be, a tremendously powerful safeguard protecting the French coasts and commerce as well as our own, though of course they recognized that. It was not chiefly because we could assist them with a highly efficient Army. It was most of all because they said that Great Britain having once begun the contest, would never discontinue it till its object was achieved, would never look back till victory was won. That was why above all they valued our assistance. It was a supreme compliment. They will not be disappointed. We have counted every item of the cost. Not lightly have we engaged in this world battle, which not only involves forces which surpass in magnitude those of any warfare in the history of the world, but also places in jeopardy the interests and the very existence of mighty empires. And we shall not sheathe our sword until we have laid the grim and remorseless monster of German militarism, which has dominated Europe and threatened the world for over forty years, till the cause of freedom and an enduring peace is established. We have combined against the bully of Europe, against the Power which has made military force its god, and in its name has scoffed at solemn national obligations, violated the practice of civilized war, and sought to overawe her victims by methods of outrage which spare neither women nor children, nor defenceless men, nor priceless libraries and treasures of art, which are the common heritage of mankind, and once destroyed can never be replaced. Gallant Belgium, violated in no quarrel of her own—whose unsparing sacrifices and undaunted endurance recall the ancient heroism of the Low Countries in the sixteenth century—must be revenged and recompensed in the name of freedom and civilization. [Applause.] This is, as the Prime Minister said on Friday in the noble speech which is now echoing through the world, "not merely a material but a spiritual conflict." We are fighting for the highest national ideal, for all that makes life worthy to freemen—for our honour, our future peace, for the liberty which no power on earth will ever force us to surrender. [Applause.]
