D 613 =======^========^======================== 
 
 f , ITISH WAR AIMS 
 
 Copy 1 
 
 oxATEMENT BY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 
 
 ]\ 
 
 January Fifth, Nineteen Hundred and Eighteen 
 
 Authorized Version as published by THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT 
 NEW YORK: GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 
 
of 
 
 no 
 
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 BRITISH WAR AIMS 
 
 STATEMENT BY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 
 
 January fifth. Nineteen hundred and eighteen 
 
 AUTHORIZED VERSION AS PUBLISHED BY THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT 
 
 WHEN the Government," said Lloyd George, 
 "invite organized labor in this country to 
 assist them to maintain the might of their armies in 
 the field, its representatives are entitled to ask that 
 any misgivings and doubts which any of them maj^ 
 have about the purpose to which this precious 
 strength is to be applied should be definitely cleared, 
 and what is true of organized labour is equally true 
 of all citizens in this country, without regard to 
 grade or avocation. 
 
 "When men by the million are being called upon 
 to suffer and die, and vast populations are being 
 subjected to the sufferings and privations of war on 
 a scale unprecedented in the history of the world, 
 they are entitled to know for what cause or causes 
 they are making the sacrifice. It is only the clearest, 
 greatest and jus test of causes that can justify the 
 
2 BRITISH WAR AIMS 
 
 continuance even for one day of this unspeakable 
 agony of the nations, and we ought to be able to state 
 clearly and definitely, not only the principles for 
 which we are fighting, but also their definite and con- 
 crete application to the war map of the world. 
 
 "We have arrived at the most critical hour in this 
 terrible conflict, and before any government takes 
 the fateful decision as to the conditions under which 
 it ought either to terminate or continue the struggle, 
 it ought to be satisfied that the conscience of the na- 
 tion is behind these conditions, for nothing else can 
 sustain the effort which is necessary to achieve a 
 righteous end to this war. 
 
 "I have, therefore, during the last few days taken 
 special pains to ascertain the view and the attitude 
 of representative men of all sections of thought and 
 opinion in the country. Last week I had the privi- 
 lege, not merely of perusing the Declared War Aims 
 of the Labour Party, but also of discussing in detail 
 with the labour leaders the meaning and intention 
 of that declaration. I have also had an opportunity 
 of discussing this same momentous question with Mr. 
 Asquith and Viscount Grey. Had it not been that 
 the Nationalist leaders are in Ireland engaged in 
 endeavoring to solve the tangled problem of Irish 
 self-government, I should have been happy to ex- 
 change views with them, but Mr. Redmond, speak- 
 ing on their behalf, has, with his usual lucidity and 
 force, in many of his speeches, made clear what his 
 ideas are as to the object and purpose of the war. 
 
 GIFT 
 
 KAR 9 1SI9 
 
DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 3 
 
 I Have also had the opportunity of consulting cer- 
 tain representatives of the great dominions overseas. 
 "I am glad to be able to say, as a result of all these 
 discussions, that, although the Government are alone 
 responsible for the actual language I propose using, 
 there is national agreement as to the character and 
 purpose of our war aims and peace conditions, and 
 in what I say to you to-day, and through you to the 
 world, I can venture to claim that I am speaking, not 
 merely the mind of the Government, but of the 
 nation and of the empire as a whole. 
 
 "We may begin by clearing away some misunder- 
 standings and stating what we are not fighting for. 
 I We are not fighting a war of aggression against the 
 ] German people. Their leaders have persuaded them 
 1 that they are fighting a war of self-defence against 
 a league of rival nations bent on the destruction of 
 Gennany. That is not so. The destruction or dis- 
 ruption of Germany or the German people has never 
 been a war aim with us from the first day of this 
 war to this day. Most reluctantly, and indeed quite 
 unprepared for the dreadful ordeal, we were forced 
 to join in this war in self-defence. In defence of 
 the violated public law of Europe, and in vindication 
 of the most solemn treaty obligation on which the 
 public system of Europe rested, and on which Ger- 
 many had ruthlessly trampled in her invasion of 
 Belgium, we had to join in the struggle or stand 
 aside and see Europe go under and brute force tri- 
 umph over public right and international justice. It 
 
4 BRITISH WAR AIMS 
 
 was only t±ie realization of that dreadful alternative 
 that forced the British people into the war. 
 
 "And from that original attitude they have never 
 swerved. They have never aimed at the break-up of 
 the German peoples or the disintegration of their 
 state or country. Germany has occupied a great 
 position in the world. It is not our wish or intention 
 to question or destroy that position for the future, 
 but rather to turn her aside from hopes and schemes 
 of military domination, and to see her devote all her 
 strength to the great beneficent tasks of the world. 
 Nor are we fighting to destroy Austria-Hungary or 
 to deprive Turkey of its capital, or of the rich and 
 renowned lands of Asia Minor and Thrace, which 
 are predominantly Turkish in race. 
 
 "Nor did we enter this war merely to alter or 
 destroy the imperial constitution of Germany, much 
 as we consider that military, autocratic constitution 
 a dangerous anachronism in the Twentieth Century. 
 Our point of view is that the adoption of a really 
 democratic constitution by Germany would be the 
 most convincing evidence that in her the old spirit of 
 military domination had indeed died in this war, and 
 would make it much easier for us to conclude a broad 
 democratic peace with her. But, after all, that is a 
 question for the German people to decide. 
 
 "It is now more than a year since the President of 
 the United States, then neutral, addressed to the bel- 
 ligerents a suggestion that each side should state 
 clearly the aims for which they were fighting. We 
 
DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 5 
 
 and our allies responded by the note of the tenth of 
 January, 1917. 
 
 "To the President's appeal the Central Empires 
 made no reply, and in spite of many adjurations 
 from their opponents and from neutrals, they have 
 maintained a complete silence as to the objects for 
 which they are fighting. Even on so crucial a mat- 
 ter as their intentions with regard to Belgium, they 
 have uniformly declined to give any trustworthy 
 indication. 
 
 "On the twenty-fifth of December last, however, 
 Count Czernin, speaking on behalf of Austria-Hun- 
 gary and her Allies, did make a pronouncement of a 
 kind. It is, indeed, deplorably vague. We are told 
 that it is not the intention of the Central Powers to 
 appropriate forcibly any occupied territories or to 
 rob of its independence any nation which has lost its 
 political independence during the war. It is obvious 
 that almost any scheme of conquest and annexation 
 could be perpetrated within the literal interpretation 
 of such a pledge. 
 
 "Does it mean that Belgium, and Serbia, Monte- 
 negro and Roumania will be as independent and 
 as free to direct their own destinies as the German 
 or any other nation? Or does it mean that all man- 
 ner of interferences and restrictions, political and 
 economic, incompatible with the status and dignity 
 of a free and self-respecting people, are to be im- 
 posed? If this is the intention then there will be 
 one kind of independence for a great nation and an 
 
6 BRITISH WAR AIMS 
 
 inferior kind of independence for a small nation. We 
 must know what is meant for equality of right 
 among nations, small as well as great, is one of the 
 fundamental issues this country and her Allies are 
 fighting to establish in this war. Reparation for the 
 wanton damage inflicted on Belgian towns and vil- 
 lages and their inhabitants is emphatically repudi- 
 ated. 
 
 "The rest of the so-called 'offer' of the Central 
 Powers is almost entirely a refusal of all concessions. 
 All suggestions about the autonomy of subject na- 
 tionalities are ruled out of the peace terms alto- 
 gether. The question whether any form of self-gov- 
 ernment is to be given to Arabs, Armenians or 
 SjTians is declared to be entirely a matter for the 
 Sublime Porte. A pious wish for the protection of 
 minorities 'in so far as it is practically realizable' is 
 the nearest approach to liberty which the Central 
 statesmen venture to make. 
 
 "On one point only are they perfectly clear and 
 definite. Under no circumstances will the 'German 
 demand' for the restoration of the whole of Ger- 
 many's colonies be departed from. All principles of 
 self-determination or, as our earlier phrase goes, gov- 
 ernment by consent of the governed, here vanish into 
 thin air. 
 
 "It is impossible to believe that any edifice of per- 
 manent peace could be erected on such a foundation 
 as this. Mere lip-service to the formula of no an- 
 nexations and no indemnities or the right of self- 
 
DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 7 
 
 determination is useless. Before any negotiations 
 can even be begun, the Central Powers must realize 
 the essential facts of the situation. 
 
 ^The days of the Treaty of Vienna are long past. 
 We can no longer submit the future of European 
 civilization to the arbitrary decisions of a few nego- 
 tiators striving to secure by chicanery or persuasion 
 the interests of this or that dynasty or nation. The 
 settlement of the new Europe must be based on such 
 grounds of reason and justice as will give some prom- 
 ise of stability. Therefore, it is that we feel that 
 government with the consent of the governed must 
 be the basis of any territorial settlement in this war. ! 
 For that reason also, unless treaties be upheld, unless 
 every nation is prepared at whatever sacrifice to hon- 
 our the national signature, it is obvious that no treaty 
 of peace can be worth the paper on which it is 
 
 written. 
 
 "The first requirement, therefore, always put for- 
 ward by the British Government and their Allies, 
 has been the complete restoration, political, terri- 
 torial and economic, of the independence of Bel- 
 gium, and such reparation as can be made for the 
 devastation of its towns and provinces. This is no 
 demand for war indemnity, such as that imposed on 
 France by Germany in 187 1 . It is not an attempt to 
 shift the cost of warlike operations from one bellig- 
 erent to another, which may or may not be defens- 
 ible. It is no more and no less than an insistence 
 that, before there can be any hope for a stable peace, 
 
8 BRITISH WAR AIMS 
 
 this great breach of the pubhc law of Europe must 
 be repudiated and, so far as possible, repaired. Rep- 
 aration means recognition. Unless international 
 right is recognized by insistence on payment for in- 
 jury done in defiance of its canons it can never be a 
 reality. 
 
 "Next comes the restoration of Serbia, Montenegro 
 and the occupied parts of France, Italy and Rou- 
 mania. The complete withdrawal of the alien armies 
 and the reparation for injustice done is a fundamen- 
 tal condition of permanent peace. 
 
 "We mean to stand by the French Democracy to 
 the death in the demand they make for a reconsid- 
 eration of the great wrong of 1871, when, without 
 any regard to the wishes of the population, two 
 French provinces were torn from the side of France 
 and incorporated in the German Empire. This sore 
 has poisoned the peace of Europe for half a century, 
 and, until it is cured, healthy conditions will not 
 have been restored. There can be no better illustra- 
 tion of the folly and wickedness of using a transient 
 military success to violate national right. 
 
 "I will not attempt to deal with the question of 
 the Russian territories now in German occupation. 
 The Russian policy since the revolution has passed 
 so rapidly through so many phases that it is difficult 
 to speak without some suspension of judgment as 
 to what the situation will be when the final terms 
 of European peace come to be discussed. Russia 
 accepted war with all its horrors because, true to her 
 
DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 9 
 
 traditional guardianship of the weaker communities 
 of her race, she stepped in to protect Serbia from a 
 plot against her independence. It is this honour- 
 able sacrifice which not merely brought Russia into 
 the war, but France as well. France, true to the 
 conditions of her treaty with Russia, stood by her 
 ally in a quarrel which was not her own. Her chiv- 
 alrous respect for her treaty led to the wanton in- 
 vasion of Belgium; and the treaty obligation of 
 Great Britain to that little land brought us into the 
 war. 
 
 "The present rulers of Russia are now engaged 
 without any reference to the countries whom Russia 
 brought into the war, in separate negotiations with 
 their common enemy. I am indulging in no re- 
 proaches; I am merely stating facts with a view to 
 making it clear why Britain cannot be held account- 
 able for decisions taken in her absence and concern- 
 ing which she has not been consulted or had her aid 
 invoked. 
 
 "No one who knows Prussia and her designs upon 
 Russia can for a moment doubt her ultimate inten- 
 tion. Whatever phrases she may use to delude Rus- 
 sia, she does not mean to surrender one of the fair 
 provinces or cities of Russia now occupied by her 
 forces. Under one name and another — and the name 
 hardly matters — these Russian provinces will hence- 
 forth be in reality part of the dominions of Prussia. 
 They will be ruled by the Prussian sword in the 
 interests of Prussian autocracy, and the rest of the 
 
iio BRITISH WAR AIMS 
 
 people of Russia will be partly enticed by specious 
 phrases and partly bullied by the threat of contin- 
 ued war against an impotent army into a condition 
 of complete economic and ultimate political enslave- 
 ment to Germany. 
 
 "We all deplore the prospect. The democracy of 
 this countr}^ means to stand to the last by the de- 
 mocracies of France and Italy and all our other Al- 
 lies. We shall be proud to fight to the end side by 
 side with the new democracy of Russia; so will 
 America and so will France and Italy. But if the 
 present rulers of Russia take action which is inde- 
 pendent of their Allies we have no means of inter- 
 vening to arrest the catastrophe which is assuredly 
 befalling their country. Russia can only be saved 
 by her own people. 
 
 "We believe, however, that an independent Po- 
 land comprising all those genuinely Polish elements 
 who desire to form part of it, is an urgent necessity 
 for the stability of Western Europe. 
 
 "Similarly, though we agree with President Wil- 
 son that the break-up of Austria-Hungary is no part 
 of our war aims, we feel that unless genuine self- 
 government on true democratic principles is granted 
 to those Austro-Hungarian nationalities who have 
 long desired it, it is impossible to hope for the re- 
 moval of those causes of unrest in that part of Eu- 
 rope which have so long threatened its general peace. 
 
 "On the same grounds we regard as vital the sat- 
 isfaction of the legitimate claims of the Italians for 
 
DAVID LLOYD GEORGE ii 
 
 union with those of their own race and tongue. We 
 also mean to press that justice be done to men of 
 Roumanian blood and speech in their legitimate as- 
 pirations. 
 
 "If these conditions are fulfilled Austria-Hungary 
 would become a power whose strength would con- 
 duce to the permanent peace and freedom of Europe, 
 instead of being merely an instrument to the perni- 
 cious military autocracy of Prussia, which uses the 
 resources of its allies for the furtherance of its own 
 sinister purposes. 
 
 "Outside Europe, we believe that the same prin- 
 ciples should be applied. While we do not chal- 
 lenge the maintenance of the Turkish Empire in the 
 homelands of the Turkish race with its capital at 
 Constantinople, the passage between the Mediter- 
 ranean and the Black Sea being internationalized 
 and neutralized, Arabia, Armenia, Mesopotamia, 
 Syria and Palestine are in our judgment entitled to 
 a recognition of their separate national conditions. 
 What the exact form of that recognition in each par- 
 ticular case should be need not here be discussed, be- 
 yond stating that it would be impossible to restoTe 
 to their former sovereignty the territories to which I 
 have already referred. 
 
 "Much has been said about the arrangements we 
 have entered into with our Allies on this and on 
 other subjects. I can only say that as new circum- 
 stances, like the Russian collapse and the separate 
 Russian negotiations, have changed the conditions 
 
12 BRITISH WAR AIMS 
 
 under which those arrangements were made, we are 
 and alwa^^s have been perfectly ready to discuss 
 them with our Allies. 
 
 "With regard to the German colonies, I have re- 
 peatedly declared that they are held at the disposal 
 of a conference whose decision must have primary 
 regard to the wishes and interests of the native in- 
 habitants of such colonies. None of those territories 
 are inhabited by Europeans. The governing consid- 
 eration, therefore, in all these cases must be that the 
 inhabitants should be placed under the control of an 
 administration, acceptable to themselves, one of 
 whose main purposes will be to prevent their exploi- 
 tation for the benefit of European capitalists or gov- 
 ernments. The natives live in their various tribal 
 organizations under chiefs and councils who are com- 
 petent to consult and speak for their tribes and mem- 
 bers and thus to represent their wishes and interests 
 in regard to their disposal. The general principle of 
 national self-determination is, therefore, as applic- 
 able in their cases as in those of occupied European 
 territories. 
 
 "The German declaration that the natives of the 
 German colonies have, through their military fidelity 
 in the war, shown their attachment and resolve un- 
 der all circumstances to remain with Germany is ap- 
 plicable not to the German colonies generally, but 
 only to one of them, and in that case (German East 
 Africa) the German authorities secured the attach- 
 ment, not of the native population as a whole, which 
 
DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 13 
 
 is and remains profoundly anti-German, but only 
 of a small warlike class from whom their Askaris or 
 soldiers were selected. These they attached to them- 
 selves by conferring on them a highly privileged posi- 
 tion as against the bulk of the native population, 
 which enabled these Askaris to assume a lordly and 
 oppressive superiority over the rest of the natives. 
 By this and other means they secured the attach- 
 ment of a very small and insignificant minority, 
 whose interests were directly opposed to those of the 
 rest of the population, and for whom they have no 
 right to speak. The German treatment of their na- 
 tive populations in their colonies has been such as 
 amply to justify their fear of submitting the future 
 of those colonies to the wishes of the natives them- 
 selves. 
 
 ''Finally, there must be reparation for injuries 
 done in violation of international law. The Peace 
 Conference must not forget our seamen and the serv- 
 ices they have rendered to, and the outrages they 
 have suffered for the common cause of freedom. 
 
 "One omission we notice in the proposal of the 
 Central Powers, which seems to us especially regret- 
 table. It is desirable and, indeed, essential, that the 
 settlement after this war shall be one which does not 
 in itself bear the seed of future war. But that is 
 not enough. However wisely and well we may 
 make territorial and other arrangements, there will 
 still be many subjects of international controversy. 
 Some, indeed, are inevitable. 
 
14 BRITISH WAR AIMS 
 
 "The economical conditions at the end of the war 
 will be in the highest degree difficult. Owing to the 
 diversion of human effort to warlike pursuits, there 
 must follow a world-shortage of raw materials, 
 which will increase the longer the war lasts, and it 
 is inevitable that those countries which have con- 
 trol of the raw materials will desire to help them- 
 selves and their friends first. 
 
 "Apart from this, whatever settlement is made 
 will be suitable only to the circumstances under 
 which it is made and, as those circumstances change, 
 changes in the settlement will be called for. 
 
 "So long as the possibility of dispute between na- 
 tions continues — that is to say, so long as men and 
 women are dominated by passion and ambition, and 
 war is the only means of settling a dispute — all na- 
 tions must live under the burden, not only of having 
 from time to time to engage in it, but of being com- 
 pelled to prepare for its possible outbreak. The 
 crushing weight of modern armaments, the increasing 
 evil of compulsory military service, the vast waste of 
 wealth and effort involved in warlike preparation, 
 these are blots on our civilization of which every 
 thinking individual must be ashamed. 
 
 "For these and other similar reasons, we are confi- 
 dent that a great attempt must be made to establish 
 by some international organization an alternative to 
 war as a means of settling international disputes. 
 After all, war is a relic of barbarism and, just as 
 law has succeeded violence as the means of settling 
 
DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 15 
 
 disputes between individuals, so we believe that it 
 is destined ultimately to take the place of war in 
 the settlement of controversies between nations. 
 
 "If, then, we are asked what we are fighting for, 
 we reply as, we have often replied: we are fighting 
 for a just and lasting peace, and we believe that be- 
 fore permanent peace can be hoped for three con- 
 ditions must be fulfilled; firstly, the sanctity of trea- 
 ties must be established; secondly, a territorial set- 
 tlement must be secured, based on the right of self- 
 determination or the consent of the governed, and, 
 lastly, we must seek by the creation of some interna- 
 tional organization to limit the burden of armaments 
 and diminish the probability of war. 
 
 "On these conditions the British Empire would 
 welcome peace ; to secure these conditions its peoples 
 are prepared to make even greater sacrifices than those 
 they have yet endured." 
 
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