and France, and all these lands, gentlemen, could point out to you
places where the sons of Britain have died for the freedom of these
countries. France has made sacrifices for the freedom of other lands
than her own. Can you name a single country in the world for the
freedom of which the modern Prussian has ever sacrificed a single
life? The test of our faith, the highest standard of civilization is
the readiness to sacrifice for others.
I would not say a word about the German people to disparage them. They
are a great people; they have great qualities of head, of hand, and of
heart. I believe, in spite of recent events, there is as great a store
of kindness in the German peasant as in any peasant in the world. But
he has been drilled into a false idea of civilization,--efficiency,
capability. It is a hard civilization; it is a selfish civilization;
it is a material civilization. They could not comprehend the action of
Britain at the present moment. They say so. 'France', they say,
'we can understand. She is out for vengeance, she is out for
territory--Alsace Lorraine. Russia, she is fighting for mastery, she
wants Galicia.' They can understand vengeance, they can understand you
fighting for mastery, they can understand you fighting for greed
of territory; 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 for
its defence. God made man in His own image--high of purpose, in the
region of the spirit. German civilization would re-create him in the
image of a Diesler machine--precise, accurate, powerful, with no room
for the soul to operate. That is the 'higher' civilization.
What is their demand? Have you read the Kaiser's speeches? If you have
not a copy, I advise you to buy it; they will soon be out of print,
and you won't have any more of the same sort again. They are full of
the clatter and bluster of German militarists--the mailed fist, the
shining armour. Poor old mailed fist--its knuckles are getting a
little bruised. Poor shining armour--the shine is being knocked out
of it. But there is the same swagger and boastfulness running through
the whole of the speeches. You saw that remarkable speech which
appeared in the _British Weekly_ this week. It is a very remarkable
product, as an illustration of the spirit we have got to fight. It is
his speech to his soldiers on the way to the front:--
Remember that the German people are the chosen of
God. On me, on me as German Emperor, the Spirit of
God has descended. I am His weapon, His sword, and His
vizard! Woe to the disobedient! Death to cowards and
unbelievers!
There has been nothing like it since the days of Mahomet.
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 when that should be
ruthlessly put away. I do not believe he meant all these speeches. It
was simply the martial straddle which he had acquired; but there were
men around him who meant every word of it. This was their religion.
Treaties? They tangled 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
hands. Ah! more than that. The new philosophy of Germany is to destroy
Christianity. Sickly sentimentalism about sacrifice for others--poor
pap for German digestion. We will have a new diet. We will force it on
the world. It will be made in Germany. A diet of blood and iron. What
remains? Treaties have gone; the honour of nations gone; liberty gone.
What is left? Germany--Germany is left--_Deutschland über Alles_.
That is all that is left.
That is what we are fighting, that claim to predominancy of a
civilization, a material one, a hard one, a civilization which if once
it rules and sways the world, liberty goes, democracy vanishes, and
unless Britain comes to the rescue, and her sons, it will be a dark
day for humanity. We are not fighting the German people. The German
people are just as much under the heel of this Prussian military
caste, and more so, thank God, than any other nation in Europe. It
will be a day of rejoicing for the German peasant and artisan and
trader when the military caste is broken. You know his pretensions.
He gives himself the airs of a demi-god. Walking the pavements
--civilians and their wives swept into the gutter; they have no right
to stand in the way of the great Prussian junker. Men, women, nations
--they have all got to go. He thinks all he has got to say is, 'We
are in a hurry.' That is the answer he gave to Belgium. 'Rapidity of
action is Germany's greatest asset,' which means 'I am in a hurry.
Clear out of my way'.
You know the type of motorist, the terror of the roads, with a 60-h.p.
car. He thinks the roads are made for him, and anybody who impedes
the action of his car by a single mile is knocked down. The Prussian
junker is the road-hog of Europe. Small nationalities in his way
hurled to the roadside, bleeding and broken; women and children
crushed under the wheels of his cruel car. Britain 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. Were he to win
it would be the greatest catastrophe that has befallen democracy since
the days of the Holy Alliance and its ascendancy. 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.
We shall need all our qualities, every quality that Britain and its
people possess. Prudence in council, daring in action, tenacity in
purpose, courage in defeat, moderation in victory, in all things
faith, and we shall win.
It has pleased them to believe and to preach the belief that we are
a decadent nation. They proclaim it to the world, through their
professors, that we are an unheroic nation skulking behind our
mahogany counters, whilst we are egging on more gallant races to
their destruction. This is a description given to us in Germany--'a
timorous, craven nation, trusting to its fleet.' I think they are
beginning to find their mistake out already. And there are half a
million of young men of Britain who have already registered their
vow to their King that they will cross the seas and hurl that insult
against British courage against its perpetrators on the battlefields
of France and of Germany. And we want half a million more. And we
shall get them.
But Wales must continue doing her duty. That was a great telegram that
you, my Lord (the Chairman), read from Glamorgan.[2] I should like to
see a Welsh army in the field. I should like to see the race who faced
the Normans for hundreds of years in their struggle for freedom, the
race that helped to win the battle of 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.
I envy you young people your youth. They have put up the age limit
for the Army, but I march, I am sorry to say, a good many years even
beyond that. But still our turn will come. It is a great opportunity.
It only comes once in many centuries to the children of men. For most
generations sacrifice comes in drab weariness of spirit to men. It has
come to-day to you; it has come to-day to us all, in the form of the
glory and thrill of a great movement for liberty, that impels
millions throughout Europe to the same end. It is a great war for the
emancipation of Europe from the thraldom of a military caste, which
has cast its shadow upon two generations of men, and which has now
plunged the world into a welter of bloodshed. Some have already given
their lives. There are some who have given more than their own lives.
They have given the lives of those who are dear to them. I honour
their courage, and may God be their comfort and their strength.
But their reward is at hand. Those who have fallen have 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. It is true they will be
rid of the menace to their freedom. But 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,
more exalted than the old. I see a new recognition amongst all
classes, high and low, shedding themselves of selfishness; a new
recognition that the honour of a country does not depend merely on the
maintenance of its glory in the stricken field, but in protecting its
homes from distress as well. It is a new patriotism, it is bringing
a new outlook for all classes. A great flood of luxury and of 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.
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--a beautiful valley, snug, comfortable, sheltered by the
mountains from all the bitter blasts. It was very enervating, and I
remember how the boys were in the habit of climbing the hills 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
hill-tops, and by the great spectacle of that great valley.
We have been living in a sheltered valley for generations. We have
been too comfortable, 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 of honour we had forgotten--duty and patriotism 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 these great mountain peaks, whose
foundations are unshaken though Europe rock and sway in the
convulsions of a great war.
[Footnote 1: 'The Men of Harlech.']
[Footnote 2: 'Glamorgan has raised 20,000 men.']