material loss, there are two respects at least in which we can pay her something towards the debt we owe. First of all, there is a little province at present in the occupation of Germany which she ought never to have possessed, and which we do not intend her to keep—Schleswig-Holstein. If I were Prime Minister I would write to glorious King Albert: "Would you care to be Prince of Schleswig-Holstein as well as King of Belgium?" That is one little compliment we could pay him, which he has richly earned. There is another respect in which we can compensate Belgium, and in which Belgium can do a great service to the world. There is that little water-way the Kiel Canal, which has got to be denationalized. It has got to be put in the hands of some one in trust for Europe, and I say the natural custodian and trustee of it is King Albert of Belgium. [Cheers.] Let the Canal be put in the custody of Belgium; let Belgium take the tolls which are legitimately demanded for its use, and let there be a notice put up on the road to Heligoland for all the merchant seamen of the world to read: "Short cut to the Baltic, first to the right."
Well, ladies and gentlemen, you may think it a little premature to be talking about the terms of settlement; I am one of those who do not think so. I have said, and say again to-night, this is not going to be the long war that some people anticipate. One does not want to be a military expert to know that you cannot have ten or fifteen million men in the field for an indefinite period without a large number of natural laws coming into play to upset your calculations. I know that when Lord Kitchener announced in the House of Lords, not very long ago, that he had an army of one and a quarter millions in training, that statement gave Germany a shock, and the moment she knows that that army is two millions, and that one million of it is almost ready now, and is on the point of being dispatched to the front—[cheers]—believe me you will soon be hearing of those mysterious overtures, the origin of which no one can ever trace, but the purpose of which is plain to all the world. I therefore say that the time is ripe for considering what is going to happen after this war. I do hope that we shall not be long before we are accepting nothing less than the fullest fruit of the fullest and most complete victory.
This menace has been over us too long, but it has taught us much. We realize now, as perhaps few of us realized before, the thin line that divides civilization from barbarism. How empty, how unstable all our vaunted institutions are!
