ving used the soil of France
in order to defend our own. Is this quite fair or even decent? Let me
refresh their memory of the motive that brought us into this War. The true
motive was not to be found in the duty imposed upon us by Germany's breach
of the Belgian Treaty, though that in itself furnished us with an
unanswerable reason. The true motive was our desire to help you. We had
nothing in those days to fear for ourselves. We knew that our Fleet was
strong enough to protect our own shores. We had not yet appreciated the
submarine menace; we did not recognise what your loss of the Channel ports
might mean for us. We entered the War because we could not look on and see
you overwhelmed.

"You complain, again, that, in contrast to yourselves, we have got all we
wanted out of the War. As a fact we wanted nothing; but let that pass. You
point to the destruction of the German Fleet as if it were a private gain
for us and us alone, and not the removal of a danger to the whole world.
And what of the German armies--now in process of reduction to a mere police
force? Did you derive no advantage from the overthrow of a system which was
always a greater menace to you than the German Fleet ever was to us? And,
though we did not pretend to be a military nation, had we not some little
share in that achievement?

"And what of your _revanche_? How do the German Colonies, which we have
freed and now hold in trust--how do these compare with your solid recovery
of Alsace-Lorraine? No, you have not come badly out of Armageddon.

"Oh, you have suffered, that we know; you have suffered even more than we,
who at least were spared the ravaging of our lands. And never for a moment
do we forget this. But you too must not forget that where the soil of
France suffered most there thickest lie our English dead, who fought for
England's freedom, yes, but for your freedom too. And it is we who stand by
you still, pledged to be once more at your side if the same peril ever come
again; though America, for whom nothing was once too good, should fail you
in your need.

"There, I have said what I wanted to say; what your best friends here have
been thinking this many a day. For your best friends are not, as you might
imagine, to be found in a certain section of our Press who for their own
political or private ends are prepared to encourage all your suspicions if
so they may injure the good name of our statesmen who meet you in council
for the common