[Cheers.]
I say nothing of other countries. I pass no judgment upon them. But if
we here in Great Britain had abstained and remained neutral, forsworn
our word, deserted our friends, faltered and compromised with the plain
dictates of our duty--nay, if we had not shown ourselves ready to strike
with all our forces at the common enemy of civilization and freedom,
there would have been nothing left for our country but to veil her face
in shame and to be ready in her turn--for her time would have come--to
share the doom which she would have richly deserved, and after centuries
of glorious life to go down to her grave, unwept, unhonored, and unsung.
[Loud cheers.]
Let us gladly acknowledge what becomes clearer and clearer every day,
that the world is just as ready as it ever was, and no part of it
readier than the British Empire, to understand and to respond to moral
issues. [Cheers.] The new school of German thought has been teaching for
a generation past that in the affairs of nations there is no code of
ethics. According to their doctrine force and nothing but force is the
test and the measure of right. As the events which are going on before
our eyes have made it plain, they have succeeded only too well in
indoctrinating with their creed--I will not say the people of Germany;
like Burke, I will not attempt to draw up an indictment against a
nation--I will not say the people of Germany, but those who control and
execute German policy.
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