differences—[applause]—for the purpose of meeting the common foe of our common country. [Applause.]
The only other point I think I would like to say is this, that I think it is important that the recruits should not be misled as to the character of the enterprise that we are engaged in. Tell them what it means. They are not out for a pic-nic. They are out for a stern enterprise, which involves hardship, wounds, and dangers, and men who realize this are worth three of those who go without thinking and without consideration. [Applause.] At the same time there is no need to exaggerate it. [Hear, hear.] The vast majority return from the war to tell the tale, and they will have accumulated experiences which will illumine their lives for ever after. To most people life is dull, grey, and monotonous, and these men will come back with a fund of recollections to draw upon which will cheer and brighten their lives at the dreariest moment, and if you went to one of them afterwards and said, "What will you sell your memory for?" there would not be one who would barter it for all the gold in the Bank of England. [Applause.] I am glad we are moving as a small nationality—[applause]—and I am glad that the War Office have recognized the value of this national sentiment as a military asset. [Applause.] I do not care much for the Prussian junker, but in military matters the Prussian military junker is no fool, and he knows the importance of these territorial inducements when he is organizing his army. He has his various sections—his Bavarians, his Saxons, his Würtembergers, and his Hanoverians—they are all there fighting for their own little corner in the German Empire, and they will fight better for the glory of those particular little provinces, states, and nationalities than they will fight for the great, glorious entity of the German Empire itself. [Applause.]
There was a time when these hills and vales contained one of the most martial little races in Great Britain. [Hear, hear.] England drew largely upon the military material of Wales for its armies in some of the most illustrious episodes in English history. We have ceased in the ordinary sense of the term to be a very martial race. We have been none the worse for that when we have a good cause to fight. Cromwell's Ironsides—[applause]—were most of them farmers and artisans, who had never wielded a sword in their lives and never contemplated it; and yet, with probably less training than Lord Kitchener's new army will get, they were about the finest
