New York Times Current History: The European War from the Beginning to March 1915, Vol 1, No. 2: Who Began the War, and Why?Various
History
New York Times Current History: The European War from the Beginning to March 1915, Vol 1, No. 2: Who Began the War, and Why?
Various
World War, 1914-1918
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 Crecy, 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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