[laughter, and a voice, "Here,"] and without attempting as an outsider
to differentiate or to reconcile competing claims I stand here tonight
on what I believe to be a safe coign of vantage under the hospitality
and the authority of the Lord Mayor of Cardiff.

Though I am not altogether a stranger to Wales, you may nevertheless ask
why I have requested your permission to address this great audience here
tonight. I am not altogether an idle man, and during the last few months
I can honestly say that there has hardly been a day, indeed there have
been very few hours, which have not been preoccupied with grave cares
and responsibility. But throughout them all I have been, and I am,
sustained by a profound and unshakable belief in the righteousness of
our cause [cheers] and by overwhelming evidence that in the pursuit and
the maintenance of that cause the Government have behind them, without
distinction of race, of party, or of class, the whole moral and material
support of the British Empire. [Cheers.] Let me take the opportunity to
acknowledge and to welcome the calm, reasoned, and dignified statement
of our cause which the Christian Churches of the United Kingdom,
through some of their most distinguished leaders and ministers, have
this week presented to the world. [Cheers.]

The United Voice of the Empire.

I will not repeat, and I certainly cannot improve upon it, and indeed I
am not here tonight to argue out propositions which British citizens in
every part of the world today regard as beyond the reach of controversy.
I do not suppose that in the history of mankind there has ever been in
such a vast and diverse community agreement so unanimous in purpose and
so concentrated, a corporate conscience so clear and so convinced,
co-operation so spontaneous, so ardent, and so resolute. [Cheers.] Just
consider what it means, here in this United Kingdom--England, Scotland,
Ireland, and Wales--to hear one plain, harmonious, great united voice
over the seas from our great dominions. [Cheers.] Canada, Australia,
South Africa, New Zealand, our crown colonies, swell the chorus.

In India [cheers]--where whatever we won by the sword we hold and we
retain by the more splendid title of just and disinterested rule by the
authority, not of a despot, but of a trustee [cheers]--the response to
our common appeal has moved all our feelings to their profoundest
depths, and has been such as to shiver and to shatter the vain and
ignorant i