J k •) GEORGF r H iii iMi iiiiiiiiiii i ii i ii iii i iiiiiiriiiiinim inn n —" "'*' " "' " |jH}{ffl{{} )H;i»lllii(l!iiUi«Hll;;illt>«Rl»tfHHlK»Hi{li{^i|j UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO 3 1822 02584 3772 i!ii!!' Jillii iffc II iilB L57 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO 3 1822 02584 3772 THE GREAT CRUSADE ET. HON. DAVID LLOYD GEORGE THE GREAT CRUSADE Extracts from Speeches Delivered During the War BY THE RT. HON. DAVID LLOYD GEORGE, M.P. ARRANGED BT F. L. STEVENSON, C.B.E., BJ^. (Lond.) NEW ^%SW YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY Copyright, 1918, By George H. Doran Campany Printed in the United States of America PREFACE These speeches are not republished on my own initiative, but in response to many requests. If, however, my speeches in book form can help to bring home to their readers the gravity of the crisis in which the democracies of the world are placed, I am glad that they should be republished even though I have not had time to re-read or revise them in any way. I have never believed that the war would be a short war, or that in some mysterious way, by negotiation or compromise, we could free Europe from the malignant military autocracy which is endeavouring to trample it into submission and moral death. I have always believed that the machine which has established its despotic control over the minds and bodies of its own victims, and then organised and driven them to slaughter in order to extend that control over the rest of the world, would only be de- stroyed if the free peoples proved themselves strong and steadfast enough to defeat its attempt in arms. The events of the last few weeks must have made it plain to every thinking man that there is no longer room for compromise between the ideals for which we and our enemies stand. Democracy and autocracy have come to death vi BREFACE grips. One or the other will fasten its hold on mankind. It is a clear realisation of this issue which will be our strength in the trials still to come. I have no doubt that freedom will triumph. But whether it will triumph soon or late, after a final supreme effort in the next few months or a long jdrawn agony, depends on the vigour and self-sac- rifice with which the children of liberty, and espe- cially those behind the lines, dedicate themselves to the struggle. There is no time for ease or delay or debate. The call is imperative. The choice is clear. It is for each citizen to do his part. D. Lloyd Geoegb. CONTENTS Minister of Munitions. delivered at page Munitions: Progress of House of Commons, British Production .... Dec. 20th, 1915. 11 A Word to the Munition Ponder's End, Workers Feb. Srd, 1916. 19 Winning this War .... Conway, May 6th, 1916. 21 Secretary of State for War. Why should we not Sing? Aberystwyth, Aug. 17th, 1916. 41 Verdun Verdun, *Sepf., 1916. 47 The Great Men of Wales .... Cardiff, Oct. 21th, 1916. 49 Prime Minister. The New Government .... House of Commons, Dec. 19th, 1916. 63 A Safe Investment .... Guildhall, Jan. 11th, 1917. 88 Sacrifice at Home .... House of Commons, Feb, 23rd, 1917. 98 Sowing the Winter Wheat Carnarvon, Feb. Srd, 1917. 100 Entry of America into the Savoy Hotel, War A-pnl 12th, 1917. 119 The War and the Empire Guildhall, A-pril 27th, 1917. 131 Restatement of the Causes Glasgow, June 29th, and Aims of the War .... 1917. 140 Tii viii CONTENTS "Victory will Come" ... Belgium Serbia The Pan-German Dream The Russian Revolution DELIVERED AT PAGE Dundee, June dOth, 1917. Queen's Hall, July 21st, 1917. Savoy Hotel, Aug. 8th, 1917. Queen's Hall, Aug, m, 1917. Birkenhead, Sept. 7th, 1917. The Destruction of a False Albert Hall, Oct. 22nd, 1917. Ideal A Nation's Thanks The Co-ordination of Mili- tary Effort No Halfway House The War Aims of the AlUes Gray's Inn, Dec. Uth, 1917. Central Hall, Westminster, Jan. 5th, 1918. 164 166 174 178 187 193 House of Commons, Oct. 29th, 1917. 199 Paris, Nov. 13th, 1917. 216 233 251 APPENDIX Extracts from "Through Terror to Triumph" I. PREFACE II. queen's hall speech III. CITY temple speech IV. BANGOR V. BANGOR 269 Sept. 19th, 1914. 273 Nov. 10th, 1914. 290 Feb. 28th, 1915. 300 Aug. 5th, 1915. 304 EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES WHILE MINISTER OF MUNITIONS THE GREAT CRUSADE MUNITIONS: PROGRESS OF BRITISH PRODUCTION. EXTRACTS FROM A SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OP COMMONS, DECEMBER 20tH, 1915. Importance of Mechanical Superiority in War. There has never been a war in which machinery played anything like the part which it is playing in this war. The place acquired by machinery in the arts of peace in the nineteenth century has been won by machinery in the grim art of war in the twentieth century. In no war ever fought in this world has the preponderance of machinery been so completely established. The German suc- cesses, such as they are, are entirely, or almost entirely, due to the mechanical preponderance which they achieved at the beginning of the war. Their advances in the East, West, and South are due to this mechanical superiority; and our fail- ure to drive them back in the West and to check their advance in the East is also attributable to the tardiness with which the Allies developed their mechanical resources. The problem of vic- tory is one of seeing that this superiority of the 11 12 THE GREAT CRUSADE Central Powers shall be temporary, and shall be brought to an end at the earliest possible moment. There is one production in which the Allies had a complete mechanical superiority, and there they are supreme — that is in the Navy. Our command of the sea is attributable not merely to the excel- lence of our sailors, but to the overwhelming su- periority of our machinery. There is another aspect of this question which has become more and more evident as this war has developed and progressed. The machine spares the man. The machine is essential to de- fend positions of peril, and it saves life, because the more machinery you have for defence, the more thinly you can hold the line ; therefore, the fewer men are placed in positions of jeopardy to life and limb. We have discovered that some of the German advanced lines were held by excep- tionally few men. It is a pretty well-known fact that one very strong position, held by the Ger- mans for days and even for weeks, was defended against a very considerable French army by ninety men, armed with about forty to fifty ma- chine-guns, the French losing heavily in making the attack. Machinery in that case spared the men who were defending. It is one portion of the function which has been entrusted to the Ministry of Munitions to increase the supply of machines in order to save the lives of our gallant men. On the other hand, it means fewer losses in attacking positions of peril, because it demolishes machine- IVIUNITIONS 13 gnn emplacements, tears up barbed wire, destroys trenches. What we stint in materials we squan- der in life; that is the one great lesson of muni- tions. Necessity for an Overwhelming Mass of Material. I should like to dwell a little upon two consider- ations, because they are of overwhelming impor- tance. I have heard rumours that we are over- doing it, over- ordering, over-building, over-pro- ducing. Nothing could be more malevolent or more mischievous. You can talk about over-or- dering when we have as much as the Germans have, and even then I should like to argue how far we have to go. So mischievous is that kind of talk that I cannot help thinking that it must have originated from men of pro-German sym- pathies, who know how important it is that our troops should, at the critical moment, be short of that overwhelming mass of material which alone can break down the resistance of a highly en- trenched foe. In spite of our great efforts, we have not yet approached the German and French production. We have got to reach that first and not last. France is of opinion that even her colos- sal efforts are inadequate. I have consulted gen- erals and officers of experience in the British and French armies. The conferences which I have had with the Minister of Munitions in France have given me full opportunity of obtaining the views of the most highly placed and distinguished officers in the French Army. Before I quote their 14 THE GREAT CRUSADE opinions let me point out that all these generals up to the present have invariably underestimated the quantity of materials necessary to secure vic- tory. I am not surprised. It is so prodigious. A great French general — one of the greatest — who has studied tactics with the highest authorities says that that is the great surprise of the war. Every battle that has been fought has demon- strated one thing: that even now it is an under- estimate and not an overestimate. Take the last great battle — that of Loos. You had a prodigious accumulation of ammunition. There is not a gen- eral who was in the battle who in giving his report does not tell you that with three times the quan- tity of ammunition, especially in the heavier na- tures, they would have achieved twenty times the result. False Economy. It is too early to talk about over-production. The most fatuous way of economising is to pro- duce an inadequate supply. A good margin is but a sensible insurance. Less than enough is a fool- ish piece of extravagance. £200,000,000 will pro- duce an enormous quantity of ammunition. It is forty days ' cost of the war. If you have it at the crucial moment your war might be won in the forty days. If you have not, it might run to 400 days. What sort of economy is that? But it does not merely mean that. It means this — and this is a fact which I mean to repeat in every speech that I make on the question : What you spare in money MUNITIONS 16 you spill in blood. I have a very remarkable photograph of the battlefield of Loos, taken imme- diately after the battle. There is barbed wire which had not been destroyed. There is one ma- chine-gun emplacement intact — only one! The others had been destroyed. There, in front of the barbed wire, lie hundreds of gallant men. There was one machine gun — one! These are the accidents you can obviate. How? Every soldier tells me there is but one way of doing it. You must have enough ammunition to crash in every trench wherein the enemy lurks, to destroy every concrete emplacement, to shatter every machine-g-un, to rend and tear every yard of barbed wire, so that if the enemy want to resist they will have to do it in the open, face to face with better men. than theme jlves. That is the secret — plenty of ammunition. I hope that this idea that we are turning out too much will not enter into the mind of workman, capitalist, tax- payer, or anybody until we have enough to crash our way through to victory. You must spend wisely; you must spend to the best purpose; you must not pay extravagant prices; but, for Heaven's sake, if there are risks to be taken, let them be risks for the pocket of the taxpayer, and not for the lives of the soldiers! Too Latef There is only one appeal to employer and era- ployed; it is the appeal to patriotism! The em- 16 THE GREAT CRUSADE ployer must take steps. He is loth to do it. It is a sort of inertia which comes to tired and over- strained men — as they all are. They must really face the local trade unions, and put forward the demand, because until they do so the State cannot come in. We have had an Act of Parliament, but the law must be put into operation by somebody. Unless the employer begins by putting on the lathes unskilled men and women we cannot en- force that Act of Parliament. The first step, therefore, is that the employer must challenge a decision upon the matter. He is not doing so be- cause of the trouble which a few other firms have had. But victory depends upon it! Hundreds of thousands of precious lives depend upon it ! It is a question of whether you are going to bring this war victoriously to an end in a year or whether it is going to linger on in bloodstained paths for years. Labour has the answer. The contract was entered into with labour. We are carrying it out. It can be done. I wonder whether it will not be too late ! Ah ! fatal words of this war ! Too late in moving here ! Too late in arriving there ! Too late in coming to this decision ! Too late in start- ing with enterprises ! Too late in preparing ! In this war the footsteps of the Allied forces have been dogged by the mocking spectre of "Too Late"; and unless we quicken our movements damnation will fall on the sacred cause for which so much gallant blood has flowed. I beg employers and workmen not to have **Too Late" inscribed upon the portals of their workshops! MUNITIONS 17 We can still Win. , Everything in the next few months of this war depends upon it. What has happened? We have had the co-operation of our Allies. Great results have been arrived at. At the last conference of the Allies decisions were arrived at which will af- fect the whole conduct of the war. The carrying of them out depends upon the workmen of this country. The superficial facts of the war are for the moment against us. All the fundamental facts are in our favour. That means we have every reason for looking the facts steadily in the face. There is nothing but encouragement in them if we look beneath the surface. The chances of victory are still with us. We have thrown away many chances, but for the most part the best still remains. In this war the elements that make for success in a short war were with our enemies. All the advantages that make for victory in a long war were ours, and are still! Better preparation be- fore the war, interior lines, unity of command — those belonged to the enemy. He had a better con- ception at first of what war really meant. More than that, he has undoubtedly shown greater readiness than we to learn the lessons of the war and to adapt himself to them. Heavy guns, ma- chine-guns, trench warfare — that was his study. Our study was the sea. We have accomplished our task there to the last letter of the promise. The advantages of a protracted war are ours. We have an overwhelming superiority in the 18 THE GREAT CRUSADE raw material of war. It is still with us in spite of the fact that the Central Powers have by their successes increased their reserve of men and ma- terial. We have the command of the sea that gives us ready access to neutral countries. Above all — and this tells in a long war — we have the bet- ter cause. It is better for the heart. Nations do not endure to the end for a bad cause. All these advantages are ours. But this is the moment of intense preparation. It is the moment of putting the whole of our energies at home into preparing for the blow to be struck abroad. Our Fleet and the gallantry of the troops of the Allies have given us time to muster our reserves. Let us utilise that time without the loss of a moment. Let us cast aside the fond illusion that you can win victory by elaborate pretence that you are doing so. Let us fling to one side rivalries and jealousies, trade, professional, and political. Let us be one people — one in aim, one in action, one in resolution to win the most sacred cause ever en- trusted to a great nation. A WORD TO THE ]\IUNITION WORKERS. EXTRACTS FROM A SPEECH DELIVERED AT PONDER 'S END SHELL FACTORY, FEBRUARY 3rD, 1916, ON OPENING THE Y. M. C. A. DINING ROOMS FOR THE WORKERS. This war is going to make a difference in the life of this country and of the world, a difference for better or for worse which you cannot calculate. This is one of those moments in the history of the world when it takes a plunge downwards or a flight upwards. Which it takes depends not upon our soldiers alone, it depends upon our workmen also. I can see now the difference which it is making in Britain. In the old days the hustler was regarded as an alien enemy who had come to this country to steal the bread of the easygoing Briton; but we have discovered that the hustler is a British-bom subject, living among us. John Bull was getting soft, flabby, fat and indolent. He was just slouch- ing along. Then the war came, and now his tissues are as firm as ever; he is alert, vigorous, and strong; he is hitting hard, and is going to work his way through to victory. John Bull is young again ; the war has rejuvenated him. I see before me 2,000 men who mean business. There are a million more outside, and more than a million in France and elsewhere oversea waiting for muni- 19 20 THE GREAT CRUSADE tions. I know you will not disappoint them. They are gallant and brave fellows. Theirs the discom- fort, theirs the danger, theirs, too often, the sacri- fice. Put forth the whole of your strength, as you are doing to-day, and their sacrifice will not be in vain. WINNING THIS WAR. SPEECH DELIVERED AT CONWAY, TO A MEETING OP CONSTITUENTS, MAY 6tH, 1916. I AM very delighted to find surrounding me to- day old political friends who have been fighting many doughty battles by my side for nearly a gen- eration. I am also delighted to find here men who have been fighting political battles against me The task we have in hand is not the task of one party or of two parties, but a task for the nation as a whole, and we wish to preserve absolute na- tional unity until we secure national strength. It is not always easy. I am not enough of a hunts- man to know what happens if two packs happen to get mixed up together. But, after all, we are rational human beings, and we know that the one condition of victory is unity. The Supply of Munitions. About a year ago to-day I addressed a meeting at Bangor, My object then was to endeavour to impress the nation with a sense not merely of the magnitude of the issues at stake, but of the mag- nitude of the enterprise and of the gravity of the task. I then urged that we should mobilise all the 21 22 THE GREAT CRUSADE national resources, whether of men or materials, in order to carry us through triumphantly. I should have liked to tell you what has hap- pened since in the way of organising and en- gineering the resources of this country to pro- vide our gallant troops at the front with abund- ance of munitions to enable them to face the foe. I hope to be able to do so shortly in the House of Conunons. In another month I shall have accom- plished a year's work at the Ministry of Muni- tions, and it will be my duty to render an account of my stewardship. For the present all I can tell you is this, that we have increased enormously not merely the output, but — what is more impor- tant in a long war — the capacity to turn out muni- tions of war. The Supply of Men: "A Great Crusade." At that time we had more men than equipment. I therefore dwelt rather on munitions. At that date men were coming in in such numbers that we had no equipment for them, and our difficulties were not in raising armies, but in fitting them for their work. Later in the year there was a falling off. The flood-tide seemed to have abated; but meanwhile the achievement of the nation in raising by voluntary methods those huge armies was something of which we might very well be proud. It was almost unparalleled in the history of war, and nothing which has happened since in the way of compulsory measures can ever detract from WINNING THIS WAR 23 the pride we possess in the fact that we are the first nation in the history of the world that has raised over three millions of men for any great military enterprise purely by voluntary means. Young men from every quarter of this country flocked to the standard of international right as to a great crusade. It was a glorious achievement, and well may Britain be proud of it. The Advent of Compulsion. But, as I pointed out, the numbers fell off some- what towards the end of last summer, and it be- came abundantly clear about August and Septem- ber that if we were to carry through this war and get an adequate supply of men for the purpose we should have to resort to other methods. There is no indignity in compulsion. Compulsion simply means that a nation is organising itself in an or- derly, consistent, resolute fashion for war. Taxes are compulsory, although I should say there is no one here who has discovered that because he has paid them willingly compulsion and voluntaryism are not inconsistent in a democratic nation. Com- pulsion simply means the will of the majority of the people — the voluntary decision of the major- ity. Unless you had had a majority, an over- whelming majority, compulsion would have been impossible. So compulsion is simply organised voluntary effort. You must organise effort when a nation is in peril. You cannot run a war as you run a Sunday-school treat, where one man volun- 24. THE GREAT CRUSADE tarily brings the buns, another man supplies the tea and another brings the kettle, one looks after the boiling and another takes round the teacups, some contribute in cash, and a good many lounge about and just make the best of what is going. You cannot run a war like that. The Sons of France and Conscription. Have you noticed what our Allies are doing? Do you think the sons of France have gone under the shadow of the lash to defend her? If you had been there, you would have known different. The moment the country was in peril, not as a matter of duty, not as a legal obligation, but as a matter of right, as a matter of will, each son of France rallied to her flag, and it was the pride of every daughter of France of her free will to give those she loved for France. What struck me there was that there was no complaint, that they did not boast about it; it was something they took for granted that when France was in peril everybody, as a matter of privilege, should go and fight for her. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, the great motto of France — I will tell you what it means. When the country is in danger, then liberty means the right of every man to defend her; equality means equality of sacrifice of every man and woman of France ; fraternity means the brother- hood of endurance, eifort, victory for France. That is what it means. I met one of the most important men in France WINNING THIS WAR 25 who had just had a letter from his boy of nine- teen in the trenches, and this is what the lad said : *'I thank God that I was bom in the year 1897, because it has given me the opportunity of laying down my life for France in 1916." That is the spirit of the whole nation, which does not regard conscription as something that compels them to do their duty, but purely as an organisation of the will of everybody to strike a blow for their native land. Our Contributions. I do not say we can make the same contribution in men in proportion to the population as France has done. It was generally supposed that I sug- gested that the other night in the House of Com- mons. I did not. We cannot do so. Why? We are supplying France with steel, with coal, with the material for explosives. We are supplying other Allies with munitions of war, we are supply- ing them generally with transport on the seas, we have in addition to a great army the greatest navy in the world — and well do our Allies, and still better do our foes, know that. The number of men engaged in equipping the Navy with muni- tions of war is almost as great as the numbers who are engaged in France on producing muni- tions for their army. We must take all that into account. 26 THE GREAT CRUSADE Compulsion and Liberalism. I thought the necessity for compulsion had arisen in September. I still think so. I have come here to talk quite frankly to you. It is no use talking together over grave issues like this unless we are quite frank with each other. Every effort was made to save the voluntary system by the groups of Lord Derby's scheme, and for myself I cannot express the admiration which I have for the colossal effort put forward by Lord Derby. But Lord Derby's scheme was not the voluntary system. If you say to a man, "You come down from there. I will give you five minutes, and if you don't I shall ask a policeman to fetch you down," would that be voluntary, or would it be compulsory? As a matter of fact, there is no doubt at all, judged noxv by experience, — and we are all very wise after the event, — that the Derby cam- paign had a great many of the disadvantages of compulsion and voluntaryism without the advan- tages of either. However, I do not want to go back upon that. That is what is known in the City as ''jobbing backwards." What stands now is this, that the House of Commons, by an overwhelming majority, has declared that the time has arrived for putting a compulsory scheme into operation, and the majority has increased. I am told that the fact that I supported it proves that I am no longer a Liberal. Well, there must be a good many Liberals in the same plight, be- cause the other night barely one-tenth of the Lib- WINNING THIS WAR 27 eral Party voted against it. All the rest voted for it. Well, then, there is no Liberal Party alive ! The Liberals had only twenty-eight members in the House. They used to have 280. What has happened to all the rest? They must be turned Tory! After all, as I tried to point out in the House of Commons, — and nobody has challenged the historical truth of what I said — great de- mocracies in peril have always had to resort to compulsion to save themselves. Empires have been saved by compulsion, so have Republics. Three Republics, at any rate, have been saved by com- pulsion. It is purely, as I said, a means of organ- ising the strength and virility of a nation to save itself from oppression, and that is why, as a Lib- eral fighting the battle of liberty in Europe, I have no shame in declaring for compulsory enlist- ment as I would for compulsory taxes or for com- pulsory education, or, if you will allow me, for compulsory insurance. Some of my friends are now very angry with me. I happen to be what is known in Parliamentary language and through life as a ''contentious subject." However, I have attempted to go through with it, but many are very angry with me because I supported conscription in September, In September it was heresy, in January it is the true faith. Why? Why, if it is a matter of principle ? What has made the heresy of September orthodox in Januarj^? Nothing that I can see, except that in January it had the re- deeming feature of tardiness and inadequacy. But there it is. It has been carried by the efforts 28 THE GREAT CRUSADE of the two great parties, and, unless I am mis- taken, there was only a minority in the Labonr Party who voted against it. '^ Poison Gas/* But, talking of attacks, I have been subjected to a cloudy discharge of poison gas. I am glad it has been done. These things had been going on clandestinely and surreptitiously for months and I could not deal with them. My difficulty was that no self-respecting man or newspaper could be found to give publicity to these attacks, and there- fore I could not answer them. I am not surprised. We, after all, are a country that has produced mil- lions of fighters, but we very rarely in history pro- duced an assassin. They found one at last. If I may be allowed to alter my metaphor — and I like to speak in parables — there is one very disagree- able form of neighbour which you have in a town or suburb. He is the man who gathers together all the vile weeds in his garden, and, when the wind is favourable, sets fire to them when he is quite sure the fumes will go towards his innocent neighbour. Well, all you have to do — there is an advantage in it, you know it can only happen once ■ — you just either keep away or hold your nostrils, and you know it will be burnt out. That I am going to do. I saw that I was expected to give a full reply to what they are pleased to call these criticisms. I shall do nothing of the kind. This is a great war. WINNING THIS WAR 29 Millions of gallant lives have fallen; the fate of Europe, the fate, perhaps, of the British Empire — perhaps the fate of human liberty for genera- tions — is trembling in the balance, and if any man believes, on the testimony of the person who pub- lishes or invents private conversation in order to malign a friend — if any man believes that I am capable amid such terrible surroundings of mak- ing use of them for a base and treacherous in- trigue to advance my private ends, let him believe it. I seek neither his friendship nor his support. I reserve my sympathy for those who get either, and my disdain for those who merit it. Charges of Disloyalty: What Constitutes Loyalty . But there are honest Liberals who have no taste for that kind of nauseous slander who are worried about two things. For them I have an answer. What are the two things ? I have told you I have come here to speak frankly. You are my con- stituents. You have stood by me for thirty years, and you are entitled to know what I am about. There are people who say, ''What is he up to now?" I am going to tell you what I am up to — I am up to winning this war. But let me tell you what are the two things that trouble honest and sincere Liberals. One is that I seem to have some differences of opinion with my chief. I have worked with him for ten years ; I have served under him for eight. If we had not worked harmoniously — and we have — let me tell 30 THE GREAT CRUSADE you here at once it would have been nay fault and not his. I never worked with any one who could be more considerate. But we have had our dif- ferences. Good heaven ! What use would I have been if I had not differed? I should have been no use at all. He has shown me great kindnesses during the years I have worked with him. I should have ill requited them if I had not told my opinions freely, frankly, independently, whether they agreed with his or not. Freedom of speech is essential everywhere, but there is one place where it is vital, and that is in the Council Chamber. The councillor who pro- fesses to agree with everything that falls from his leader has betrayed him. Napoleon, who was a great leader of men, discouraged free discussion everywhere except in the council of war. There he encouraged it. He promoted it, he did not ask the people there to say ditto to what he pro- fessed, and if there had been any foolish news- papers in that day who, the moment they discov- ered that councillors inside Napoleon's Council Chamber had dared to disapprove of his plans, published the fact and denounced them as cavil- lers, traitors, and intriguers, they would have done infinite harm to France, for they would have ruined Napoleon. There are twenty-three of us and if we all came together with exactly the same mind, exactly the same plan, exactly the same pro- posals and schemes, what a marvel it would have been, and how worthless would it have been ! After all, in the Council Chamber you want free WINNING THIS WAR 81 expression of opinion. You want a variety of opinions expressed, and the height of msdom is in knowing, not what counsel to give, but which counsel to take. Many men, many minds, and if there are not many minds you may depend upon it there are not very many men. They are not men, but automatons, and what I want to know is this, whether the nation in a great war wants coun- sellors or mere penny-in-the-slot machines. If the latter, then all I can say is I desire to be no part of the equipment. ^'Wage War with all your might.'' Let me give you a second matter which seems to be worrying some of my very best Liberal friends. They are rather shocked in their hearts because I am throwing such fervour into the prosecution of the war. Well, I hate war. I very often feel a sense of shock pass through my sys- tem when I realise what the terrible machines which I am helping to manufacture are intended for. But you either make war or you don't. It is the business of statesmen to strain every nerve to keep a nation out of war, but once they are in it, it is also their business to wage it with all their might. It is the old story. Beware of en- trance to a quarrel, but being in it, see that thine enemy beware of thee. That is the reason why men can wage effective war only when they have either a good conscience or no conscience at all. The latter has been the German case. I also hate 32 THE GREAT CRUSADE war, and that is the reason why I want this to be the last, and it won't be unless this war is effec- tively waged by us. A badly conducted war means a bad peace, and a bad peace means no peace at all. That is why I have urged that this war should be conducted with determination. The Need for Resolution. You must not only be resolute, but you must ap- pear to be resolute. I have heard a good deal of criticism of the Government — some of it very un- fair, some of it very ill-informed, a good deal of it rather shrewish — ^but I will tell you at once the criticism I have had most difficulty in answering. I will put it in this form — that we are a huge, un- wieldy van, very good material in all its parts, but rather lacking in propelling power, and for that reason, whenever we come to an obstacle or declivity, we rather roll and ricket and threaten to come to a standstill. One set of men, we are told, pushes one way, another set of men pushes another way, and a further set of men undoubt- edly tries to throw us over altogether, and the di- rection in which we go depends on the largest number of men who are pushing or upon the pur- chase which they have got at the moment. I do not think it is fair criticism altogether, and it does not sufficiently take into account enormous difficulties which you have in a great war like this. "We have accomplished enormous results in the raising of armies and in their equipment, when WINNING THIS WAR 33 you consider that we began with about the tiniest anny in Europe, smaller than the Serbian Army, and that we now have one of the greatest and best equipped armies in the world. Still I agree that in conducting a war a Government should not only be resolute but appear resolute. War is a terrible business, but men will face all its horrors if they have confidence in their leaders. But if there is hesitation, if there is timidity, if there is the ap- pearance of irresolution, the bravest hearts will fail. The spirit of the nation is the propellant of its armies. Therefore it is important, whatever happens, that you should have confidence that the Government is doing its best in the firmest and most resolute manner to conduct the war. That is why I have had no sympathy with those who seem to think that because war is hateful you ought to fight it with a savour of regret in your actions. Doubting hand never yet struck a firm blow. ** Freedom at Stake." In any action which I have taken since the war I am not conscious of having departed from any principle which I ever enunciated to you on this platform. I came into politics to fight for the under dog, and it has been all the same to me whether he was an underpaid agricultural la- bourer, a sick workman, an infirm and broken old man or woman who had given their lives to the country, a poor slum dweller, or a small nation harried by voracious Empires. In fighting this 34 THE GREAT CRUSADE war I have simply, in my judgment, been carrying out the principles which I have advocated on this platform now for thirty years of my life. I have had no illusions as to what this war means or meant. I have always felt that the life of this Empire was at stake, and I know how much de- pends on that life. With all its faults, the British Empire, here and across the seas, stands for freer, better, ampler, nobler conditions of life for man. I believed that in this war freedom was at stake, so I have thrown myself with all my heart and soul and strength into working for victory. Facing the Facts. Nor have I ever had any doubts about the re- sult, if we fought with intelligence and with reso- lution. The fundamental facts are in our favour. "We have command of the seas. We have it now more completely than we ever had. The resources of raw material for arms, men, and equipment are ours. But it takes time to bring them all into full operation. The business, of the enemy is to de- stroy or to wear out one of the Allies or break up the alliance before that time comes. Our business is to minimise those risks, shortening the time within which we can bring out our own maximum streng-th to bear on the enemy. But I want to say one thing, time is not an ally. It is a doubtful neutral at the present moment and has not yet settled on our side. But time can be won ovei by effort, by preparation, by determina- I WINNING THIS WAR 85 tion, by organisation. We must reckon fearlessly the forces of the enemy. We must impartially, in- telligently, reckon our own. There is no greater stupidity in a war than to underestimate the forces with which j^ou have to contend. Calculate them to the last man, add them up to the last man, add them up to the last shilling. See what you have to face, and then face it. Then I have no doubt of victory. W^e must have unity among the Allies, design, and co-ordination. Unity we undoubtedly possess. No alliance that ever existed has worked in more perfect unison and harmony than the present one. Design and co-ordination leave yet a good deal to be desired. Strategy must come before geog- raphy. The Central Powers are pooling their forces, all their intelligence, all their brains, all their efforts. We have the means. They too often have the methods. Let us apply their methods to our means and we win. ''Trust the People.'' And then we shall come to the reckoning for the long, dreary, cruel tale of wrong ; the outrages on Belgium, the atrocities in Poland, the barbarisms of Wittenberg, the inhumanities of the Lusitania. The long account must be settled to the last farth- ing. That is why I attach so much importance to this nation, which has so often led the battle of right and freedom in Europe, mobilising the whole of its strength for this great purpose. 36 THE GREAT CRUSADE I have no fear of the people. Britain will fight it out. We are a sluggish people, but no one ever made the mistake that we were faint-hearted with- out suffering for it. I believe in the old motto, "Trust the People." Tell them what is happen- ing. There is nothing to conceal. Have all the facts before them. They are a courageous people, but they never put forward their best effort in this land until they face the alternative of dis- aster. Tell them what they are confronted with and they will rise to every occasion. Look at the way they are doing it. The people are capable of rising to greater heights than even their truest leaders ever believed. Look at the way, the cheer- ful way — it is the amazement of every man who has been at the front — they are enduring hard- ships, wounds, facing danger and death on the battlefield. Look at the calm, quiet courage with which the men and women at home are enduring grief. You can trust the people. I read a story the other day about a mining camp at the foot of a black mountain in the great West. The diggers had been toiling long and hard with but scant encouragement for their labours, and one night a terrible storm swept over the mountain. An earthquake shattered its hard sur- face and hurled its rocks about ; and in the morn- ing in the rents and fissures they found a rich de- posit of gold. This is a great storm that is sweep- ing over the favoured lands of Europe ; but in this night of terror you will find that the hard crust of WINNING THIS WAR 37 selfishness and greed has been shattered, and in the rent hearts of the people you will find treas- ures, golden treasures, of courage, steadfastness, endurance, devotion, and of the faith that endur- eth for ever. SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR WHY SHOULD WE NOT SING? SPEECH DELIVERED AT ABERYSTWYTH, AT THE WELSH NATIONAL EISTEDDFOD, AUGUST 17TH, 1916. I HAVE come liere at some inconvenience to at- tend, and if necessary to defend, this Eisteddfod. I have been a strong advocate of its being held. I was anxious there should be no interruption on account of the war in the continuity of the Welsh National Eisteddfod. It is too valuable an insti- tution, it has rendered too great services to our country to risk its life by placing it into a state of suspended animation for an indefinite period. The British Association has held its meetings every year since the war began ; it will hold another next month, and I am glad of it ; but much as I esteem the services rendered to research by that gather- ing, I claim that the services rendered to popular culture by the National Eisteddfod have been even greater. There are a few people who know nothing about the Eisteddfod who treat it as if it were merely an annual jollification which eccentric people indulge in. There was a letter appearing in The Times this week written by a person who seems to hold that opinion. He signs himself **A Welshman." He evidently thinks that the publication of his 41 42 THE GREAT CRUSADE name would add nothing to the weight of his ap- peal, so he has — wisely, no doubt — withheld it. Now The Times is not exactly the organ of the Welsh peasantry. That does not matter to this gentleman, because he makes it clear that he has no objection to common people attending the Eis- teddfod; but he expresses the earnest hope that important people like the Welsh M.P.'s will not encourage such an improper assembly by giving it their presence. His notion of the Eisteddfod is a peculiar one, and as there might be a few people outside Wales who hold the same views, I think I must refer to this estimate of its purport and sig- nificance. He places it in the same category as a football match or a horse-race and a good deal beneath a cinema or music-hall performance. These are kept going afternoon and evening with- out the slightest protest in the columns of The Times from this egregious Welshman. The competing bards are to him so many race- horses started round the course by Mr. L. D. Jones, the chairing day being, I suppose, the Bardic Oaks. Sir Vincent Evans would be the grand bookmaker, who arranges the stakes, and of course we all have something on one or other of the starters. The meetings of the Cymmrodorion, the Gorsedd of the Bards, the Arts Section, the Folklore Society, the Union of the Welsh Socie- ties, and the Bibliographical Society are the side- shows which amuse the Eisteddfodic larrikins whilst the race is not on. That is where the thimble-rigging and the cocoanut shies and games WHY SHOULD WE NOT SING? 43 of that sort are carried on! No wonder this in- telligent gentleman is ashamed to avow his name. I challenge him to give it. It will be useful as a warning to readers of English papers of the class who anonymously insult Welsh institutions. Let any man look through this programme and see for himself what the Eisteddfod means — prizes for odes, sonnets, translations from Latin and Greek literature, essays on subjects philosophical, historical, sociological. An adequate treatment of some of these subjects necessarily involves a good deal of original research. Art is encour- aged; even agriculture is not forgotten. Forsooth, all this effort should be dropped on account of the war ! To encourage idle persons to compose poet- ry during war is unpatriotic. Promoting culture amongst the people, a futile endeavour at all times, during the war is something every Welsh member of Parliament ought to snub. To give a prize for a study of the social and industrial con- ditions of a Welsh village is dangerous at any time, and during a war it is doubly so. To excite the interest of the people in literature during the war is a criminal waste of public money. Above all, to sing during a war, and especially to sing national songs during a war, is positively inde- cent, and the powers of the Defence of the Realm Act ought at once to be invoked to suppress it. Hush! No music, please; there is a war on! Why should we not sing during war? Why, especially, should we not sing at this stage of the war? The blinds of Britain are not dowTi yet, 44 THE GREAT CRUSADE nor are they likely to be. The honour of Britain is not dead, her might is not broken, her destiny is not fulfilled, her ideals are not shattered by her enemies. She is more than alive ; she is more po- tent, she is greater than she ever was. Her domin- ions are wider, her influence is deeper, her pur- pose is more exalted than ever. Why should her children not sing? I know war means suffering, war means sorrow. Darkness has fallen on many a devoted household, but it has been ordained that the best singer amongst the birds of Britain should give its song in the night, and according to legend that sweet song is one of triumph over pain. There are no nightingales this side of the Severn. Providence rarely wastes its gifts. We do not need this exquisite songster in Wales ; we can pro- vide better. There is a bird in our villages which can beat the best of them. He is called Y Cymro. He sings in joy, he sings also in sorrow ; he sings in prosperity, he sings also in adversity. He sings at play, he sings at work; he sings in the sun- shine, he sings in the storm; he sings in the day- time, he sings also in the night ; he sings in peace ; why should he not sing in war? Hundreds of wars have swept over these hills, but the harp of Wales has never yet been silenced by one of them, and I should be proud if I contributed something to keep it in tune during the war by the holding of this Eisteddfod to-day. Our soldiers sing the songs of Wales in the trenches, and they hold the little Eisteddfod be- hind them. Here is a telegram which has been WHY SHOULD WE NOT SING? 45 received by the secretary of the Eisteddfod from them. The telegram says: ** Greetings and best wishes for success to the Eisteddfod and Cym- anfa Ganu from Welshmen in the field. Next Eisteddfod we shall be with you." Please God, they will. That telegram is from the 38th Welsh Division. They do not ask us to stop singing. There is not one of them who would not be sorry if we gave up our National Eisteddfod during the war. They want to feel that while they are up- holding the honour of Wales on the battlefields of Europe, Asia, and Africa, we are doing our best to keep alive all the institutions, educational, literary, musical, religious, which have made Wales what it is to them. They want the fires on every national altar kept burning, so that they shall be alight when they return with the laurels of victory from the stricken fields of this mighty war. That is why I am in favour of holding this festival of Welsh literature and of song even in the middle of Armageddon. But I have another and even more urgent reason for wishing to keep this Eisteddfod alive during the war. When this terrible conflict is over a wave of materialism will sweep over the land. Nothing will count but machinery and output. I am all for output, and I have done my best to improve ma- chinery and increase output. But that is not all. There is nothing more fatal to a people than that it should narrow its vision to the material needs of the hour. National ideals without imagination are but as the thistles of the wilderness, fit neither 46 THE GREAT CRUSADE for food nor fuel. A nation that depends upon them must perish. "We shall need at the end of the war better workshops, but we shall also need more than ever every institution that will exalt the vision of the people above and beyond the workshop and the counting-house. We shall need every national tradition that will remind them that men cannot live by bread alone. I make no apology for advocating the holding of the Eisteddfod in the middle of this great con- flict, even although it were merely a carnival of song, as it has been stigmatised. The storm is raging as fiercely as ever, but now there is a shim- mer of sunshine over the waves, there is a rain- bow on the tumult of surging waters. The strug- gle is more terrible than it has ever been, but the legions of the oppressor are being driven back and the banner of right is pressing forward. Why should we not sing? It is true there are thousands of gallant men falling in the fight — let us sing of their heroism. There are myriads more standing in the battle-lines facing the foe, and myriads more behind ready to support them when their turn comes. Let us sing of the land that gave birth to so many heroes. I am glad that I came down from the cares and labour of the War Office of the British Empire to listen and to join with you in singing the old songs which our brave countrymen on the battlefield are singing as a defiance to the enemies of human right. VERDUN. SPOKEN IN THE VxVULT OP THE CITADEL OF VERDUN, SEPTEMBER, 1916. First of all I wish to tell you how glad I am that you asked me to sit at table with your ofiBcers in the heart of Verdun's citadel. I am glad to see around me those who have come back from battle, those who will be fighting to-morrow, and those who, with you, General, are sentries on these im- pregnable walls. The name of Verdun alone will be enough to arouse imperishable memories throughout the centuries to come. There is not one of the great feats of arms which make the history of France which better shows the high qualities of the Army and the people of France; and that bravery and devotion to country, to which the world has ever paid homage, have been strengthened by a sang-froid and tenacity which yield nothing to British phlegm. The memory of the victorious resistance of Ver- dun will be immortal because Verdun saved not only France, but the whole of the great cause which is common to ourselves and humanity. The evil-working force of the enemy has broken itself against the heights around this old citadel as an angry sea breaks upon a granite rock. These heights have conquered the storm which threat- ened the world. 47 48 THE GREAT CRUSADE I am deeply moved when I tread this sacred soil, and I do not speak for myself alone. I bring to you a tribute of the admiration of my country, of the great Empire which I represent here. They bow with me before your sacrifice and before your glory. Once again, for the defence of the great causes with which its very future is bound up, mankind turns to France. ''A la France! Aux hommes tombes sous Verdun!'* THE GREAT MEN OF WALES. SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE CARDIFF TOWN HALL ON THE OCCASION OF THE UNVEILING OF STATUES OF GREAT MEN OP WALES, PRESENTED BY LORD RHONDDA ON HIS BEING ADMITTED TO THE FREEDOM OF THE CITY, OCTOBER 27TH, 1916. This is a theme that peculiarly demands careful thought and preparation — the theme of the great men of Wales, of whom we have representatives in statuary here to-day. It is a great theme. I can give but impressions of my own mind — fugi- tive impressions. A nation may be rich in min- erals, may be rich in its soil, may be rich in nat- ural beauties, it may be rich in its commerce ; but unless it is also rich in great men there is an es- sential ingredient to national wealth which is miss- ing. The great men of any nation are like moun- tains. They attract and assemble the vitalising elements in the heavens and distribute and direct them in the valleys and the plains so as to irrigate the land with their fertilising qualities. The world without them would be either a desert or a morass. Just think what England would have been without its great men and women of thought and of action — no Shakespeare, no Elizabeth, no Milton, no Cromwell, no Locke, no Chatham, no Wolsey, no Wesley — I could not go through the 49 50 THE GREAT CRUSADE list of the peaks in this sublime Himalayan range of great men and great minds. England without them would have been a fen of stagnant waters, and Wales without the great men of whom we have here but representatives would have been a :wretched swamp. We do well, then, not merely to honour the memory of great men, but to remind the men and women of to-day of their existence and of their work by recording their story and their achievements. I should like to say one word, not about what each of them was in his day, but of what they typify in themselves as a whole. Welsh Civilisation an ancient one. The first thing that strikes me in going through the list is this : how old is the civilisation of Wales. There are men, I believe — at least, I have heard of them — who seem to think the civilisation of Wales began, let us say, with the Taff Vale Rail- way — that it developed into its present glory with the Barry Railway and the Bute Docks ; that even now you are getting into the shadows when you become a bona fide traveller, and that if you go far north the tribes would still be linked in the grip of savagery. It is one of the oldest civilisa- tions in Europe. Saint David. Look at that great figure (pointing to Dewi Sant). He was none the less a saint because he THE GREAT MEN OF WALES 51 was a controversialist. I do not bcliove in '*sant glasdwr." * He had a real virility in his saintli- ness. He was a good fighter, and none the less a saint for that reason. What does he typify, this saint of the sixth century? It is a long while ago, the sixth century. It is the time of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, 1,300 years ago, when the Saxons were destroyers of a civilisation they neither comprehended nor appreciated. In those days W^elshmen had a King who inculcated a new code of honour, that restrained, ennobled, exalted, engentled the brute forces of Europe for centuries. That is the civilisation of Wales. At the same time it had a saint who preached with acceptance amongst the people of the hills and the valleys of this land ideals which no human civilisa- tion can ever perfectly achieve, but the struggle for the attainment of which will ever purify and elevate the race that undertakes it. That is what St. David means and reminds us of. Giraldus. Now come to the twelfth century. There is Giraldus — a complex, tumultuous character ^vhich completely fascinates anyone who meets him in the pages of history — half Norman, half Welsh, and the Welsh corpuscles in his blood waging in- cessant warfare on the Norman corpuscles. When the Welsh armies fighting the invaders triumphed he sat down in his cloisters and wrote a book and * A milk-and-watery saint. 52 THE GREAT CRUSADE dreamed about things. Then the Norman rose and triumphed for a moment, and he started wan- dering off from home after fighting for dominion at home. You have the Norman and the Welsh- man fighting in the same book which he wrote. First of all, in his ''Itinerary," you find chapters of the most glowing eulogy upon Wales, Welsh literature, Welsh poetry, Welsh music, the Welsh character. That was written by Gerald the Welshman, the grandson of Nest. In the very following chapter there are words of the most scornful and scathing criticism, destructive of everything Welsh, its character, its literature, its everything. That was written by Gerald the Nor- man, the son of Du Barri. He carried it so far that in that very book he wrote chapters instruct- ing the Norman how he was to subdue Wales, and that again was written by the Norman. He then in the very next chapter wrote a most elaborate system of strategy to teach the Welshman how to rebel against the Norman. That was written by Gerald the Welshman. It was the same man. He was equally sincere in both. There was no deceit. There was no hypocrisy. It is written in the same book, almost at the same time, and under the same signature — the same man. He had only more than usual of the inconsistency of all great men of action, because the greatest men of action are also the greatest dreamers, and there is, therefore, that wild raging conflict in each. You get it typi- fied in that fascinating half -Norman, half -Welsh- man who came from Pembrokeshire. That is Ger- THE GREAT MEN OF WALES 53 aid, and a very attractive person he is. Why do I dwell on him? I will tell you. H6 gives a com- plete, detailed account of Wales in the twelfth century. He wrote the very best journalistic ma- terial said to have been written at that time. He was a journalist and an impressionist, and he gives an account of an itinerary through Wales. A good many of you, if not most of you, have read it. If you have not read it, read it. It is a good thing to understand the country one is living in. He also gives an account of Ireland — but I advise you not to read that ! Early Wales. What account does he give of Wales? He gives a description of a cultivated, refined people, de- voted to poetry and literature and music and re- ligion, devoted to the needs of the mind and of the soul, with a language which at that time was a fine medium for the most subtle expression of human thought, a people who believed in culture — not with a "k" — a real culture. That is the description given by Gerald of Wales at that pe- riod. And if some of you have read — I have no doubt most of you have — Green's '' History of England," one of the most charming books of his- tory you can ever dip in, you will find therein an account of that period and the influence of Welsh literature upon England, how the new poetry of the twelfth centurj'' burst forth in Wales not from one bard or another, but from a nation at large. 54 THE GREAT CRUSADE It was a literary people, not a man here or there, but a whole nation — a literary nation. That was the Wales of the twelfth century. "The new en- thusiasm of the race," said Mr. Green, "found an admirable means of utterance in its tongue, as real a development of the old Celtic language heard by Caesar as the Romance tongues are de- velopments of Caesar's Latin, but which at a far earlier date than any other language of modern Europe had attained to definite structure and to settled literary form." That is what Gerald the Welshman represents. German Scholars and Welsh Poetry. I once had a talk with a German professor. He was very intelligent, one of the most intellectual men in Germany, and he said to me: "We have been studying the literature of England, and we came across something we did not understand, something we could not account for. I think," he said, "it was in the twelfth century." He added: "The Teuton has never been a master of lyrics, but we found the Saxon of England in those days a master of the lyrical form of poetry, and we said, 'Where has this come from?' " They said "There must have been some extraneous influ- ence," and, with the German systematic mind, they followed it until at last they traced it to Wales. With Teutonic thoroughness they mastered the language, and they discovered a treasure of song that dazzled them — something they had never THE GREAT MEN OF WALES 55 heard of, something they had never thought of as being in existence. That was the Wales of the twelfth century, overflowing into England and in- fluencing English literature. The poetry of Wales was hke the Severn, rising in the Welsh hills, de- riving its source, deriving its inspiration, its im- pulse, from the mountains of Wales, overflowing into the plains of England, then winding back un- til now it forms a hitherto unbridged boundary between England and Wales at the very point where its waters are merging into the great ocean that laves the shores of many continents. Dafydd ap Gwilym. Here also is Dafydd ap Gwilym. He was of the fourteenth century. George Borrow, no mean judge of literary form and style, said of Dafydd ap Gwilym that he always considered him as the greatest poetical genius that had appeared in Eu- rope since the revival of literature. While George Borrow had reasons perhaps other than literary for feeling kindly towards Dafydd ap Gwilym, all the same he was a great judge ; and Matthew Ar- nold, who was a much sterner critic, places Dafydd ap Gwilym amongst the great poets of Europe. He is not always easy to read, even for a Welsh- man. He is as difficult to read as Chaucer is. But when you take the trouble there are few things in life that give greater joy than to read some of the poems of Dafydd ap Gwilym. They are, undoubt- edly, among the things of beauty that are a joy for 56 THE GREAT CRUSADE ever. They are as beautiful as the most beautiful valley in Wales. Hyivel Dda. Here you have also the legislator — Hywel Dda. It is worth while reading his laws even now — sa- gacious, shrewd, showing a deep insight into the motive powers of human nature, and withal es- sentially humane. The laws of Hywel Dda, if you put them side by side with the laws of this country a century ago — aye, w^ith the laws of this country even now — show a greater tenderness for human weakness in many particulars, and they might very well be emulated by those who wish to see a country well governed and contented. And you have here Henry VII., the first of a strong dynasty of Sovereigns who founded this, the greatest Empire in the world. He was the grandson of an Anglesey gentleman farmer. You have the greatest hymnologist, not in Wales, but the greatest hymnologist in Britain — Williams of Pantycelyn. I wish it were possible to translate hymns, to translate lyrics — ah, when it is done what a treat is in store for our English fellow- countrymen! They do not realise it. It is the perfection of form and all poetic sentiment. The Orators —A Plea. I am not going to refer to the others — to the great translator of the Bible into Welsh, for in- THE GREAT MEN OF WALES 57 stance; but I should like to say one word about those who are not here. The greatest period in Welsh history is represented by Williams Panty- celyn, but he was only representative of one type that made modem Wales. I wish it had been pos- sible to have had a type, first of all, of those who made the religious revival of Wales, and, secondly, of those who made the intellectual revival of Wales. I know how difficult it is. When you come nearer moflem times there are always sectional prejudices and predilections which have to be con- sidered and reconciled. But if there is any dif- ficulty I suggest that you leave it to be settled by a spiritually-minded man who does not belong to any sect — and there are a good many of them to be found. At the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth you had an outburst of oratory of the first order, such as no nation had ever crowded before into a half-century. Oratory is moving speech, not moving to tears, but moving to admiration. That may be'' rhetoric, it may be even literature, but it is not oratory. Oratory is the moving of man to action. Demosthenes moved his fellow-citizens to action against a tyranny that was impending. These great orators moved a people from darkness to the path that led to the light, from bondage to the rugged road that leads to a true freedom. The greater the oratory the greater the movement, the more prolonged it is, the more sustained it is, and no orators who ever lived moved a people so far along the road — moved 58 THE GREAT CRUSADE them so liigh in their climb — as those great gifted men who were orators, and who should stand as statuary in the greatest hall that ever was built to represent the genius of man. I wish there were one representative — one. It would not be difficult ; they would not quarrel. There (pointing) is a poet whose songs in his life everyone profoundly disapproved of. There are bishops who did not belong to their particular Church, Catholic and Anglican. They have passed beyond the veil, where judgments are tolerant, where realities only count, and where Dafydd ap Gwilym will be greeted by Rowlands Llangeitho as a man who talked of the realities, of the things of God. You need not fear to put them here ; let us have one of them here, just one of the greatest men that ever thrilled a nation from death into life. That is my plea. Then there is the intellectual revival of Wales. Those colleges, those schools — they did not spring from the earth. There were great men who ploughed and harrowed the ground and sowed the seed, took out the weeds, and tended and shep- herded the growing institutions. Let us have one of those. I do not say the representation will be complete. It is difficult to make complete any representation of the great men of a nation. Great men provoke controversy. Dafydd ap Gwilym was buried for centuries in the dust of obloquy. It is but recently that he has risen from the dead. There are men I dare not mention, dead men, and, although dead, men I cannot mention in an assembly which takes THE GREAT MEN OF WALES 59 diverse views about them — martyrs, social think- ers, like Robert Owen.. They are men who fought and suffered for religious equality and freedom of conscience. It is difficult to bring men of that kind in, because thej^ fight even though they be dead. Their battle is not over yet : they are still fighting. They are fighting for something that will only emerge into consent centuries hence. When that happens they will have their place in the National Valhalla, and a high place it will be. But let them work their way there. The great ora- tors of Wales, the great educational reformers of Wales, have surely ceased to be controversialists. Power of Little Nations. One or two w^ords in conclusion. We are here to honour the great men of a little nation, such a small nation compared with the nations that are on the arena now. And yet little nations were never more alive, never more important than they are to-day in this conflict of gigantic Empires. If I were to pass a criticism upon the Allies I would say that while fighting for little nations they have never fully recognised and realised their value and their potential strength. They have never realised quite the value of Belgium, of Serbia, of Montenegro, of Bulgaria, of Greece, of Roumania. WTien the time comes to write the story of this conflict it will be found that the cardinal blunder of the Allies was that they did not understand the power, the potential power, of the little nations. Britain is now at the full strength of an Imperial 60 THE GREAT CRUSADE tide, and whilst the tide will get still higher, it will never submerge the joy of the little nation in its past, in its present, and in the future which it conceives for itself. The small nation is like a little stream. It does not cease to have a separ- ate existence even when its waters are merged in the great river. It still runs along the same val- ley, under the same name, draining the same watershed, and if it ceases to flow and to gather the waters of its own plain the great river would shrink, the great river would lose half its impetus and the purity of its waters. That great river is now in flood. A storm of righteous anger against a ghastly wrong has swept over the land, and the river is full to over- flowing. But I thank God for the fact that there are cataracts from the mountains of Wales swell- ing now the torrent of angry waters that will sweep away for ever the oppression which has menaced generations. EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES AS PRIME MINISTER im- THE NEW GOVERNIMENT. EXTRaVCTS FROM A SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS ON BECOMING PREMIER, DECEMBER 19tH, 1916. I APPEAR before the House of Commons to-day, with the most terrible responsibility that can fall npon the shoulders of any living man, as the chief adviser of the Crown, in the most gigantic war in which the countrj^ has ever been engaged — a war upon the event of which its destiny depends. It is the greatest war ever waged. The burdens are the heaviest that have been cast upon this or any other country, and the issues which hang upon it are the gravest that have been attached to any conflict in which humanity has ever been involved. Allies' Answer to the Peace Note. The responsibilities of the new Government have been suddenly accentuated by a declaration made by the German Chancellor, and I propose to deal with that at once. The statement made by him in the German Reichstag has been followed by a Note presented to us by the United States of America without any note or comment. The an- swer that will be given by the Government will be given in full accord with all our brave Allies. 63 64 THE GREAT CRUSADE Naturally, there has been an interchange of views, not upon the Note, because it only recently ar- rived, but upon the speech which propelled it, and inasmuch as the Note itself is practically only a reproduction, or certainly a paraphrase, of the speech, the subject-matter of the Note itself has been discussed informally between the Allies, and I am very glad to be able to state that we have each of us separately and independently arrived at identical conclusions. I am very glad that the first answer that was given to the statement of the German Chancellor was given by France and by Russia. They have the unquestionable right to give the first answer to such an invitation. The enemy is still on their soil; their sacrifices have been greater. The an- swer they have given has already appeared in all the papers, and I simply stand here to-day, on behalf of the Government, to give clear and defi- nite support to the statement which they have already made. Let us examine what the state- ment is, and examine it calmly. Any man, or set of men, who wantonly, or without sufficient cause, prolonged a terrible conflict like this would have on their soul a crime that oceans could not cleanse. Upon the other hand it is equally true that any man, or set of men, who out of a sense of weari- ness or despair abandoned the struggle without achieving the high purpose for which we had en- tered into it, would be guilty of the costliest act of poltroonery ever perpetrated by any states- man. I should like to quote the very well known THE NEW GOVERNMENT 65 words of Abraham Lincoln under similar condi- tions : ''We accepted this war for an object, and a worthy object, and the war will end when that object is attained. Under God I hope it will never end until that time." Are we likely to achieve that object by accepting the invitation of the German Chancellor f That is the only question we have to put to ourselves. There has been some talk about proposals of peace. What are the proposals ? There are none. To enter into a conference at the invitation of Germany, proclaiming herself victorious, without any knowledge of the proposals she intends to make, is to put our heads into a noose with the rope end in the hands of Germany. ''Taken in once." This country is not altogether without experi- ence in these matters. This is not the first time we have fought a great military despotism that was overshadowing Europe, and it will not be the first time we shall have helped to overthrow mili- tary despotism. We have an uncomfortable his- torical memory of these things, and we can recall that when one of the greatest of these despots had a purpose to serve in the working of his nefarious schemes, his favourite device was to appear in the garb of the angel of peace. He usually appeared under two conditions — first, 66 THE GREAT CRUSADE when he wished for time to assimilate his con- quests, or to reorganise his forces for fresh con- quests; and, secondly, when his subjects showed symptoms of fatigue and war weariness. Invari- ably the appeal was made in the name of human- ity; and he demanded an end to bloodshed at which he professed himself to be horrified, but for which he himself was mainly responsible. Our ancestors were taken in once, and bitterly did they and Europe rue it. The time was devoted to reor- ganising his forces for a deadlier attack th=an ever upon the liberties of Europe. Bestitution, Beparation, Guarantees. Examples of that kind cause us to regard this Note with a considerable measure of reminiscent disquiet. We feel that we ought to know, before we can give favourable consideration to such an invitation, that Germany is prepared to accede to the only terms on which it is possible for peace to be obtained and maintained in Europe. What are those terms'? They have been repeatedly stated by all the leading statesmen of the Allies. My right hon. friend has stated them repeatedly here and outside : ''Restitution, reparation, guarantees against repetition. ' ' Let me repeat again — complete restitution, full reparation, effectual guarantees. Did the German Chancellor use a single phrase to indicate that he THE NEW GOVERNMENT 67 was prepared to concede such terms? Was there a hint of restitution? Was there aliy suggestion of reparation? Was there any indication of any security for the future that this outrage on civilis- ation wouki not be again perpetrated at the first profitable opportunity? The very substance and style of the speech constitute a denial of peace on the only terms on which peace is possible. He is not even conscious now that Germany has com- mitted any offence against the rights of free na- tions. Listen to this from the Note : ''Not for an instant have they" (they being the Central Powers) ''swerved from the conviction that the respect of rights of other nations is not in any degree incompatible with their own rights and legitimate interests." When did they discover that ? WTiere was the re- spect for the rights of other nations in Belgium and Serbia? Oh, that was self-defence! Menaced, I suppose, by the overwhelming armies of Bel- gium, the Germans had been intimidated into in- vading that country, to the burning of Belgian cities and villages, to the massacring of thousands of inhabitants, old and young, to the carrying of the survivors into bondage; yea, and they were carrying them into slavery at the very moment when this precious Note was being written about the unswerving conviction as to the respect of the rights of other nations ! I suppose these outrages are the legitimate interest of Germany? We must know. That is not the mood of peace. If excuses 68 THE GREAT CRUSADE of this kind for palpable crimes can be put for- ward two and a half years after the exposure by grim facts of the guarantee, is there, I ask in all solemnity, any guarantee that similar subterfuges will not be used in the future to overthrow any treaty of peace you may enter into with Prussian militarism? This Note and that speech prove that not yet have they learned the very alphabet of respect for the rights of others. Without repara- tion, peace is impossible. Are all these outrages against humanity on land and on sea to be liqui- dated by a few pious phrases about humanity? Is there to be no reckoning for them? Are we to grasp the hand that perpetrated these atrocities in friendship without any reparation being tendered or given ? I am told that we are to begin, Germany helping us, to exact reparation for all future vio- lence committed after the war. We have begun already. It has already cost us so much, and we must exact it now so as not to leave such a grim in- heritance to our children. Much as w^e all long for peace, deeply as we are horrified with war, this Note and the speech which propelled it afford us small encouragement and hope for an honourable and lasting compact. A Bad Neighbour. What hojDe is there given by that speech that the whole root and cause of this great bitterness, the arrogant spirit of the Prussian military caste, will not be as dominant as ever if we patch up a THE NEW GOVERNMENT 69 peace now? Why, the very speech in which these peace suggestions are made resounds with the boasts of Prussian military triumphs of victory. It is a long pa^an over the victory of Von Hinden- burg and his legions. This very appeal for peace is delivered ostentatiously from the triumphant chariot of Prussian militarism. We must keep a steadfast eye upon the purpose for which we entered the war, otherwise the great sacrifices we have been making will be all in vain. The German Note states that it was for the defence of their existence and the freedom of national development that the Central Powers were con- strained to take up arms. Such phrases cannot even deceive those who pen them. They are in- tended to delude the German nation into support- ing the designs of the Prussian military caste. "WTioever wishes to put an end to their existence and the freedom of their national development? We welcomed their development as long as it was on the paths of peace. The greater their devel- opment upon that road, the more will all humanity be enriched by their efforts. That was not our design, and it is not our purpose now. The Allies entered this war to defend themselves against the aggression of the Prussian military domination, and having begun it, they must insist that it can only end with the most complete and effective guarantee against the possibility of that caste ever again disturbing the peace of Europe. Prus- sia, since she got into the hands of that caste, has been a bad neighbour, arrogant, threatening, bully- 70 THE GREAT CRUSADE ing, litigious, shifting boundaries at her will, tak- ing one fair field after another from weaker neigh- bours, and adding them to her own domain, with her belt ostentatiously full of weapons of offence, and ready at a moment's notice to use them. She has always been an unpleasant, disturbing neigh- bour, and no wonder that the Prussians got thor- oughly on the nerves of Europe. There was no peace near where they dwelt. An Offence against the Law of Nations. It is difficult for those who were fortunate enough to live thousands of miles away to under- stand what it has meant to those who lived near their boundaries. Even here, with the protec- tion of the broad seas between us, we know what a disturbing factor the Prussians were with their constant naval menace, but even we can hardly realise what it has meant to France and to Russia. Several times within the lifetime of this genera- tion there were threats directed at them which presented the alternative of war or humiliation. There were many of us who hoped that internal influence in Germany would have been strong enough to check and ultimately to eliminate this hectoring. All our hopes proved illusory, and now that this great war has been forced by the Prussian military leaders upon France, Russia, Italy, and ourselves, it would be folly, it would be cruel folly, not to see to it that this swashbuckling through the streets of Europe to the disturbance THE NEW GOVERNMENT 71 of all harmless and peaceful citizens, shall be dealt with now as an offence against the law of nations. The mere word that led Belgium to her own de- stiTiction will not satisfy Europe any more. We all believed it. W^e all trusted it. It gave way at the first pressure of temptation, and Europe has been plunged into this vortex of blood. We wdll, therefore, wait until we hear what terms and guar- antees the German Government offer other than those, better than those, surer than those which she so lightly broke ; and meanwhile we shall put our trust in an unbroken Army rather than in a broken faith. No Speedy Victory. For the moment, I do not think it would be advisable for me to add anything upon this par- ticular invitation. A formal reply will be deliv- ered by the Allies in the course of the next few days. I shall therefore proceed with the other part of the task which I have in front of me. WThat is the urgent task in front of the Government? To complete and make even more effective the mo- bilisation of all our national resources, so as to enable the nation to bear the strain, however pro- longed, and to march through to victory, however leng-thy and however exhausting may be tlie jour- ney. It is a gigantic task, and let me give this word of warning : If there be any who have given their confidence to the new Administration in ex- pectation of a speedy victory, they will be doomed 72 THE GREAT CRUSADE to disappointment. I am not going to paint a gloomy picture of the military situation — if I did, it would not be a true picture — but I must paint a stern picture, because that accurately represents the facts. I have always insisted on the nation being taught to realise the actual facts of this war. I have attached enormous importance to that at the risk of being characterised as a pessi- mist. I believe that a good many of our misun- derstandings have arisen from exaggerated views which have been taken about successes and from a disposition to treat as trifling real set-backs. To imagine that you can only get the support and the help, and the best help, of a strong people by con- cealing difficulties is to show a fundamental mis- conception. The British people possess as sweet a tooth as anybody, and they like pleasant things put on the table, but that is not the stuff that they have been brought up on. That is not what the British Empire has been nourished on. Britain has never shown at its best except when it was confronted with a real danger and understood it. The Worst Aspect. Let us for a moment look at the worst. The Roumanian blunder was an unfortunate one, but at w^orst it prolongs the war; it does not alter the fundamental facts of the war. I cannot help hop- ing that it may even have a salutary effect in call- ing the attention of the Allies to obvious defects in their organisation, not merely the organisation THE NEW GOVERNMENT 73 of each but the organisation of the whole, and if it does that and braces them up to fresh effort it may prove, bad as it is, a blessing. That is the worst. That has been a real set-back. It is the darkest cloud — and it is a cloud that appeared on a clear- ing horizon. We are doing our best to make it im- possible that that disaster should lead to w^orse. That is why w^e have taken in the last few days veiy strong action in Greece. We mean to take no risks there. We have decided to take definite and decisive action, and I think it has succeeded. We have decided also to recognise the agents of that great Greek statesman, M. Venizelos. The New Army. I wanted to clear out of the way what I regarded as the worst features in the military situation, but I should like to say one word about the lesson of the fighting on the Western front — not about the military strategy, but about the significance of the whole of that great struggle, one of the greatest struggles ever waged in the history of the world. It is full of encouragement and of hope. Just look at it ! An absolutely new Army ! The old had done its duty and spent itself in the achievement of that great task. This is a new Army. But a year ago it was ore in the earth of Britain, yea, and of Ireland. It became iron. It has passed through a fiery furnace, and the enemy knows that it is now fine steel. An absolutely new Army, new men, new officers taken from schools. 74 THE GREAT CRUSADE from colleges, from comiting-houses, never trained to war, never thought of war, many of them per- haps never handlmg a weapon of war, generals never given the oj)portunity of handling great masses of men. Some of ns had seen the manoeu- vres. A division which is now set to attack a small village is more than our generals ever had the op- portunity of handling before the war. Compared with the great manoeuvres on the Continent, they were toy manoeuvres. And yet this New Army, new men, new officers, generals new to this kind of work, they have faced the greatest army in the world, the greatest army the world has ever seen, the best equipped and the best trained, and they have beaten them, beaten them, beaten them ! Bat- tle after battle, day after day, week after week! From the strongest entrenchments ever devised by human skill they have driven them out by val- our, by valour which is incredible when you read the story of it. There is something which gives you hope, which fills you with pride in the nation to which they be- long. It is a fact, and it is a fact full of signifi- cance for us — and for the foe. It is part of his reckoning as well. He has seen that Army grow and proved under his very eyes. A great French general said to me, ''Your Army is a new army. It must learn, not merely generals, not merely of- ficers, but the men must learn not merely what to do, but how and when to do it." They are becom- ing veterans, and therefore, basing our confidence upon these facts, I am as convinced as I ever was THE NEW GOVERNMENT 75 of ultimate victory if the nation proves as steady, as valorous, as ready to sacrifice and as ready to learn and to endure as that great Army of our sons in France. Controversy placed on one Side. I should like now to say a word or two about the Government itself, and, in doing so, I am anxious to avoid all issues that excite irritation or con- troversy or disunion. This is not a time for that. But it must not be assumed, if I do so, that I ac- cept as complete the accounts which have been given of the way in which the Government was formed. My attitude towards the policy of the late Administration, of which I was a member and for all whose deeds I am just as responsible as any one of them, has been given in letters and memoranda, and my reasons for leaving it have also been given in a letter. If it were necessary, I should on personal grounds have welcomed its publication, but I am convinced that controversies as to the past will not help us as to the future, and therefore, as far as I am concerned, I place them on one side and go on with what I regard as the business of the Government under these trying conditions. I should like to say something, first of all, as to the unusual character and composition of the Government as an executive body. 76 THE GREAT CRUSADE Constitution of the New Government. The House has realised that there has been a separation between the functions of the Prime Minister and the Leader of the House. That was because we came to the conclusion that it was more than any one man, whatever his energy or physical strength might be, could do to undertake both functions in the middle of a great war. The task of the Leader of the House is a very anxious and absorbing task, even in war. I have not been able to attend the House very much myself during the last two or three years, but I have been here often enough to realise that the task of the Leader of the House of Commons is not a sinecure even in a war — friends of mine took care that it should not be so! So much for that point. Now there are three characteristics in the present Administration in which it may be said it has departed, perhaps, from precedent. First of all, there is the concen- tration of the Executive in a very few hands ; the second is the choosing of men of administrative and business capacity rather than men of Parlia- mentary experience, where we were unable to ob- tain both, for the headship of a great Depart- ment ; and the third is a franker and fuller recog- nition of the partnership of Labour in the Gov- ernment of this country. No Government that has ever been formed to rule this country has had such a number of men who all their lives have been as- sociated with labour and with the labour organisa- THE NEW GOVERNMENT 77 tions of this country. We realised that it was im- possible to conduct war without getting the com- plete and unqualified, support of Labour, and we were anxious to obtain their assistance and their counsel for the purpose of the conduct of the war. *' Peace Structures." The fact that this is a different kind of organ- isation from any that preceded it is not necessar- ily a criticism upon its predecessors. They were peace stiiictures. They were organised for a dif- ferent purpose and a different condition of things. The kind of craft you have for river or canal traf- fic is not exactly the kind of vessel you construct for the high seas. I have no doubt that the old Cabinets — I am not referring to the last Cabinet, I am referring to the old system of Cabinets, where the heads of every Department were repre- sented inside the Cabinet — I have no doubt that the old Cabinets were better adapted for naviga- ting the Parliamentary river with its shoals and shifting sands, and perhaps for a cruise in home waters. But a Cabinet of twenty-three is rather top-heavy for a gale. I do not say that this par- ticular craft is best adapted for Parliamentary navigation, but I am convinced it is the best for the war, in which you want quick decision above everything. Look at the last two and a half years. I am not referring to what has happened in this country. When I say these things I would rather thp House 78 THE GREAT CRUSADE of Commons looked at the war as a whole, and took the concerns of the Allies as a whole. We are all perfectly certain, and I shall have the assent of my right hon. friend (Mr. Asquith) in this, that the Allies have suffered disaster after disaster through tardiness of decision and action, very largely for reasons I shall give later on. I know in this I am in complete agreement with my right hon. friend. It is true that in a multitude of coun- sellors there is wisdom. That was written for Oriental countries in peace times. You cannot run a war with a Sanhedrim. That is the meaning of the Cabinet of five, with one of its members doing sentry duty outside, manning the walls, and de- fending the Council Chamber against attack while we are trying to do our work inside. The Food Problem. The problem is a double one ; it is one of distri- bution and of production. In respect of both, we must call upon the people of this country to make real sacrifices, but it is essential, when we do so, that the sacrifices should be equal. The overcon- sumption by the affluent must not be allowed to create a shortage for the less well-to-do. I am sure we can depend upon men and women of all conditions to play the game. Any sort of conceal- ment hurts the nation. It hurts it when it is fight- ing for its life. Therefore, we must appeal to the nation as a whole, men and women, to assist us to THE NEW GOVERNMENT 79 so distribute our resources that there shall be no man, woman, or child who will be s,uffering from hunger because someone else has been getting too much. Wlien you come to production, every available square yard must be made to produce food. The labour available for tillage should not be turned to more ornamental purposes until the food neces- sities of the country have been adequately safe- guarded. The best use must be made of land and of labour to increase the food supplies of this country — com, potatoes, and all kinds of food products. All those who have the opportunity must feel it is their duty to the State to assist in producing and in contributing to the common stock, upon which everybody can draw. If they do this, we shall get food without any privation, without any want, everybody having plenty of the best and healthiest food. By that means and that means alone will the nation be able to carry through the war to that triumphal issue to which we are all looking forvvard. A National Lent. It means sacrifice. But what sacrifice? Talk to a man who has returned from the horrors of the Somme, or who has been through the haunting wretchedness of a winter campaign, and you will know something of what those gallant men are en- during for their countiy. They are enduring much, they are hazarding all, whilst we are living 80 THE GREAT CRUSADE in comfort and security at home. You cannot have absolute equality of sacrifice. In a war that is impossible, but you can have equal readiness to sacrifice from all. There are hundreds of thou- sands who have given their lives, there are mil- lions who have given up comfortable homes and exchanged them for a daily communion with death. Multitudes have given up those whom they love best. Let the nation as a whole place its comforts, its luxuries, its indulgences, its elegances on a na- tional altar consecrated by such sacrifices as these men have made. Let us proclaim during the war a national Lent. The nation will be better and stronger for it, mentally and morally as well as physically. It will strengthen its fibre, it will en- noble its spirit. Without it we shall not get the full benefit of this struggle. Our armies might drive the enemy out of the battered villages of France, across the devastated plains of Belgium; they might hurl them across the Rhine in battered disarray ; but unless the nation as a whole shoul- ders part of the burden of victory it will not profit by the triumph, for it is not what a nation gains, it is what a nation gives that makes it great. Ireland. I wish it were possible to remove the misunder- standing between Britain and Ireland which has for centuries been such a source of misery to the one and of embarrassment and weakness to the other. Apart from the general interest which I THE NEW GOVERNMENT 81 have taken in it, I should consider that a war measure of the first importance. I should consider it a great victoiy for the Allied Forces, some- thing that would give strength to the armies of the Allies. I am convinced now that it is a mis- understanding, partly racial and partly religious. It is to the interest of both to have this misunder- standing removed, but there seems to have been some evil chance that frustrated eveiy effort made for the achievement of better relations. I wish that that misunderstanding could be removed. I tried once. I did not succeed. The fault was not entirely on one side. I felt the whole time that we were moving in an atmosphere of nervous sus- picion and distrust, pervasive, universal, of every- thing and eveiybody. I was drenched with sus- picion of Irishmen by Englishmen and of Eng- lishmen by Irishmen, and, worst and most fatal of all, suspicion of Irishmen by Irishmen. It was a quagmire of distrust which clogged the foot- steps and made progress impossible. That is the real enemy of Ireland. If that could be slain, I believe that it would accomplish an act of recon- ciliation that would make Ireland greater and Britain greater and would make the United King- dom and the Empire greater than they ever were before. That is why I have always thought and said that the real solution of the Irish problem is largely one of a better atmosphere. I am speak- ing not merely for myself but for my colleagues when I say that we shall strive to produce that better feeling. We shall strive by every means to 82 THE GREAT CRUSADE produce that atmosphere, and we ask men of all races and men of all creeds and faiths to help us, not to solve a political question, but to help us to do something that will be a real contribution to the winning of the war. The Dominions. I must also say one word about the Dominions. Ministers have repeatedly acknowledged the splendid assistance which the Dominions have given, of their own free will, to the old country in its championship of the cause of humanity. The great ideals of national fair play and justice ap- peal to the Dominions just as insistently as to us. They have recognised throughout that our fight is not a selfish one, and that it is not merely a Eu- ropean quarrel, but that there are great world issues involved in which their children are as con- cerned as our children. The new Administration are as full of gratitude as the old for the superb valour which our kinsmen have sho\vn in so many stricken fields. But that is not why I introduce the subject now. I introduce the subject now be- cause I want to say that we feel the time has come when the Dominions ought to be more formally consulted as to the progress and course of the war, as to the steps that ought to be taken to secure victory, and as to the best methods of garnering in the fruits of their efforts as well as of our own. We propose, therefore, at an early date to sum- mon an Imperial Conference, to place the whole THE NEW GOVERNMENT 83 position before the Dominions, and to take counsel with them as to what further action they and we can take together in order to achieve an early and complete triumph for the ideals for which they and we have so superbly fought. "A Common Front." As to our relations with the Allies — and this is the last topic I shall refer to — I ventured to say earlier in the year that there were two things we ought to seek as Allies : the first was unity of aim, and the other, unity of action. The first we have achieved. Never have Allies worked in better har- mony or more perfect accord than the Allies in this great struggle. There has been no friction and there has been no misunderstanding. But when I come to the question of unity of action I still think that there is a good deal left to be de- sired. I have only to refer to the incident of Rou- mania, and each man can spell out for himself what I mean. The enemy have two advantages — two supreme advantages. One is that they act on internal lines, and the other is that there is one great dominant power that practically directs the forces of all. We have neither of these advan- tages. We must, therefore, achieve the same end by other means. The advantages we possess are advantages which time improves. No one can say that we have made the best of that time. There has been a tardiness of decision and action. I forget who said about Necker that he was like a 84 THE GREAT CRUSADE clock that was always too slow. There is a little of that in the great Alliance clock — Belgium, Ser- bia, Montenegro, Roumania! Before we can take full advantage of the enor- mous resources at the command of the Allies, there must be some means of arriving at quicker and readier decisions, and of carrying them out. I believe that that can be done, and if we quicken our action as well as our decisions it will equalise the conditions more than we have succeeded in doing in the past. There must be more consulta- tion, more real consultation, between the men who matter in the direction of affairs. There must be less of the feeling that each comitry has its own front to look after. It has been carried so far that almost each Department might have a front of its own. The policy of a common front must be a reality. It is a reality on the other side. Aus- trian guns are helping German infantry, and Ger- man infantry are stiffening Austrian arms. The Turks are helping Germans and Austrians, and Bulgarians mix with all. There is an essential feeling that there is but one front, and I believe we have to get that more and more, instead of having overwhelming guns on one side and bare breasts, gallant breasts, on the other. It is essen- tial for the Allies not merely to realise that, but to carry it out in policy and action. I take this opportunity at the beginning of this new Admin- istration of emphasising that point, because I be- lieve it is an essential for great victory, and for THE NEW GOVERNMENT 85 the curtailment of the period before victory ar- rives. / The Issue Higher than Party. I end with one personal note, for which I hope the House will forgive me. May I say, and I say it in all sincerity, that it is one of the deepest re- grets of my life that I should part from the right hon. gentleman (Mr. Asquith). Some of his friends know how I strove to avert it. For years I served under the right hon. gentleman, and I am proud to say so. I never had a kinder or more indulgent chief. If there were any faults of tem- per, they were entirely mine, and I have no doubt I must have been difficult at times. No man had greater admiration for his brilliant intellectual attainments, and no man was happier to serve under him. For eight years we differed as men of such different temperaments must necessarily differ, but we never had a personal quarrel, in spite of serious differences in policy; and it was with deep, genuine grief that I felt it necessary to tender my resignation to my right hon. friend. But there are moments when personal and party considerations must sink into absolute insignifi- cance, and if in this War I have given scant heed to the call of party, — and so I have, although I have been as strong a party man as any in this House, — it is because I realised, from the moment the Prussian cannon hurled death at a peaceable and inoffensive little country, that a challenge had 86 THE GREAT CRUSADE been sent to cmlisation to decide an issue higher than party, deeper than party, wider than all par- ties — an issue upon the settlement of which will depend the fate of men in this world for genera- tions, when existing parties will have fallen like dead leaves on the highway. Those issues are the issues that I want to keep in front of the nation, so that we shall not falter or faint in our resolve. There is a time in every prolonged and fierce war, in the passion and rage of the conflict, when men forget the high purpose with which they en- tered it. This is a struggle for international right, international honour, international good faith — the channel along which peace, honour, and good will must flow amongst men. The embankments laboriously built up by generations of men against barbarism have been broken, and had not the might of Britain passed into the breach, Europe would have been inundated with a flood of savagery and unbridled lust of power. The plain sense of fair play amongst nations, the growth of an interna- tional conscience, the protection of the weak against the strong by the stronger, the conscious- ness that justice has a more powerful backing in this world than greed, the knowledge that any out- rage upon fair dealing between nations, great or small, will meet with prompt and inevitable chas- tisement — these constitute the causeway along which humanity was progressing sloM^ly to higher things. The trimnph of Prussia would sweep it all away and leave mankind to struggle helpless THE NEW GOVERNMENT 87 in the morass. That is why, since this war be- gan, I have known but one political aim. For that I have fought with a single eye. It is the rescue of mankind from the most overwhelming catas- trophe that has ever yet menaced its well-being. A SAFE INVESTMENT. EXTRACTS FROM A SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE GUILDHALL, AT A MEETING HELD TO LAUNCH THE VICTORY WAR LOAN, JANUARY 11th, 1917. The German Trap. The German Kaiser a few days ago sent a mes- sage to liis people that the Allies had rejected his peace offer. He did so in order to drug those whom he can no longer dragoon. Where are those offers 1 We have asked for them. We have never seen them. We were not offered terms; we were offered a trap baited with fair words. They tempted ns once, bnt the lion has his eyes open now. We have rejected no terms that we have ever seen. Of course it would suit them to have peace at the present moment on their own terms. We all want peace ; but when we get it, it must be a real peace. The Allied Powers separately, and in council together, have come to the same conclu- sion. Knowing well what war means, knowing especially what this war means in suffering, in burdens, in horror, they have decided that even war is better than peace — peace at the Prussian price of domination over Europe. We made that clear in our reply to Germany; we made it still clearer in our reply to the United States of Amer- ica. Before we attempt to rebuild the temple of A SAFE INVESTMENT 89 peace we must see now that the foundations are solid. They were built before upon the shifting sands of Prussian faith; henceforth, when the time for rebuilding comes, it must be on the rook of vindicated justice. Determination of the Allies. I have just returned from a Council of War of the four great Allied countries upon whose shoul- ders most of the burden of this terrible war falls. I cannot give you the conclusions : there might be useful information in them for the enemy. There were no delusions as to the magnitude of our task ; neither were there any doubts about the result. All felt that if victory were difficult, defeat was impossible. There was no flinching, no waver- ing, no faintheartedness, no infirmity of purpose. There was a grim resolution that at all costs we must achieve the high aim with which we accepted the challenge of the Prussian military caste and rid Europe and the world of its menace for ever. No country could have refused that challenge without loss of honour. No one could have re- jected it without impairing national security. No one could have failed to take it up without forfeit- ing something which is of greater value to every free and self-respecting people than life itself. Spirit of the Borne Conference. These nations did not enter into the war light- heartedly. They did not embark upon this enter- 90 THE GREAT CRUSADE prise without knowing what it really meant. They were not induced by the prospect of an easy victory. Take this country. The millions of our men who enrolled in the Army enlisted after the German victories of August, 1914, when they knew the accumulative and concentrated power of the German military machine. That is when they placed their lives at the disposal of their country. What about other nations ? They knew what they were encountering, that they were fighting an organisation which had been perfected for genera- tions by the best brains of Prussia, perfected with one purpose — the subjugation of Europe. And yet they faced it. Why did they do it? I passed through hundreds of miles of the beautiful lands of France and of Italy, and as I did so I asked myself this question : Why did the peasants leave by the million these sunny vineyards and corn- fields in France — why did they quit these enchant- ing valleys in Italy, with their comfort and their security and their calm — in order to face the dreary and wild horrors of the battlefield? They did it for one purpose and one purpose only. They were not driven to the slaughter by kings. These are great democratic countries. No Government could have lasted twenty-four hours that had forced them into an abhorrent war. Of their own free will they embarked upon it, because they knew a fundamental issue had been raised which no country could have shirked without imperilling all that has been won in the centuries of the past and all that remains to be won in the ages of the A SAFE INVESTMENT 91 future. That is why, as the war proceeds, and the German pui-pose becomes more manifest, the con- viction has become deeper in the minds of these people that they must break their way through to victory in order to save Europe from unspeak- able despotism. That was the spirit which ani- mated the Allied Conference at Rome last week. "Looking to Great Britain." But I will tell you one thing that struck me, and strikes me more and more each time that I visit the Continent and attend these Conferences. That is the increasing extent to which the Allied peoples are looking to Great Britain. They are trusting to her rugged strength, to her great resources. To them she looks like a great tower in the deep. She is becoming more and more the hope of the oppressed and the despair of the oppressor, and I feel more and more confident that we shall not fail the people who put their trust in us. When that arrogant Prussian caste flung the signature of Britain to a treaty into the waste-paper basket as if it were of no account, they knew not the pride of the land they were treating with such insolent disdain. They know it now. Our soldiers and sailors have taught them to respect it. You have heard the eloquent account of the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the achievements of our soldiers. Our sailors are gallantly defend- ing the honour of our country on the high seas of the world. They have strangled the enemy's com- 92 THE GREAT CRUSADE merce, and will continue to do so, in spite of all the piratical devices of the foe. In 1914 and 1915, for two years, a small, ill-equipped army held up the veterans of Prussia with the best equipment in Europe. In 1916 they hurled them back, and delivered a blow from which they are reeling. In 1917 the armies of Britain will be more f oraiidable than ever in training, in efficiency, and in equip- ment, and you may depend upon it that if we give them the necessary support they will cleave a road to victory through all the dangers and perils of the next few months. A Bombardment of Cheques. But we must support them. They are worth it. Have you ever talked to a soldier who has come back from the front? There is not one of them w^ho will not tell you how he is encouraged and sustained by hearing the roar of the guns behind him. This is what I want to see : I want to see cheques hurtling through the air, fired from the City of London, from every city, town, village, and hamlet throughout the land, fired straight into the entrenchments of the enemy. Every well-di- rected cheque, well loaded, properly primed, is a more formidable weapon of destruction than a 12- inch shell. It clears the path of the barbed wire entanglements for our gallant fellows to march through. A big loan helps to ensure victory. A big loan will also shorten the war. It will help to save life; it will help to save the British Em- A SAFE INVESTMENT 93 pire; it will help to save Europe; it will help to save civilisation. That is why we want the coun- try to rise to this occasion and shbw that the old spirit of Britain, represented by this great British meeting, is still as alive and as alert and as potent as ever. ''Extravagance Costs Blood.*' I want to appeal to the men at home, and to the women also, for they have done their part nobly. A man who has been Munitions Minister for twelve months must feel a debt of gratitude to the women for what they have done. They have helped to win, and without them we should not do it. I want to make a special appeal, or, rather, to enforce the special appeal of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Let no money be squandered in lux- ury and indulgence which can be put into the fight. Every ounce counts in this fight. Do not waste it. Do not throw it away. Put it there to help the valour of our brave young boys. Back them up. Let us contribute to assist them. Have greater pride in them than in costly garments. They in their turn will feel proud of their mothers to-day, and their pride in them will grow in years to come when the best garments will have rotted. It will glisten and glitter. It will improve with the years. They can put it on with old age and say, ''This is something I contributed in the Great War." Men and women of England, Scotland, "Wales, and Ireland, the first charge — ^the first charge — upon all your surplus money over your needs for 94 THE GREAT CRUSADE yourselves and your children should be to help those gallant young men of ours who have ten- dered their lives for the cause of humanity. The more we get the surer the victory. The more we get the shorter the war. The more we get the less it will cost in treasure, and the greatest treas- ure of all, brave blood. The more we give the more will the nation gain. You will enrich it by your contributions — by your sacrifices. Extrava- gance — I want to bring this home to every man and woman throughout these islands — extrava- gance during the war costs blood — costs blood! And what blood! Valiant blood — the blood of heroes. It would be worth millions to save one of them. A big loan will save myriads of them. Help them not merely to win; help them to come home to shout for the victory which they have won! *' Equipment for the Allies." It means better equipment for our troops. It means better equipment for the Allies as well, and this — and I say it now for the fiftieth if not the hundredth time — is a war of equipment. Why are the Germans pressing back our gallant Allies in Roumanial It is not that they are better fight- ers. They are certainly not. The Roumanian peasant has proved himself to be one of the dough- tiest fighters in the field when he has a chance, poor fellow, and he never had much. As for the Russian, the way in which with bare breast he has fought for two years and a half, with inferior A SAFE INVESTMENT 95 guns, insufficient rifles, inadequate supplies of am- munition, is one of the world's tales of heroism. Let us help to equip them, and there will be an- other story to tell soon. "A Safe Investment.'* That is why I am glad to follow the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the appeal which he has made to the patriotism of our race — ^but with true Scot- tish instinct he put the appeal to prudence first! He laid it down as a good foundation for patriot- ism and reserved that for his peroration. I shall reverse the order, belonging to a less canny race. I want to say it is a good investment. After all, the old country is the best investment in the world. It was a sound concern before the war ; it will be sounder and safer than ever after the war, and especially safer. I do not know the nation that will care to touch it after the war. They had forgotten what we were like, but it will take them a long time to forget this lesson. Have you been watching what has been going on? Before the war we had a good many short- comings in our business, our commerce, and our industry. The war is setting them all right in the most marvellous way. You ask great business men what is going on in the factories throughout Great Britain and Ireland. Old machinery scrapped, the newest and the best set up; slip- shod, wasteful methods also scrapped, hampering customs discontinued; millions brought into the 96 THE GREAT CRUSADE labour market to help to produce who before were merely consumers. I do not know what the Na- tional Debt will be at the end of this war, but I will make this prediction. Whatever it is, what is added in real assets to the real riches of the nation will be infinitely greater than any debt that we shall ever acquire. The resources of the na- tion in every direction will have been developed, directed, perfected, the nation itself disciplined, braced up, quickened. We have become a more alert people. We have thrown off useless tissues. We are a nation that has been taking exercise. We are a different people. ''The Path of Gold.'' I will tell you another difference. The Prussian menace was a running mortgage which detracted from the value of our national security. No- body knew what it meant. We know pretty well now. You could not tell whether it meant a mort- gage of hundreds of millions, or thousands of mil- lions, and I know you could not tell that it would not mean ruin. That mortgage will be cleared off for ever, and there will be a better security, a bet- ter, sounder, safer security, at a better rate of in- terest. The world will then be able, when the war is over, to attend to its business. There will be no war or rumours of war to disturb and to dis- tract it. We can build up; we can reconstruct; we can till and cultivate and enrich ; and the bur- den and terror and waste of war will have gone. A SAFE INVESTMENT 97 The best security for peace will be that nations will band themselves together to punish the first peacebreaker. In the armouries of Europe every weapon will be a sword of justice. In the govern- ment of men every army will be the constabulary of peace. There were men who hoped to see this achieved in the ways of peace. We were disappointed. It was ordained that we should not reach that golden era except along a path which itself was paved with gold, yea, and cemented with valiant blood. There are myriads who have given the latter, and there are myriads more ready for the sacrifice if their country needs it. It is for us to contribute the former. Let no man and no woman, in this crisis of their nation's fate, through indolence, greed, avarice, or selfishness, fail. And if they do their part, then, when the time comes for the tri- umphal march through the darkness and the ter- ror of night into the bright dawn of the morning of the new age, they will each feel that they have their share ia it. SACEIFICE AT HOME. EXTRACTS FROM I^PEECH ON" THE COUNTRY 's FOOD SUPPLIES, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, FEBRUARY 23RD, 1917. If all this programme is carried out ; if all those who can help us with production do help; if all those who are called upon to suffer restrictions and limitations will suffer without complaint, then honestly I say we can face the worst that the enemy can do — the worst! And that is what we ought to be prepared for. If we are not, — if it were conceivable that the nation was not prepared to do and endure all these things, — then I say with all solemnity I do not know the body of hon- ourable men who would undertake for one hour to be responsible for the conduct of this terrible war. It is essential. There are millions of gallant young men in France, in Salonika, in Egypt, in Mesopotamia, facing torture, terror, death. They are the flower of our race. Unless the nation at home is prepared to take its share of the sacrifice, theirs would be in vain, and I say it would be a crime — a black crime — for any Government to ask them to risk their brave lives in the coming con- flict if they knew that the nation behind them were faint-hearted or selfish. Their sacrifice would be thrown away. We have no right to ask it. For 98 SACRIFICE AT HOME 99 that reason I have come down, after long delibera- tion and thought, careful and searching, on be- half of the Government of this country to submit to the House of Commons, and through the House of Commons to the nation, proposals which I hope the Commons will approve, and which I hope the nation will carry out with an unflinching and an ungrudging heart. "SOWING THE WINTER WHEAT." SPEECH DELIVERED AT CARNARVON, TO A MEETING OF CON- STITUENTS, AFTER BECOMING PRIME MINISTER, FEBRUARY 3rd, 1917. This is a strictly non-party gathering, and I wish to emphasise that aspect of it, because, what- ever OTir views may be on the political questions which divide us in times of peace, there can be but one opinion about the desirability of our sinking all our differences in order to unite for the para- mount national duty of carrying through to vic- tory the great cause which this country has cham- pioned with its blood. The National Government. Two great men have spoken this week from non- party platforms — one of them the eminent states- man who has taken charge in this trying hour of the important office of Secretary of State for For- eign Affairs, and whose brilliant memorandum attached to the Allied reply to America is one of the most striking documents of the war; the other the distinguished leader of the Liberal Party — both of them appealing to the nation to sink dif- ferences and disputes, party and personal, and to unite for the common great end that the nation is 100 "SOWING THE WINTER WHEAT" 101 putting its strength into achieving. I have the honour of being called to the leadership of the national Government — a non-party Government, none the less a Government in which three parties are represented, and in which I am perfectly cer- tain it is a matter of regret for every member of the three parties that the fourth has not been able to join. And although we can recognise no party during the war, the people of this comitry have the party habit so thoroughly ingrained in their na- ture that even in order to attain national unity it was desirable that the three parties should be rep- resented in any national Government, and they are fully and substantially represented. Labour's Part. I am glad that, although some of my late col- leagues, for reasons which I have no right to can- vass, have not joined the present Government, there are just as many Liberals in the present Ad- ministration as in the old. There are Unionists and there are Labour men, and I specially con- gratulate the nation on the fact that Labour has finally and firmly decided to abandon its attitude of criticism and censure of Governments, as it had already abandoned long ago its attitude of blind adhesion to any party, and that it has decided to take its share in the responsibility of governing the Empire. A distinguished contribution it has already made. The statesmanship displayed by Mr. Henderson during the period in which he has 102 THE GREAT CRUSADE been a member of an Imperial Government has shown the value of the adhesion of Labour in the task of administering the affairs of this Empire, and I am glad that in the present Government, for the first time. Labour has a seat in the inner coun- cil that settles and decides the affairs of the coun- try in the greatest emergency which has ever befallen it. It has twice as many representatives as it ever had in any Government before. I con- gratulate the country on the fact that all parties in the State — with the exception of the Irish Party, whose absence from our counsels we all regret — have united for the purpose of directing the concerns of the Empire in its hour of trial. Treading Gladstone's Path. The Liberal Party has special interest in the causes for which we are struggling in this great war. The principle that the rights of nations, however small, are as sacred as the rights of the biggest empire — that is the principle which I was taught as a lad among those mountains which sur- round us. The principle that international right is the basis of international peace — that is an- other. The doctrine that the Turk is incapable of governing any other race justly, and even his own race well — that is another which I was taught. I remember very well as a boy having to walk some miles to the nearest railway station in order to buy Mr. Gladstone's famous speech on the ex- pelling of the Turk, bag and baggage, from Eu- "SOWING THE WINTER WHEAT" 103 rope for his misrule and his massacres ; and I also remember the sensation that was created by the famous speech of Mr. Gladstone 6n the Belgian question, when he said: *'If the Belgian people desire on their own account to join France or any other country'', I, for one, will be no party to tak- ing up arms to prevent it; but that the Belgians, whether they would or not, should go plumb down the maw of another country, is another matter. The accomplishment of such a crime as this im- plies is coming near to the extinction of public right in Europe, and I do not think we could look on while the sacrifice of freedom and independ- ence was in course of consummation." The path which that great statesman hewed out in his great- est days is the one I am humbly treading in this great war. We are fighting for all that is best and highest in the principles of his great rival — the solidarity of the Empire, recognition of its in- fluence and its power as essential instruments in the progress of the human race. We are fighting for all that is greatest and best in the career of these two great men. "A Fair Chance." I recognise that the new Government is in some respects an experiment. In its size it is rather small, but you must not imagine that very small men or small Cabinets are the least efficient. In its constitution, in its composition, for the first time, at any rate on a great scale, success in busi- 104. THE GREAT CRUSADE ness has been placed on the same footing as suc- cess in politics as a claim to high office. I am going to ask for these men that they should have fair play. They have been treated in some quar- ters already as if they were mere fussers and flounderers. They are men of great experience, men who have shown they possess the wisdom and judgment and the abiHty to make a suc