8
"The Right to Defend its Homes."
I am not going to enter into details of outrages. Many of them are untrue, and always are in a war. War is a grim, ghastly business at best or at worst—(Hear, hear)—and I am not going to say that all that has been said in the way of outrages must necessarily be true. I will go beyond that, and I will say that if you turn two millions of men—forced, conscript, compelled, driven—into the field, you will always get amongst them a certain number who will do things that the nation to which they belong would be ashamed of. I am not depending on these tales. It is enough for me to have the story which Germans themselves avow, admit, defend and proclaim—the burning and massacring, the shooting down of harmless people. Why? Because, according to the Germans, these people fired on German soldiers. What business had German soldiers there at all? (Hear, hear and applause.) Belgium was acting in pursuance of the most sacred right, the right to defend its homes. But they were not in uniform when they fired! If a burglar broke into the Kaiser's Palace at Potsdam, destroyed his furniture, killed his servants, ruined his art treasures—especially those he has made himself—(Laughter and applause)—and burned the precious manuscripts of his speeches, do you think he would wait until he got into uniform before he shot him down? (Laughter.) They were dealing with those who had broken into their household. (Hear, hear.) But the perfidy of the Germans has already failed. They entered Belgium to save time. The time has gone. (Loud and continued applause.) They have not gained time, but they have lost their good name. (Hear, hear.)
The Case of Serbia.
But Belgium is not the only little nation that has been attacked in this war, and I make no excuse for referring to the case of the other little nation, the case of Serbia. (Hear, hear.) The history of Serbia is not unblotted. Whose history, in the category of nations, is unblotted? (Hear, hear.) The first nation that is without sin, let her cast a stone at Serbia. She was a nation trained in a horrible school, but she won her freedom with a tenacious valour, and she has maintained it by the same courage. (Applause.) If any Serbians were mixed up in the assassination of the Grand Duke, they ought to be punished. (Hear, hear.) Serbia admits that. The Serbian Government had nothing to do with it. Not even Austria claims that. The Serbian Prime Minister is one of the most capable and honoured men in Europe. (Hear, hear.)
