In that connection let me repeat
what I said two weeks ago in London. We think it of the highest
importance that so far as possible, and subject to the accidents of war,
people belonging to the same place, breathing the same atmosphere,
having the same associations, should be kept together.
Our recruits come to us spontaneously, under no kind of compulsion,
[cheers,] of their own free will to meet a national and an imperial
need. We present to them no material inducement in the shape either of
bounty or bribe, and they have to face the prospect of a spell of hard
training from which most of the comforts and all the luxuries that any
of them have been accustomed to are rigorously banished. But then, when
they are fully equipped for their patriotic task, they will have the
opportunity of striking a blow, it may be even of laying down their
lives, not to serve the cause of ambition or aggression, but to maintain
the honor and the good faith of our country, to shield the independence
of free States, to protect against brute force the principles of
civilization and the liberties of Europe. [Loud cheers.]
* * * * *
MR. ASQUITH AT DUBLIN.
Speech in the Round Room of the Mansion House, Sept.
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