I repeat that the
empire needs recruits, and needs them at once, that they may be fully
trained and equipped in time to take their part in what may well be the
decisive fields of the greatest struggle in the history of the world.
That is our immediate necessity, and no Irishman in responding to it
need be afraid that he is prejudicing the future of the volunteers.
[Cheers.] I do not say, and I can not say, under what precise form or
organization, but I trust and believe, and indeed I am certain, that the
volunteers will become a permanent part, an integral and a
characteristic part, of the defensive forces of the Crown. [Cheers.] I
have only one more thing to say to you. [Cries of "Go on."] If our need
is great your opportunity is also great. [Cheers.] The call which I am
making is, as you know well, backed by the sympathy of your
fellow-Irishmen in all parts of the empire and the world. Old
animosities between us are dead. [Loud and prolonged cheers.] Scattered
like the Autumn leaves to the four winds of heaven, we are a united
nation, [renewed cheers,] owing and paying to our sovereign the
heartfelt allegiance of men who at home not only love but enjoy for
themselves the liberty which our soldiers and our sailors are fighting
by land and by sea to maintain and to extend for others.
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