§ I now come back to the general question, and I apologise for taking up so much time on the other matter. There is a general feeling that people want peace. I have talked to business men; I have talked to many soldiers awaiting demobilisation; and the general word, if I can just express it shortly, is, "Hurry up; we want peace." Another request which I have heard from French soldiers whom I met in the devastated areas was, "Give us a good peace." That is the thing that the people of this country are out for. Revenge—they do not understand it; they are out for justice. The world wants to get back quickly to work, and it wants to get to work under better conditions than it had before the War. From all countries, without exception—and I have now seen men of many lands—I heard the echo of that resolve on the part of the worker, fixed deep in their hearts everywhere, and I am proud that Britain has been the first to take action on that line. I should like to say something of the profound impression which is created in every country by the quiet way in which Britain is setting her house in order—by conference, by conciliation, by legislation, and not by warring anarchy and force—and they all say,. "Is not this characteristic of British tradition?" It is having its effect right through the world. There was a great labour orator, I think the greatest on the Continent of Europe, who spoke on Friday at the Labour Con-Conference. He was detailing all the labour conditions that had stirred the working men everywhere, and he said, "There are two methods of dealing with the situation. One is the Russian method, and the other is the English method." I felt a thrill of pride for my country when I heard that. It is essential that the ordinary machinery of commerce and industry should be set going. You cannot do without them. There are men in every trade with their hands on the lever waiting for the announcement. It is essential that the enormous expenditure of war should be cut down ruthlessly, and as soon as possible. That is why peace is necessary, otherwise the fruits of industry will be squandered.
§ One of the most beneficent results of peace, in my judgment, will be that the great continental menace of armaments will be swept away. The country that has kept Europe armed for forty years is to be reduced to an army which is just 2955 adequate to police her cities and her villages, and with her fleet, which was a sort of terror to us—a hidden terror—she will now have just enough to protect her commerce, and no more. We must profit by that. Europe must profit by it, and not Germany alone. I know there is a good deal of talk about the recrudescence of the military power of Germany, and you get paragraphs about what Germany is going to do—she is going to release her fleet, and She is going to have great armies. That is not the danger. The fact is that, with difficulty, can she gather together 80,000 armed men to preserve order. Her guns have been taken away from her—her weapons of offence on the sea, on the land, and in the air.