But such as we have
received it and such as we hope to have it, with it we are content.
[Cheers.]
Why We Are at War.
We do not covet any people's territory. We have no desire to impose our
rule upon alien populations. The British Empire is enough for us.
[Laughter and cheers.] All that we wished for, all that we wish for now,
is to be allowed peaceably to consolidate our own resources, to raise
within the empire the level of common opportunity, to draw closer the
bond of affection and confidence between its parts, and to make it
everywhere the worthy home of the best traditions of British liberty.
[Cheers.] Does it not follow from that that nowhere in the world is
there a people who have stronger motives to avoid war and to seek and
ensue peace? Why, then, are the British people throughout the length and
breadth of our empire everywhere turning their plowshares into swords?
Why are the best of our ablebodied men leaving the fields and the
factory and the counting house for the recruiting office and the
training camp?
If, as I have said, we have no desire to add to our imperial burdens,
either in area or in responsibility, it is equally true that in entering
this war we had no ill-will to gratify nor wrongs of our own to avenge.
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