you here at once it would have been my fault and not his. I never worked with any one who could be more considerate. But we have had our differences. Good heaven! What use would I have been if I had not differed? I should have been no use at all. He has shown me great kindnesses during the years I have worked with him. I should have ill requited them if I had not told my opinions freely, frankly, independently, whether they agreed with his or not.

Freedom of speech is essential everywhere, but there is one place where it is vital, and that is in the Council Chamber. The councillor who professes to agree with everything that falls from his leader has betrayed him. Napoleon, who was a great leader of men, discouraged free discussion everywhere except in the council of war. There he encouraged it. He promoted it, he did not ask the people there to say ditto to what he professed, and if there had been any foolish newspapers in that day who, the moment they discovered that councillors inside Napoleon's Council Chamber had dared to disapprove of his plans, published the fact and denounced them as cavillers, traitors, and intriguers, they would have done infinite harm to France, for they would have ruined Napoleon. There are twenty-three of us and if we all came together with exactly the same mind, exactly the same plan, exactly the same proposals and schemes, what a marvel it would have been, and how worthless would it have been!

After all, in the Council Chamber you want free

expression of opinion. You want a variety of opinions expressed, and the height of wisdom is in knowing, not what counsel to give, but which counsel to take. Many men, many minds, and if there are not many minds you may depend upon it there are not very many men. They are not men, but automatons, and what I want to know is this, whether the nation in a great war wants counsellors or mere penny-in-the-slot machines. If the latter, then all I can say is I desire to be no part of the equipment.

"Wage War with all your might."

Let me give you a second matter which seems to be worrying some of my very best Liberal friends. They are rather shocked in their hearts because I am throwing such fervour into the prosecution of the war. Well, I hate war. I very often feel a sense of shock pass through my system when I realise what the terrible machines which I am helping to manufacture are intended for. But you either make war or you don't. It is the business of statesmen to strain every nerve to keep a nation out of war, but once they are in it, it is also their business to wage it with all their might. It is the old story, Beware of entrance to a quarrel, but being in it, see that thine enemy beware of thee. That is the reason why men can wage effective war only when they have either a good conscience or no conscience at all. The latter has been the German case. I also hate

war, and that is the reason why I want this to be the last, and it won't be unless this war is effectively waged by us. A badly conducted war means a bad peace, and a bad peace means no peace at all. That is why I have urged that this war should be conducted with determination.

The Need for Resolution.

You must not only be resolute, but you must appear to be resolute. I have heard a good deal of criticism of the Government-some of it very unfair, some of it very ill-informed, a good deal of it rather shrewish-but I will tell you at once the criticism I have had most difficulty in answering. I will put it in this form-that we are a huge, unwieldy van, very good material in all its parts, but rather lacking in propelling power, and for that reason, whenever we come to an obstacle or declivity, we rather roll and ricket and threaten to come to a standstill. One set of men, we are told, pushes one way, another set of men pushes another way, and a further set of men undoubtedly tries to throw us over altogether, and the direction in which we go depends on the largest number of men who are pushing or upon the purchase which they have got at the moment.

I do not think it is fair criticism altogether, and it does not sufficiently take into account enormous difficulties which you have in a great war like this. We have accomplished enormous results in the raising of armies and in their equipment, when

you consider that we began with about the tiniest army in Europe, smaller than the Serbian Army, and that we now have one of the greatest and best equipped armies in the world. Still I agree that in conducting a war a Government should not only be resolute but appear resolute. War is a terrible business, but men will face all its horrors if they have confidence in their leaders. But if there is hesitation, if there is timidity, if there is the appearance of irresolution, the bravest hearts will fail. The spirit of the nation is the propellant of its armies. Therefore it is important, whatever happens, that you should have confidence that the Government is doing its best in the firmest and most resolute manner to conduct the war. That is why I have had no sympathy with those who seem to think that because war is hateful you ought to fight it with a savour of regret in your actions. Doubting hand never yet struck a firm blow.

"Freedom at Stake."

In any action which I have taken since the war I am not conscious of having departed from any principle which I ever enunciated to you on this platform. I came into politics to fight for the under dog, and it has been all the same to me whether he was an underpaid agricultural labourer, a sick workman, an infirm and broken old man or woman who had given their lives to the country, a poor slum dweller, or a small nation harried by voracious Empires. In fighting this

war I have simply, in my judgment, been carrying out the principles which I have advocated on this platform now for thirty years of my life. I have had no illusions as to what this war means or meant. I have always felt that the life of this Empire was at stake, and I know how much depends on that life. With all its faults, the British Empire, here and across the seas, stands for freer, better, ampler, nobler conditions of life for man. I believed that in this war freedom was at stake, so I have thrown myself with all my heart and soul and strength into working for victory.

Facing the Facts.

Nor have I ever had any doubts about the result, if we fought with intelligence and with resolution. The fundamental facts are in our favour. We have command of the seas. We have it now more completely than we ever had. The resources of raw material for arms, men, and equipment are ours. But it takes time to bring them all into full operation. The business of the enemy is to destroy or to wear out one of the Allies or break up the alliance before that time comes. Our business is to minimise those risks, shortening the time within which we can bring out our own maximum strength to bear on the enemy.

But I want to say one thing, time is not an ally. It is a doubtful neutral at the present moment and has not yet settled on our side. But time can be won over by effort, by preparation, by determina