, it is equally true that in entering
this war we had no ill-will to gratify nor wrongs of our own to avenge.
["Hear, hear!"] In regard to Germany in particular [groans] our
policy--repeatedly stated in Parliament, resolutely pursued year after
year both in London and in Berlin--our policy has been to remove one by
one the outstanding causes of possible friction and so to establish a
firm basis for cordial relations in the days to come.

We have said from the first--I have said it over and over again, and so
has Sir Edward Grey--we have said from the first that our friendships
with certain powers, with France, [cheers,] with Russia, and with Japan,
were not to be construed as implying cold feelings and still less
hostile purposes against any other power. But at the same time we have
always made it clear, to quote words used by Sir Edward Grey as far back
as November, 1911--I quote his exact words--"One does not make new
friendships worth having by deserting old ones." New friendships by all
means let us have, but not at the expense of the ones we have. That has
been, and I trust will always be, the attitude of those whom the Kaiser
in his now notorious proclamation describes as the treacherous English.
[Laughter and "Oh, oh!"]

Germany's Demand in 1912.

We laid down, and I wish to call not only your attention but the
attention of the whole world to this, when so many false legends are now
being invented and circulated, in the following year--in the year
1912--we laid down in terms carefully approved by the Cabinet, and which
I will textually quote, what our relations with Germany ought in our
view to be. We said, and we communicated this to the German Government,
"Britain declares that she will neither make nor join in any unprovoked
attack upon Germany. Aggression upon Germany is not the subject and
forms no part of any treaty, understanding, or combination to which
Britain is now a party, nor will she become a party to anything that has
such an object." There is nothing ambiguous or equivocal about that.
["Hear, hear!"]

But that was not enough for German statesmanship. They wanted us to go
further. They asked us to pledge ourselves absolutely to neutrality in
the event of Germany being engaged in war, and this, mind you, at a
time when Germany was enormously increasing both her aggressive and
defensive resources, and especially upon the sea. They asked us, to put
it quite plainly, for a free hand, so far as we w