friendly Power, which is allied with ourselves. But we are also fighting for the sanctity of the public law of Europe, which, if our enemies be the conquerors, is torn up and destroyed for ever. [Cheers.] When the German Foreign Secretary was asked if he was really going to infringe the neutrality of Belgium he said, "You are not going to war for that—going to war for a scrap of paper?" A great Power which treats scraps of paper like that is not unlikely to be scrapped itself. [Cheers.] The German Chancellor, when he vindicated this policy in Parliament, said, "We knew we were doing wrong in invading the neutrality of Belgium, but we were compelled to do wrong." The nation that begins a great war by declaring that its foundations are wrong, and it is obliged to do wrong, is likely to fare badly if there be a God in heaven. [Cheers.] Then we are not merely fighting for Belgium, for France, and the sanctity of public law, but we are also fighting for ourselves. We do not fight to gain an acre of territory, we do not fight to gain any advantage for ourselves, we only fight to secure our own liberties against an oppression which would be intolerable. [Cheers.]
I know we have seen wars in our time in which the loss of a province or two ended the war. That will not be so now. We have seen wars in which an indemnity of money put an end to the war. That will not be so now. We may lose territory and we may lose money, but what is certain is this, that if we are beaten to our knees, if we are compelled to submit, we shall lose infinitely more than provinces or money. Make no mistake, gentlemen, this is a fight to a finish. [Loud cheers.] If we go under now we go under for ever, [Cries of "Never!"] I do not ask you to suggest to yourselves that you will go under for a moment, but if you are not to go under every man who is capable of defending his country is bound to step into the breach. [Cheers.] Just think, try to imagine what it would be if we were beaten. I do not suppose we should be annexed as a province—that is unthinkable—to see foreign uniforms, foreign police, foreign laws, foreign tax-gatherers in our country. That I discard as absolutely impossible. But there is another very improbable danger which might happen, which would happen if we were defeated, and that is we would be reduced at once to an inferior Power, living at the goodwill of our superior lord, living on sufferance, our Army limited, our Navy limited, our Empire cut up and divided among the plunderers, a position so abject that we cannot realize it now.
