goal I would regard peace overtures to Prussia at the very moment the Prussian mjlitary spirit is drunk with* boastfulness as a betrayal of the great trust with which my colleagues and myself ha J 2 been charges.” If Russia persists in her present policy, the premier pointed out, the withdrawal of the enemy from th east of a third of his troops must release hundreds of thousands o. men and masses of material to at tack Great Britain, France and Italy