Page:Great Speeches of the War.djvu/75

Rh be broken and treachery would arise in different parts of our scattered Empire. And the only little damp squib that could be found to go off in any part of the Empire has been very effectually squelched by the very man (Gen. Botha) who not long ago was commanding Dutchmen who were lighting the British Crown and who, within the last twenty-four hours, has received the almost unparalleled compliment of having one of His Majesty's ships of war named by his name. [Cheers.]

It surely required no great degree of cleverness, it did not need such a great deal of culture, to realize that if we allowed ourselves to stand by while this bully was putting his hands upon Belgium, then our position in Europe as a civilizing force, as a defender of right against might, was gone for ever. But that is what happens to eavesdroppers; the man that spends his life with his eye to the keyhole gets nothing by it except an inflamed eye. [Laughter.]

Here in Lancashire, with its factories, mills, and busy workshops, you have the fullest right to say that Lancashire is playing its part.

Not that there is not a further part for other Lancashire men to play, and an opportunity of entering into a priceless tradition and of making themselves comrades of some of the bravest and most gallant soldiers who ever wore the King's uniform. There is a Press Censorship which unavoidably withdraws from us, for the time at least, much that we would be glad to know. Modern war is fought in the sort of atmosphere which you meet with occasionally in the streets of Manchester in the month of December, but the thickest fog that Manchester ever laboured under could not prevent the gallantry of Lancashire regiments reaching Lancashire homes. [Cheers.] Will you allow me to deal with two criticisms often made of the Press Censorship?

In the first place it is apparently supposed in some quarters that when the publication of a particular piece of news is delayed or denied, as it has been from time to time, it is done for fear of the effect of such publication on the British people. The theory seems to be that the British people would be unduly elated by news of success and dangerously dejected by news of misfortune. That is a ridiculous misunderstanding. If we had nothing to think of but the stimulating of recruiting in this war I have no doubt that we should publish every single bit of bad news that ever came this way, and minimize every bit of good news, and carefully arrange to drop a bomb