RT. HON. D. LLOYD GEORGE
[Speech delivered by the Chancellor of the Exchequer before a great meeting of the Welsh National Conference held at Cardiff on September 29, 1914.]
My Lords and Gentlemen:— I have the privilege of moving the first resolution on the agenda:—
That Wales, including Monmouthshire, be constituted a military administrative area for the purpose of recruiting and raising the necessary men to form a Welsh Army Corps.
You, my lord, in your opening speech, struck the right note for this meeting when you said it was a business meeting. We are not here to discuss the war, its nature, or its causes. Our business is to consider the best methods of organizing our part of the country so that it shall contribute its fair share to the triumphant issue to which we are looking forward. [Cheers.] Wales has a special interest in the causes of this war. No part of the country has a deeper or more intimate interest. We have declared as an Empire war on the barbarous, brutal doctrine, cynically avowed by Germany, that nations have no rights unless they are powerful enough to enforce them, and that the strong can only be expected to concede justice when it is to their interest to do so. Every sentiment, whether of sympathy, of fellow feeling, every sense of chivalry and fair play, bids Wales to take her part in a warfare which has been so initiated.
You in your speech, my lord, have stated what part Wales has already taken up to the present. It is an honourable one. [Hear, hear.] But we have to do more. In proportion to our population it is incumbent upon us to raise at least 40,000 or 50,000 men in the Principality of Wales as a contribution to the new army, which it is essential should be raised if victory—a victory which is worth having—is to be secured. [Applause.] How are we to go about it ? If every able-bodied man in this
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