New-York tribune., 1922-10-15

tien whish ! mean ~ abide by--if la
conasQpeace pf thAt am driven into
With Mi pride that havs been enabled,
with the assistance Of loyal colleagues,
In a dark hour Of this nation'a his-
tory to rtndas Ii NO znsan services.
i, M this ware the last dsy 4
more proud than ever sf the fact thst
Ii wAs given me In the last days and
waeks Of my Premiership TO invoke the
might Of this grsat empire TO protect
from indeEersbable horror rnen. women
and children by the hundred thousand
who were trusting to the plightsd word
Of France, Italy and Great Britain as
thstr shield and their defense, and who
are thanking God IT this hour that
Britain, Great Britain, has Kept the
One OF the features of Mr.. Llovd
Gecrgsss speech WAS q violent personal
attack on Lord Gladstone, who recently
has severely criticized the premier's
Near East policy.
Assails Lord Gladstone
1T was rather shock to me,p said
the Premier, ITO see Gladstone de-
nounea ns, hecauss we were trying to
protect Christian minoritias agains
the Turk, could have taken it from
any one else, but from Gladstone it
WAS particularly offensive.
y know the difficulty OF any one
without adequate gifts, who has to
carry through life great name, If
he only does it with becoming modesty
ne insures, compassion If not respect.
! am sorry to say Lord Gladstone has
never played leading parts. He has
given himself airs such as his great
father, even in his most exalted days,
never took upon himself. He has ac-
tually accommodated me from the
Liberal party
Asking ironically what service Lord
Gladstone had ever done for Liberal
ism, the Premier added:
"He is the best living embodiment
that Liberal doctrine is a quality which
is not hereditary. There is no more
rdicuious spectacle than dwarf stand
ing before the footlights in garments
inherited from giant"
Curzon Given Credit
During the crisis in the Near East
the Premier was persistently criticized
for putting the, Foreign Office in the
background and conducting the ma
tion's foreign affairs himseIf, without
reference or consultation with the
Foreign Office The opposition press
gave Lord Curzon full credit for hay
ing, in his two missions to Paris, ex-
tricated the Premier from tight
place.
MIR. Lloyd George to-day referred to
these accusations and went into a
long history of the negotiations of the
Treaty of Sevres, aiming to prove that
these negotiations were in the hands
Of Lord Curzon and NJ. Berthelot, of
the French Foreign Office. He de-
clared that the treaty was prepared
IN the British Foreign Office with Lord
Curzon presiding.
Premier. II approved it. The con-
ference at the beginning of this year
and the one later this year were
attended exclusively by our Foreign
Minister. assented. l was consulted
Lord Curzon presided with great abii-
ity and with great knowledge over
these meetings. want to say this
because of the rubbishy statements
by the Cabinet secretariat."
The Premier dwelt reproachfully
with the criticisms on charges leyeled
against the government at the time
when the Near East negotiations were
"The negotiations, delicate, difficult
and dangerous as they were, have
been conducted under circumstances
which, fortunately, were without prece-
dent in this country. Whilst we en-
gagged in a most difficult task, we have
been aasailed with misrepresentation
with abuse, with innuendo, such as no
government, in conducting interna-
tional affairs, ever has been subjected
to before. And the country resents it.
At the time we could not answer the
H. l1l - ,s1k IL 4
was suggested that we were war
mengers, thirsting for blood, for the
reason that you cannot place the
whole Of the circumstances before the
country without interfering with the
work Of our representatives on the
spot. But the time has come when /
am enabled to speak, and mean to
do So"
Premier Grows Emphatic
The Prime Minister was very en-
phatic in insisting that it would have
been useless to allow the Turks to
cross the Sea Of Marmora, trusting to
negotiations later.
"What were we to do? Were we to
send message to Kemal saying: You
mustn't cross the neutral zone, other
wise We will resist you by force and
the moment he used force the British
policy? Was the British government
to present the spectacle of the British
dragon to the world in that humiliat-
ing attitude?
sIt is because not merely that we
threatened but that we meant it, and
the Turks knew we meant it, that you
have peace now"
1t was noticeable that through out
his speech the Premier, unlike Mr.
Chamberlain yesterday, made not the
slightest allusion or reference to the
Labor party or the labor policy, al
though he was gently ironical concern
ing the Asquithian Liberals. Refer
ring to the opinion. expressed by some
less briiliancy and change to some
thSzg "a little more dull and ordi-
| nary" the Premier said: "There ought
| to be no difficulty in supplying from
among my critics any number of suit
able candidates that would fulfill that
description"
! Says First Task Is to Restore Pound
! After leaving Manchester the Pre-
| mier went to Stafford, where the free
! dom Of the city was presented to him
In short speech of thanks the Pre-.
mier said the first thing requiring Il
| be done was to re-estabiish the credi
Of the pound sterling Trade depres
| sion and unemployment were inevi
| table; they followed every war. There
was only one way in which the worlt
could be restored; that was that tn.
depleted wealth of the world shoulc
be built Up:
From Stafford he proceeded to Black,
| pool, where he was also presented will
4 the raadrya nf the oi&xy H. -.