I will not say a single word in disparagement of the German people. They
are a great people, and have great qualities of head and hand
and heart. I believe, in spite of recent events, that there is as great
a store of kindliness in the German peasant as in any peasant in the
world; but he has been drilled into a false idea of civilization. It is
efficient, it is capable; but it is a hard civilization; it is a selfish
civilization; it is a material civilization. They cannot comprehend the
action of Britain at the present moment; they say so. They say, "France
we can understand; she is out for vengeance; she is out for
territory--Alsace and Lorraine." [Applause.] They say they can
understand Russia; she is fighting for mastery--she wants Galicia. They
can understand you fighting for vengeance--they can understand you
fighting for mastery--they can understand you fighting for greed of
territory; but they cannot understand a great empire pledging its
resources, pledging its might, pledging the lives of its children,
pledging its very existence, to protect a little nation that seeks to
defend herself. [Applause.] God made man in His own image, high of
purpose, in the region of the spirit; German civilization would recreate
him in the image of a Diesel machine--precise, accurate, powerful, but
with no room for soul to operate. ["Hear, hear!"]
A Philosophy of Blood and Iron.
Have you read the Kaiser's speeches? If you have not a copy I advise you
to buy one; they will soon be out of print, and you will not have many
more of the same sort. [Laughter and applause.] They are full of the
glitter and bluster of German militarism--"mailed fist," and "shining
armor." Poor old mailed fist! Its knuckles are getting a little bruised.
Poor shining armor! The shine is being knocked out of it. [Applause.]
There is the same swagger and boastfulness running through the whole of
the speeches. The extract which was given in The British Weekly this
week is a very remarkable product as an illustration of the spirit we
have to fight. It is the Kaiser's speech to his soldiers on the way to
the front:--
Remember that the German people are the chosen of God. On me, the
German Emperor, the spirit of God has descended. I am His sword,
His weapon, and His viceregent. Woe to the disobedient, and death
to cowards and unbelievers.
Lunacy is always distressing, but sometimes it is dangerous; and when
you get it manifested in the head of the State, and it has become the
policy of a great empire, it is about time that it should be ruthlessly
put away. [Loud applause.] I do not believe he meant all these speeches;
it was simply the martial straddle he had acquired. But there were men
around him who meant every word of them. This was their religion.
Treaties? They tangle the feet of Germany in her advance. Cut them with
the sword! Little nations? They hinder the advance of Germany. Trample
them in the mire under the German heel! The Russian Slav? He challenges
the supremacy of Germany and Europe. Hurl your legions at him and
massacre him! Britain? She is a constant menace to the predominancy of
Germany in the world. Wrest the trident out of her hand! Christianity?
Sickly sentimentalism about sacrifice for others! Poor pap for German
digestion! We will have a new diet. We will force it upon the world. It
will be made in Germany--[Laughter and applause]--a diet of blood and
iron. What remains? Treaties have gone. The honor of nations has gone.
Liberty has gone. What is left? Germany! Germany is left!--"Deutschland
über Alles!"
That is what we are fighting--["Hear, hear!"]--that claim to
predominancy of a material, hard civilization, a civilization which if
it once rules and sways the world, liberty goes, democracy vanishes. And
unless Britain and her sons come to the rescue it will be a dark day for
humanity. [Applause.]
Have you followed the Prussian Junker and his doings? We are not
fighting the German people. The German people are under the heel of this
military caste, and it will be a day of rejoicing for the German
peasant, artisan and trader when the military caste is broken. You know
its pretensions. They give themselves the airs of demi-gods. They walk
the pavements, and civilians and their wives are swept into the gutter;
they have no right to stand in the way of a great Prussian soldier. Men,
women, nations--they all have to go. He thinks all he has to say is "We
are in a hurry." That is the answer he gave to Belgium--"Rapidity of
action is Germany's greatest asset," which means "I am in a hurry; clear
out of the way." You know the type of motorist, the terror of the roads,
with a sixty horse-power car, who thinks the roads are made for him, and
knocks down anybody who impedes the action of his car by a single mile
an hour. The Prussian Junker is the road-hog of Europe. [Applause.]
Small nationalities in his way are hurled to the roadside, bleeding and
broken. Women and children are crushed under the wheels of his cruel
car, and Britain is ordered out of his road. All I can say is this: If
the old British spirit is alive in British hearts, that bully will be
torn from his seat. [Loud applause.] Were he to win, it would be the
greatest catastrophe that has befallen democracy since the day of the
Holy Alliance and its ascendency.
"Through Terror to Triumph."
They think we cannot beat them. It will not be easy. It will be a long
job; it will be a terrible war; but in the end we shall march through
terror to triumph. [Applause.] We shall need all our qualities--every
quality that Britain and its people possess--prudence in counsel, daring
in action, tenacity in purpose, courage in defeat, moderation in
victory; in all things faith! [Loud applause.]
It has pleased them to believe and to preach the belief that we are a
decadent and degenerate people. They proclaim to the world through their
professors that we are a non-heroic nation skulking behind our mahogany
counters, while we egg on more gallant races to their destruction. This
is a description given of us in Germany--"a timorous, craven nation,
trusting to its fleet." I think they are beginning to find their mistake
out already, [applause,] and there are half a million young men of
Britain who have already registered a vow to their King that they will
cross the seas and hurl that insult to British courage against its
perpetrators on the battlefields of France and Germany. We want half a
million more; and we shall get them. [Loud applause.]
Wales must continue doing her duty. That was a great telegram that you,
my Lord, read from Glamorgan. ["Hear, hear!"] I should like to see a
Welsh Army in the field. [Loud applause.] I should like to see the race
that faced the Norman for hundreds of years in a struggle for freedom,
the race that helped to win Crécy, the race that fought for a generation
under Glendower against the greatest captain in Europe--I should like to
see that race give a good taste of its quality in this struggle in
Europe; and they are going to do it.
The Sacrifice.
I envy you young people your opportunity. They have put up the age limit
for the army, but I am sorry to say I have marched a good many years
even beyond that. It is a great opportunity, an opportunity that only
comes once in many centuries to the children of men. For most
generations sacrifice comes in drab and weariness of spirit. It comes to
you today, and it comes today to us all, in the form of the glow and
thrill of a great movement for liberty, that impels millions throughout
Europe to the same noble end. [Applause.] It is a great war for the
emancipation of Europe from the thralldom of a military caste which has
thrown its shadows upon two generations of men, and is now plunging the
world into a welter of bloodshed and death. Some have already given
their lives. There are some who have given more than their own lives;
they have given the lives of those who are dear to them. I honor their
courage, and may God be their comfort and their strength. But their
reward is at hand; those who have fallen have died consecrated deaths.
They have taken their part in the making of a new Europe--a new world. I
can see signs of its coming in the glare of the battlefield.
The people will gain more by this struggle in all lands than they
comprehend at the present moment. ["Hear, hear!"] It is true they will
be free of the greatest menace to their freedom. That is not
all. There is something infinitely greater and more enduring which is
emerging already out of this great conflict--a new patriotism, richer,
nobler, and more exalted than the old. [Applause.] I see among all
classes, high and low, shedding themselves of selfishness, a new
recognition that the honor of the country does not depend merely on the
maintenance of its glory in the stricken field, but also in protecting
its homes from distress. ["Hear, hear!"] It is bringing a new outlook
for all classes. The great flood of luxury and sloth which had submerged
the land is receding, and a new Britain is appearing. We can see for the
first time the fundamental things that matter in life, and that have
been obscured from our vision by the tropical growth of prosperity.
["Hear, hear!"]
"The Vision."
May I tell you in a simple parable what I think this war is doing for
us? I know a valley in North Wales, between the mountains and the sea.
It is a beautiful valley, snug, comfortable, sheltered by the mountains
from all the bitter blasts. But it is very enervating, and I remember
how the boys were in the habit of climbing the hill above the village to
have a glimpse of the great mountains in the distance, and to be
stimulated and freshened by the breezes which came from the hilltops,
and by the great spectacle of their grandeur. We have been living in a
sheltered valley for generations. We have been too comfortable and too
indulgent, many, perhaps, too selfish, and the stern hand of fate has
scourged us to an elevation where we can see the great everlasting
things that matter for a nation--the great peaks we had forgotten, of
honor, duty, patriotism, and, clad in glittering white, the great
pinnacle of sacrifice pointing like a rugged finger to Heaven. We shall
descend into the valleys again; but as long as the men and women of this
generation last, they will carry in their hearts the image of those
great mountain peaks whose foundations are not shaken, though Europe
rock and sway in the convulsions of a great war. [Enthusiastic and
continued applause.]
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