not stay to debate that with you, but will state some of the completely established certainties concerning this war: its origin, its course, and its results.
These are known. This is the 151st day, and each day has been a revelation. The evidence has grown with the hours in volume, in fullness and clearness, until he who runs may read and understand. At first we were not sure of our ground. The facts were not known. The diplomacy of Europe had been carried on in secret. Five or six men settled the affairs of these vast Empires, involving more than half the human race, in their private offices, and nobody knew how till they were forced to tell us. Everything was decided for us as though we were still in the nursery and not to be trusted with the knowledge of anything going on in the rest of the house. That is not right. It must be altered. The peoples who have to fight if there is war, to find the money, and to give up their lives, ought to know where they are being led and to what they are being committed. Is it too much to expect that this war may introduce a new departure in the management of our foreign affairs?
But the evidence could not be held back when the sword was drawn from its scabbard. Charles the First had to disclose his plans when he demanded cash. Speeches were made in the House of Commons, followed by questions and answers. Then came the British White Book, and its full and convincing statements were read with eagerness and confidence. The Russian book of witness followed, confirming all that had been found in our own. Germany countered some of the statements given on British authority, but its own book was far from satisfactory, and indeed, by what it omitted and what it misplaced, failed to secure assent from any but biased minds. Nor was the situation improved by the intervention of the professors! Indeed, anything more discreditable it would be difficult to discover. At a later date we were permitted to know what France had to say. Then followed letters written two or ten, or fifteen or twenty years ago, together with reports of speeches, the testimony of travellers; and books and pamphlets up to the reports of this morning. It is a vast accumulation to be arranged, sifted, weighed, and made the basis of a set of conclusions concerning the great war of 1914.
Now, the first absolute certainty is that Germany must carry—through all the ages—the responsibility of this war.
