RT. HON. H. H. ASQUITH
[Speech by the Prime Minister, delivered at the Rink, Cardiff, on Friday, October 2, 1914, the Lord Mayor of Cardiff in the chair.]
My Lord Mayor, my Lords, Ladies, and Gentlemen:— In the course of the last month I have addressed meetings in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin—[hear, hear]—and now, in the completion of the task which I set myself, and which the kindness of our great municipal authorities have allowed me to perform, I have come to Cardiff. [Hear, hear.] England, Scotland, and Ireland have each of them a definite and well-established capital city. ["Hear, hear," and laughter.] But I have always understood there was some doubt — [laughter]—as to where the capital of the Principality of Wales was to be found on the map. [Laughter.]
Wales is a single and indivisible entity—[hear, hear]—with a life of its own, drawing its vitality from the ancient past, and both, I believe, in the volume and in the reality of its activity never more virile than it is to-day. [Applause.] But I do not know that there is any general agreement among Welshmen as to where their capital is to be found—[laughter]—and without attempting as an outsider to differentiate or to reconcile competing claims—[laughter]—I stand here to-night in what I believe to be a safe coign of vantage under the hospitality and the authority of the Lord Mayor of Cardiff. [Hear, hear.] My Lord Mayor, though I am not altogether a stranger to Wales, you may, nevertheless, ask why I have requested your permission to address this great audience here to-night. I am not altogether an idle man, and during the last two months I can honestly say that there has hardly been a day—indeed, there have been very few hours—which have not been preoccupied with grave cares and responsibilities—[hear, hear]—but throughout them all I have been, and I am, sustained by a profound and unshakable belief in the righteousness of our cause—[loud cheers]—and by overwhelming evidence
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