OCR Text |
Show DICT5 ! ' Characterizes Counter-Off Counter-Off ensive of Foch as Most Brilliant, in Annals of the War. House of Commons Told That 150 German Submarines Sub-marines Have Been Sent to the Bottom. LONDON, Aug. 7. David Lloyd George, tho British prime minister, today to-day in a speech before the house of torn-; torn-; mons reviewed extensively the war sit-I sit-I nation. He referred particularly to what had been accomplished in the recent re-cent drive by tho allied forces on the sons-Rhcims salient, to the destrue-" destrue-" lion of German submarines, of which :' 150 had been accounted for since the pnr began uiore than half of these in last year and the part the Ameri-cuiis Ameri-cuiis now were playing and would play : later in the fight for the cause of de-1 de-1 mocracy. "lie would be a sanguine man on the tierman general staff who would now predict that Germany could obtain a ,', military decision this year,'-' the pre- micr declared, as ho characterized Marshal Mar-shal Koch's counter-offensive as "the mosV brilliant in the annals of the war." I IMPORTANT PART j PLAYED BY NAVIES. ; Reverting to peace, Lloyd George said ilic people who had made the war still J ivere in evidence, and that tlicy could liave no peace so long as they were pre-'luin'a.r.it pre-'luin'a.r.it i" the councils of the enemy. ' ..i)! of the part tho British navy bad i'lay.d, ric said until all the allies "err. dci'e ucd at sea Germany could ' never 'riuii'pH. I When Great Britain decided to throw )j her whole weight into the war, he coii-, coii-, tinned, she did so because of an outrage ira international rights. Had she not ' taken this decision, the whole course of llic war would have been different. He 'I'ielurcd the part the navies have I played in the war, and said ho did net j third; that many persons realized that . I , if I ho allies wero defeated on. the water 1 Ihe war would be over. "When tho war began," said Lloyd . targe, 'Mho British navy, then the largest in the world, represented a ton-v ton-v nasc of two and a half million. Now, ''hidiiig the auxiliary fleet, it is eight f. 'N.ion. Wero it not for this increase the seas might be barred for tho euiu-mereo euiu-mereo of the world. Kvery trado route , "f tho world is patrolled by its ships. ' "Ihiring dune alone, British naval slii.s steamed S.Otm.DOO miles. To this "hist be added the efforts of the mercantile mer-cantile marine, which is now a branch "f the British navy and whose men face 'he same dangers carrying for the allies, M well as for themselves, most of the American troops that have so valiantly ai'nuitted themselves in recent com-I'ats. com-I'ats. BRITISH FLEET IS WONDERFUL HELP. "1 wonder how many people under-s'aiul under-s'aiul the number of men required to '"mi and maintain the British navy and "'"'antile marine. There are at least l.''0n,ooo, probably SOO.OOO or '.100,1100 whom are of military age. There as an attempt to comb out some of 'V'se men, but it was found impossible, "'r to do so would be letting down the '"itish fleet, and to let down the Brit-'"Hlcct Brit-'"Hlcct is to let down the allies, wish to point to the necessity of JJr 'mpamiig in (he slightest degree "Xj10 ''U'ieiency. strength and giowth of British navy and mcr-auti!" ma-ri"- During the past two yeais Ger-""y Ger-""y has made two distiue; attempts (Continued on Page Two.) mm is 5eei BY LLOYD GEORGE (Continued i'rora Page One.) j to force a decision one on the land and one on the sea. The land offensive niii;ht have been disastrous, but the sea offensive, if it had succeeded, would have been final. I.f the submarines had succeeded, our armies in France would have withered away.. No Americans I could have conic over to assist us and I the French troops. Ammunition could j ! not have been shipped and wc could i not have sent the necessary coal and materials to enable France and Italy to manufacture munitions. "If Franco, Italy and Great Britain were threatened with starvation, the war would have been over before this stac had been reached. I do not wish to minimize in the least the great assistance as-sistance rendered by the American, I rcncli, Italian and Japanese fleets, but I he British fleet is so incomparably greater and its operations are on a si ilc of such greater magnitude, that I must digress especially upon this point. ts importance and the immensity of its efforts in the war should be realized. real-ized. "The American naval mission which came over recently saw a great deal of the effort of the British navy and was immensely im-mensely struck with the vastness of the work which is being done. It was especially espe-cially anxious that steps be taken to make known, not only here, but in America, Amer-ica, the gigantic: diameter of the task we are doing. Cause of Success. "Unless the allies had been completely triumphant at sea from the outset of the war. no effort on the island could have saved them. The British fleet has been mainly responsible for that complete triumph, tri-umph, which could not have been secured and maintained without gigantic efforts in men and material. Any distribution of resources which would impair in the least the effort would be ruinous to the forces of the allies. "I would like to point out, in dealing with the army and its growth, that the maintenance of the navy and the, mercantile mer-cantile marine is the first charge on the resources of the country. Our military effort has been subject to the demands of those obligations on our resources in men and material, yet since August, 1914, including those already with the colors, Great Britain alone has raised for the army and navy 6,2M),O00 men, for the most part voluntarily. The dominions contributed contrib-uted 1,000,000 and India 1,250,000. "If America were to call to the colors the same number of men as Great Britain, Brit-ain, in proportion to population, it would mean nearly 13,000,000 men. "On the western front, after the enemy had been relieved of all apprehension on the -eastern front because of the Hrest-Uto.vsk Hrest-Uto.vsk peace, the Germans brought all their best divisions against us and otir allies. al-lies. Therefore, when the merman offensive offen-sive began March 21 the allies were confronted con-fronted by the flower of the German army, who had rested and ' made preparations prepara-tions especially for the great blow, while the French and the British were tired by the prolonged offensive on our part under the most exhausting conditions. Americans in Line. "Considerable American forces had been expected to reach the battle front by spring, but, as a matter of fact, on the 21st of March there was only one American Ameri-can division in the line, although there were three or four divisions behind the line which were brought up after the -attack began. ' "The weather conditions were the most favorable that the enemy could have chosen Our united command was not yet an accomplished fact, in spite of all endeavors en-deavors to achieve it, and each general was mainly concerned over the perils of his own front, so that when the blow came tlje reserves of the allied armies were not available to meet it where it fell. "Those were the conditions under which the long prepared and carefully planned blow of the picked troops of Germany fell upon the British army. The enemy's object was to obtain a military decision this year before the American army could come up; first of all, by severing the two armies and then attacking the separated French and British forces. "We must understand the enemy p'Jin in order to realize what the valor of the British armv achieved. If the two objects ob-jects had been attained, the American forces could not have arrived in time to save the French army. That was the German calculation. Let us not forget, in the light of what happened afterwards, that it was not such an impossible effort. ef-fort. Anxious Moments. "How did the German plans prosper? There had been four and a half months of such fighting as never before was seen on the face of the globe. What happened? At first, the German army achieved considerable con-siderable success and we had anxiou.l momen'w; verv anxiqus moments. Those who knew most about the situation were the most anxious. Our losses were considerable con-siderable in men, in material and also IN prisoners. "The second German blow might very well have overwhelmed the British army, ; but before the battle was over, in a fort- : night's time, 260,000 men were thrown , across the channel, and, in a month's time, 353.000. Every gun lost had breji put back and every machine gun replaced. Not merelv had the deficiency neen supplied, sup-plied, but the number had been increased. "At that moment there were more gurV3 and more machine guns with the army in France than ever before.. It was the first German miscalculation. They calculated cal-culated that we could not do It. "We owe a debt of gratitude to a section sec-tion of the press for misleading the en-, emy. They led the Germans to believe tlia't we hadn't even been able to make up the deficiency, and the Germans made their plans accordingly. "They hit here, they hit In the south, in the center, and in the north, where they thought they were destroying the British army with nothing behind it. In six weeks they were hurled baek and forced to stand still by the "British army; they were defeated in two of the most sanguinary battles of the war; they were left with unhealthy -salients under the fire of our guns and with an extended line. Announced Attack. "Their purpose was to overwhelm the British army ; they declared it, and they announced it in their inspired press, but on I lie first of May they left us to go south to make another attack, for it could not le done in the north. It was one of the linest things In tenaetous valor In the whole history of the British empire. "Only a great emergency eon Id have justified the sending of lads of ISMr years, with only a few months' training, to France. When they arrived there they went straight to the front, and as soon as they were there they had to face the veterans and the victorious troops of the enemy. But no veterans 'ever fought with greater steadfastness than these lads who helped to save the cause of the allies from disaster. "A tier the enemy's experience in that six weeks of fighting, although we know what the plan was, the British army was not attacked for three or four monins. The Germans may come again, but that will be because they have failed el.j-where. el.j-where. "1 wish to give warm recognitki to the assistance that the French gave in these operations. After .May 1 , the Germans turned off and attacked the French. They won a preliminary success on a considerable consider-able scale, but not merely have they been forced to a standstill by Marshal Foch, but his counter-drive tiie most brilliant in the annals of the war has driven back the enemy. The danger is not yet over, but he would be a sanguine man on the German general staff who now would predict pre-dict that Germany could obtain a military decision this year. "I do not wish to go beyond that. Aid of America. "In analyzing the elements of the allied success, stress should be placed on the rapidity with which the British made good their losses and the rapidity in-which the American troops were brought over. These two matters were essential parts of the German miscalculations. In J uly 3Uo,0.0 American troops were brought over, 1S5.0U0 of them in British ships. "Everybody knows how gallantly the Americans fought. They fought with a trained skill which no one had a right to expect. Their of licers showed a skilled knowledge in the management of the men under trying cond it ions, which one could hardly expect from men who had not had a year's experience in war. , "Another element of success was the united command, which was achi'.ed only after a long struggle. There is no generalissimo gen-eralissimo in the strict sense of the word. What has been achieved was a unity of strategic command, which has answered every purpose, as the Germans know to their cost. "From the moment Marshal Foch achieved strategic command, the fortunes of the allied armies were restored. There . have been mishaps, but the masterly handling of the reserves has ba filed the German effort and ended in their retreat from the Marne It Is too eariy to say that the German effort is exha usted. i They still have powerful forces in re- j serve, but it is not too early -to say that i their chances of March 21 will not cojic again. . Lau(Js Sammies. "America already has a powerful, large and victorious army in France, the equal of the best troops. It is growing every day and there will be no break in the increase of that army until America has an army not far short, if at all inferior, in numbers to the German army itself. "Germany never again can maintain the same number of divisions that she had. She is now begging for Austrian support. "The German people and their allies are beginning to be disillusioned. In March. Germany was promising great things and the peace tentacles from her allies were withdrawn. That promise has failed. The German harvest is short. Militarily, the Germans have passed the height of their power. Russia, moreover, has become a clog to the feet of Germany. "The idea that Great Britain ts acting hastily toward the democratic government of Russia has nothing in common with fact. It .is always our policy to deal with do facto governments, but It is impossible im-possible to decide or ascertain from day to day what the government is of a single village in the vast territory of Russia. "We have not the slightest desire to interfere with the Russian people, and certainly no intention of imposing on them any particular form of government. But when we see Germany using her authority author-ity over large tracts of Russia and exploiting exploit-ing them to the detriment of the allies and against the will of the people themselves, them-selves, we feel at any rate that the Russian Rus-sian people ought to be free to decide for themselves." t Resent Interference. "The Russian people resented the interference inter-ference of Germany, and they are more and more seeking allied help. We will not hesitate to give it to them wherever possible. pos-sible. "The Czecho-Slovak movement is a remarkable re-markable one. The only desire of the Czecho-Slovaks is to leave Russia and come west to fight for the allies. They desire to take no part in Russian politics. poli-tics. All they wish is to get away, and they have asked us for ships. We have arranged to do the best we can for them, but we are not exploiting this Czechoslovak Czecho-slovak business to interfere in Internal : Russian af fains. "We took ships from very important es- 1 sential work elsewhere, in order to send them to Vladivostok for the purpose of the, Czecho-Slovaks. Acting undoubtedly under German duress, the Bolshevik government gov-ernment refused to allow them to get through to Archangel and Vladivostok. If the Czecho-Slovaks now are the center of activity hostile to the Bolshevik government, gov-ernment, the latter have only themselves to blame. "We are told Siberia is Bolshevik, but, if so, why did not Siberia support the Bolshevik government? Thev could not get sufficient men to form a decent-sized . army and had to employ German and Austrian Aus-trian prisoners in order to attack the Czecho-Slovak forces, to prevent them I from getting through to Vladivostok. j Praises Wilson.' "I wish to make this clear because there has been criticism of the action of the president of the United States for the decision he has taken, in conjunction with the Japanese, to send forces to Vladivostok to rescue the Czecho-Slovaks from a plight due to the organization of German prisoners of war into a force to intercept and capture them. "In regard to the question of peace the attitude of those persons in every country coun-try who consider any effort toward peace as dishonorable and treasonable ought to be steadfastly discouraged, but I do not regard the present moment as one in which an honorable peace is possible We went to war because the British people saw that something fundamental to human hu-man happiness and human progress had , been put in jeopardy as long as the German Ger-man military caste is in power "There are three events which prove i that the German military caste still holds sway. First was the Brest-Litovsk peace treatv by which tie German high command com-mand swept aside Von Hertling. Von Kuehlmann and Czerniu and imposed a drastic and humiliating peace on Russia Second, there was the humiliating and enslaving peace Imposed on Rumania. ; Third, there was the sweeping from of- j fiee of Von Kuehlmann after his reichs-tag reichs-tag speech. "I am a believer in a league of nations, na-tions, but its success must depend upon the conditions under which it is set up The people who made the war still are there in Germany and thev cannot have peace as long as they predominate fn the councils of the enemy. "Jt might conceivably happen that the Germans, bv actions rather than words might insist that they have suffered not only a military, but an economic, defeat, de-feat, and that next, year they would take care that they would not be short. Every time you came to a conference, with the intention of reaching a decision, t he Brussian sword would clank on the council coun-cil table. What is the good of undertaking under-taking peace negotiations under these conditions? There must bp 'power beh'nd a league of nations to e-nforee its decrees. We"all want peace, but It must be just, durable and moral. There must be power behind' tha t ins! ire which would enforce its decisions de-cisions and all who enter the conference must know that. When we have demonstrated demon-strated to the enemy that such a power exists, peace will come, but not any sooner." |