I am quite sure I associate
my two friends who are here tonight and who are to speak after me, and
my noble friend, your Chairman, with me when I say that we regard the
cheers with which you have received us as being offered to us only
because they are meant for our soldiers in the field and our sailors
upon the sea, [cheers,] and it is in that sense that we accept them and
thank you for them.
We meet here together in serious times, but I come to you tonight in
good heart, [cheers,] and with good confidence for the future and for
the task upon which we are engaged. It is too soon to speculate upon the
results of the great battle which is waging in France. Everything that
we have heard, during four long days of anxiety seems to point to a
marked and substantial turning of the tide.
German Plans Miscarried.
We have seen the forces of the French and British Armies strong enough
not only to contain and check the devastating avalanche which had swept
across the French frontier, but now at last, not for an hour or for a
day, but for four long days in succession, it has been rolled steadily
back. [Cheers.] With battles taking place over a front of 100 or 150
miles one must be very careful not to build high hopes on results which
are achieved even in a great area of the field of war.
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