a speech, but they thought they would wait a little longer.
I became responsible for this great department of the Navy, and I have had to see every day evidence of the espionage system which Germany maintained in this country. I have had the evidence put under my eye, month after month, of the agents whom they have maintained year after year here in great numbers. These men have exported all the details of our naval organization that they could get by bribery and subornation. That, they might say, was a protective measure, because we have the stronger fleet. Every dirty little German lieutenant—[laughter]—coming on leave to England has thought he would curry favour with his superior by writing home details of where water can be got, where there is a blacksmith's forge, how much provisions there may be for a battalion or a brigade in this village or that township of our peaceful island. We have been subjects of a careful and deliberate and scientific military reconnaissance. Well, they know all about us—[laughter and cheers]—if they like to come they know the way. [Prolonged cheering.] I was sure from her plans and railway arrangements that Germany would violate the neutrality of Belgium, but Belgium's sufferings will not go unredeemed. The might of England will be exerted patiently until full reparation has been obtained. [Cheers.]
I rejoice we are all together, and that we have the whole Irish people with us. Party politics are put on one side, but when, after the war is over, we go to the cupboard to take them out again things will never be quite the same. [Cheers.] The Orangemen of Belfast have given their rifles to the Belgians, and there is no one in Britain—Liberal or Nationalist—who would allow them to be any the worse off for that.
The German Ambassador in the United States has been indulging in some vague talk of peace, but peace ought not to be on the lips of those who are invading the territory of their neighbours and who are carrying fire and sword through peaceful provinces. While that spectacle continues, and while the smoke of their abominable cruelty is going up to Heaven, it is no time for talk of peace on the lips of the German Ambassador to the United States. Peace! ah, we are only just beginning. [Great cheering.] Peace with the German people may be arranged in good time, but peace with Prussian militarism?—no peace short of the grave with that vile tyranny.
