tions. I know you will not disappoint them. They are gallant and brave fellows. Theirs the discomfort, theirs the danger, theirs, too often, the sacrifice. Put forth the whole of your strength, as you are doing to-day, and their sacrifice will not be in vain. 1 WINNING THIS WAR. SPEECH DELIVERED AT CONWAY, TO A MEETING OF I AM very delighted to find surrounding me today old political friends who have been fighting many doughty battles by my side for nearly a generation. I am also delighted to find here men who have been fighting political battles against me The task we have in hand is not the task of one party or of two parties, but a task for the nation as a whole, and we wish to preserve absolute national unity until we secure national strength. It is not always easy. I am not enough of a huntsman to know what happens if two packs happen to get mixed up together. But, after all, we are rational human beings, and we know that the one condition of victory is unity. The Supply of Munitions. About a year ago to-day I addressed a meeting at Bangor. My object then was to endeavour to impress the nation with a sense not merely of the magnitude of the issues at stake, but of the magnitude of the enterprise and of the gravity of the task. I then urged that we should mobilise all the national resources, whether of men or materials, in order to carry us through triumphantly. I should have liked to tell you what has happened since in the way of organising and engineering the resources of this country to provide our gallant troops at the front with abundance of munitions to enable them to face the foe. I hope to be able to do so shortly in the House of Commons. In another month I shall have accomplished a year's work at the Ministry of Munitions, and it will be my duty to render an account of my stewardship. For the present all I can tell you is this, that we have increased enormously not merely the output, but-what is more important in a long war-the capacity to turn out munitions of war. The Supply of Men: "A Great Crusade." At that time we had more men than equipment. I therefore dwelt rather on munitions. At that date men were coming in in such numbers that we had no equipment for them, and our difficulties were not in raising armies, but in fitting them for their work. Later in the year there was a falling off. The flood-tide seemed to have abated; but meanwhile the achievement of the nation in raising by voluntary methods those huge armies was something of which we might very well be proud. It was almost unparalleled in the history of war, and nothing which has happened since in the way of compulsory measures can ever detract from the pride we possess in the fact that we are the first nation in the history of the world that has raised over three millions of men for any great military enterprise purely by voluntary means. Young men from every quarter of this country flocked to the standard of international right as to a great crusade. It was a glorious achievement, and well may Britain be proud of it. The Advent of Compulsion. But, as I pointed out, the numbers fell off somewhat towards the end of last summer, and it became abundantly clear about August and September that if we were to carry through this war and get an adequate supply of men for the purpose we should have to resort to other methods. There is no indignity in compulsion. Compulsion simply means that a nation is organising itself in an orderly, consistent, resolute fashion for war. Taxes are compulsory, although I should say there is no one here who has discovered that because he has paid them willingly compulsion and voluntaryism are not inconsistent in a democratic nation. Compulsion simply means the will of the majority of the people the voluntary decision of the majority. Unless you had had a majority, an overwhelming majority, compulsion would have been impossible. So compulsion is simply organised voluntary effort. You must organise effort when a nation is in peril. You cannot run a war as you run a Sunday-school treat, where one man volun tarily brings the buns, another man supplies the tea and another brings the kettle, one looks after the boiling and another takes round the teacups, some contribute in cash, and a good many lounge about and just make the best of what is going. You cannot run a war like that. The Sons of France and Conscription. Have you noticed what our Allies are doing? Do you think the sons of France have gone under the shadow of the lash to defend her? If you had been there, you would have known different. The moment the country was in peril, not as a matter of duty, not as a legal obligation, but as a matter of right, as a matter of will, each son of France rallied to her flag, and it was the pride of every daughter of France of her free will to give those she loved for France. What struck me there was that there was no complaint, that they did not boast about it; it was something they took for granted that when France was in peril everybody, as a matter of privilege, should go and fight for her. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, the great motto of France-I will tell you what it means. When the country is in danger, then liberty means the right of every man to defend her; equality means equality of sacrifice of every man and woman of France; fraternity means the brotherhood of endurance, effort, victory for France. That is what it means. I met one of the most important men in France |