. 
 
n nF ■ C° rnel1 University Library 
 U 025.L79 
 
 Great war. 
 
 3 1924 027 859 432 
 
 CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
[Authorised Edition.] 
 
 
 THE GREAT WAR. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 delivered by 
 
 ihe Rt. Hon. David Lloyd George, M.P. 
 
 (Chancellor of the Exchequer) 
 
 At the Queen's Hall, London, 
 on September 19th, 1914. 
 
*J 
 
 L 
 
 ^ 
 J 
 
 THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER'S 
 SPEECH. 
 
 My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen— I have come here this afternoon 
 to talk to my fellow-countrymen about this great war and the part 
 that we ought to take in it. I feel my task is easier after we have been 
 listening to the greatest war song in the world (The March of the Men of 
 Harlech). (Applause.) 
 
 Why our National Honour is Involved. 
 
 There is no man in this room who has always regarded the prospect 
 of engaging in » great war with greater reluctance and with greater 
 repugnance than I have done throughout the whole of my political 
 life. (Hear, hear.) There is no man either inside or outside of this 
 room more convinced that we could not have avoided it without national 
 dishonour. (Great applause.) I am fully alive to the fact that every 
 nation who has ever engaged in any war has always invoked the sacred 
 name of honour. Many a crime has been committed in its name; 
 there are some being .committed now. All the same, national honour 
 is a reality, and any nation that disregards it is doomed. (Hear, hear.) 
 Why is our honour as a country involved in this war ? Because, in the 
 first instance, we are bound by honourable obligations to defend the 
 independence, the liberty, the integrity, of a small neighbour that has 
 always lived peaceably. (Applause.) She could not have compelled 
 us; she was weak; but the man who declines to discharge his duty 
 because his creditor is too poor to enforce it is a blackguard. (Loud 
 applause.) We entered into a treaty — a solemn treaty — two treaties — 
 to defend Belgium and her integrity. Our signatures are attached to 
 the documents. Our signatures do not stand alone there ; this country 
 was not the only country that undertook to defend the integrity of 
 Belgium. Bussia, France, Austria, Prussia! — they are all there. Why 
 are Austria and Prussia not performing the obligations of their bond ? 
 It is suggested that when we quote this treaty it is purely an excuse 
 on our part — it is our low craft and cunning to cloak our jealousy of » 
 superior oivilisation— (Laughter) — that we are attempting to destroy. 
 Our answer is the action we took in 1870. (Hear, hear.) What was 
 that ? Mr. Gladstone was then Prime Minister. (Applause.) Lord 
 Granville, I think, was then Foreign Secretary. I have never heard 
 it laid to their charge that they were ever Jingoes. 
 
France and Belgium in 1870. 
 
 What did they do in 1870 ? That treaty bound us then. We 
 called upon the belligerent Powers to respect it. We called upon France, 
 and we called upon Germany. At that time, bear in mind, the greatest 
 danger to Belgium came from France and not from Germany. We 
 intervened to protect Belgium against France, exactly as we are doing 
 now to protect her against Germany. (Applause.) We proceeded in 
 exactly the same way. We invited, both the belligerent Powers to 
 state that they had no intention of violating Belgian territory. What 
 was the answer given by Bismarck ? He said it was superfluous to ask 
 Prussia such a question in view of the treaties in force. France gave a 
 similar answer. We received at that time the thanks of the Belgian 
 people for our intervention in a very remarkable document. It is a 
 document addressed by the municipality of Brussels to Queen Victoria 
 after that intervention, and it reads : — 
 
 " The great and noble people over whose destinies you preside has just 
 given a farther proof of its benevolent sentiments towards our 
 country. . . . The voice of the English nation has been heard 
 above the din of arms, and it has asserted the principles of justice and 
 right. Next to the unalterable attachment of the Belgian people to 
 their independence, the strongest sentiment which fills their hearts is 
 that of an imperishable gratitude." (Great applause.) 
 
 That was in 1870. Mark what followed. Three or four days after 
 that document of thanks, a French army was wedged up against the 
 Belgian frontier, every means of escape shut out by a ring of flame from 
 Prussian cannon. There was one way of escape. What was that ? 
 Violating the neutrality of Belgium. What did they do ? The French 
 on that occasion preferred ruin and humiliation to the breaking of their 
 bond. {Loud applause.) The French Emperor, the French Marshals, 
 100,000 gallant Frenchmen in arms, preferred to be carried captive to 
 the strange land of their enemies, rather than dishonour the name of 
 their country. (Applause.) It was the last French army in the field. 
 Had they violated Belgian neutrality, the whole history of that war 
 would have been changed, and yet, when it was the interest of France to 
 break the treaty then, she did not do it. 
 
 "A Scrap of Paper." 
 
 It is the interest of Prussia to-day to break the treaty, and she has 
 done it. (Hisses.) She avows it with cynical contempt for every principle 
 of justice. She says : " Treaties only bind you when it is your interest 
 to keep them." (Laughter.) " What is a treaty ? " says the German 
 Chancellor, " A scrap of paper." Have you any £5 notes about you ? 
 (Laughter and applause.) I am not calling for them. (Laughter.) Have 
 you any of those neat little Treasury £1 notes ? (Laughter.) If you 
 have, burn them ; they are only scraps of paper. (Laughter and applause. ) 
 
What are they made of ? Bags. (Laughter.) What are they worth 1 
 The whole credit of the British Empire. (Loud applause.) Scraps of 
 paper ! I have been dealing with scraps of paper within the last month. 
 One suddenly found the commerce of the world coming to a standstill. 
 The machine had stopped. Why ? I will tell you. We discovered- 
 many of us for the first time, for I do not pretend that I do not know 
 much more about the machinery of commerce to-day than I did six 
 weeks ago, and there are many others like me — we discovered that the 
 machinery of commerce was moved by bills of exchange. I have seen 
 some of them— (Laughter)— wretched, crinkled, scrawled over, blotched, 
 frowsy, and yet those wretched little scraps of paper move great ships 
 laden with thousands of tons of precious cargo from one end of the 
 world to the other. (Applause.) What is the motive power behind 
 them ? The honour of commercial men. (Applause.) Treaties are 
 the currency of international statesmanship. (Applause.) Let us be 
 fair : German merchants, German traders, have the reputation of being 
 as upright and straightforward as any traders in the world — (Hear, 
 hear)— but if the currency of German commerce is to be debased to the 
 level of that of her statesmanship, no trader from Shanghai to Valparaiso 
 will ever look at a German signature again. (Loud applause.) This 
 doctrine of the scrap of paper, this doctrine which is proclaimed by 
 Bernhardi, that treaties only bind a nation as long as it is to its interest, 
 goes under the root of all public law. It is the straight road to 
 barbarism. (Hear, hear.) It is as if you were to remove the Magnetio 
 Pole because it was in the way of a German cruiser. (Laughter.) 
 The whole navigation of the seas would beoome dangerous, difficult 
 and impossible; and the whole maohinery of civilisation will break 
 down if this doctrine wins in this war. (Hear, hear.) We are fighting 
 against barbarism — (Applause.) — and there is only one way of putting 
 it right. If there are nations that say they will only respect treaties 
 when it is to their interest to do so, we must make it to their interest 
 to do so for the future. (Applause.) 
 
 Germany's Perjury. 
 
 What is their defence ? Consider the interview which took place 
 between our Ambassador and the great German officials. When their 
 attention was called to this treaty to which they were parties, they said 
 " We cannot help that. Rapidity of action is the great German asset.' 
 There is a greater asset for a nation than rapidity of action, and that 
 is honest dealing. (Loud applause.) What are Germany's excuses ? 
 She says Belgium was plotting against her; Belgium was engaged in a 
 great conspiracy with Britain and with France to attack her. Not 
 merely is it not true, but Germany knows it is not true. (Hear, hear.) 
 What is her other excuse ? That France meant to invade Germany 
 
through Belgium. That is absolutely untrue. {Hear, hear.) Franco 
 offered Belgium five army corps to defend her if she were attacked. 
 Belgium said : " I do not require them; I have the word of the Kaiser. 
 Shall Csesar send a, lie 1 " (Laughter and applause.) All these tales 
 about conspiracy have been vamped up since. A great nation ought to 
 be ashamed to behave like a fraudulent bankrupt, perjuring its way 
 through its obligations. (Hear, hear.) What she says is not true. She 
 has deliberately broken this treaty, and we were in honour bound to 
 stand by it. (Applause.) 
 
 Belgium's "Crime." 
 
 Belgium has been treated brutally. (Hear, hear.) How brutally 
 we shall not yet know We already know too much. But what had she 
 done ? Had she sent an ultimatum to Germany ? Had she challenged 
 Germany ? Was she preparing to make war on Germany ? Had she 
 inflicted any wrong upon Germany which the Kaiser was bound to 
 redress ? She was one of the most unoffending little countries in Europe. 
 (Hear, hear.) There she was — peaceable, industrious, thrifty, hard- 
 working, giving offence to no one. And her cornfields have been trampled, 
 her villages have been burnt, her art treasures have been destroyed, 
 her men have been slaughtered — yea, and her women and children too. 
 (Cries of " Shame.") Hundreds and thousands of her people, their 
 neat, comfortable little homes burnt to the dust, are wandering homeless 
 in their own land. What was their crime ? Their crime was that they 
 trusted to the word of a Prussian King. (Applause.) I do not know 
 what the Kaiser hopes to achieve by this war. (Derisive latighter.) 
 I have a shrewd idea what he will get; but one thing he has made certain, 
 and that is that no nation will ever commit that crime again. 
 
 "The Right to Defend its Homes." 
 
 I am not going to enter into details of outrages. Many of them 
 are untrue, and always are in a war. War is a grim, ghastly business 
 at best or at worst — (Hear, hear) — and I am not going to say that all 
 that has been said in the way of outrages must necessarily be true. I 
 will go beyond that, and I will say that if you turn two millions of men — 
 forced, conscript, compelled, driven — into the field, you will always 
 get amongst them a certain number who will do things that the nation 
 to which they belong would be ashamed of. I am not depending on these 
 tales. It is enough for me to have the story which Germans themselves 
 avow, admit, defend and proclaim — the burning and massacring, the 
 shooting down of harmless people. Why ? Because, according to the 
 Germans, these people fired on German soldiers. What business had 
 German soldiers there at all ? (Hear, hear and applause.) Belgium 
 
was acting in pursuance of the most sacred right, the right to defend its 
 homes. But they were not in uniform when they fired ! If a burglar 
 broke into the Kaiser's Palace at Potsdam, destroyed his furniture, 
 killed his servants, ruined his art treasures — especially those he has 
 made himself — {Laughter and applause) — and burned the precious manu- 
 scripts of his speeches, do you think he would wait until he got into 
 uniform before he shot him down ? (Laughter.) They were dealing 
 with those who had broken into their household. (Hear, hear.) But 
 the perfidy of the Germans has already failed. They entered Belgium 
 to save time. The time has gone. (Loud and continued applause.) 
 They have not gained time, but they have lost their good name. (Hear, 
 hear.) 
 
 The Case of Serbia. 
 
 But Belgium is not the only little nation that has been attacked in 
 this war, and I make no excuse for referring to the case of the other little 
 nation, the case of Serbia. (Hear, hear.) The history of Serbia is not 
 unblotted. Whose history, in the category of nations, in unblotted ? 
 (Hear, hear.) The first nation that is without sin, let her cast a stone 
 at Serbia. She was a nation trained in a horrible school, but she won 
 her freedom with a tenacious valour, and she has maintained it by the 
 same courage. (Applause.) If any Serbians were mixed up in the 
 assassination of the Grand Duke, they ought to be punished. (Hear, 
 hear.) Serbia admits that. The Serbian Government had nothing to 
 do with it. Not even Austria claims that. The Serbian Prime Minister 
 is one of the most capable and honoured men in Europe. (Hear, hear.) 
 Serbia was willing to punish any one of her subjects who had been proved 
 to have any complicity in that assassination. What more could you 
 expect ? What were the Austrian demands ? Serbia sympathised with 
 her fellow-countrymen in Bosnia — that was one of her crimes. She 
 must do so no more. Her newspapers were saying nasty things about 
 Austria : they must do so no longer. That is the German spirit; you 
 had it in Zabern. (Hear, hear and applause.) How dare you criticise 
 a Prussian official ? — (Laughter) — and if you laugh, it is a capital offence 
 — the colonel in Zabern threatened to shoot if it was repeated. In the 
 same way the Serbian newspapers must not criticise Austria. I wonder 
 what would have happened if we had taken the same line about German 
 newspapers. (Hear, hear.) Serbia said : " Very well, we will give orders 
 to the newspapers that they must in future criticise neither Austrias 
 nor Hungary, nor anything that is theirs." (Laughter.) Who can 
 doubt the valour of Serbia, when she undertook to tackle her news- 
 paper editors ? (Laughter and applause.) She promised not to 
 sympathise with Bosnia ; she promised to write no critical articles about 
 Austria ; she would have no public meetings in which anything unkind 
 was said about Austria, 
 
"Serbia Faced the Situation with Dignity." 
 
 But that was not enough. She must dismiss from her army the 
 officers whom Austria should subsequently name. Those officers had 
 just emerged from a war where they had added lustre to the Serbian 
 arms; they were gallant, brave and efficient. (Hear, hear.) I wonder 
 whether it was their guilt or their efficiency that prompted Austria's 
 action ! But, mark you, the officers were not named; Serbia was to 
 undertake in advance to dismiss them from the army, the names to be 
 sent in subsequently. Can you name a country in the world that woidd 
 have stood that 1 {Cries of " No.") Supposing Austria or Germany 
 had issued an ultimatum of that kind to this country, saying " You 
 must dismiss from your Army — and from your Navy — (Laughter) — 
 all those officers whom we shall subsequently name." Well, I think I 
 oould name them now. (Laughter.) Lord Kitchener — (Loud applause) 
 — would go. Sir John French — (Applause) — would be sent away; 
 General Smith-Dorrien — (Applause) — would go, and I am sure that Sir 
 John Jellicoe — (Applause) — would have to go. And there is another 
 gallant old warrior who would go — Lord Roberts. (Applause.) It 
 was a difficult situation for a small country. Here was a demand made 
 upon her by a great military Power that could have put half-a-dozen 
 men in the field for every one of Serbia's men, and that Power was 
 supported by the greatest military Power in the world. How did Serbia 
 behave ? It is not what happens to you in life that matters; it is 
 the way in which you face it — (Hear, hear) — and Serbia faced the situation 
 with dignity. She said to Austria : " If any officers of mine have been 
 guilty, and are proved to be guilty, I will dismiss them." Austria said : 
 " That is not good enough for me." It was not guilt she was after 
 but capacity. (Hear, hear.) 
 
 Russia's Turn. 
 
 Then came Russia's turn. Russia has a special regard for Serbia; 
 she has a special interest in Serbia. Russians have shed their blood for 
 Serbian independence many a time, for Serbia is a member of Russia's 
 family, and she cannot see Serbia maltreated. Austria knew that. 
 Germany knew it, and she turned round to Russia, and said : " I insist 
 that you shall stand by with your arms folded whilst Austria is strangling 
 your little brother to death." What answer did the Russian Slav give ? 
 He gave the only answer that becomes a man. (Hear, hear.) He turned 
 to Austria, and said : " You lay hands on that little fellow, and I will 
 tear your ramshackle Empire — (Loud applause and laughter) — limb from 
 limb," And he is doing it ! (Loud applause.) 
 
The Little Nations. 
 
 That is the story of two little nations. The world owes much to 
 little nations — and to little men ! (Laughter and applause.) This 
 theory of bigness, this theory that you must have a big Empire, and a 
 big nation, and a big man — well, long legs have their advantage in a 
 retreat. (Laughter and applause.) The Kaiser's ancestor chose his 
 warriors for their height, and that tradition has become a policy in 
 Germany. Germany applies that ideal to nations, and will only allow 
 6-foot-2 nations to stand in the ranks. (Laughter.) But ah ! the 
 world owes much to the little 5-foot-5 nations. The greatest art in 
 the world was the work of little nations ; . the most enduring literature 
 of the world came from little nations; the greatest literature of England 
 came when she was a nation of the size of Belgium fighting a great Empire. 
 The heroic deeds that thrill humanity through generations were the deeds 
 of little nations fighting for their freedom. Yes, and the salvation of 
 mankind came through a little nation. God has chosen little nations 
 as the vessels by which He carries His choicest wines to the lips of 
 humanity, to rejoice their hearts, to exalt their vision, to stimulate and 
 strengthen their faith; and if we had stood by when two little nations 
 were being crushed and broken by the brutal hands of barbarism, our 
 shame would have rung down the everlasting ages. (Loud applause.) 
 
 "The Test of our Faith." 
 
 But Germany insists that this is an attack by a lower civilisation 
 upon a higher one. (Derisive cries.) As a matter of faot, the attack 
 was begun by the civilisation which calls itself the higher one. I am 
 no apologist for Russia : she has perpetrated deeds of which I have no 
 doubt her best sons are ashamed. What Empire has not ? But Germany 
 is the last Empire to point the finger of reproach at Russia. (Hear, 
 hear.) Russia has made sacrifices for freedom — great sacrifices. Do 
 you remember the cry of Bulgaria when she was torn by the most insen- 
 sate tyranny that Europe has ever seen ? Who listened to that cry ? 
 The only answer of the higher civilisation was that the liberty of the 
 Bulgarian peasants was not worth the life of a single Pomeranian grenadier. 
 But the "rude barbarians of the North " sent their sons by the thousand 
 to die for Bulgarian freedom. What about England ? Go to Greece, 
 the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, France — in all those lands I could 
 point out places where the sons of Britain have died for the freedom 
 of those peoples. (Loud applause.) France has made sacrifices for the 
 freedom of other lands than her own. Can you name a single country 
 in the wgrhj for the freedom of which modern Prussia has ever sacrificed 
 
9 
 
 a single life f (" No.") By the test of our faith, the highest standard 
 of civilisation is the readiness to sacrifice for others. (Applause.) 
 
 German "Civilisation." 
 
 I will not say a single word in disparagement of the German people. 
 They are a great people, and have great qualities of head and hand and 
 heart. I believe, in spite of recent events, that there is as great a store 
 of kindliness in the German peasant as in any peasant in the world ; but 
 he has been drilled into a false idea of civilisation. It is efficient, it is 
 capable ; but it is a hard civilisation ; it is a selfish civilisation ; it is 
 a material civilisation. They cannot comprehend the action of Britain 
 at the present moment ; they say so. They say, " France we can under- 
 stand; she is out for vengeance; she is out for territory — Alsace and 
 Lorraine." (Applause.) They say they can understand Russia; she 
 is fighting for mastery — she wants Galicia. They can understand you 
 fighting for vengeance — they can understand you fighting for mastery — 
 they can understand you fighting for greed of territory ; but they cannot 
 understand a great empire pledging its resources, pledging its might, 
 pledging the lives of its children, pledging its very existence, to protect 
 a little nation that seeks to defend herself . (Applause.) God made man 
 in His own image, high of purpose, in the region of the spirit ; German 
 civilisation would re-create him in the image of a Diesel machine — precise, 
 accurate, powerful, but with no room for soul to operate. (Hear, hear.) 
 
 A Philosophy of Blood and Iron. 
 
 Have you read the Kaiser's speeches ? If you have not » cop3' I 
 advise you to buy one ; they will soon be out of print, and you will not 
 have many more of the same sort. (Laughter and applause.) They are 
 full of the glitter and bluster of German militarism — " mailed fist," 
 and " shining armour." Poor old mailed fist ! Its knuckles are getting 
 a little bruised. Poor shining armour ! The shine is being knocked out 
 of it. (Applause.) There is the same swagger and boastfulness running 
 through the whole of the speeches. The extract which was given in 
 the " British Weekly " this week is a very remarkable product as an 
 illustration of the spirit we have to fight. It is the Kaiser's speech to 
 his soldiers on the way to the front' : — 
 
 " Remember that the German people are the chosen of God. On me, the 
 
 German Emperor, the spirit of God has descended. I am His sword, 
 
 His weapon, and His vicegerent. Woe to the disobedient, and death 
 
 to cowards and unbelievers." 
 
 Lunacy is always distressing, but sometimes it is dangerous; and when 
 
 you get it manifested in the head of the State, and it has become the 
 
 policy of a great Empire, it is about time that it should be ruthlessly 
 
 putaway. (Loud applause.) I do not believe he meant all these spoeches; 
 
10 
 
 it was simply the martial straddle he had acquired. But there were men 
 around him who meant every word of them. This was their religion. 
 Treaties ? They tangle the feet of Germany in her advance. Cut 
 them with the sword ! Little nations ? They hinder the advance of 
 Germany. Trample them in the mire under the German heel ! The 
 Russian Slav ? He challenges the supremacy of Germany and Europe. 
 Hurl your legions at him and massacre him ! Britain ? She is a con- 
 stant menace to the predominancy of Germany in the world. Wrest 
 the trident out of her hand ! Christianity ? Sickly sentimentalism 
 about sacrifice for others ! Poor pap for German digestion ! We 
 will have a new diet. We will force it upon the world. It will be made 
 'n Germany — {Laughter and applause) — a diet of blood and iron. What 
 remains? Treaties have gone. The honour of nations has gone. Liberty 
 has gone. What is left ? Germany ! Germany is left !■ — " Deutsoh- 
 land iiber Alles ! " 
 
 That is what we are fighting — {Hear, hear) — that claim to pre- 
 dominancy of a material, hard civilisation, a civilisation which if it once 
 rules and sways the world, liberty goes, democracy vanishes. And 
 unless Britain and her sons come to the rescue it will be a dark day for 
 humanity. (Applause.) 
 
 "The Road-Hog of Europe." 
 
 Have you followed the Prussian Junker and his doings ? We are 
 not fighting the German people. The German people are under the 
 heel of this military caste, and it will be a day of rejoicing for the German 
 peasant, artisan and trader when the military caste is broken. You 
 know its pretensions. They give themselves the airs of demi-gods. 
 They walk the pavements, and civilians and their wives are swept into 
 the gutter; they have no right to stand in the way of a great Prussian 
 soldier. Men, women, nations— they all have to go. He thinks all he 
 has to say is " We arc in a hurry." That is the answer he gave to 
 Belgium—" Rapidity of action is Germany's greatest asset," which 
 means " I am in » hurry; clear out of my way." You know the type 
 of motorist, the terror of the roads, with a 60 horse-power car, who 
 thinks the roads are made for him, and knocks down anybody who 
 impedes tho action of his car by a single mile an hour. The Prussian 
 Junker is the road-hog of Europe. (Applause.) Small nationalities 
 in his way are hurled to the roadside, bleeding and broken. Women 
 and children are crushed under the wheels of his cruel car, and Britain 
 is ordered out of his road. All I can say is this : if the old British spirit 
 is alive in British hearts, that bully will be torn from his seat. (Loud 
 applause.) Were he to win, it would be the greatest catastrophe that 
 has befallen democracy since the day of the Holy Alliance and its 
 ascendancy. 
 
11 
 
 "Through Terror to Triumph." 
 
 They think we cannot beat them. It will not be easy. It will be a 
 long job; it will be a terrible war ; but in the end we shall march through 
 terror to triumph. {Applause.) We shall need all our qualities — every 
 quality that Britain and its people possess — prudence in counsel, daring 
 in action, tenacity in purpose, courage in defeat, moderation in victory; 
 in all things faith ! {Loud applause.) 
 
 It has pleased them to believe and to preach the belief that we are 
 a decadent and degenerate people. They proclaim to the world through 
 their professors that we are a non-heroic nation skulking behind our 
 mahogany counters, whilst we egg on more gallant races to their 
 destruction. This is a description given of us in Germany — ' ' a timorous, 
 craven nation, trusting to its Fleet." I think they are beginning to find 
 their mistake out already — (Applause) — and there are half a. million 
 young men of Britain who have already registered a vow to their King 
 that they will cross the seas and hurl that insult to British courage 
 against its perpetrators on the battlefields of France and Germany. We 
 want half a million more ; and we shall get them. {Loud applause.) 
 
 "A Welsh Army in the Field.'' 
 
 Wales must continue doing her duty. That was a great telegram 
 that you, my Lord, read from Glamorgan. (Hear, hear.) I should 
 like to see a Welsh Army in the field. (Loud applause.) I should like 
 to see the race that faced the Norman for hundreds of years in a struggle 
 for freedom, the race that helped to win Crecy, the race that fought for 
 a generation under Glendower against the greatest captain in Europe — 
 I should like to see that race give a good taste of its quality in this struggle 
 in Europe; and they are going to do it. 
 
 The Sacrifice. 
 
 I envy you young people your opportunity. They have put up the 
 age limit for the Army, but I am sorry to say I have marched a good many 
 years even beyond that. It is a great opportunity, an opportunity that 
 only comes once in many centuries to the children of men. For most 
 generations sacrifice comes in drab and weariness of spirit. It comes 
 to you to-day, and it comes to-day to us all, in the form of the glow and 
 thrill of a great movement for liberty, that impels millions throughout 
 Europe to the same noble end. (Applause.) It is a great war for the 
 emancipation of Europe from the thraldom of a military caste which 
 has thrown its shadows upon two generations of men, and is now plunging 
 the world into a welter of bloodshed and death. Some have already 
 given their lives. There are some who have given more than their own 
 lives ; they have given the lives of those who are dear to them. I honour 
 
12 
 
 their courage, and may God be their comfort and their strength. But 
 their reward is at hand; those who have fallen h&ve died consecrated 
 deaths. They have taken their part in the making of a new Europe-r- 
 a new world. I can see signs of its coming in the glare of the battlefield. 
 
 The "New Patriotism." 
 
 The people will gain more by this struggle in all lands than they 
 comprehend at the present moment. (Hear, hear,) It is true they 
 will be free of the greatest menace to their freedom. That is not all. 
 There is something infinitely greater and more enduring which is emerging 
 already out of this great conflict — a new patriotism, richer, nobler, and 
 more exalted than the old. (Applause.) I see amongst all classes, 
 high and low, shedding themselves of selfishness, a, new recognition that 
 the honour of the country does not depend merely on the maintenance 
 of its glory in the stricken field, but also in protecting its homes from 
 distress. (Hear, hear.) It is bringing a new outlook for all classes. 
 The great flood of luxury and sloth which had submerged the land is 
 receding, and a new Britain is appearing. We can see for the first time 
 the fundamental things that matter in life, and that have been obscured 
 from our vision by the tropical growth of prosperity. (Hear, hear.) 
 
 "The Vision." 
 
 May I tell you in a simple parable what I think this war is doing for 
 us ? I know a valley in North Wales, between the mountains and the 
 sea. It is a beautiful valley, Snug, comfortable, sheltered by the mountains 
 from all the bitter blasts. But it is very enervating, and I remember 
 how the boys were in the habit of climbing the hill above the village 
 to have a glimpse of the great mountains in the distance, and to be 
 stimulated and freshened by the breezes which came from the hilltops, 
 and by the great spectacle of their grandeur. We have been living in a 
 sheltered valley for generations. We have been too comfortable and too 
 indulgent, many, perhaps, too selfish, and the stern hand of fate has 
 scourged us to an elevation where we can see the great everlasting things 
 that matter for a nation — the great peaks we had forgotten, of Honour, 
 Duty, Patriotism, and, clad in glittering white, the great pinnacle of 
 Sacrifice pointing like a rugged finger to Heaven. We shall descend 
 into the valleys again; but as long as the men and women of this 
 generation last, they will carry in their hearts the image of those great 
 mountain peaks whose foundations are not shaken, though Europe 
 rook and sway in the convulsions of a great war. (Enthusiastic and 
 continued applause.) 
 
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