ht well justify a temporary cessation of work should no longer be
allowed to do so. The first duty of all concerned is to go on producing
with might and main what the safety of the State requires, [cheers,] and
if this is done I can say with perfect confidence the Government on its
part will insure a prompt and equitable settlement of disputed points,
and in cases of proved necessity will give on behalf of the State such
help as is in their power. [Cheers.] Sailors and soldiers, employers and
workmen in the industrial world are all at this moment partners and
co-operators in one great enterprise. The men in the shipyards and the
engineering shops, the workers in the textile factories, the miner who
sends the coal to the surface, the dockyard laborer who helps to load
and unload the ships, and those who employ and organize and supervise
their labors are one and all rendering to their country a service as
vital and as indispensable as the gallant men who line the trenches in
Flanders or in France or who are bombarding fortresses in the
Dardanelles. [Cheers.]

I hear sometimes whispers, hardly more than whispers, of possible terms
of peace. Peace is the greatest human good, but this is not the time to
talk of peace. Those who talk of peace, however excellent their
intentions, are in my judgment victims, I will not say of wanton, but of
grievous self-delusion. Just now we are in the stress and tumult of a
tempest which is shaking the foundations of the earth. The time to talk
of peace is when the great tasks in which we and our allies embarked on
the long and stormy voyage are within sight of accomplishment. Speaking
at the Guildhall at the Lord Mayor's banquet last November I used this
language, which has since been repeated almost in the same terms by the
Prime Minister of France, and which I believe represents the settled
sentiment and purpose of the country. I said:

We shall never sheathe the sword which we have not lightly
drawn until Belgium recovers in full measure all and more than
she has sacrificed, until France is adequately secured against
the menace of aggression, until the rights of the smaller
nationalities of Europe are placed upon an unassailable
foundation, and until the military domination of Prussia is
wholly and finally destroyed. [Cheers.]

What I said early in November, now, after four months, I repeat today.
We have not relaxed nor shall we relax in the pursuit o