no honour; we should have covered our faces with shame and disgrace; and whoever was conqueror in this struggle, we should have been beaten, for we should not have had a friend left in Europe or an admirer in the world. We went to war for the honour of our signature on a scrap of paper as regards the independence of Belgium. There was no scrap of paper between us and France. But two nations would not have the close relationship that had existed between them and us, the close communication of naval and military ideas, the distribution for a common plan of naval forces, such as we have had with them since the entente developed, and then at a critical moment when all is at stake, one of those two nations should say: "All that means nothing; and we are unpledged and unconcerned." No Government holding office in this country which had sought so to betray our friendships and so to humiliate us, would have remained in power for a week. [Cheers.]
So I say that it is not for Belgium only we are fighting. It is not merely a crusade for right and for law against wrong and brute force—though it is all of that—but it is a struggle for the vital interests of this country; proved vital by history; more vital to-day perhaps than they have ever been before. How vital they are we can best judge by the bitter animosities of our German enemies. Men who cannot find the means to save a British sailor in distress, men who single out our officers and soldiers amongst all the captives for indignities and insults and hardships—what mercy would any of us have at their hands if they were free to fight us alone, and if the struggle was not being waged in the territory of our Allies? Our frontier is in France and Belgium. [Cheers.] See to it you keep it there until you drive it back over the frontiers of Germany. [Applause.] Before that there is much to be done; there are many sacrifices to be made. But there can be no peace until Belgium is free—until she has had such compensation as can be given for the bitter cruel wrongs that Belgian citizens have suffered. No peace can be made till France has once again brought liberty, the right to think, to speak, to smile for her own provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. [Applause.] No peace can be made until heroic Servia wins the just reward of her constancy and courage. No peace can be made until Russia finds satisfaction for her lands which have been ravaged, and her dignity which has been trampled under foot, and for the insults which have been heaped upon her. [Applause.] And no peace can be signed until in the outer
