Evening star., 1918-07-11
ASQU|TH UPH0LDS
Nations LEAGUE
Former British Premier at
Dinner to U. 5. Officers
Praises Mr.. Wilson.
"PIoNEER OF PROGRESS"

of President Wilson's leadership In
the war and his advocacy Of league
of nations after the war. was given
by Herbert H. Asouith. the former
premier. In an address last night at
the National Liberal Club. The occa-
zion was a hospitality dinner to
American officers" at which 500 prom
inent Englishmen were hosts. The
dinner resolved itself into a meeting
of ovation for the President.
Vice Admiral Sims. commander OF
the American naval forces in the war
zone. paid tribute to the cooperation
and declared:
"The submarine menace is now at
an end, for we are destroying them
faster than the Germans can build
them"
Mai. Cen Biddle. commander of the
American forces in England. evoked
long cheers when he announced that
from seventy to eighty different
points In England and Scotland.
Most Urgent Peace Problem
Former Premier Asquith. in the
course of a speech urging the impor-
tance of President Wilson's idea of
league of nations as ''the most urgent
of all peace problems" said:
"The United States as a nation has
had tho very good fortune that in the
supreme crises of her national his
tory the man whom she most needed
for inspiration and guidance has al
ways appeared. Thus came Washing
Lincoln are illustrious names which
have passed into history. We must
not attempt to anticipate history's
judgment upon men still living, but
I will venture to say that President
Wilson has been the head of the
trying than any in it's annals.
president Wilson has taken the
greatest decision Of our age and has
carried his people with him in it.
Moreover, he has laid before the world
the grounds for his decision. the rea-
it, and the spirit in which it was
adopted. He has done this in state
papers which are worthy to live side
by side with the most inspiring ut
terances of his most famous prede-
cessors.
cause. 1t is another to push 1t to
victorious issue. II nation is to
hold its own on the battlefield these
days 1t must be equipped on the sea
and land with the strongest battal-
ions, the best and fastest ships. ade-
auate organization Of transport and
supply, and even with a superiority
in all the manifold mechanical de-
vices for aggression and defense
which the hellish ingenuity of modern
warfare has devised.
Americas Contribution.
America has had her difficulties.
They have not stifled. but have stimu-
lated her energy, and we grasp the
opportunity tonight of acknowledging
our unbounded admiration of the
made. Is making and will continue to
make in ever-increasing measure
Here again we gratefully trace the
guiding hand and driving will of the
President.
Probably the world owes its great
est debt to President Wilson for help
ing men whose vision has been
blurred and blinded by the smoke of
the battlefields to lift up their eyes
and to look through it and beyond 1t.
1t is very difficult in time OF war to
keep a steady head and a clean
tongue. President Wilson does both.
I'VE cannot ask ourselves too often
what we are fighting for. President
Wilson has done more than any other
statesman to concentrate the minds of
his own people. of the allies and even
of the enemy peoples upon q league
of nations as our dominating world
aim.
There can be no clean peace which
does not clear away the causes OF
war. 1t seems to me all-important
that both here and in America we
should realize and act as though we
realized that a league OF nations is
neither a vague political abstraction
nor an empty rhetorical formula. but
a concrete and definite ideal. This
is a large step in advance on the
road of human progress. but it can
and must be taken, and when the goal
is reached due honor will be paid to
President Wilson as the greatest of its
pioneers"