Page:Great Speeches of the War.djvu/78

 The Country has reason to be proud of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment. It is, I think, the only regiment officially entitled to use the proud word loyal. They and their colleagues in other Lancashire regiments have already given one-half of the answer which the German Emperor was waiting for. The Kaiser has talked about General French's contemptible little army. He has already learned that the British soldier is not contemptible, and our duty now is to give him the answer to the other half of the slander. We had a little army when the war broke out. We were a peaceful people, and did not want to go to war on the Continent or anywhere else. We felt we were strong in our little island, defended by an incomparable Navy night and day—[cheers]—but the Kaiser scornfully threw down the challenge, and it was for us to take it up.

We have shown abundantly that our Army is of incomparable quality; what we have to show now is that it can produce numbers which will make even the Lord of Potsdam withdraw his censure. We in this land have never known what war means; we do not understand its real horror as waged by the German Army; we have never had that horror brought before our eyes. But we may still have it if we fail to do our duty—we would deserve to have it.

Thanks to that blessed destiny which has put us in this island, we are in a certain sense only the spectators of much of the horror and disaster which war has involved, and the young men should bear that in mind when they are tempted to think that the need for their services is small. Another thing I want to ask of you, do not undertake a great mission, as this most surely is, in any spirit of light-hearted adventure. It is not a picnic you are being invited to; it is a stern, laborious, painful, and possibly even fatal career. I recognize readily that there are many men who, having weighed the question fairly, are entitled to say, "My duty lies here at home." It is a question the answer to which a man must justify to his own conscience; I only ask you not to be too ready to assume that your duty is at home, and to remember that to-night in the trenches there are Lancashire soldiers, men from your own town, almost dropping for want of sleep, waiting for the time when workmates will come out and help to give them a night's respite from their anxious and arduous, but still glorious task.