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Show I LLOYD-GEORGE'S SPEECH. In his speech In Parliament yesterday, yester-day, Lloyd-Gcorge, England's greatest man, heartened the Allies by a candid can-did review of the foou situation and submarine warfare. Ho gave statistics cf food supplies and crop production which clearly show that England cannot can-not be starved, and then he proceeded i to disclose how successfully tho U-boat campaign of ruthlessness had I been met In April, when the wolves of the sea were doing most damage, 560,000 tons of shipping nad gone down in one month. From this record period, the losses had been reducod i. until for July and August they would be only 175,000 tons net each. The , prime minister said new tonnage ac quired In 1917 would reach two mil-' mil-' lion tons, and then, he added: "The admiralty has met with suc-cess suc-cess in combating the submarine menace." men-ace." The premier said he agreed that the people of the country were all the better for being told oven unpalatable truths, but they also must be told the truth even if it was palatable. They could not exercise reasonable judgment judg-ment or come to decisions regarding facts unless both the cheery and dis-? dis-? couraging sides were presented to them. England is now building ships at the rate of 2,000,000 tons a year. The submarine is destroying 3,000,000 tons. The United States will more than make up the million tons, in fact our plans call for much more tonnage. This makes a most encouraging out-I out-I look, and the great chango for tho j better has occurred since the Ameri- '; can warships entered the conflict, f Lloyd-George read a dispatch from j Field Marshal Haig which confirms t the statement that the English are J: tenacious. The message said: "This is the supreme hour for pa-, pa-, tlence, for courage, for endurance, for hope, for unity. Let us go through y this hour with a temper that will en- I able us to destroy a great military r despotism. Lot us go through this hour with tho old temper of our race so that next year we shall win, and then tho world will begin to reap the fruits of our valor. When tho British forces wont Into the conflict, the Kalsor spoke disparagingly dis-paragingly of the "littlo army." General Gen-eral French had not more than 120,-000 120,-000 men to help block General von Kluck's drive through northern Franco. The little army has Increased In-creased until the British aro a mighty factor in tho war, anri tho Kalsor must begin to feel as docs a tramp who, in attempting to scale a backyard fence where ho has boon poaching, fails to escape a bulldog who gains a firm grip on the seat of his trousers. Gen. Haig sees victory ahead, and has resolved to stay at tho task until the haughty are vanquished. In closing hia speech in Parliament, Lloyd-George paid a tribute to America, Ameri-ca, after admitting that Russia has proved disappointing In tho year's offensive. of-fensive. t "I do not think," the premier said, "the time has come for a useful review re-view o,f the- military situation. The main facts aro well known to the house and tho country. I had anticipated antici-pated this year a great convorging movement against our foes. Itussia was equipped for that part as she never before had been equipped. I venture to say that the nippers were beginning to grip, but to bp quite frank, one claw of the nippers is out of repair for the moment and, therefore, there-fore, wg have not got tho same converging con-verging pressure we had anticipated. "But things aro mending. The situation sit-uation in Russia is a very difficult, beoause it is quito obvious you cannot oven state facts without omharrassing those who are trying to restore tho situation In that country. But while they are doing it bravoly with great courage, and, I think, with great thor-oughnessl thor-oughnessl the brunt of tho fighting must fall upon other countries. And, considering all the difficulties with which we aro confronted our armies have won very conspicuous successes. It is difficult even to dwell on the differences dif-ferences which th& temporary col-lapso col-lapso of the Russian military power has made in 'the task with which our soldiers aro confronted." "Tbcbest Germany can do now," Mr. Lloyd-George continued, "when what practically was her most powerful power-ful opponent at the beginning of the war is paralyzed by internal dlf-cultles, dlf-cultles, is to hold her own against the attacks of the British and French. And she Isn't quite doing it. On the contrary in this year she has been beaten in several great battles with severe losses and with hundreds of her guns captured, which is not a bad test of winning or losing a battle. "Russia recovered and America really in, with those fine troops of which we saw a specimen yesterday and which were a symbol of America coming into this world struggle with a yirlle swing those are the things the Germans and their allies have to think about." |
