We are going to suffer, I am afraid, terribly in this war, whether we are in it or whether we stand aside.  Foreign trade is going to stop, not because the trade routes are closed, but because there is no trade at the other end.  Continental nations engaged in war—­all their populations, all their energies, all their wealth, engaged in a desperate struggle—­they cannot carry on the trade with us that they are carrying on in times of peace, whether we are parties to the war or whether we are not.  I do not believe for a moment that at the end of this war, even if we stood aside and remained aside, we should be in a position, a material position, to use our force decisively to undo what had happened in the course of the war, to prevent the whole of the west of Europe opposite to us—­if that had been the result of the war—­falling under the domination of a single power, and I am quite sure that our moral position would be such as to have lost us all respect.  I can only say that I have put the question of Belgium somewhat hypothetically, because I am not yet sure of all the facts, but, if the facts turn out to be as they have reached us at present, it is quite clear that there is an obligation on this country to do its utmost to prevent the consequences to which those facts will lead if they are undisputed.

I have read to the House the only engagements that we have yet taken definitely with regard to the use of force.  I think it is due to the House to say that we have taken no engagement yet with regard to sending an expeditionary armed force out of the country.  Mobilization of the fleet has taken place; mobilization of the army is taking place; but we have as yet taken no engagement, because I feel that—­in the case of a European conflagration such as this, unprecedented, with our enormous responsibilities in India and other parts of the empire, or in countries in British occupation, with all the unknown factors—­we must take very carefully into consideration the use which we make of sending an expeditionary force out of the country until we know how we stand.  One thing I would say.

The one bright spot in the whole of this, terrible situation is Ireland.  The general feeling throughout Ireland—­and I would like this to be clearly understood abroad—­does not make the Irish question a consideration which we feel we have now to take into account.  I have told the House how far we have at present gone in commitments and the conditions which influence our policy, and I have put to the House and dwelt at length upon how vital is the condition of the neutrality of Belgium.