AN AMERICAN LUNCHEON.

Marlborough Express, Volume LI, Issue 86, 13 April 1917, Page 5

AN AMERICAN LUNCHEON.

MR LLOYD GEORGE THE GUEST

OF HONOR

POSITION SUMMED UP

VICTORY DEPENDS ON MORE

SHIPS

Australian and N.Z. Cable Association

(Received April 13, 9.55 a.m.) v LONDON,. April 12

Mr Page, presiding at an American luncheon to Mr Lloyd George at the Savoy, proposed the Prime Minister's health. He said that America was coming to the Old /World-in answer to duty''s call to succor the Democracy . The foremost consequence would be a. better understanding amongst the free peoples of Europe and America. Mr Lloyd George, replying, said that he was proud to be the first British Prime Minister to welcome Americans, as comrades-in-arms-, ,Hei ejoiced over "America's advent in fch& . War, oecause it finally stamped the war as,a struggle for human liberty against '' military autocracy, and because it would nave been a tragedy if America did not sit on the .peace conference. The Kaiser promised rhat Prussia would be a democracy after the war. "I think he is right. The Kaiser imagines that. he is the world's law-giver. Yon Hindenburg i relies on England becoming helpless i before. America is ready, or on America having no ships to transport !,ah army. The absolute assurance of j our victory' is summed ij|y'' in ■' more f<hips.' . ': "The Priissian ideal', 0 at present amounts to constituting ,an ;irmy and intimidating the world.' The Kaiser, intoxicated" by 'Prussianism, delivers law to /the # wbrld as if Potsdam was a new Sinai and he was uttering the law from thunderclouds. Two tacts have-clinched the argument that this >> struggle is; for freedom—America's advent and the Russian revolution. s'-IK "fif© 5 Russians realised, as apparently they' were doing, that national discipline, was' compatible with- and 'essential --■', to national freedom, 'they would become a free people. Hindeiiburg recently disclosed the real reason, why Germany had provoked America, and showed that he was rely ing- on one of two things—either that the submarines would so destroy., shipping that England would be put out of action before America was ready,. or when America was leacly. she woiild have no ships to transport an, army. Yon Hindenburg has drawn a ; 'no thoroughfare' line across the Allies' territories. The Allies must make a similar line at Germany's legitimate frontiers.

•;It behoves the Empire and America principally to make Hinderi-1 burg's reckoning as false as his computation regarding the taunted lino which, we have'already broken. What is the Hindenburg line? : It means a line across other people's territories with a warning that the shall only- cross a.t, .the' peril"of v +h4ir, ; liv.es:'- Enrope >\as tei* jbiidu^irig; ife is' i ofe iiiaivy generatioiiSj has; ■ riowrYlllacfe -up, her mind that the ; Hindenb'urg. line must be drawn",across the..legitimate* frontiers of Germany herself. (The 1 audience here rose \ip and for several 'moments cheered loudly). "America's advent means tluxt the Hiridenburg line must not be drawn across thf* American, shores. Its proper place is on the Rhine. '•'Tho peaco conference will settle the destiny of the nations arm the course of human life for countless years. I see; peace coming now—a real peace which the world has never known. Strange things have happened in rhis war. Stranger things are ooming, and rapidly., ■■ Six weeks sigo llussia was ah aittocraey. Now-it-is one of the most advanced democra'cios in the world.. To-day we . ai-o waging the" most devastating war in history. To-morrow —perhaps not a distant to-morrow —war may be abolished from the category .of human crimes. ' _ ■> / "Tlie aDsolute Assurance of victoiy will be found in the one word": Bhips!' The German military advisers must already be realising .that this constitutes another tragic nii&calcillation which is going to lead thorn into disaster and ruin."

Mr Lloyd George paid a. tribute to the assistance America had already rendered to tho Allies. < AVnerica would not only wage a successful war, but would also ensure a beneficent peace. 1-fe concluded: "The British advance on Easter Alonday began at dawn It was work fit for the dawn. Our gallant soldiers are the heralds of dawn. The Allies will soon emerge into the full radiance of a perfect day." '■■■;•-