Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-12-28
NOTE OF OPTIMISM RUNS
THROUGH WAR-AIMS SPEECH
OF PREMIER LLOYD-GEORGE

specting the desire of the people
themselves. That is what we laid
down then, and that is what we stand
by now.
I'VE have conquered no country
where the population belonged to the
governing race, not one-Mesopota-
mia, Palestine, Samoa. We have not
annexed a single yard of territory
where there is German population.
The next thing | asked for was
security. | noticed that one honor
able member said the government
had not made any declaration.
made a considered declaration after
discussion with my colleagues and we
stand by it.
characterization of Germany
Il said that there must be guar
antees of peace. Does any one chal-
lenge that? / said that one guaran-
tee would be the destruction of the
Prussian military power. A better
guarantee than that would be the
democratiZation of the German gov
ernment. No one wishes TO dictate
to the German people the form of
government they should accept. That
is a matter entirely for themselves,
but it is right that we should say
that we could enter into negotiations
with a free government with a diff
ferent attitude of mind. temper and
spirit, with less suspicion, with
more confidence than we could with
n government whom we knew to be
dominated by the aggressive and ar
rogant spirit of PruSSian militariSm.
The allied governments would in
my Judgment, act wisely if they
made that distinction in their gen.
eral attitude in discussion of terms
of peace, either from Germany or
even from pacifists in this country.
The third condition, with regard
to the democratiZation of Germany,
goes to the very root of this.
why were the Allies forced into
the war? Certainly not for terri
torial ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. No one be-
lieves it. Did Russia want any ter
ritory from Austria or Germany
when she went into this war? Does
any one believe that my noble
friends Lord Grey's) one motive
when he came to advise the govern
ment upon the subject of peace or
war was to sacr zee millions of lives
in order to ann the German col
onies?
"Who believes it and who dares
say it? Then let us get rid of that
idea. When we entered this war we
may have been right or we may have
| been wrong, but, at any rate, we did
not enter this war to annex a yard
of anybody else's territory. We en-
tered into the war because we be-
! lieved the honor of Great Britain
was involved in standing by her
word
Who but Prussia Caused War?
But what brought the war
abbut? Does any one doubt who has
read the whole history of that rest
| less and vicious. arrogant military
caste of Prussia, determined to
force their dictation and domination
over Europe and through Europe
over the world? They planned and
they plotted for years for this war.
They were even prepared (and ev-
erybody in. Germany knew it, to
overthrow their own ruler in order
! to help another ruler who was more
in sympathy with their ambitious
designs. 1t was common talk in
Germany and there were pamphlets
on the subject circulated throughout
Prussia and the whole of Germany.
"They repeatedly tried to force
war on Russia, and Russia pur-
chased peace once or twice at the
price of humiliation. They tried to
force war on France. Has any one
taken the trouble to acquaint him
self with the temper Of the military
caste?
I'VE all know the Zabern history.
| Only yesterday a British general
! gave me an instance which had hap
pened here in this country which is
an Illustration of what we are up
against and what we are fighting
/ against. A Prussian officer who is
Iinterned strolled into an enginehouse
where he had no business to be.
The engineer ordered him out. He
took no notice of it, but answered
i him in German. The engineer said
You have no business here. and |
must request you to leave Then
the officer said: I am not going to
take any orders from you The en-
gineer then took him by the coat
not roughly, and began to take him
out. and the German hit him in the
face.
THE point I want to put is this:
You are dealing now with a temper
which has made this war. The point
| wish to come to is the defense
which was made by this officer when
he was put on trial. Here it is:
\ According to German military law
} / have the right, in the event of any
interference by civilians, to have re-
course to arms That meant that il
he had had a sword he would have
had the right to run the man