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with more than equanimity. Gratifying as are any Allied victories at any time, the achievements of the French and Italian armies at this moment are doubly and trebly grateful, synchronizing as they do with the Russian debacle, which apparently goes from bad to worse, and has involved our unfortunate Rumanian Allies in semi-disaster. Still, the events of the past month should enhearten the cold-footed brigade and even be a lesson to them, deterring them henceforward from promoting hostile propaganda by depreciating the fine generalship and unconquerable spirit of France and Italy.

No Mystery
Peace

66

ON one subject we have the unusual experience of agreeing with Mr. H. G. Wells, whose wayward and facile pen enables him to express divers opinions at brief intervals. He can be a Republican at one moment and a Monarchist the next, and yet remain indignant with any one who challenges his consistency. With his vehement protests against any "Mystery Peace" concerted behind the backs of the Allies by whatever political coterie might chance to predominate at the moment we heartily sympathize. This is a National War which can only be ended by a national settlement, i.e. a peace approved by the victorious people. The Allies mean to win if their politicians will permit, but they must look to it that when that happy day comes statesmen" do not step in and ruin everything as at the close of many previous struggles. The British people naturally have no control and little influence over any Allied Government, who must be shepherded by their own people, but we are responsible for our Government, which professes to represent public opinion and to be amenable to it. We have seen enough of Downing Street in war, first under Mr. Asquith and now under Mr. Lloyd George, to distrust its capacity as peacemaker. We dread every form of secret diplomacy" concerted between Downing Street and the International Jew, who has long been itching to stop further expenditure on shells, as there will be all the less money for him to manipulate hereafter. Moreover, the I.J. has a sneaking admiration for Germany, who has kept his tribe in their proper place and never allowed them to use the Fatherland as a doormat, as unfortunately has been the case in our easygoing, good-natured country, which has allowed the

establishment of something perilously resembling an Imperium in Imperio, whatever Government be in power. Mr. Balfour, Mr. Asquith, Mr. Lloyd George suffer the I.J.'s gladly, though their allegiance may be somewhat ambiguous. In any case they should not be entrusted with confidential information concerning British strategic dispositions or political secrets, or indeed any matters jealously guarded from the ordinary public. We note that German Ministers are able to afford the Reichstag precise details concerning various Allied Agreements which, unless spurious, emanated from one or other of the dubious associates of Entente politicians in London and Paris. As these statements are public property Ministers may as well tell us whether they are true. There is nothing to be ashamed of in any of the allegations, nor is there any longer reason for mystification. The National Review is violently assailed in the Jewish Press for expressing distrust of Jews, but it is not Jews qua Jews who provoke our uneasiness, but Jews of Germanic origin, most of whom were decidedly proGerman before the war. They are not suitable confidants of responsible statesmen, who treat them as though they were more English than the English," a phrase by which it is occasionally sought to explain this disquieting feature of our public life. They may be all right or they may not. We gamble with all that is most precious-the lives of our men-on a hypothesis.

From May to
August

OUR Prime Minister sees red at one moment and black the next. There may be a risk of his being taken off his guard and surprised into some irregular enterprise, as, for instance, the dispatch of an unofficial emissary, of whose identity he might even be unconscious, to view the Matterhorn, at which simultaneously Prince Bülow might chance to be gazing. Conceivably Lord Haldane, who has the highest opinion of his own diplomatic talents, has marked himself out as the great Reconciler of two distracted' countries, both beloved by him. According to one of the Lloyd George organs he has been much consulted by the Government, while the shamefaced Mr. Bonar Law was lately constrained to confess to the House of Commons that Lord Haldane was engaged upon "reconstruction work, as to which further particulars were not forthcoming. We can well believe that Mr. Lloyd George wishes to win the war, as his admirers perpetually remind us. Otherwise Colney Hatch

would be the only possible place for him. We trust his colleagues may realize the possibility of unauthorized diplomacy in Switzerland or elsewhere, which would do untold harm, as, however unofficial, every Ally would instinctively feel-and would be entitled to feel that Perfide Albion was violating the Pact of London. There would be a positive stampede in the same direction. According to the Times the eternal and irrepressible Caillaux is already in Switzerland, whither every available German diplomat is wending his way, the liaison being completed by the presence of certain neutral and Entente financiers who are most anxious to conceal their identity. We are familiar with the fury of Mr. Lloyd George's colleagues and understrappers when any suspicion is expressed of his devious ways and strange associates, but unfortunately these exemplary persons remain in the dark until it is too late, nor have they any influence over Mr. Lloyd George, who flouts them with impunity. There is reason to believe that this miserable humiliating Stockholm business originated between Mr. Lloyd George and Mr. Ramsay Macdonald, of whom Mr. Lloyd George seems to be afraid. It is said to have been concerted at No. 10 Downing Street in the spring. Mr. Henderson-who somewhat lost his bearings in Petrograd, but, unlike some others, has paid the penalty of his folly by resignation, his place in the Government being taken by Mr. Barnes-told the Labour Party (August 21): The Prime Minister had been in favour of this Conference [Stockholm] once and he might be so again. What was a virtue in him in May ought not to be a crime in them in August."

The Crux

66

Ir this serious charge be true, it demonstrates that Mr. Lloyd George requires continual "ginger," for which reason we sincerely regret the disposition of the Times, which has played a great and honourable part in the war, to give him a blank cheque, as that way bankruptcy lies. Any man ever contemplating walking into so palpable a German trap Stockholm" might equally walk into a Swiss trap, a Dutch trap, a Danish trap, or a Papal trap. Anyhow, the public must be on the safe side, and the only way to protect ourselves against those who from war weariness or some other cause might be tempted to sell the pass, is to give a lead to the Government, which so far refuses to give us any lead on the subject of Terms.

as

They pretend to be too absorbed in the war to attend to anything so remote. But the war would get on much better if the Government left its conduct to soldiers and sailors, who are masters of their own trade if not Jacks of other trades. Ministers should concentrate on policy, which is their proper province, as neither Mr. Lloyd George, Mr. Winston Churchill, Mr. Bonar Law, nor Lord Curzon ever will have a glimmering of strategy, which is too simple for such subtle minds. In this connexion Mr. Wells may be useful, as in a letter to the Morning Post (August 22) he complains of the "ambiguous behaviour" of the Allied Governments concerning war aims. "We hear valiant declarations about crushing Germany and so forth. . . . But we get no assurances of any steadfast determination to block the re-entry of Germany as an independent malignant factor into tropical Africa, nor any inkling of a settlement either of Western Asia or of international trade conditions." Probably we should not agree with Mr. Wells on all these issues, as we are convinced by the events of the last three years that the barbarous Boche must not only be put on his back, but kept on his back, if the world is to enjoy anything beyond an armistice. Any attempt to treat him as a civilized being who will behave as such can only lead to a repetition of the present disaster. That is the crux of the business, which differentiates this war from every other warnamely, that we are fighting a savage Power bound by no laws, to whom might is right, and who regards treaties as a form of political trickery.

No Precedents

MR. WELLS declares: "We do not believe in all this extreme Tory blustering against Peace discussion. We do not believe in fighting without a plain and exact statement of the ends for which we fight." Great Britain-and the same may be said of her Allies-has nothing to be ashamed of in her aims and certainly nothing to conceal. They cannot be too clearly or categorically set forth, all the more because the more popular is our Peace formula the more difficult will it be for the politicians to practise that "secret diplomacy" which is the bugbear of many people who do not know what it means, and a real terror to those of us who realize of what ignorant and impressionable Ministers are capable. The subject is not new to the readers of the National Review, as from early

days we have, in season and out of season, begged them to exert themselves against a Mugwump Peace. Terms will depend no less on public opinion than did our entry into the war and its management, which repeatedly called for outside interference. There is clearly room for differences of opinion upon details, nor is it necessary for the Allies to be continually canvassing every item in each other's programme. We are fighting for security, as the condition of European civilization. Each Ally should in the first place make up its own mind as to the irreducible minimum necessary to attain that security and refer other questions to an Allied Conference. We complain of German inability to understand other nations, which has been flagrant throughout the war, but many of our mentors equally misunderstand the psychology of the Germans, who being a nation of bullies should be treated accordingly. This is the A B C and X Y Z of any Peace, which must not be negotiated, but dictated. As President Wilson has put it "We must conquer or submit." What is the use of parleying with a Government that not only repudiates its own signature but glories in its perfidy? This peculiarity of the Boches makes any settlement infinitely difficult, but we have to deal with people as they have proved themselves to be and not as we should like to have them. Because the Germans are totally different from every other community we have ever fought, the settlement must be totally different. No precedents apply. This is our great stumbling-block, as our Parliamentarians and the bureaucracy adore precedents and cannot move a yard without them. They would close every controversy with the observation, "We could not do that, we have never done it before." This mentality is mainly responsible for the prolongation of the war, and, if allowed to, would make a Peace that would beget another war within ten or at most twenty years.

THE actual terms are not the difficulty-almost any schoolboy
could draft them. The Government is the difficulty. The Rt.
Roosevelt
Terms

Hon. Faintheart and the Rt. Hon. Feebleguts have as little stomach for a good Peace as for real War. Their character is revealed in their Blockade. "Don't hurt the Germans" is one of their mottoes. "Don't humiliate Germany" is another. We must do both if we want a permanent peace. We reproduced last month Mr. Roosevelt's

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