THE PEACE CRUSADE IN OLDHAM - NEWSPAPER REPORTS

SATURDAY 11th AUGUST 1917
OLDHAM CHRONICLE
PEACE BY NEGOTIATION

Why peace talk at this moment is mere sowing of wind is plain to the understanding of any man or woman except those who are opposed to all war and those who have from the beginning failed to see the awful menace to a Christian and liberal civilisation implied in the German assault, with its contempt for the laws of God and the ordinances of man. There can be no peace that will last unless Germany is beaten and her people realise that their rulers wilfully led them not to a victory over Europe, but into the valley of humiliation before all the world.

Peace by negotiation is a mere phrase, as empty of meaning as that other empty phrase, a peace without annexations or indemnities, which took such hold of the impulsive Russians. Every peace implies some sort of negotiation, but if those who call for peace by negotiation mean a round-table conference such as that at which representatives of Russia and Japan met after the Russo-Japanese war, both requiring peace, neither dishonoured the question at issue one of terms only, they are altogether wide of the mark. A peace that would leave any German statesman of the present autocracy the power to tell the German people they had peace with honour would be a German victory.

The Allies have slowly won by terrible sacrifice to a preponderance of men, munitions, and money. If the determination of their peoples to fight is not weakened they must win. A righteous cause is one element of strength; the greater power is another. If the two are combined, nothing can withstand them in the long run. Victory is sure if the Allies hold out; the disquiet of the Germans at the thought of another winter of war is as enlightening in one way as the success of the Franco-British armies on the Somme, the Aisne, the Messine Ridge and at Ypres is on the military factor to success. The Allies have gone down in the pit, they have endured the hardships and taken upon themselves some of the inevitable stains of war, and they have done this so that liberty may be preserved on earth. The German Government and, so far as we can tell, the German people are not yet ready to accept the only terms which offer a likelihood of liberty for all in the future. Until they are, to talk of peace is folly.