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Show -WILSON'S GOAL ! ENGUND'SALSO, SAYS Bp LI Chancellor of the Exchequer and Member of War Council Replies to the President's Proposals. FRANK ADDRESS IS FRANKLY ANSWERED German Atrocities a Bar to Peace on the Lines Laid Down; John Dillon's View of Speech. BRISTOL. Jan. 24, via Ixmdon, 9 p. m.- Addressing a meeting tonight in connection con-nection with the war loan campaign, Andrew An-drew Bonar Law. chancellor ot" the exchequer ex-chequer and member of the British war council, made the following reply to President Wilson's speech to the United Stales senate: The end of the war is peace. The Germans made us what they have called an offer of peace. It received from the allied governments the reply which it deserved the only possible reply. Most of you, however. I presume, read the speech by president Wilson Wil-son which appeared in yesterday's papers. It is a frank speech and it is right that any member of one of the allied governments who refers to it should speak with equal frankness. It fs impossible that he and we can look on it from the same point of view. The hea-d of a great neutral power, whatever his private views may be and I know as little as any of you what they are must axjopt a neutral at tit ud e. America is very far removed re-moved from"' the horrors of this' war. We are In the midst of them. America, Amer-ica, is neutral; we are not neutral. Essence of Conflict. We believe that the essence of this conflict is a question which is as old as time the difference between right and wrong. We believe, we know that this war is a war of naked aggression; that crimes which have accompanied the conduct of the war, which have been unbroken in the world for centuries, are small In comparison com-parison with I he initial crime of plunging the world into war by coldblooded cold-blooded calculation because those responsible re-sponsible thought it would pay. President Wilson's speech had this aim lo gain peace now and secure peace for the future. That is our aim, and our aim only. He hoped to secure se-cure this by a league of peace, and he not only spoke in favor of such a league, but he is trying to induce the A merican senate to take the steps necessary to give effect to it. It would not be right to regard this proposal as something altogether Utopian. You, know that almost up to our own day dueling continued, and just as the settling of private deputes by the sworcf has now become unthinkable, unthink-able, so' I think, we may hope that the time will come when all the nations na-tions of the world will play the part which' Cromwell described as his life work to act as constable and keep peace. That time will come, I hope. Cannot Forget the Past. But this whole subject is not an abstract ab-stract question for the future. It is a question of life and deatli now. In judgm? whether that result, can be secured by his methods, it is impos- si'nle for us to forget the past. For generations human men, men of good will anions: all nations, have striven by The Hague convention, by peace conferences and by all other means to make war Impossible, or at least to mitigate the horror of war. When war comes, by what means can these barriers bar-riers built up against barbarism be-mn.de be-mn.de effective? They cannot be preserved pre-served by the belligerents if any of t them choose to ignore them. It is 1 only from neutral states that effective effect-ive sanctions can be given to them. What happened? At the very outbreak out-break of the war the Germans swept aside every one of these barriers. They tore up treaties which they I hemselves solemnly signed. They strewed mines In the open sea. They committed every atrocity on sea and land against The Ha sue convention, which they themselves had signed. Thev made war on women and children. chil-dren. They destroyed neutrals as rnthlesslv as they did their enemies. Thev are at this moment drivlnsr the popubi tion of conquered territories Inio slavery and. worse even than that, they are making some of the subiects of their enemies take up arms against their own country. No Neutral Protests. All this has been done, and no neutral neu-tral power has been able to stop it. Nn neutral power. Indeed, has made any protest against it. We must then take other means to secure the fui ure peace of the world. We have rejected the German offer to enter Into negotiations, not from lust (yf conquest or desire for shining victories. We have rejected it not from a spirit of vindlctiveness or a desire fr revenge, but because peace mw would not mean a peace based on vlL-iory. It would be a peace which would leave the military machine ma-chine unbroken, with the halo of success surrounding it. It would leave the control of that machine in the hands of the same men who for a :encr;ition prepared for war. who wouH make the same preparation acain and who would choose their own time to plunue the worid into the horrors which we are now endurlnsr. Our aim is the same as Preside n t Wilson's. What he Is loneim? for. we are Iitrhiintr for. Our sons and brothers broth-ers are risking their lives for it, and we mean to secure Ir. The hearts of the people of this country are lousing (Continued on Page Twc.) SAYS WILSON'S HIM IS AIM OF EiGLID (Continued from Page One.) for peace: we are praying for peace, for a peace whjch will bring back to us in safety those who are fighting our hat ties, and a peace which will mean that those who will not come hack have not laid down their lives in vain. |
