New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-12-05
Britain S Spokesman
Are We Obliged to Accept the Opinion
of Lord Lansdownel

To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: The letter of Lord Lansdowne in "The
Daily Telegraph" comes as blow to US, not
only as Americans, but also as admirers OF
tire British people for the tremendous effort
they have put forward "to vindicate the prin-
ciples of peace and justice as against
selfish autocratic pOwer'-to use the words
Of President Wilson's proclamation. To hear
the suggestion made that the German govern
ment and the German people are as yet ready
ito submit future disputes TO arbitration to
enter Unto an international pact" or into
recognzances to keep the peace takes us so
far beyond all reason as to make it seem that
We are listening to some drivel of Lord Hal
dane and his Spiritual home in Germany
associates.
We seem to be back again in the years i'm
mediately preceding 1914, when the idea pre-
vailed in English political circles that fair
words and generous spirit were all that
we're necessary to bring Germany to reason
and this after all the horrors and the sins
against humanity that she has perpetrated
during the last three years!
Can we, dare we, hope that these men do
not speak for the virility that most OF US
still believe informs the British body polite?
Must we look elsewhere for its assertion
for the words that are back of the splendid
end heroic deeds of English valor before the
enemy? Perhaps we may find it-happy the
dayl-in the men of physical strength and OF
unsophisticated thinking, rather than among
the politicians and the high servants OF state.
For I read that W. Harry Costing, president
c. the British Trade Union Congress in 1916
and of the Transport Workers Federation in
1917. has recently said, not, it is true, in
- haa full rS
ere those of Lord Lansdowne, but all the
more heartening because of their simplicity:
"Of the exact terms and conditions on which
peace may eventually be concluded do not
speak But the workingmen of England know
that if all our sacrifice is not to be IN vain
there can only be one end, and that is the
complete overthrow of German tyranny. For
that we are willing TO go on fighting just as
long as necessary. IL is the essential condi-
ton to future world safety" And he con-
tinues: "A half victory, an inconcusve
reace, a settlement which settled nothing, a
patched-up truce under which the nations
rad breathing time TO reeduip themselves for
fresh conflict on a still more terrible scale
that would be the browning disaster"
A disaster it certainly would be. LA Vic
tore Integrae" must be our programme
Nothing less will carry US through Auto
cratic power is still dominant III NeIHidhS'
Indeed, it has made Roadway through and by
means of the war; and any peace made by
compromise will only add to its force. II
German military power remains unbroken
and has a consolidated "Mitteleuropa" upon
which to base its military and economic power
and from which 10 draw its men-all the
other schemes of the pan-Germanists are
feasible; the Berlin Bagdad railroad, Ger
manized South America and German India
in Africa.
"All ethical considerations are completely
alien TO the state, and the state must there
fore resolutely keep them at arms length"
is the latest form in which Germanic state
doctrine has been formulated. In view OF
this, Lord Lansdowne has done the greatest
disservice to the cause of the Allies and to
the cause of America by writing his letter.
knowing, as he must do the weight that at
taches to his name. And he has besmrched
his own land in such manner that its we'll
wishers can only hope that he may be swiftly
and completely repudiated.
RICHARD GOTTHEIL.
New York, Dec. 1, 1917.