But Belgium is not the only little nation that has been attacked in this war, and I make no excuse for referring to the case of the other little nation, the case of Servia. ["Hear, hear!”] The history of Servia is not unblotted.  Whose history, in the category of nations, is unblotted? ["Hear, hear!”] The first nation that is without sin, let her cast a stone at Servia.  She was a nation trained in a horrible school, but she won her freedom with a tenacious valor, and she has maintained it by the same courage. [Applause.] If any Servians were mixed up in the assassination of the Grand Duke, they ought to be punished. ["Hear, hear!”] Servia admits that.  The Servian Government had nothing to do with it.  Not even Austria claims that.  The Servian Prime Minister is one of the most capable and honored men in Europe. ["Hear, hear!”] Servia was willing to punish any one of her subjects who had been proved to have any complicity in that assassination.  What more could you expect?  What were the Austrian demands?  Servia sympathized with her fellow-countrymen in Bosnia—­that was one of her crimes.  She must do so no more.  Her newspapers were saying nasty things about Austria; they must do so no longer.  That is the German spirit; you had it in Zabern. ["Hear, hear!” and applause.] How dare you criticise a Prussian official? [laughter,] and if you laugh, it is a capital offense—­the Colonel in Zabern threatened to shoot if it was repeated.  In the same way the Servian newspapers must not criticise Austria.  I wonder what would have happened if we had taken the same line about German newspapers. ["Hear, hear!”] Servia said:  “Very well, we will give orders to the newspapers that they must in future criticise neither Austria, nor Hungary, nor anything that is theirs.” [Laughter.] Who can doubt the valor of Servia, when she undertook to tackle her newspaper editors? [Laughter and applause.] She promised not to sympathize with Bosnia, she promised to write no critical articles about Austria; she would have no public meetings in which anything unkind was said about Austria.

“Servia Faced the Situation with Dignity.”

But that was not enough.  She must dismiss from her army the officers whom Austria should subsequently name.  Those officers had just emerged from a war where they had added lustre to the Servian arms; they were gallant, brave, and efficient. ["Hear, hear!”] I wonder whether it was their guilt or their efficiency that prompted Austria’s action!  But, mark you, the officers were not named; Servia was to undertake in advance to dismiss them from the army, the names to be sent in subsequently.  Can you name a country in the world that would have stood that? [Cries of “No.”] Supposing Austria or Germany had issued an ultimatum of that kind to this country, saying, “You must dismiss from your army, and from your navy, [laughter,] all those officers whom we shall subsequently name.”  Well, I think I could name them now. [Laughter.] Lord Kitchener