CROMWELL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 135, 31 October 1914, Page 3

CROMWELL.

MR ASQUITH'S GREAT SPEECH. A GREAT FIGHT ES T A GREAT CAUSE A great war mooting' was held in the London Guildhall on September 4th, and was addressed by the Prime Minister, Mr Bonar Law, Mr Ralfour, and Mr Winston Churchill. t "There is only one epithet for the Guildhall mood—itj was Cromwellian" (writes Mr .James Douglas). "We knew in our bones that the. Prime Minister was speaking to the unborn ages. We could see them in the far future thrilling responsive to his tones. The massive simplicity of liis closing sentence, 'Let us go and do likewise,' satisfied our historic sense. It was so British in its noble brevity and pith. It was free from bragging. It was in its essence so plain and so bare and so stark. Our part was in it, and the whole future. "I hope the Government will print the Prime Minister's speech, and post it up all over the Empire, not only in English, but in French for Canada, in Dutch for West Africa, and in the tongues of our Indian brethren. Let it be our charter and sanction and vindication in the days to come." .

A NOBLE PIECE OF ORATORY. "Everything in the Guildhall meeting was of slight importance beside the Prime Minister's speech," says the Manchester Guardian. "That was a noble piece of orator}', and may become as famous as the last speech of Pitt, from which he quoted. The other speeches, fine as some of them were, were thin in comparison to those hammering sentences driven home by indignation." "Mr Asquith began sonorously, deliberately, with accustomed polish and conciseness of phrasing," says the Westminster Gazette. "Hut soon his eloquence was lired by an indignation which set llame to sentence; burning, searing phrases came at red heat and kindled the audience to a blaze.

"Never lias Mr Asquith spoken a fiercer defence of justice; a fiercer denunciaiton of criminal oppression. Never has lie appeared so clearly tlie Strong Man; strong in crisis, unllineiiable, rigid in tlie forefront of an honourable and irresistible cause—facing, with a clean conscience, 'the bloody arbitrament between Kiglit and Might.'" A QUESTION.

The Premier began by remarking on j "tne terrible spectacle which now confronts us of a contest which for the number and importance of the Powers engaged, the scale of their armaments and armies, the width of the theatre of conflict, the outpouring of blood and the loss of life, the incalculable toll of suffering levied upon non-combatants, tlie material and moral loss accumulating day by day to the higher interests of civilised manhood—a contest which in every one of these aspects is without precedent in the annals of the world. "\\e are confident to-day. when reluctantly, and against our will, but with a clear judgment, and a clean conscience—(cheers) —we find ourselves involved with the whole strength of this Empire in a bloody arbitrament between Alight and Eight. (Cheers). The issue has passed out of the domain of argument into another field, but let me ask you, and through you the world outside:— "What would have been our condition as a nation to-day if we had been base enough through 'timidity or through perverted calculations of self-interest, or through a paraivsis of the sense of hondr and duty—(cheers)—if we had been base enough to he false to our word and faithless to our friends? WHAT GERMANY HAS DONE.

"Our eyes would have been turned at this moment with those of the whole civilised world to Belgium, a small State, which lias lived for more than seventy years under the several and collective guarantee to which we in common with Prussia and Austria were parties, and we should have seen at the instance anil by tlir action of two of these guaranteeing powers her neutrality violated, her independence strangled, her territory made use of as affording the easiest; ami most convenient road to a war of unprovoked aggression against France. BLIND BAIiBAP.IAX VEXGKAXCE. "We, the British people, would at this moment have been standing bv ■with folded arms and with such countenance as we could command while this small and unprotected State, in defence of her own vital liberties, made an heroic stain! against) overweening and overwhelming force. \\ e should have been admiring as detached spectators the siege of Liege, the steady and manful resistance of a small army to the occupation of their capital, with its splendid traditions and memories, the gradual forcing back of the patriotic defenders of their native land to the ramparts of Antwerp, countless outrages indicted by buccunce ■ing levies exacted from the unoffending civil population, and, finallv, the greatest crime committed against civilisation and culture since the Thirty \ ears' War, the sack of l.ouvain—cries

of •■Shame'—with its buildings, its pictures, its unique library, its unrivalled associations —a shameless haloeaust of irreparable treasures lit b. the blind barbarian vengeance. ('Prolonged diners). "What account should we. the Government and the people of this country, have been able to render lo the. tribunal of our national character and sense of honor, if, in deliance of our plighted and solemn obligations, we lutd endured nay. if we hail not done our best to prevent, yes, and to avenge—(renewed cheers) —those intolerable outrages? For my part. I say that, sooner than be a silent witness—which means in effect a willing accomplice—of this tntgic triumph of force over law and of bruItality over freedom. I would see this country of ours blotted oiit of the pages of history. (Prolonged cheers).

(jEKMAXY'S AIM-to CRUSH freedom. "That is only ji phase—a lurid and illuminating phrase in which we have been called 1 r, tin? mandate of duty and of honour to bear our part. The cynical violation of the neutrality of ISclffium, was, after all, hut a step'— the first step—in a deliberate poliev of wliieh, if not the immediate, the ultimate, and the not far distant aim, was to crush the independence and autonomy of the live States of Hiiroix*. '•l'irst Wclgium, then Holland, then •Switzerland, countries like our own, imbued and sustained with the spirit of liberty, were one after another to be bent to the yoke, and these ambitions wen- fed and fostered by a body of new doctrines and new philosophic "preached bjr professors and learned men. Tile free and full self-development which to these small states, to ourselves, to our great and growing Dominions over the seas, to our kinsmen across the Atla n fj„ tho well-spring and life-breath of ' ''

opment is the one cfl,jsim OllUUl't! ill WW code of those who have made force their supreme, divinity, and who upon iLs altars are prepared to sacrifice both the gathered fruits and the potential germs of the unfettered human spirit. (Cheers). "I use this language advisedly. This is not merely a material, it is also a spiritual conflict. (Cheers). Cpou its issues everything that contains promise and hope, that leads to emauo.pttiion and a fuller liberty for the mi...<ins ivlio make up the mass of mankind will be found Sooner or later tr. depend. OUR EFFORTS FOR PEACE. "Let me now just for a moment turn to the actual situation in Europe. How do we stand? For tile last ten years, by what I believe to be happy and wellconsidered diplomatic arrangements, wc have established friendly and increasingly intimate relations with the two Powers, France and Kussia, with whom, in days gone hy, we have had in various parts of the world occasions for constant friction, and now and again for possible conflict. Those new and better relations, based in the first instance upon business principles of give-and-take, matured into a settled temper and confidence and goodwill. They were never in any sense or at any time, as I have frequently said in this ball, directed against other Powers. No man in the history of the world lias ever labored more strenuously or more successfully than my right honourable friend, Sir Edward Gfcy — (cheers)—for that which is the supreme interest of the modern world, a general and abiding peace. "It is, I venture to think, a very superficial criticism which suggests that under his guidance the policy of this country has ignored, still less that it lias counteracted and hampered the Concert of Europe. It is a little more than a year ago that under his presidwicv in the stress and strain of the Balkan crisis, the Ambassadors of all the Great Powers met here day after day, curtailing the. area of possible differences, I reconciling warring ambitions and aims, and preserving against almost incalculable odds the general harmony. And it was in the same spirit and with the same .purpose when a few weeks ago Austria delivered her ultimatum to Servia, that our Foreign Secretary put forward the proposal for a mediating conference between the four Powers who were notj directly concerned —Germany, France, Italy, and ourselves. If that proposal had been accepted actual controversy would have been settled with honor to everybody, and the whole of this terrible welter would liavc been avoided. (Hear, bear).

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE? "And with whom docs the responsibility rest—(Cries of "The Kaiser!") —for this refusal and for all the illimitable suffering which now confronts the world? One Power, and one Power only, and that Power—Germany. (Loud msses). That is the fount and origin of this world-wide catastrophe. We are persevering to the end. No one who has not been confronted as we were with the responsibility of determining the issues of peace and war, can realise the strength and energy and persistency with which we labored for peace. We persevered by every expedient that diplomacy could suggest, straining almost to the breaking point our most cherished friendships and obligations, even to the last making effort upon effort, and hoping against hope. "Then, and only then, when wc were at last con) polled to realise that the choice lay between honor and dishonor, between treachery and good faith, wlien at last we reached the dividing line which makes or mars a nation worthy of the name, it was then, and then omy, that we declared for war. (Chews). "Is there anyone in this hall or in the United Kingdom, or in the vast Empire of which we here stand in the capital and centre, who blames or repents our decision? (Cries of' No!') For these reasons, I believe, we must steel ourselves to the task, and in the spirit which animated our forefathers m their struggle against the domination of Napoleon, we must, and we shall, persevere to Lhe end. (Cheers).

GLORIOUS KXAMPLE OF BETX.IUM. "It would be a crimiiiiil mistake to underestimate oitlier the magnitude, tin: fighting quality, «r tin; staying ]>o\\'er oi t'lK' forces wliiuh arc strru.vcil us. But it would lie ('(|i:ally foolish and equally indefensible to belittle our own resouvci». whether for resistance or attack. (I'hcers). Belgium has shown us by a memorable and a glorious example

what can be done by a relatively small Stale, when its citizens are animated and fired by the spirit of patriotism. In France and Russia we have as allies two ol tile greatest Powers of the world engaged with us in ti common cause, who do not mean to separate themselves from them. (Cheers). "We have upon the sea the strongest, ami most magnificent licet that luiy ever been seen. The Expeditionary Force whitii left our shores less than a month ago has never been surpassed, as its glorious achievements in the field have already made clear, not only in material and equipment, but in the physical and moral quality of its constituents. (Cheers).

SUPERIORITY OF THE NAVY. "1 do not Hatter ihe Navy when 1 say that its superiority is equally marked in every department and sphere of its activity, (Cheers). We rely on it with the most absolute confidence, not only to guard our shores against the possibility of invasion, not only to seal up the gigantic battleships of the enemy i» the inglorious seclusion of his own ports —(laughter)—' Whence, from time to time, ho furtively steals forth to sow tin; seeds of murderous snares, which are more full of menace to neutral ship? than to the British Fleet. Our Navy does all this, and while it is thirsting, I do not doubt, for that trial of strength, in a fair and open light, which is so far prudently denied it, it docs a great deal more. i

"It has hunted the llerman Mercantile Marine from the high seas. It has kept open our own sources of food supplies and lias largely curtailed those of the enemy, and when the few Ciennan cruisers which still infest the more distant ocean routes, have been disposed of, as they will be disposed of very soon —.(cheers)—it will achieve for British and neutral commerce pissing backwards and forwards, from ami to every part of our Empire, a security as complete as it ever enjoyed in the days of unbroken peace. Let us honor the memory of the gallant seamen who in the pursuit of one or another of these varied and responsible duties have already laid down their lives l'or their country.

TIIE EMPIRE'S RESPONSE. "In regard to the Army, there; is call for a new, a continuous, a determined and a united effort. For, as the war goes on, we shall not merely have, to replace the wastage, caused bv casualties, hot merely to maintain our military

large its Scale, i increase its numbers, and multiply many times its effectiveness as a fighting instrument. (Cheers). " Our self - governing dominions throughout the Empire, without any solicitation on our part, have demonstrated with a spontaneous and a unanimity unparalleled in history, their determination to affirm their brotherhood with us and make our cause their own. (Cheers). From Canada, from Australia, from New Zealand, from South Africa, and from Newfoundland the children of the Empire assert, not as an obligation, hut as a privilege, their right and willingness to contribute money and material, and, what is better than all, the strength and sinews, the fortunes, and their lives of their best manhood. (Cheers). "India, too, with no less alacrity, has claimed her share in the common task. (Cheers). Every class and creed, British and natives, Princes and people, Hindus and Mahoinmedans, vie with one another in noble and emulous rivalry. Two divisions of our magnificent Indian army are already on their way. (Cheers). We welcome with appreciation and affection their proffered aid. In an Empire which knows no distinction of race or cause we all alike as subjects of the King-Emperor are joint and equal custodians of our common interests and fortunes. We are here to hail with profound and heartfelt gratitude their association, side by side and shoulder to shoulder, with our home and dominion troops, under the flag which is the symbol to all of a unity that a world in arms cannot deserve or dissolve. With these inspiring appeals and examples from our fellow subjects all over the world, what are we doing and what ought we to do here at home?

QUARTER MILLION MEN ENROLLED.

"Mobilisation was ordered en the 4th August; immediately afterwards Lord Kitchener issued his call for 100,000 recruits for the Regular Army, which Jia* been followed by a second call for 100,000. The response up to date gives us between 250,000 and 300,000. "But we want more men —men of the best fighting quality. "Of the actual progress of the war I will not say anything, except that in my judgment, in whatever direction we mav look tlu-re is abundant ground for pride and confidence. (Cheers). I say nothing more, because I think we should all bear in mind that we are at present watching the fluctuations |of fortune only in the early stages of what is going to ho a protracted struggle. We must learn to take long views, and to cultivate, above all, other faculties—those of patience, endurance, and steadfastness." PITT'S MESSAGE. / "Meanwhile, let us go, each of us, to his or her appropriate place in the great, common atsk. Never had a people more or richer sources of encouragement and inspiration. Let us realise, first of all, that we are fighting as a united Empire, in a cause worthy of the -highest traditions of our race. Let us keep in mind the patient and indomitable seamen, who never relax for a moment, night or day, their stern vigil of the lonelv sea. Let us keep in mind our gallant j troops, who, to-day, after a fortnight's continuous fighting under conditions which would try the mettle of the best army that ever took the field, maintain not only an undefeated, but an unbroken front. (Cheers). I

"Finally, let us recall the memories of the great men and the great deeds of the past, commemorated, some of them, in the monuments which we see around us on those walls, not forgetting the dying message of the younger Pitt, his hist public utterance, made at tin: table of one of your predecessors, my Lord Mavor, in "this very hall: 'England Ims saved herself by her exertions, and will, as I trust, save Europe bv her example.' The Engand of those davs gave a noble answer to this appeal, and did not sheath the sword until, after nearly twenty years of lighting, the freedom of Europe was secured." (Prolonged elieers).