Page:Great Speeches of the War.djvu/262

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228
Rt. Hon. Austen Chamberlain

world satisfaction is found for the legitimate aspirations of our own fellow citizens across the seas in Africa and in the Pacific. [Cheers.]

But, if we feel that, have we yet done everything we can do to forward that result? We want more men, and even more urgently than we want men we want munitions of war. And any man who shirks, who dallies at present with personal questions, of whatever class he may be, master or employee, at a time like this, should ever have before him the cry from the trenches, and should remember that for every delay here some man gives up his life in the trenches—that for every failure here some man in France or Belgium pays the penalty in blood. I know that in this city of Birmingham no such appeal is needed. And yet to you I cannot speak without urging that here is the greatest opportunity that has come, or will ever come to any of us in our lives, and that we should search our hearts and consciences to know if in our own spheres and our own way we are doing all we can do to advance the common cause. Never did nation go to war for a more righteous or a more glorious cause. We are here to pledge ourselves to-night to do all in our power to crown that cause with victory. [Cheers.]