The Washington times., 1919-01-29

| Continued from tlrSL IdBe.J
with Lord Lansdowne and Mr.. Bonar
Law to throw over the Liberal pro-
gram was quite another. The strain
was too great.
Lloyd George In Asquith's Place.
Mr.. Lloyd George, who had come
into the War Party at the twelfth
hour, on the popular but really
cutie irrevelant issue Of the violation
! of Belgian neutrality, not only be-
came Prime Minister and War Lord
in place of Mr.. Asquith, but present
ly threw him out of the coalition as
a negligible quantity, Lord Grey be-
ing kicked upstairs out of the For.
eiSn Office into the House of Lords
One would have supposed tha
both of the sdiscarded Statesmen
would have waited only for the sign
ing of the armistice to turn the t.,
bles on their supplanter by claimin
and posting that they and Lord Ha.
dane had, in spite of the pro-Boe
Mr.. Lloyd George, planned and cX'
cuted the magnifcently successf,
stroke which had rescued the Britis
Empire from the contempt int
which its very poor military recO.
in the Sonth African war h;
plunged it and restored it to its a
cient glory as the most formidabI
power in the world and the arbiter
Of Europe.
But having drifted into their policy
on the French initiative, and carried
it out with true English Empiricism,
they knew not what they did. Lord
Haldane, who did know, did not let
himself entirely loose until after the
election.
Yet it was on hint from a speech
Of his that Mr.. Asquith, three days
before the poll, suddenly made a
belated bid for public support as the
man to whom England owed her per-
feet preparation for the war.
Bid for Support Suppressed.
But as he had sedulously stuffed
the public for four years with the
legend that England had been ut
terly unprepared for the war and
had never harbored a thought Of un-
kindness to Germany and, as further,
the Northcliffe press Immediately
suppressed his bid as completely as
they suppressed the speeches Of
men like Ramsay Macdonald, no
body noticed Mr.. Asquith's volte
face, and he was heavily defeated in
his contest for the seat he had held
easily for thirty years.
THE DAY AFTER ELECTION
LORD HALDANE IN A LONG
LETTER TO THE TIMES, WHICH
THAT PAPER WOULD HAVE
REFUSED TO PUBLISH SIX
MONTHS EARLIER, EVEN IF
LORD HALDANE COULD HAVE
BEEN INDUCED TO WRITE IT,
AT THE RISK OF SHAKING THE
BRITISH MORALE, TORE AWAY
THE LAST SHREDS OF THE
GREAT CAMOUFLAGE AND THE
LION OF WATERLOO AT LAST
STOOD REVEALED WITH THE
SHEEPSKIN AND THE ASS HIDE
FLUNG OFF, AND THE ONCE
TERRIBLE KAISER HELPLESS
IN HIS CLAWS.
Nine hundred thousand Britons
lay dead around the pedestal, but
Britannia did not grudge the price.
She will never ask Lord Haldane,
"What hast thou done with my
legions?"
Cannot Now Claim Preparedness.
Unfortunately, the Empiricism of
Britannia, which enabled her to do
all this bit by bit without connect
ing one bit with another, and there
by arriving at clear consciousness
Of her policy, now prevents her from
seeing that, having thrown over the
pretense that she was innocently
for the war, she cannot
now come to the Peace Conference
in an attitude of virtuous indigna-
ton founded on that pretense.
When ! said in November, 1914,
that as far as preparing for the war
and drinking to "Der Tag" was con-
cerned, it was as between the Ger
man army and the British navy, six
of one and half dozen of the other,
l was reviled as the most abandoned
of the Traitors.
It now appears that 1 did my side
an injustice.
/ should have said six of one and,
say, four and a half of the other, the
odd one and a half being with
Britannia. But Britannia has not
as yet put two things together. Her
press and her politicians still de-
nounce Germany for the crime of
preparing for war in the very same
breath with which they are cheering
Lord Haldane for having outpre-
pared the Germans.
Even comparatively respectable
and thoughtful magazines, like the
Round Table, mechanically reprint
articles about the criminal destruc-
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