s of the enemy, with an army and a civil
government to maintain, but with no revenue. We have to see that she
does not suffer [cheers] until the period of restoration comes to her,
and compensation. [Cheers.] Then there is Serbia, with the population of
Ireland--a people of peasants maintaining an army of 500,000 and
fighting her third great war within two years, and fighting that with
great resource, great courage, and bravery. [Cheers.] But she had no
reserve of wealth, and now no exports with which she can purchase
munitions of war outside, and she has hardly any manufactures of her
own. That is the position as far as the smaller States are concerned.

_There are also other States preparing for war, and it is obviously our
interest that they should be well equipped for that task._ They can only
borrow in the French and English markets.

But we had our own special difficulties, and I think I ought to mention
those. Two-thirds of our food supplies are purchased abroad. The
enormous quantities of raw materials for our manufactures and our
industries are largely absorbed in war equipment, and our ships in war
transport. We cannot pay as usual in exports, freights, and services;
our savings for the moment are not what they would be in the case of
peace. We cannot, therefore, pay for our imports in that way. We have to
purchase abroad. We have to increase our purchases abroad for war
purposes. In addition to that we have to create enormous credits to
enable other countries to do the same thing. The balance is, therefore,
heavily against us for the first time. There is no danger, but in a
conference of the kind we had at Paris I could not overlook the fact
that it was necessary for us to exercise great vigilance in regard to
our gold.

These were the complex problems we had to discuss and adjust, and we had
to determine how we could most effectually mobilize the financial
resources of the Allies so as to be of the greatest help to the common
cause. For the moment undoubtedly ours is still the best market in the
world. An alliance in a great war to be effective needs that each
country must bring all its resources, whatever they are, into the common
stock. An alliance for war cannot be conducted on limited liability
principles. If one country in the alliance has more trained and armed
men ready with guns, rifles, and ammunition than another she must bring
them all up against the common enemy, without regard to the fact that