and hampered, the Concert of Europe. It is little more than a year ago that, under his presidency, in the stress and strain of the Balkan crisis, the Ambassadors of all the Great Powers met here day after day curtailing the area of possible differences, reconciling warring ambitions and aims, and preserving against almost incalculable odds the general harmony; and it was in the same spirit and with the same purpose, when, a few weeks ago, Austria delivered her ultimatum to Servia, that the Foreign Secretary, for it was he, put forward a proposal for a mediating Conference between the four Powers who were not directly concerned—Germany, France, Italy, and ourselves. If that proposal had been accepted actual controversy would have been settled with honour to everybody, and the whole of this terrible welter would have been avoided.
And with whom does the responsibility rest? [Cries of "The Kaiser."] For its refusal and for all the illimitable sufferings which now confront the world? One Power and one Power only, and that Power is Germany. [Cheers and hisses.] That is the fountain and origin of this world-wide catastrophe. We persevered to the end. No one who has not been confronted as we were with the responsibility which, unless you have been face to face with it, you cannot possibly measure—the responsibility of determining the issues of peace and war—no one who has not been in that position can realize the strength, the energy, the persistence with which we laboured for peace. We persevered by every expedient that diplomacy can suggest, straining to almost the breaking point our most cherished friendships and obligations, even to the last making effort upon effort and hoping against hope. Then, and only then, when we were at last compelled to realize that the choice lay between honour and dishonour, between treachery and good faith, and that we had at last reached the dividing line which makes or mars a nation worthy of the name, it was then, and then only, that we declared for war. [Cheers.] Is there any one in this hall or in this United Kingdom or in the vast Empire of which we here stand in the capital and centre who blames or repents our decision? [Shouts of "No."] If, as I believe, there is not, we must steel ourselves to the task, and in the spirit which animated our forefathers in their struggle against the domination of Napoleon we must and we shall persevere to the end. [Cheers.]
It would be a criminal mistake to under-estimate either the magnitude or fighting quality or the staying power of the
