Page:Great Speeches of the War.djvu/257

 censorship refuses to allow that which is known to all the world outside the United Kingdom, to be published here. News may be good or bad, but no Government understands our people which thinks that they will do good work by keeping back bad news. We have gone through bad times before, and the worse the times were the higher the spirit of the people rose. The greater the necessity you show them for the exercise of patience the greater the exertion they will make. I plead that, where no military necessity exists, bad news should not be withheld, and I plead, too, that we may have greater and fuller knowledge of the gallant and historic deeds of the regiments with which our city and the surrounding counties are associated [Hear, hear.] What about the Warwicks? What about the Worcesters, of whom, in the simple and restrained language which is so characteristic of a great general, Sir John French says that if he is to single out one regiment in the fighting at Ypres it is the Worcesters he would name? I do plead that some person should record these events, so that our history, national and local, may be the richer for them, that the children may be stimulated to do their duty by the knowledge of the way in which our soldiers are doing theirs to-day.

I would not say these things for idle criticism, I would not say them to satisfy an idle curiosity, but I am profoundly convinced that secrecy has been, and is being, carried to an extent that is detrimental to the best interests of our nation. No one wants to give away secrets to the enemy, but if you tell the world at large only of the few men who shirk, or the few men who drink, if you conceal from them carefully what the great mass of the people are doing, if you hide from them the glorious actions which have illustrated the annals of the British Army and have added to its imperishable laurels, you not merely fail to impress your Allies with the efforts you are making to bring the whole force to bear upon this struggle, you not only give rise to surprise and sorrowful criticism among friendly nations abroad, but you discourage our own people, suppress their energy, damp their enthusiasm, and fail to get the best that they can give. [Hear, hear.] Any Government which tries to ride this country in Winkers will never get the best out of its mount.

I say, and I say with knowledge of what has been done, that, considering the little any man has said to prepare you for this struggle, considering how little has been told you ever since