Peace Proposals and the Attitude of the Allies: Speech by the Prime Minister, the Right Hon. D. Lloyd George, on December 19th, 1916 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Peace Proposals and the Attitude of the Allies: Speech by the Prime Minister, the Right Hon. D. Lloyd George, on December 19th, 1916

When did they discover that? Where wasthe respect for the rights of other nations in Belgium and Serbia? Oh, that was self defence! Menaced, 1 I suppose, by the overwhelming armies'of Belgium, the Germans had been intimidated into invading that coun try, to the burning of Belgian cities and villages, to the massanring of thousands of inhabitants, old and/young, to the carrying of the survivors into bondage yea, and they were Carrying them into slavery at the 'very moment when this precious Note was being written about the unswerving conviction as to the respect of the rights of other nations! I suppose these outrages are the legitimate interests of Germany? We must know. That is not the mood of peace. If excuses of this kind for palpable crimes can be put for 'ward twoand a-half years after the exposure by grim facts of the guarantee, is there, I__ ask in all solemnity, any guarantee that similar subterfuges will not be used in the future to overthrow ny treatv of peace you may enter into with Prussian militarism? This Note and that speech proves that not yet have they learned the veryalphabet of respect for the \rights of others. Without reparatiori, peace is impossible. Are all these outrages against humanity on land and on sea to be liquidated by a few pious phrases about humanity? Is there to be no reckoning for them? Are we to grasp the hand that perpetrated these atrocities in friendship without any reparation being tendered or given? I am told that we are to begin, Germany helping us, to exact reparation for all futu1e violence committed after the War. We have begun already. It has already cost us so much, and we must exact it new so as not to leave such a grim inheritance to our children. Much as we all long for peace, deeply as we are horrified with war, this Note and the speech which pro pelled it afford us small encouragement and hope for an honourable and lasting compact)

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.