| OCR Text |
Show ; ASQUITH'S SPEECH AT LEEDS When this war is over, there is to be : f . abetter understanding of the rights r ; of small nations and a higher regard for the demand of self-government. ) This is made evident by the utter-, utter-, ances of all the statesmen who spo.tk for the allies. At a meeting in Leeds, ' j England, last night former Premier 1. ' Asquith said the attainment of peace at the present moment is the supreme j . interest of mankind; it is worth any sacrifice except the sacrifice of things which made peace worth, hav-I hav-I - ing and which insured its stability by j basing It on the solid rock of right In-j In-j ' ternationally recognized .and guaran-;'. guaran-;'. teed. " f Peace in this sense could not be , j found in a cessation of active hostill-ties hostill-ties followed by a process of territor-bargaining territor-bargaining to be embodied ultimately ulti-mately in paper protocols and pacts and left there at the mercy of the chapter chap-ter of accidents, which had wisely been called "the bible of fools." "Still less can you find peace worthy of the name," he continued, 'in any arrangement ar-rangement imposed by victor or vanquished, van-quished, which ignores the principles of right and sets, at defiance the historic his-toric traditions, aspirations and liberties liber-ties of the peoples affected. Such so-called so-called treaties contain within themselves them-selves their own death warrant and provide fertile breeding ground for future fu-ture wars." He described the German reply to Ihe papal note as teeming with "nebu- j r, i tus and unctuous generalities," but I giving no indication that Germany will I take any practical steps to open the road to real and lasting peace. . Was Germany ready to restore French territory and give Belgium full independence, without fetters or reservations? reser-vations? he aHked. A definite reply to those questions, ho said, would be worth a whole column of "pious platitudes." plat-itudes." "Is there any reason to think thai Germany has learned the lesson of the inevitable consequences of international internation-al spoliation?" asked Mr. Asquith. "Is there any indication that Germany is prepared not only not to repeat the 'crime of seventy-one, but to take any j practical steps which can open the jroad to a real and lasting peace? Is 1 Germany ready to restore what she then took from Franco? Is she ready I to give Belgium complete independence, independ-ence, political and economic, without fetters or reservation, and with as complete an indemnity as any merely material compensation can provide for j the devastation of her territory, the (sufferings of her people? A definite reply to these questions would be worth a whole column of pious platitudes." plati-tudes." Alluding to the necessity of destroying destroy-ing Prussian militarism, the former premier referred to the American reve-lations reve-lations of the German machinations in Bucharest as fresh proof of the brutal-I brutal-I tly and callousness with which Ger-Imany Ger-Imany has waged war. j "It shows from what unmeasured perils, from what a setback to the j whole machinery of civilization mankind man-kind has been delivered, now that the ; allies have shattered forever the j dreams of German hegemony,'' said Mr. Asquith. . . One of the great essential things In bringing about a permanent peace is a higher regard for the brotherhood of man. Disarmament is not the sole solution. so-lution. Nations must begin to coise to discriminate against the foreignor In British colonies, the Britisher is given an advantage; in German colonies, colo-nies, the Germans alone are allowed to go forward. This extreme selfishness and clannishness is at the bottom of wars. If the earth were to be possessed pos-sessed by the tillers of the earth, without regard to nationality, and If people were not to be hemmed in by unnatural conditions the incentive to make war would pass. |
