Page:Great Speeches of the War.djvu/291

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Great Speeches of the War
255

fallen—[laughter]—there is another capital which perhaps some day may.

One word, if I may, upon our gallant Allies in the Far East—Japan. [Cheers.] I had the honour in the year 1905 to sign on behalf of his Majesty's Government a treaty with the Government of Japan. That scrap of paper has not been put in the waste-paper basket. Japan is going to pay off some old scores. And I think you may trust her to pay, not twenty shillings in the pound, but more. Yes, but is there nothing else? Beyond all these comes our Glorious Empire. [Prolonged cheers.] We are beginning to realize what the empire means—[Hear, hear]—not merely wide areas coloured red upon the map, but a great group of young nations fired with the energy and ideals of youth, and straining at the leash in order that they may join the Mother-country in this colossal struggle. [Cheers.] Canada—[cheers]—is giving us all that her great and boundless granaries can afford, her horses, her men. [Hear, hear.] Australia and New Zealand—[cheers]—are ready with contingents provided—I am going to give you Lord Kitchener's words—[cheers]—provided under the system of general national training introduced a few years ago. [Cheers.]

And South Africa. [Cheers.] We have our old opponents ready to join with their brother colonists to take their place by our side in the battlefield. [Cheers.] And lastly, what about India? [Cheers.] We talk about the people of India, but we forget that the word India embraces a number of different peoples, peoples of different races, of different religions, of different types and habits. But they are all ready to come forward. [Cheers.] They are ready to give us men and money, their jewels, anything that they have, and I am able to say that the first contingent of these splendid fighting men whom India can produce is already beginning to arrive. [Cheers.] Has there ever been anything like it in the history of the world?

And now, before I sit down, let us ask ourselves what are we doing at home? There are some very obvious things that occur to one. We shall not lose our heads; we didn't lose them after the fighting at Mons and Charleroi. We shall not lose them whatever happens; we shall bear bravely any inconveniences, any losses, any trials that this war may bring to us, and God knows the trials may be indeed hard for some of us to bear. Well, we shall also do, I know, what we can to make things easy for those who depend upon the men who are