Mr. Lloyd George's reply was in its opening sentences more
contemptuous than is usual in the exchanges of opinion between Parliamentary leaders. We do not say that the Prime Minister was unjustified. " A more inadequate and futile speech than that of Mr. Asquith," he remarked, " he had seldom listened to from a first-rate statesman." Mr. Asquith's audience might have imagined from what they had been told that the history of Ireland began two years ago ; that there had been no rebellion in 1916, and that in 1918 Ireland was a Paradise of law-abiding men ! Mr. Lloyd- George pointed out that in 1918 there was an army of rebels over 150,000 strong engaged in a treasonable conspiracy, negotiating with the Germans for an attack upon Great Britain at the hour of her greatest peril—two months-after the great German offensive of the spring. " This- is the Paradise to which the right hon. gentleman wishes to take us back."
Previous page
