not less urgently a larger
supply of ex-non-commissioned officers, and the pick of the men with
whom in past days they served, men, therefore, whom in most cases we
shall be asking to give up regular employment and to return to the work
of the State, which they alone are competent to do. The appeal we make
is addressed quite as much to their employers as to the men themselves.
The men ought to be absolutely assured of reinstatement in their
business at the end of the war. [Cheers.] Finally, there are numbers of
commissioned officers now in retirement who are much experienced in the
handling of troops and have served their country in the past. Let them
come forward, too, and show their willingness, if need be, to train
bodies of men for whom at the moment no cadre or unit can be found.

Abundant Ground for Pride and Confidence.

I have little more to say. Of the actual progress of the war I will not
say anything, except that in my judgment in whatever direction we look
there is abundant ground for pride and for confidence. [Cheers.] I say
nothing more, because I think we should all bear in mind that we are at
present watching the fluctuations of fortune only in the early stages of
what is going to be a protracted struggle. We must learn to take long
views, and to cultivate, above all, other faculties--those of patience,
endurance, and steadfastness. Meanwhile, let us go, each of us, to his
or her appropriate place in the great common task. Never had a people
more or richer sources of encouragement and inspiration. Let us realize,
first of all, that we are fighting as a united empire, in a cause worthy
of the highest traditions of our race. Let us keep in mind the patient
and indomitable seamen, who never relax for a moment, night or day,
their stern vigil of the lonely sea. Let us keep in mind our gallant
troops, who today, after a fortnight's continuous fighting under
conditions which would try the metal of the best army that ever took the
field, maintain not only an undefeated but an unbroken front. [Cheers.]
Finally, let us recall the memories of the great men and the great deeds
of the past, commemorated, some of them, in the monuments which we see
around us on these walls, not forgetting the dying message of the
younger Pitt, his last public utterance, made at the table of one of
your predecessors, my Lord Mayor, in this very hall: "England has saved
herself by her exertions, and will, as I trust, save Europe by he