Facing the Facts of the Present Situation

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN,--I have so much to say, and so little time in which to say it, that I shall give but one moment to what is at once a duty and a pleasure: to express my profound sense of honour and privilege I have today in addressing this Empire Club; composed as it is of so distinguished and representative a body of citizens of this premier city of Canada, and representing also those ideals of Empire and nationhood that are today uppermost in the minds of all the citizens of the Empire. It is, indeed, a great honour and a great privilege and I receive it, not for myself alone, but for those for whom it, is my privilege to speak today, my comrades in the trenches; and they are worthy of all the honour we can bestow upon them.

I count it especially an honour to speak on the subject I have chosen for two reasons, firstly, because in these days which we are passing in a kind of rest-camp in so far as the big war is concerned, they are still fighting. Wherever you have Britishers looking into the eyes of their foes they never quit fighting; and the Canadians at this moment are either planning a new raid in their dug-outs, or carrying out a raid with their bayonets in their hands-but the big war has come to a little pause, and during that pause there are thoughts of the fluttering of the white flag, and of the hovering of the dove of peace.

Shall we consider seriously the question of making peace, or shall we abandon all ought of peace; and, drawing in the belt a little tighter, proceed to a more vigorous and more bitter and more relentless fight? Well, gentlemen, there is no Play of fighting gently or easily; the only way to fight is to fight with all your might, with the utmost ferocity and the utmost violence. So that we have to consider whether the time has come when we might suggest a pause for a conference, or whether we must abandon all ideas of conference or suggestions of peace, and give ourselves heart and soul and body to a more vigorous and more relentless prosecution of the war.

Now, that question, "Shall we quit?" has an ugly sound, but let us not be deterred from its consideration. "Shall we quit ?" is a perfectly reasonable question for all loyal sons of the Empire to ask. I do not for a moment believe that those who think that the Empire and the Allies must get everything they want, and have set down .in their terms, will escape disappointment. We will never get them. But the question still remains to be answered

Is this the time to talk about quitting ? I confess frankly that I look at this from the point of view first of all and always of the man who is doing the fighting. I have a vision at this moment of a dug-out on the lines where our Canadians are, down there safe and deep in the ground, a dug-out built by the Germans, and subsequently occupied by the French, and now taken over by the Canadians. I see my Commanding Officer and his Adjutant in that dungeon-like place with bottles on the table-and with candles stuck in the tops-and let me tell you right now, gentlemen, there is no whiskey in this war. You cannot win a war with whiskey. I believe there is a place for the rum ration. I treat the rum ration as I treat morphia; and where the stretcher-bearer finds a man suffering in the front line he does not hesitate to give him a dose of morphia. Similarly, when our men come in from the morning watch nerve-shaken and chilled to the bone, as they often are, and they must get asleep in five minutes, it is necessary that they should receive a shot of medicine which happens to be called rum. And the man who criticizes an officer or a soldier for that is a man who does not understand the situation. However, that is a little off my point. I see my Commanding Officer and his Adjutant with the bottles on the table and the candles stuck in their tops, with a map before them. What are they doing? Planning for a, raid next week, maybe, and just then the paper comes in and they say "What is this?" and "this" is a statement to the effect that in Canada recruiting is dead. The war movement is checked. I see them look at each other; I feel the drop of the temperature; I feel the paralyzing chill at their hearts as they ask each other, "What does this mean ? Have they forgotten us out here? Have we made a fearful mistake? Are we fools that we came at all? Or has Canada got 'cold feet'?" I see the boys out in the front line. There are very few of them in the "Bay," for where there ought to have been a thousand men in the front line, only 250 with five officers were there, so thin had our ranks become. I see these men holding the thin brown line, and they talk to each other of the papers they have received, telling them that Canada is pausing or hesitating in the matter of recruiting. I feel in my soul today the chill of it and I say this, gentlemen until the war is stopped by authority, let no Canadian talk about quitting.

Now we have had our newspapers filled in these days with suggestions that have come across the line from the President of the United States. There is no use dismissing those suggestions with simply a curse or a blessing. They cannot be dismissed in that way. The President of the United States is a great man and occupies a great place in the world representing, as he does, one of the greatest nations in that world, and it is simply folly to think we can dismiss his suggestions with a wave of the hand. When the time for discussing the terms of settlement arrives, one of the men sitting at that Board will be the President of the United States or a man who represents him, and he will have a fight to be there, and no power can keep him from being there. We might as well take it now as then. We must reckon with the United States, the most impressive neutral nation in the war today. Let us face the thing and see if we can find out what he proposes. There are many things in which we agree with the President of the United States, as you will realize if you read over that manifesto. You will see 'that the President lays down in clause after clause the very things the Allies have declared they are going to fight for until they win them. Read it again and you will see, as I have said, that clause after clause states our own opinions, and we welcome gladly and thankfully these utterances of our case on the part of the President of the United States. But at one point we differ. The suggestion is made there that a peace without victory is the only peace possible. "A peace without victory"? Our claim is that a peace without victory is an impossibility, an absolute impossibility, because a peace without victory is insecure. Remember, we in Great Britain, and in the rest of the Empire, have no foolish notions about military glory. We have glory, and military glory, that will never, never fade while the names of Canada and Great Britain shall last. We have all the glory we want; all we need to carry our names down through the sounding ages to eternity; but it is not worth while fighting for an additional day for more glory. Nor do we fight for revenge. I do not even think France wants to fight another day in revenge for the great outrage wrought upon her by Germany some 40 years ago. But, gentlemen, we must look facts in the face. We cannot disregard the great, outstanding, stupendous fact of the injuries done to unoffending small nations. You may forget Belgium but you cannot change its face today. You may talk or argue about it, but all the while her fields lie ruined and will lie ruined for a generation. Her little homesteads are desolated and empty of women and of children, many of whom have been outraged and slain. I have talked to them and know the truth of what I say. And although many of the tales which have been circulated may be untrue, there is no tale of outrage, however horrible, that has not been paralleled in actual fact. Those outrages lie heavily on the towns and cities of that country and on all the hearts of that noble people, and that fact has to be dealt with by any group of men assembled for the purpose of discussing the terms of peace. Reparation is the first thing which must be accomplished before we can even think of peace. How God can remain God to us if we do not believe in justice, I cannot see. The conviction that has been hammered into the souls of the Allies, driven by shot and shell and a million bayonet points into the heart of Great Britain is this, that unless there be victory there can never be security. Shall I argue that with you? Is it necessary to do so? You know right well, that unless the German Kaiser and that crowd and princely, insolent class from Prussia which surrounds him-never was there a class of men more insolent-unless he and his satellites have a change of heart we cannot talk peace with them. Unless we have a sincere conviction, well established and securely founded, that the man no longer cherishes in his heart a hope of world dominion, we cannot discuss the terms of peace. And, further, unless we have some definite and distinct proof that the Kaiser and his fighting men have given up their confidence in militarism as an empire-building power, we cannot talk peace with them. We must have from them some definite evidence, first, that they no longer cherish the pan-German dream of world-empire over-riding all rights of nations. Could we but obtain some definite proof of such change of heart we would be willing to talk peace right away; and oh, how gladly, for we loathe this war, those men on the front line trenches loathe it, loathe it with all their hearts and souls. We are not warriors. We are home-loving citizens who want to get home; but first we are men of honour and men of sense, and honour demands and sense compels us to stay at our posts until our work is done: until victory is achieved, until peace is secure.

The other day there was published in an American magazine an article by a distinguished German scientist who has been appointed by the German Government to the head of the Department created for the purpose of mobilizing all the industries of Germany. You will realize how big a man he must be in order to be able to fill such a post to the satisfaction of the German Emperor. His name is Dr. Walter Rathenau. I am about to quote what he has written, gentlemen, at the same time that the German Kaiser was talking peace and the President of the United States was suggesting terms of peace, and including in those suggestions a peace without victory.

"No lasting peace appears, whatever may be the official views of the Government, to enter into the calculations o f some of the captains of industry in Germany, at least if the views of Dr. Walter Rathenau are typical. As the head of one of the greatest electrical industries in the world, the Allgemeine Electricitats Gesellschaft, popularly known as the "A. E. G." Dr. Rathenau occupies high rank among the commercial magnates of the Fatherland, while his genius for organization is such that, since the war began, the task of mobilizing industry has been committed to his charge by the Government. Under these circumstances, Dr. Rathenau's utterances acquire special significance, and it is somewhat of a shock to find an article from his pen in the Berlin Lokal Anzeiger, in which he discusses the need of industrial preparation for a future war, which he apparently regards as inevitable. He says

"We began the war a year too soon. When we have secured a German peace we must begin at once a reorganization upon a broader and firmer basis than ever before. Establishments that produce raw materials essential to the Army must not only continue their work, but enter into it upon lines of increased energy, forming thus the kernel of economic Germany, in preparing in the economic sense for the next war. We must carefully calculate in advance in view of lessons learned in this war, what our country lacks in raw material or essentials of raw material, and secure immense reserve to remain unused until a day in the future. We must organize as genuine an industrial mobilization as we had a military mobilization. Every technician or semi-technician, enrolled or not in the list of mobilized, must be empowered through official credentials to take charge and direction of a given establishment upon the second day following a new declaration of war. Every establishment manufacturing for commercial purposes must be mobilized, and understand officially that upon the third day after declaration of war its entire abilities are to be devoted to serving the army upon demand.

"It must also be determined in advance just what quantities and sort of essentials such establishment can furnish the army in a given time. Each establishment also should be required to furnish a detailed list of workmen who can be dispensed with, these alone to be mobilized in the military sense."

"While preparations must be made at home, Dr. Rathenau would have the diplomats of the Fatherland busy abroad in order that some of the experiences of this war may be obviated in the future. He writes 'We must finally establish some definite commercial understanding with nations outside Europe that will offer them advantages to be duly specified in detail, whereby these nations, as neutrals, will find it to their direct disadvantage commercially to trade or sell munitions during war to either ourselves or our enemies. We can afford to offer such conditions ourselves. And finally; when the next war comes, it must not be a year too soon.'"

"These frank utterances from one of the leading capitalists of Germany have produced in France a marked re-action against peace, and we find that brilliant French author and academician, Mr. Rene Bazin, using Dr. Rathenau's article as a text for an impassioned appeal to the United States not to insist too strongly on peace proposals at the present time. Mr. Bazin writes

' Here, in a nut-shell, is what allied Europe has long understood, and what has riot been truly understood in the United States save by a relative few.

' It is the reason why the war would be continued for ten years if necessary by France, England and their allies. It is the reason why nothing short of the knockout will serve. It is the reason why any talk or effort for peace would be ill received, even if backed by the best of motives and official sanction from the greatest of neutrals or the smallest, or all the neutrals collectively.

' The war-cloud that hung over Europe for 30 years prior to August, 1914, must be dispersed finally and forever. The intolerable conditions prevailing must be finally made impossible of repetition. The horrors and miseries, the suffering and privation, the whole gamut of evil that no single individual can understand through reading the writing of another, that must be seen, felt, experienced through the senses to be grasped even in the least sense, must never again be a worldly portion.

' This will only be possible through making war against war till a humane peace is the reward. It would be as impossible under a German peace as would a railway journey to Mars.'"

This article indicates that this man who stands for the Kaiser and all Germany today has in his heart a determined conviction that whatever may come to us in the way of peace as the result of this war, it will only be for the purpose of allowing Germany to make a larger and surer preparation for a war in which Germany will be relieved of her present disabilities, and in which she will profit by her present mistakes. It means, gentlemen, according to Dr. Rathenau, that peace today is a most useful thing, not that the anguish of war may be assuaged, but that Germany may prepare more effectively to do what she has failed to do in this war. Peace with him is but postponed war.

And that is why it is impossible for us to accept the suggestions recently made by the President of the United States. I have this feeling about it that the illumination which this war throws upon these great and deep and fundamental and holy principles that lie at the foundation of a stable civilization can only be appreciated by those who have waded through these rivers of blood from life into death. Only those who have borne the iron in their souls have seen clearly or can see clearly just what are these great issues at stake. At least, they see more clearly. You see them, of course, but I tell you it does give me a new passion for simple righteousness and simple honour, since I have seen these men at the front. These things are a new world to me, God is a new world to me, a much more precious world, a more worthy world; because I have seen Him so often by the side of my comrades when they sorely needed Him. These things, these revelations, these illuminations come with the flooding of the sky with the red shells of war.

Let me pursue that a little further. I have read this extract to you and you are with me in knowing that it is no mere fancy of ours that Germany dreams of a second war. What then? If we cannot convince ourselves that Germany's heart has been changed, then the only thing for us to do is to say: If the heart of Germany is still set on war, then we must break the sword in her hand until no matter how much she may dream of war and no matter how firmly her faith may be fixed in the blood-shed of militarism, she will not have the power to give effect to her dream.

And when we see Germany, unchanged in heart though she be, stand before us with the sword broken in her hand, then we will feel safe in talking peace, but not until then.

Now, if we cannot make peace--I would to God we could do so--what are we to do? Just before I ask that question I will take a little time to rub in a point on my last head: Supposing an inconclusive peace is made with Germany still governed by a War Lord--mark that point--and Germany still set on world conquest, what takes place? At once Germany reorganizes her arms and her industries for war, France follows her example and Great Britain does the same--Great Britain has learned her lesson. What about Canada? What will we be doing? Shall we be reaping our wheat fields and attending to our business?

Partly, but every one of us will be engaged in the business of preparing for war. The United States of America has shown us that no people on the earth can keep out of a war on the European continent under such conditions. That means that Canada must stagger under the gigantic burden of building navies and armies for the next century if this is an inconclusive peace. I need not rub that in. No other safeguard can be employed. We cannot get out of the world and if the world is going to be a fighting world, Canadians are going to be in it. Not because they love fighting only, but because they love living, and they are bound to live.

A VOICE: They love liberty.

MAJOR GORDON: They also love liberty. What are we to do? We are resolved that at the present time we cannot talk peace. Nor must we talk war, we must make war. Wherever I go throughout Canada--I have not been very long with you since my return from the front--I find men are determined that war should be made. They are all keen that the war should be pushed to the last ditch, and yet, somehow, Canada is pausing in the business of making war. How do I know that? It is true they have not quit making munitions. It is true that Canada is enthusiastic in regard to the manufacture of the paraphernalia of war; all that is true. But the simple fact is that Canada is not any longer recruiting in large numbers men who are ready to fight. And, gentlemen, without depreciating all those other activities which are so necessary, I want to say that though our mines are being operated to their utmost capacity; though the wheat may be growing on our lands and harvested successfully; though business be flourishing; it is all futile in shortening the length of the war unless we have helping us in the fighting line men who can fight. What, I ask you, is the use of a headless spear? No matter how fine that haft may be, no matter how evenly balanced, what is the use of it if it is not tempered so that we can drive straight into the hearts of our foes. Therefore we must make war. How shall we do so, I do not know. Thank God it is not my business to tell you. That is the duty of all Canadians, Canadians right here, you men in this room. But, gentlemen, remember this, that neither your country nor following history, nor your God above will absolve you from your responsibility if you see it is your duty to make war and you do not do so, and do so with all your might. Every man has to settle this thing finally--with his country, with succeeding history, and above all, with his omnipresent God. If it is right for you to keep your men on the front line, then it is right for you to see that that line is kept strong. I find everywhere a great determination to make the war go; yet somehow, unvocal, men talk about it everywhere, in the streets and the clubs and the railways. Somehow, I do not know why there is no great voice calling, "This is the way boys, come on!" Well do I remember that dreadful night on which my battalion, among other battalions, made that terrific charge to the Regina Trench and came on that unbroken wire. And I remember an officer telling me that as the flares went up he saw his men lined along that wire seeking to find a passage through into the trench beyond, never thinking of coming back--it never occurred to them to come back-and at last a sergeant, a tall Highlander, was seen in the flash of the flare-light waving his hand and shouting, "This way, boys, this way!" and the next time the flare appeared he was not seen, but thank God his last words were, "This way, boys, this way!" Oh, for some Canadian in Canada to stand in some conspicuous place, and wave his hand in this noble Dominion of loyal hearts, and say to all men who desire to fight for liberty and justice, say to them all, "This is the way, boys, this is the way, come!" His name would live forever.

What do we want? Among other things we want united, steady, resolute leadership. Nothing soft, nothing slack, no disunion. All parties must be represented in that leadership all classes, all there are in Canada must find expression and adequate expression in that leadership. It is not my business to tell you how to get that. That is your business. It is your business.

Secondly, this: it is wonderful how they did this in Great Britain. They are a great people. Aye, those old British stocks are wonderful. Look at the way they handled this question of leadership. On the 20th April, Mr. Asquith, leading a Liberal Government, rose in Newcastle-on-Tyne and said something like this: That it had been rumoured that our soldiers were not sufficiently supplied with guns and ammunition. That rumour, he said, was utterly incorrect; The next day began the battle of Ypres and lasted 22 days, demonstrating that we were shamefully and terribly lacking in guns and shells, but, thank God, not in courage to back up our faith. Canadians had no lack, because it was there in the second battle of Ypres that Canadian soldiers won for us and for Canada, down through the ages to eternity, undying glory. Following that, Mr. Asquith called his Government together and asked them for resignations. Every man frankly and without question gave in his resignation and said, "I am willing to serve inside or outside." That is the way for politicians to talk, is it not? Is there any other way for a Canadian politician to talk? I believe our politicians are that kind of men. Mr. Asquith then went to the leader of the Unionist Party and said, "Here is a place for some of your best men," and they got the best men and formed a coalition Government. The Minister of Munitions was appointed and did great work. It came to a time not long ago, after ten months of magnificent achievement when there was still a growing feeling of discontent and anxiety; a loyal suspicion of fear, not fear of themselves or their soldiers, but of the fortunes of war, among the people. I do not suppose many of you know how terribly near we were to being "dished" by the almost omnipotent power of German strategy and German gold with one of our allies. That danger is over, thank God, and I believe it is over forever, and its menace was removed by the resolution and determination and loyalty of the common people, not the bureaucrats, of England. What happened? A little later on, following that, this feeling of insecurity and hesitation became so pronounced that Mr. Asquith once more called his cabinet together. They talked it over. There was a week or two of very deep and painful discussion, and then one of the finest things happened that ever occurred in English political history: Mr. Asquith gave in his resignation; he stepped 'out. He felt that the time had come when he was not desired (an awful hour for any man who has done great things for his country), and he stepped out like a true Englishman and Britisher, and on the very next day extended to Mr. Lloyd George his assurance that he would give him his unqualified support in everything he would try to do. I cannot believe and will not believe that Canadian statesmen have less at heart the interests of their country, or are less capable A such splendid self-sacrifice.

Unity in the following: I believe unity in leadership will secure unity in the following. I believe men are no longer thinking as conservatives or liberals or labour people; they are thinking nationally. No people ever existed who were so tenacious of their rights as the labour people of England, and nothing is finer in the history of this great struggle than the splendid sacrifices made in England by the labour people for the great cause and when that great story is written, side by side with other glorious achievements will be portrayed the sacrifice, the holding of principles in abeyance, the setting aside of all prejudices, the giving up of all hard earnings, winnings won with blood, these all given up and laid on the altar of service to their country. For instance, when Mr. Asquith asked for the mobilization of industry, he had to meet with all sorts of labour regulations. There were talks of strikes here and campaigns, there, but, like the man he was, he went down and discussed things openly with them and told them what he must-have; and to their eternal glory these labour, men said, "If this is the only way, we will take it and be with you."

Then the women came into the work in large numbers, yet still there were not shells enough, and on the 20th December, 1915, Mr. Asquith and Mr. Lloyd George rose in the House and said that unless the speed of the manufacture of munitions could be accelerated, we would see our cause, for which so much blood has been spent, sink into damnation; and so he went to the labour people again and asked them if they would agree to accept the principle of dilution of labour. If there is a labour man present in this room he will realize the magnitude of this request, for he will know how terrible have been the battles in the maintenance of that very principle, that there shall be no dilution of skilled with unskilled labour. But at Mr. Lloyd George's request, the leaders of the labour party said to him, "We will try it," and today there are 400,000, possibly 450,000 women working in co-operation with these skilled workers of labour, and in this way the production of shells has increased in many cases one hundred fold, and in some cases one thousand fold. And so, in places I have visited, where one year ago there was neither stick nor stone, one now sees a town about nine miles long and two or three miles wide sheltering 11,000 people and producing more cordite in one week than all the world produced in one year previous to the war, and this wonderful achievement was only made possible by the labour people loyally accepting the principle of dilution of labour. And do you think now labour men in Canada are going to show themselves less noble or less ready to sacrifice their dearly cherished principles than their fellow Britishers across the seas? I do not believe it! But, gentlemen, you must treat them fairly, then you will see how splendid will be their response.

Somebody said, "Don't talk about Quebec." Why not? Is Quebec part of Canada or not? Has she any right to be in this country or not? Who was here first? Why not talk generously and loyally about Quebec and give them credit for being loyal like ourselves. The men in the front line talk about Quebec and in terms of admiration of those of their citizens they have seen at the Front; and among the deeds of shining glory to be recorded throughout the coming years will be the achievements of the gallant 22nd Battalion of French Canadians, and one of the great things I desire' for the war's sake, for the Empire's sake, more still for Canadians' sakes is that some means be discovered by which Quebec will see her way warmly, enthusiastically and splendidly to come into this war, and do as the other provinces are going to do, their duty. And why not? Why should it not be that Quebec should not do this? "I know, I know," somebody is whispering under his breath, "there's the Church." But while we talk about things in whispers, we will never get any common sense and generosity intermingled with our thinking. Let us talk openly about our church. I would like to tell you something about the priests of that great Roman Catholic Church. I have learned a few things about them and I have also learned that it does not matter very much what kind of a vessel it is--gold, silver, pewter, or clay--that holds the water to the dying soldier's lips, I thank God for the water, and care not for the vessel.

I have too often asked my fellow labourer in the chaplains' ranks-and they are a great bunch of men and have a right to stand beside any officer in the line for courage, endurance and sacrifice-I have asked over and over again my Roman Catholic fellow workers to administer for me the rites to Presbyterians, Methodists and others. They have buried my dead and I have buried theirs. They have administered consolation to my dying, and I to theirs. I shall never forget a moment when one of our dear Canadian boys was soon to cross the Great Divide, and I asked him if he would like me to pray with him-I tell you, gentlemen, those boys believe in. God and in prayer-I said; "Would you like me to pray with you?" And hesaid, "Yes." And then he said, "But I am not of your religion? "I said, "What are you, R.C.? " And upon receiving his reply in the affirmative, I said, "That does not matter," and I looked around the dug-outs there to see if I could find a cross--you know what the cross means to a man of that faith--I wish it meant as much to us--that is the one unkind thing the Reformers did, they took from our hands the free use of the Cross. I looked around, but could not find the Cross. I went out to a bush growing by and cut two bits of sticks and tied them together with a piece of sand-bag twine and held it to the man's face. He was far gone by this time, but as he saw this symbol held before him, his eyes lighted up and he exclaimed, "I see it, I see it!" and then his lips moved and I knew what he wanted and laid the Cross upon his lips, and he kissed it and was at peace. A Roman Catholic and a Presbyterian minister ....

Let no Canadian say that we have not with us in this war to the very last ounce the support of our brethren of the Roman Catholic Church. Race differences! Language difference! Why, down a few miles or so from where we are situated on the Front the most glorious and splendid deeds in this war are being performed every day by the men who speak the same language as our French fellow Canadians. And I believe that the same chivalrous blood, the same heroic soul, is the endowment today of the French men of Canada as of the French men of glorious old France. Listen to no man who tells you that Quebec cannot be swung into line, for it is all the sheerest madness and wickedness, and we cannot finish this war as it ought to be finished unless Quebec is with us heart and soul, and it is the business of any Government to see that Quebec, by some means or by any means-and there are plenty of means-will be brought into a position where she will feel it to be her duty and privilege and honour to fight side by side with the rest of us, for what we are fighting. And it can be done! I have had the honour to speak to some great men in this country; and I have proposed a scheme which we have talked over in the front lines, and the suggestion was made by those who had formerly despaired of this ever being accomplished.

I close with this: First of all, we must fight. Our security, if nothing else, demands that we shall fight until the German sword is broken. In order to fight our best, we must get Canada united, all parties, all classes, all races, all creeds.

Then we must give visibility to this union. It must be done in such a way that all Canada will be able to see it; and when all Canada sees it clearly they will see it across the seas, our fellow labourers of the Empire from Australia will catch this sight of a new united Canada, sending us new and vigorous forces over the horizon with a promise of more to follow; and as they see it away down there in the southern hemisphere, they, too, will swing into line with new forces, new vigour and new determination: and as our foes see it, as they realize that in the hearts of all men who dwell across the seas, there burns an invincible determination to fight this out until the German military heart is broken and destroyed, much will be done to destroy the confidence of the German nation and its allies in that evil thing that has so long cursed the world-, militarism.

A hearty vote of thanks was passed.