1 -^l- 
 
 [Au'horised Edition.] 
 
 "Wdrougd terror to Wriumpd ! " 
 
 An Appeal to the Nation 
 
 by the 
 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer. 
 
 A Speech delivered at the 
 Queen's Hall, London, 
 on September 19th, 1914. 
 
 1914. 
 
 > 
 
 Parliamentary Recruiting Committee, 
 12, Downing Street, London, S.W. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2014 
 
 https://archive.org/details/throughterrortotOOIIoy 
 
THE 
 
 CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER S 
 APPEAL TO THE NATION. 
 
 Tlie speech here reprinted was delivered by the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer on September 1914, at a meeting at the Queen's Hall, 
 
 London. As mil be seen from the speech itseif, the audience was a 
 Welsh one, but Mr. Lloyd George's appeal is none the less to the whole 
 nation. The non-party nature 0/ the occasion was emphasised by the 
 presence in the Chair 0/ the Earl of Plymouth. 
 
 (8 3178) 
 
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 oj 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 a 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 
 m 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, liear.)- Why is 
 our honour as a country involved in this war ? Because, in the 
 first instance, wo 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 in- 
 tegrity. Our signatures are attached to the documents. Our 
 signatures do not stand alon<' there ; this country was not the 
 only country that undertook to defend the integrity of Belgium. 
 Russia, France, Austria, Prussia — t hoy 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 a superior cmlisation— (iai.-fl'Wer)— thatwe are attempt ng 
 
5 
 
 to destroy. Our answer is the action we took in 1870. (Hear, 
 hcarl) '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 t he 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 Belgitn 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 (hanks 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 baa 
 just given a further proof of its benevolent-sentiments towards 
 ourcountry. . . . The voice of tlx 1 English nation has bi" en 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 tills their hearts is that of an imperishable gratitude. 
 (Great apjdause.) 
 
 That was in 1870. Mark what followed. Three or four days after 
 that document ot thanks, a French army was wedged up against 
 the Belgian frontier, every means of escape shut out by a ring of 
 name 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 Franoe 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; 
 thev are only scraps of paper. (Laughter and applause.) What 
 are' the v made of V Rags. (Laughter.) What are they worth? 
 The whole credit of the British Empire. (Laud 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. (Ap- 
 plause.) 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 Magnetic Pole 
 because it was in the way of a German cruiser. (Laughter.) The 
 whole navigation of the seas would become dangerous, difficult 
 and impossible ; and the whole machinery of civilisation will 
 break down if this doctrine wins in this war. (Hear. AeorJ 
 We are fighting against barbarism.- (Applau.M ) — and there i)s 
 only one way of putting it light. If then' are nations that say 
 they will only respect treaties whenjl is to their intcrist to do so, 
 we must make it to their interest to do SO for the future. (Ap- 
 plause. ) 
 
7 
 
 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 wero 
 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 con- 
 spiracy 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.) 
 France offered Belgium Ave army corps to defend her if she were 
 attacked. Belgium said : " I do not require them ; I have the 
 word of the Kaiser. Shall Crcsar send a lie ? " (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 j 
 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 ruaki war on 
 Germany ? Had she indicted any wrong upon Germany which 
 the Kaiser was bound to redress ? She was one of the most 
 unoffending little countries in Europe. (Hear, liear.) 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 laughter.) 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. 
 
8 
 
 " 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 neces- 
 sarily 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 V Because, according to the 
 Germans, fefiese people fired on German soldiers. What business 
 hud German soldiers there at all ? (Hear, hear and applause.) 
 Belgium was acting in pursuance of the most sacred light, the 
 right to defend its homes. But they were not jn 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) — 
 anil burned the precious manuscripts of his speeches, do you think 
 lie 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 applavte.) 'Ikf'y 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, is 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.) 
 
8 
 
 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 
 saving 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 Austria, 
 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 any- 
 thing 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 jusj 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 v world that would have stood that? (GVfeS 0/ 
 "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 could name them now. 
 (Laughter.) Lord Kitchener— (Loud apjlause)— would go. Sir John 
 French — (Applause)— would be sent away; General Smith- 
 Dorrien — (Applause) — would go, and 1 am sure (hat Sir John 
 Jellicoc— (Applause)— would have to go. And there is another 
 gallant old warrior who would go— Lord Roberts. (Applause.) 
 It was a difficult situation for 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. 
 
10 
 
 How did Serbia behave 1 It is not what happens to you in life 
 
 Jg faffi W «».- .situation with dignity. She sa.d to Austria s 
 " T anv offices of .nine have been guilty, and are proved to be 
 J\ty I 35 dismiss them." Austria said : "That » not good 
 Sgk 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 
 S,,b he has a special mterest in Serbia. Russians have shed 
 K Wood for Serbian independence many a time for 
 
 ember of Russia's family, and she cannot see Serbia maltreated 
 Austria knew that. Germany knew it, and she turned round to 
 , and said: " I insist that you shall stand by with your 
 
 . „s folded uhilst Austria is strangling your little brother to death. 
 V at a swer did the Russian Slav give Y He gave the only answer 
 flvV becomes a man. (Hear, hear.) He turned to Austria, and 
 i • Y I v hands on that little fellow, and I will tear your 
 ramshackle Empiro-fW applause and ta^ta-J-l.mb 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 i nations-and to little men ! (Laug}tlrr and applause.) 
 This theory of bigness, this theory that you must have a buj Emp.ro. 
 andaSSk and a biy man-well, long legs have heiradvan age 
 inn retreat. (Lau,jhter and applause.) Frederick the lust chose 
 N v riors for their height, and that tradition has become a policy 
 'many. Germany applies that ideal to na ions and w,l 
 only .How (i-foot-2 nations to stand in the ranks. (Laugher^) 
 But a ' The world owes much to the little 5-foot-5 nations. The 
 Satest'art in the world was the work of little nations ; the most 
 Sng literature of the world came from little nations, he 
 «St literkture of England came when she was a nation of he 
 of Bclcium fighting a great Empire. The heroic deeds that 
 ; U iut nit tluouglfgenLtions were the deeds of little nations 
 fi 'l . g for their freedom. Yes, and the salvation of mankind 
 came through a little nation. God has chosen little nations as the 
 vessel' by which He carries His choicest wines to the hps of 
 humanity", to rejoice their hearts, to exalt their vision to stimulate 
 and s lengthen their faith ; and if we had stood by when two little 
 
11 
 
 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 fact, 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 insensate 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 soldier. But the rude bar- 
 barians 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. (Lovd applause.) France has made sacrifices 
 for the freedom of other lands than her own. Can you name a 
 single country in the world for the freedom of which modern Prussia 
 has ever sacrificed a single life ? (" 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 th" present 
 moment; they say so. They say, " Era nee. we can understand: 
 she is out for vengeance ; she is out for territory- Alsace and 
 Lorraine." (Applause.) They say they can understand Russia 
 she is fighting for master} — she wants Galicia. They can imdci 
 stand you lighting for vengeance — they can understand you lighting 
 for mastery — they can understand you lighting for greed of territory j 
 
12 
 
 but they -cannot understand a great empire pledging its resources, 
 pledging its bright, 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.) 
 
 Philosophy of Blood and Iron. • 
 
 Have you read the Kaiser's speeches? If you have not a 
 copy I advise vou to buy one ; they will soon be out of print, and 
 you will not have many more of the same sort. (Laughter and 
 applause.) Thev 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 wc have to fight." It is the Kaiser's speech to his soldiers 
 on the way to the front : — 
 
 "Eeinember 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. ^ Woo 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 becomo the policy ot a great Empire, it is about, time 
 that it should be ruthlessly put away. (Loud applause.) 1 
 do not believe he meant all' these speeches; 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 hoi 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 ot Germany and Europe. 
 Hurl your legions at him and massacre him ! Britain ? She is 
 a constant menace to the predominancy ot Germany in the world. 
 Wrest the trident out ot her hand ! Christianity 1 Sickly senti- 
 mentalism about sacrifice for others I Pour pap tor German 
 dlgcotlon I We will have a new diet. We will force It upon the 
 world. It will be made In QttttU&y -(lawjnttr and applau^y—n 
 
13 
 
 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 ! — " Deutschland iiber Alles ! " 
 
 That is what we are fighting — (Hear, hear) — that claim to 
 predominancy 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 info the gutter ; they have 
 no right to stand in the way of a gn .it Prussian soldier. Men. 
 women, nations — they all have to go. He thinks all he has to say 
 is " We are in a hurry." That is the answer he gave to Belgium — 
 " Rapidity of action is Germany's greatest asset," which means 
 " I am in a hurry ; clear out of my way." You know the typo 
 of motorist, the terror of the roads, with a 00 horse-power car, 
 who thinks the roads are made for him, and knocks down anybody 
 who impedes the 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. 
 
 7 .— .*." \ 
 
 "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 lenib'c war ; but in t he 
 end we shall march through terror to tiiumph. [4ppla/it?e.) We 
 shall need all our qualities — every quality that Biitain and its 
 people possess — prudence in counsel, daiing in action, tenacity 
 in purpose, courage in defeat, moderation in victory ; in all things 
 faith 1 (I.nud applause.) 
 
14 
 
 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 agamst 
 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 Creev. the race that fought for a generation under Glendower 
 against the greatest captain in Europe— I should lik/ 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 s 
 good many years even beyond that. It is a great opportunity 
 an opportunity that only comes once in many centuries to the 
 children of nun. 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 their' courage, and may God be their comfort and their 
 Strength. But their reward is at hand ; those who have fallen 
 have died consecrated deaths. They have taken their part in the 
 making of a new Europe— a new world. 1 can see signs of its 
 "oming in the glare of the battlefield* 
 
The "New Patriotism." 
 
 The people will gain more by this struggle in all lands thanihey 
 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 vallty, snug, com- 
 fortable, 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 rock and sway in the 
 convulsions of a great war. (Enthusiastic and continued applause.) 
 
 There was a big rush of Recruits to the Recruiting 
 Room after the Meeting. 
 
 (B 3178) Wt. w. 7823—114 50M 11/1' JM r S [No. 9. 
 
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