long prepared which, had it been crowned with the success that Germans expected, would have set the yoke of Germany upon the world, would have imposed her civilization on all the free peoples of Europe, would have made her control firm and secure over their future development, and would have put an end once and for all to all the dreams that we have cherished of an Empire ever waxing in strength and growing in union, throughout all the lands in which the Union Jack flies.
We are, therefore, ranged against a nation whose first business for three generations, and perhaps more, has been preparation for war, into whose army the best brains of the country are drawn, against a nation which has chosen this, her own, moment to bring on the great Armageddon of nations, and fight once for all for domination throughout the world. And we enter on the struggle with a great Fleet, it is true, but with a very small army.
Thanks to our Fleet, thanks to the watch and ward kept amidst disturbances that might rack the nerves of any but the strongest man, sailing seas beset with hidden dangers, thanks to the silent watch and ward of the Grand Fleet, thanks to the heroic action of that small but ever memorable army that left our shores when war was declared, thanks to the valour of our Allies, our shores are untouched, our homes have not been desolated, our countryside is not scored and seamed with the marks of war.
I have talked with some in our hospitals, and whatever else they say, they all say one thing to me, as it was said by a Coldstreamer, a reservist from our Post Office here, who had rejoined the colours when war broke out. I was talking to him of Belgium and what he had seen there, and he said, "I say what all our fellows are saying in the trenches, 'Thank God, it is not our country and they are not our wives and children who are subjected to these horrors and miseries of war.'" Yes, but we are saved by the men of the Fleet and the men of the Army; we owe them something. Those of us who can must hasten to their help; those of us who stay at home must do our best to keep from anxiety and want their wives and children, to provide for them, and see that the home, if they return to it, is there as they left it, to see that if they return no more their wives and their children are not forgotten when we enjoy once again the peace that their sacrifice will have won.
Yes, but the smaller that Army was, the more heroic it
