LETTERS TO 'TIE EDITOR.
[Letters of the length of one of our leading paragraphs are of ten snore read, and therefore more effective, than those which fill treble the space.]
TIER " SPECTATOR " AND THE PRIME MINISTER.
[To ens Xenon or THE SPECTATOR.")
Stn,—in your opinion the compolsory retirement of Mr. Lloyd George is necessary for the safety of the nation. Not many of your readers, I hope and believe, will relish your opinion. Mr. Lloyd George is by far the I1104 virile statesman in the Entente Powers, and the French people have a profound faith in his energy and candour. It may be that Mr. Lloyd George is too vehement to be in all respects a first-rate pilot; he made several mistakes in his impulsive attitude towards the Russian Revolution; but no ether statesman has fighting qualities equal to his. Our Prime :Minister should appeal to the nation in a General Election if his foes at home (who range upwards from the Cocoa Press to your paper) try to drive him from office. In a time of supreme crisis a Presidential Elect ion added g•eatly to Lincoln's power. Besides, the Premier's troth-telling in Paris did no more than put into memorable words a faithful description of the war-map. Are you satisfied with the war-map? You cannot-be satisfied, for Belgium is still enslaved; so is a big and wealthy strip of [•'ranee; so are Serbia, 3Iontenegro, and the most parts of Romania; and now a very big slice of Italy is in the enemy's ravaging hands. Russia is in chaos; France line borne with ideal heroism three years and nineteen weeks of torment; vast new political problems have been formed by Germany around Riga and in the Baltic, and the Hindenburg policy of extending and protecting the Mitlel-Europa map has been developed with complete success while Franco- Itritish armies, splendid troops armed with unlimited supplies of all eusentials, have been doing their hest, month after month, since July 1st of last year, to blast their way through the most formid- able RODEO of defence perfected by the most formidable of our foes.
Does any candid mind believe that the war-map would be as bad as it is if the Entente Powers had achieved a virile and reasonable strategy good enough to be in accord with their marvellous resources and with the splendid courage of their troops? I decline to Ray " Yes " to this question. It is in creative brain-power, in real original genius, that the Allied generalship ban failed. If it had not failed the war-map would not be bad, and worse to-day tlian it was at the end of the third year. Our victories on the Somme did not save Rumania, and Verdun would have been saved by one hundred and fifty thousand British troops on the Verdun front.
Explanations in varied profusion can be given always of failures; hot explanations do not get rid of the filets in war-mnps, and all Civilians above military age have three private duties to fulfil :— CI) To audit the war month by month when the published casualties of the month can be added to those of previous months, and when the total casualties for half-a-year can be compared with the progress made during the half-year. This duty is a pious obligation never to be neglected, because every civilian above military age is a trustee of the fighting lines, and the question which he is obliged to answer as well as he con, month by 'eolith, is this: " lIas enough progress been made in France and Flanders to justify the nation's investment along the Western Front of so many lives in death and in wounds? "
(2) If the answer " No " is enforced upon his candour by the casualties and the war-rasp, every civilian above military age is obliged by honour to answer another question " Why is the progress too slow to be profitable as u national investment of man- power in necessary war ? Does the routine of :Mock strike unduly long at the strongest foe in the foe's strongest defences? Has the enemy on other fronts no weak links in his long chain of power ? "
13) If he decides that progress on the Western Front in France and Flanders has achieved neither results on the spot nor effects en other fronte commensurate with the resources behind the attacks and with the casualties since July Ist of last year, a viciliaun above military age must not permit himself to be drawn away from his decision by any personal feeling of affection towards certain Generals, because lie is a trustee of the fighting men, he is not the Generals' trustee. The Generals have bad at their com- mand vast numbers of splendid troops and unlimited supplies of all essentials. Their strategy has hind sixteen months anal a half in which to nchieve the crippling of Gerionny'e despotism. Yet the Belgian coast has not yet (November 18th, 1917) been rescued, and IlintleOlitirg on other fronts has been free to develop with success his plans. Will British historians regard these facts as good and useful to the Allied cause? For a whole year and more I have believed firmly that Westernism in long offensives ran counter to reasonableness in war on the France-FInnders front, and that a large Franco-British army ought to help Italy to knock out Austria, the keystone of the Mittel-Europa bridge.-1 am, Sir, Se.,
WALTER SHAW SPARROW. [Oar whole case against Mr. Lloyd George's Paris speech was that it would encourage such disruptive thoughts as these.—En. Spectator.]
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