is going to be in a position at the end of it to exert
its superior strength. For us, with a powerful fleet, which we
believe able to protect our commerce, to protect our shores, and
to protect our interests, if we are engaged in war, we shall
suffer but little more than we shall suffer even if we stand
aside.

"We are going to suffer terribly in this war, whether we are in
it or whether we stand aside. Foreign trade is going to stop, not
because the trade routes are closed, but because there is no
trade at the other end. I do not believe for a moment that at the
end of this war, even if we stood aside, we should be in a
material position, to use our force decisively to undo what had
happened in the course of the war, to prevent the whole of the
west of Europe opposite to us falling under the domination of a
single power, and I am quite sure that our moral position would
be such as to have lost us all respect.

"Mobilization of the fleet has taken place; mobilization of the
army is taking place; but we have as yet taken no engagement with
regard to sending an expeditionary armed force out of the
country, because I feel that--in the case of a European
conflagration such as this, unprecedented, with our enormous
responsibilities in India and other parts of the Empire, or in
countries in British occupation, with all the unknown factors--we
must take the question very carefully into consideration, until
we know how we stand.

"What other policy is there before the House? There is but one
way in which the Government could make certain at the present
moment of keeping outside this war, and that would be that it
should immediately issue a proclamation of unconditional
neutrality. We cannot do that. We should sacrifice our good name
and reputation before the world, and should not escape the most
serious and grave economic consequences.

"As far as the forces of the crown are concerned, we are ready. I
believe the Prime Minister and the First Lord of the Admiralty
[Winston Churchill] have no doubt whatever that the readiness and
the efficiency of those forces were never at a higher mark than
they are to-day, and never was there a time when confidence was
more justified in the power of the navy to protect our commerce
and to protect our s