[Cheers.] I am afraid that the miscalculation which
was made about Russia was made also about us. The dispatch which the
right honorable gentleman referred to is a dispatch of a nature which I
believe would not have been addressed to Great Britain if it had been
believed that our hands were free and that we held the position which we
had always held before the entente. That, at least, is my belief.
Napoleonism Without a Napoleon.
We are fighting, as the Prime Minister said, for the honor and, what
with the honor is bound up always, the interest of our nation. But we
are fighting also for the whole basis of the civilization for which we
stand and for which Europe stands. [Cheers.] I do not wish, any more
than the Prime Minister, to inflame passion. I only ask the House to
consider one aspect. Look at the way Belgium is being treated today.
There is a report--if it is not true now it may be true tomorrow--that
the City of Liege is invaded by German troops and that civilians, as in
the days of the Middle Ages, are fighting for their hearths and homes
against trained troops. How has that been brought about? In a state of
war, war must be waged. But remember that this plan is not of today or
of yesterday; that it has been long matured; that the Germans knew that
they would have this to face; and that they were ready to take the
course which they took the other day of saying to Belgium, "Destroy your
independence.
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