essential. You can secure that by other means, and more particularly by taking measures which other lands have taken for improving the communications between one part of their dominions and another. By these means the products of one country inside this great Imperial Commonwealth can be brought more freely, readily, and economically to the markets of the others.

This great Empire has infinite resources in wealth, in minerals, in food products, in timber, and in every commodity needful for man, and it is obviously to the advantage, not merely of the particular countries where these products come from, but of every other part of the Empire, including the United Kingdom, that these commodities should be developed to the utmost. It enriches, it strengthens, and it binds together the Empire as a whole.

Therefore I say to Britain, she has faced the problems of war with a courage that has amazed the world; she must face the problems of peace in the same great spirit.

RESTATEMENT OF THE CAUSES AND AIMS OF THE WAR.

EXTRACTS FROM A SPEECH DELIVERED AT GLASGOW, ON BEING PRESENTED WITH THE FREEDOM OF THAT CITY, JUNE 29TH, 1917.

Ir is a satisfaction for Britain in these terrible times that no share of the responsibility for these events rests on her. She is not the Jonah in this storm. The part taken by our country in this conflict, in its origin and in its conduct, has been as honourable and chivalrous as any part ever taken in any country in any operation. We might imagine from declarations which were made by the Germans, aye, and even by a few people in this country who are constantly referring to "our German comrades," that this terrible war was wantonly and wickedly provoked by England -never Scotland, never Wales, and never Ireland -wantonly provoked by England to increase her possessions and to destroy the influence, the power, and the prosperity of a dangerous rival. There never was a more foolish travesty of the actual facts. It happened three years ago, or less, but there have been so many bewildering events crowded into those intervening years that some people might have forgotten, perhaps, some of the

essential facts, and it is essential that we should now and again restate them, not merely to refute the calumniators of our native land, but in order to sustain the hearts of her people by the unswerving conviction that no part of the guilt of this terrible bloodshed rests upon their conscience.

Britain the Last to Enter the War.

What are the main facts? There were six countries which entered the war at the beginning. Britain was the last, not the first. Before she entered the war Britain made every effort to avoid it, begged, supplicated, and entreated that there should be no conflict. I was a member of the Cabinet at the time, and I remember the earnest endeavours we made to persuade Germany and Austria not to precipitate Europe into this welter of blood. We begged them to summon a European conference. Had that conference met, arguments against provoking such a catastrophe were so overwhelming that there would never have been a war. Germany knew that, so she rejected the conference. Although Austria was prepared to accept it, she suddenly declared war, and yet we are the people who wantonly provoked this war in order to attack Germany! We begged Germany not to attack Belgium, and produced a treaty signed by the King of Prussia, as well as the King of England, pledging himself to protect Belgium against an invader, and we said, "If you invade Belgium we shall have no alterna

tive but to defend it." The enemy invaded Belgium, and now they say, "Why, forsooth, you, England, provoked this war." It is not quite the story of the wolf and the lamb. I will tell you why: because Germany expected to find a lamb and found a lion. So much for our responsibility for war, and it is necessary that the facts should be stated and restated, because we want to carry on this war with a pure, clear conscience to the end.

The Military Situation.

But you will ask me what progress are we making with the war, and I mean to tell you my view of that. I am steeped every day-morning, noon, and night-in the perplexities and difficulties and the anxieties of this grim business, but all the same I feel confident. The difficulties are there to be overcome, the anxieties to be faced, the disappointments to be persevered through. What is the present military position? No doubt, startling events in Russia modified the military situation this year temporarily to our disadvantage, but permanently for the better. What has happened recently on both the Western fronts shows what could have been accomplished this year, if all the Allied forces had been ready to bring an all-round pressure to bear. In training, in experience, in equipment, our Army is infinitely better than it has ever been. The Lord Provost has referred to the munitions work of this country. The finest collection of trench-pounding machinery which any

army has ever seen is now in the possession of the British forces. You have only to look at what happened at the Vimy and Messines Ridges. Fortifications which had defined the power of the British and French armies for two or three years were swept away by our great attack, and by the gallant onslaught of our Allies. The valour of the French troops against the dense hordes of German troops must have impressed all as a conspicuous example of what that great nation is capable of; and there are the brilliant achievements of our Italian comrades, who with dash, courage, and skill storm great Alpine heights in the teeth of those legions of Austria.

The Russian Situation.

We have demonstrated the superiority of the Allied armies in all these great conflicts, but no doubt for the moment the difficulty we have to deal with is that the internal distractions in Russia have robbed the Russian Army of the power to put forth the whole of its strength. Broken divisions from the West have been taken to the East and fresh divisions from the East have been brought back to the West, and the same thing applies to the German and the Austrian artillery. The Russian Revolution, beneficent as it undoubtedly is and undoubtedly great as will be its results both this year and even more hereafter, has had the effect of postponing a complete victory. Revolution is a fever brought about by the