war came so suddenly that as a nation we did not at first realize that for us, just as much as for Belgium or France, it was a struggle for life or death. The hesitation did not last long. [Cheers.] It was not recruiting meetings ; it was not speeches, however eloquent. It was the account of the deeds of our soldiers on the field of battle. It was the knowledge of the risks they ran, which would have made cowards hang back, which caused the youth and manhood of our country to rally around the old flag. I am told, gentlemen, that even now pressure of all kinds is being put upon the individual; that men are being stopped in the street and urged to join the Army. To me such methods seem detestable. [Cheers.] If we are to get the men we need by voluntary service—and I believe we can, though it has never been done before—it must be really voluntarily. And you have no right to put pressure upon any man. And how unnecessary it is. Let me give you one instance, one of many in my own experience. A young friend said to me a week or two ago, "I wish to join the Army." I knew that there were only two of them; that his brother had already joined. I said, "Surely your family has done its duty already." This was the reply: "This is all very well for the duty of the family, but what about my duty?" And he has gone too. [Cheers.] That is the spirit which is animating all classes throughout this country. [Cheers.] The Germans said, and perhaps believed it, that we were a decadent nation. They have got their answer. [Cheers.] Our soldiers have already had to bear the severest tests to which soldiers can ever be subjected, and they have stood those tests. [Cheers.] They have been faced by the choicest troops in the German army in overwhelming numbers, and they have been unbroken and undefeated. [Cheers.] They have also had to bear the trial which every soldier knows is the worst to which any army can be subjected—that of a forced retreat; they have had to bear it, and they have come out of it gloriously. [Cheers.] We have reason—great reason, as great as we have ever had in our history—to be proud of the deeds of our small army, which, small as it is, was large enough, I believe, to turn the scale and to save Paris. [Hear, hear.] We have reason to be proud of our soldiers, but we have reason to be proud of the spirit with which every one throughout this country and throughout the Empire—and nowhere in a more marked degree than in Ulster—men are rallying round the flag of their country. [Hear, hear.]
