11

A.—s

" Those passages in Sir Edward Grey's speech in which he hints at ' agreements ' and limitations of armament are evidences of our deplorable weakness. Germany will not be stopped by words. Germany means to fight, is preparing to fight, believes that she can win. We have either to fight or to go under. " The idea that philanthropic speeches, or diplomatic overtures, or European alliances' can save us is a cowardly, a weak, and a dangerous idea. " The idea that we can meet this bold and open menace of a brave, united, and determined nation by some cheap expedient is an idea that will land us in ruin and disgrace. " We have got to make a united and heroic effort, and to make it now, or we shall be crushed. We have got to pay and to make sacrifices, or we shall be crushed. Even when we have paid, and have armed, and have made sacrifices we shall have to be ready to fight. Germany will not be bluffed. Germany will not fight with figures and with words. Germany believes that she can beat us, and Germany means to try. " I am speaking now with a full sense of the responsibility I incur. I know that lam doing an unpopular thing. I know that I shall meet with hostility from my own party. I know that I shall be called a jingo, and a firebrand, and, perhaps, a traitor. But 1 have never yet been silent because the truth was dangerous or did not pay. I believe that this German crisis is the most momentous crisis since the beginning of the nineteenth century. I believe that it cannot be averted or met without a great national effort. " I hold that we should act at and not as we should act if war were certain within a year. I have sufficient confidence in the British people to feel that if they were told fully and frankly the whole of the facts they would be equal to the demand made upon them. " I am ill. lam pressed with business worries; lam overweighted with work; but I feel.it my duty as a man, as a Socialist, and as a British citizen, to do the little I am able to do towards rousing the public attention to a great danger. . "We want a powerful fleet, and a perfect organization behind the fleet. We want an ami of defence. We want these things now, and we want them upon a war footing. I had intended to say a few upon the strategic situation, but 1 am not equal to it. " But I would point out that the German fleet will have the great advantage of being,able to choose their own time for attack, and that our fleet should be much stronger that theirs if we are to be always ready to meet their full force at any hour and at any point. Moreover, there is Austria—Austria can put a fleet of Dreadnoughts into the Mediterranean. We must keep all ouis here to face Germany. " I wish I could feel that not a single British citizen would allow partisanship or party shibboleths or political theories to blind or to mislead him in this hour of national peril. " The downfall of England would be a disaster to the human race. " In the old days when war threatened our fathers it was the custom to light beacon fires upon the hills. I light my fire to-day, and it shall not go out if 1 can keep it burning." I quote those words, gentlemen, for the reason that they show that in the Old Country,, where there are wide differences of opinion, as there are here, upon political questions, and where there is a wide divergence of opinion in many ways, one of the leading Ministers of the Crown in a Government which formerly showed a great desire to limit the extension of the British navy, believing that it was upon a safe basis—the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs —states that the position is such that they must rebuild the whole fleet. You hear, out of the mouth of a man representing an extreme section of the community in the Old Country, warning words spoken from a bed of illness, appealing to his compatriots throughout the country to sink party differences, to come into line, and to co-operate with those who are doing that which we as a portion of the British Empire are called upon, whether we like it or not, to do our , share in. Mr. MASSEY.—We are willing to do it. The Eight Hon. Sir J. G. WARD.—Yes, and we are willing to do it-"-to help the Old Country. But when we are invited to a Conference in order to consider, what is the best possible basis, and to consider the offer of a Dreadnought made by New Zealand, and when we ask whether the responsible man at the head of the Administration that made that offer on the part of the people should represent his country, the question is going to be raised as to whether we are to go on with the business of Parliament without his leadership of his own party Mr. MASSEY.—Why not? The Right Hon. Sir J. G. WARD when matters of greater importance are to be discussed than the whole of ours here. On this subject let me quote from another authority who cannot be questioned—one who has maintained a great name for himself in the navy itself Lord Charles Beresford. Writing to a Navy League meeting at Bournemouth, under date the 20th April, Lord Charles Beresford wishes the league success in raising the nation to a sense of its grave danger "If the country knew the whole truth," said the Admiral, ." there would be a panic." I, do not believe that a man in his position would have made a statement of that kind unless he believed it to be absolutely true. Then, the gentleman who was Chairman of the Committee of Imperial Defence—and his utterances will carry weight, both here and elsewhere—l refer to Lord Esher—in the course of a speech on the Ist June, only five or six days ago, declared that Britain stood in a more perilous position to-day than at any time during the last hundred years. Britain, said His Lordship, ought to build two warships for every one built by the next strongest European Power And now, coming nearer home, what has the Federal Government of Australia done? I have a later opinion than the honourable gentleman who, when I first spoke to-day, wanted to know what Australia did in the absence of Parliament, and I am going to tell the honourable gentleman what they have done. As the Federal Government of Australia has been quoted more than once in certain quarters as one that we should follow, I will now invite those who quoted it to be 100-Jcal and agree with what the Federal Government has done. This is a cable which I received to-day and it is a quotation from a leading article in the Melbourne Argus to-day.