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LLOYD GEORGE CALLS FOR SUPREME EFFORTSays Democracy at Last Is Putting Up Real Fight Against EnemiesBy David Lloyd George.LONDON.—The fortune of war has weighed heavily against the Western Allies. Three weeks ago we were congratulating ourselves on having escaped from the Norwegian fiords without the loss of a man. Now our hard-pressed forces in Prance are being driven toward the Channel ports.Will the combined forces of France and Britain north and south of the German advance rally in time and strike a blow at the enemy that will break the point of his spear and push him back to positions where he will cease to threaten them with immediate and overwhelming catastrophe? That is, will there be another Marne that will give the Allies time to rearrange and reconstruct their defenses and utilize the vast resources at their command?Is there time for Prance to throw up a line of entrenchments that will halt the enemy? Time for Britain and her empire to raise and equip a great army? A few days will furnish us with the answer to this momentous question, upon which the fate of the great free commonwealths depends.The British and French Armies broke and broke very badly in March and April, 1918. For two months the German attack appeared to be irresistible. It smashed the British line in front of Amiens, and destroyed one of our armies. It then crashed through farther north and drove another British Army far toward the Channel ports. The Germans then turned on the French near Soissons, hurled them in headlong retreat toward Paris. And yet in a few weeks these apparently invincible armies were pushed back in disordered retreat toward their own frontiers, and their leaders were pleading for an armistice.Luck May Turn.Fortune is a wheel, and we now are well underneath. But it may not lock in disaster but continue to turn. Is that likely to happen this time?We must not allow ourselves to be comforted by historical comparisons which are py no means complete. In 1918 the British Army numbered millions of well-trained and well-equipped men. Neither in numbers, training nor equipment is the army of 1940 in the least comparable with that of 1918. It ought to be but it’s not.We started an ambitious rearmament program in 1936 to enable us to face this menace which has now fallen upon us. But we did not rearm. Instead of getting on with the job we slogged and slouched about it as if there were no particular reason for hurry.Meanwhile Hitler and Goering threw the whole of their demoniac energy into building up the terrible armaments which are overwhelming resistance today. Even after war was declared we still dawdled and messed about. We had well over a million unemployed when we needed the labor of every available man to make up for lost time.Z alluded in my last article to a veryDAVID LLOYD GEORGE.—A. P. Photo.remarkable and now very significant speech delivered by Hitler in February last. One passage from it is worth quoting. Replying to a taunting speech delivered by Churchill, he said:“Herr Churchill may be convinced that by now we know what he has achieved in these five months. We also know what France has done. But he does not seem to know what Germany has done in these five months. Those gentlemen seem to think we have slept five months. Since I entered the political arena I have hardly slept a single day of any importance, not to speak of the past five months.“There is one assurance I can give the German people—a tremencipus task has been carried out in these five months. In fact, all that was created in Germany in the previous seven years fades in comparison with it. Our arms factories are working according to plan. Our plans have been a success and our foresight begins to bear fruit in all respects.”We know now that this was not an Idle boast. It was an accurate description of the most colossal effort ever put forward by a people to equip themselves for the task set them by their leader. It must have meant that practically all the manufacturing resources of Germany were, during this period, diverted into military production. The population had to put up with stern discomforts and deprivations during the most severe winter Europe has experienced for half a century.Dictators Don't Blaster.I have done my best for years to inculcate into my countrymen a comprehension of the startling fact that these j dictators are not mere blusterers. When they boast, it is of what they have done or what they further intend to accomplish. ‘ 'This sinister speech of Herr Hitler’s provided material for hollow, foolish merriment here and in France. Hammers were slowly multiplied and quickened in our workshops, but not perceptibly. The output was still markedly below what the emergency demanded. Hitler had already '‘missed the bus.” so why perspire over your task of finishing him off?Legislation which was carried in a few hours through both Houses of Parliament shows that at last we have been alarmed into full realization of the gravity of the crisis into which we sauntered so heedlessly and so confidently. Without a dissenting voice, the Lords and the Commons have given to the government unlimited powers to requisition service and property, all for the use of the state.If these powers are promptly, efficiently and resolutely utilized, then our position may be ultimately restored and the dictators may be taught a salutary lesson as to the resourcefulness of democracy when it is putting up a real fight for its liberties. If German workers of all crafts and classes can, by toiling night and day at the full stretch of their powers, achieve as much in five months in the way of output as they had turned out during the previous seven years, why cannot British and French workmen emulate their example?They have before them as stimulus and Inspiration the unsurpassed heroism and endurance of our airmen during the last few days. Their intrepidity, their readiness to face every sacrifice, their ceaseless, almost sleepless devotion to duty, has excited the wonder of the world. That spirit in workshops, from employers, managers, foremen and men, will extricate us from what appears to be a tangle of disaster and set us on the high road of ultimate triumph.French Overconfidence.Paul Reynaud’s speech in the Senate shows how even the French, through overconfidence, suffered from the same carelessness that had infected important circles in Britain. His story of the way the enemy were let through the powerful fortifications of the Meuse and the French frontiers is a tale of tragic negligence. This phrase “incredible mistakes” has a much wider application both in France and in Britain.The British Empire has not yet put forth one-fifth of her strength in men or material. They must be mobilized entirely without delay. High-sounding acts of Parliament are not enough. Every clause, every sentence, every wordmust be converted into action.Meanwhile men and women, whether in or out of uniform, must hold on with grim tenacity which will disdain to grumble at any deprivation or discomfort, and which will be prepared to contribute willingly any needful service and face calmly all perils.(CWillfat. 1940.)
Newspaper Details
Evening Star
Washington, Washington-DC, US
Sun, May 26, 1940
Page 58
Full Page
Clipped by
Duncan H.
GB 19 Nov 2021
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