" I have no news for you " were almost
the first words of the Prime Minister last Saturday, in a speech which will have an assured and eminent place in the records of the nation as well as in those of the GuikihalL There has been no Lord Mayor's banquet even remotely similar in historic importance; and yet a kind of moment- ary dead-point had been reached ; because the news of the Kaiser's abdication was already known to the Guildhall audience, while Germany's surrender had not been consummated. But Mr. Lloyd George was in a position to say that " the issue is settled." He contrasted that moment with the occasion, a year before, when the critical state of the Allies' fortunes compelled his absence from the Guildhall and his presence in Italy. The contrast between these two periods, and between now and last March, provided " the most dramatic change in history." Now an Army once the most
formidable in the world was hardly an army at all, and Germany's Navy was certainly no longer a navy. The potent Empire that threatened civilization was now headless and helpless. It was no longer a going concern. Whatever happened, we would have no Hundred Days after this Peace. The Kaiser and the Crown Prince had been condemned by their own people, and he wished to add no word to that condemnation.
Previous page
