Sir, I will say no more.  This is not an occasion for controversial discussion.  In all that I have said, I believe I have not gone, either in the statement of our case or in my general description of the provision we think it necessary to make, beyond the strict bounds of truth.  It is not my purpose—­it is not the purpose of any patriotic man—­to inflame feeling, to indulge in rhetoric, to excite international animosities.  The occasion is far too grave for that.  We have a great duty to perform, we have a great trust to fulfil, and confidently we believe that Parliament and the country will enable us to do it.

DAVID LLOYD GEORGE

SEPTEMBER 19, 1914

INTERNATIONAL HONOUR

I have come here this afternoon to talk to my fellow countrymen about this great war and the part we ought to take in it.  I feel my task is easier after we have been listening to the greatest battle-song in the world[1].

There is no man in this room who has always regarded the prospects of engaging in a great war with greater reluctance, with greater repugnance, than I have done throughout the whole of my political life.  There is no man, either inside or outside of this room, more convinced that we could not have avoided it without national dishonour.  I am fully alive to the fact that whenever a nation has been engaged in any war she has always invoked the sacred name of honour.  Many a crime has been committed in its name; there are some crimes being committed now.  But, all the same, national honour is a reality, and any nation that disregards it is doomed.

Why is our honour as a country involved in this war?  Because, in the first place, we are bound in an honourable obligation to defend the independence, the liberty, the integrity of a small neighbour that has lived peaceably, but she could not have compelled us, because she was weak.  The man who declines to discharge his debt because his creditor is too poor to enforce it is a blackguard.  We entered into this treaty, a solemn treaty, a full treaty, to defend Belgium and her integrity.  Our signatures are attached to the document.  Our signatures do not stand alone there.  This was not the only country to defend the integrity of Belgium.  Russia, France, Austria, and Prussia—­they are all there.  Why did they not perform the obligation?  It is suggested that if we quote this treaty it is purely an excuse on our part.  It is our low craft and cunning, just to cloak our jealousy of a superior civilization we are attempting to destroy.  Our answer is the action we took in 1870.  What was that?  Mr. Gladstone was then Prime Minister.  Lord Granville, I think, was then Foreign Secretary.  I have never heard it laid to their charge that they were ever jingo.