ey are proud to be in the position to do it.
Why, then, we say to those men, "You are indeed now put to the test.
The men of Belgium, the men of France, the men of Serbia, however
willing they were to protect women from the things that are most
horrible--and more horrible to women than death itself--have not been
able to do it."

It is only by an accident, or a series of accidents, for which no man
here has the right to take credit, that British women on British soil
are not now enduring the horrors endured by the women of France, the
women of Belgium, and the women of Serbia. The least that men can do is
that every man of fighting age should prepare himself to redeem his word
to women, and to make ready to do his best, to save the mothers, the
wives, and the daughters of Great Britain from outrage too horrible even
to think of.

We have the right to say to the men, "Fight for your country, defend the
shores of this land of ours. Fight for your homes, for the women, and
for the children." We have the right if that was the only reason, but in
these days, when women are taking larger views of their duty to the
State, we go further than that; we claim the right to hold recruiting
meetings and ask men to fight for bigger reasons than are advanced
ordinarily. We say to men, "In this war there are issues at stake bigger
even than the safety of your homes and your own country. Your honor as a
nation is at stake."

We have our duties in this war. First of all, this duty begins at
home--this duty to our home, because I always feel that if we are not
ready to do our duty to those nearest to us we are not fit to do our
duty far away. And so the first duty is to ourselves and to our homes.
Then there is the duty to protect those who, having made a gallant
fight for self-defense--and by that I mean the country of Belgium--what
we owe to Belgium we can never repay, because now the whole German plan
of campaign is perfectly plain to all those who are not prejudiced, and
who are not affected by pan-Germanism; and, unfortunately, in their
methods of warfare--and their methods of warfare are many--they not only
fight physically, but they fight mentally and morally as well, and in
this country and in France, and in every country in Europe, long before
the war broke out, in fact, ever since the year 1870, they have been
preparing by subtle means to take possession of Europe, and I believe
their ambitions are not limited by that, they wa