British People Roused by Their Leaders.
* * * * *
Earl Curzon of Kedleston Suggests Holding of Public Meetings.
Hackwood, Basingstoke, Aug. 27.
_To the Editor of The Times:_
Sir: Many of us are wondering what we can do to serve our country
in this crisis. We sit on local or on larger committees. We
attempt, within the narrow range of our influence, to gain
recruits, we organize relief, we help to provide or furnish
hospitals, we subscribe both to the national and to private funds;
and, apart from this, we go about our ordinary duties with as much
composure as we can, wondering where, when, and how it will be open
to us who are no longer young and cannot bear arms, but have
perhaps had some experience of affairs, to render more effective
aid.
Does not a path lie open to the class of so-called "public men,"
and does not the very name which is given to them indicate the
nature of this duty? Surely it is to place themselves at the
disposal of the public. The two great needs of the moment are more
men--hundreds of thousands more men--for the army, and a clearer
understanding by the masses of the population, not merely of the
justice of our cause, but of the supreme issues, both for our own
country and for the whole empire, that are involved.
No one would propose that jingo speeches should be shouted from
public platforms, or that an attempt should be made to inflame
crude or unworthy passions. But the man who, when his country is
engaged in a righteous war and is fighting for her existence,
preaches the cause of that war is not a jingo; and the passions to
which he appeals are not unworthy, but are the noblest of which
human nature is capable.
I wish, therefore, to say that if the Government, with whom the
initiative must primarily lie--since no one would wish to do
anything that is contrary to their conception of sound
policy--desire that public meetings should be held in our great
centres of population, to explain the cause and circumstances of
the war, and the duty that lies upon the manhood of the nation, I
and, I am convinced, many others are ready to throw ourselves into
the task.
I have told the Prime Minister that I would be proud to appear on a
public platform with any member of the Government to state or
defend a case in which party is dead and where we are all united. I
doubt not that if they are required many others will be willing to
do the same. We have no desire to deluge the country with a flood
of noisy rhetoric, or to start a miniature electioneering campaign.
But if in any great city where recruiting is slow or the issues are
not apprehended, or the public conscience is not quick to respond
to the national summons, I, or any of those who share my views, can
be of any service on the platform I am sure that we are willing to
respond and that we shall welcome any organization that may be set
on foot for the purpose. I am, yours obediently,