The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-09-08
SOME FRESH STORIES
 OF EUROPES GREAT WAR

arly form of MT. BaIfour and Mr Churchill, with bulldog jaw and eyes aglow with the light of battle. On the table lay the mace and sword of the city. Behind it was the lord mayor in his robes, and in front packed mass of stern, resolute men who at once suppressed any tendency to jingo patriotism.
 "In that is to be found the key note of the meeting. It was reused again and again to passionate outbursts of cheering. It sang God Save the King with full-throated volume of sound which showed the strength of feeling pent within.
 "The Guildhall was packed by 11:s0. The column of would-be entrants stretched down King street into Cheapside. While we waited the coming of the speakers the band played first the lively 'Brabanconne,' while all rose to their feet in honor of our gallant ally. Then came a selection of old English songs. some martial some pathetic, some with the swinging lilt characteristic of the English music while our forefathers fought out the big issues of the eighteenth century. and everything turned our thoughts to the long. long struggle which Britain made gainst domination by battle which she is fighting resolutely again today
 Chatham looked across the floor at his son, William Pitt; Nelson at Wellington overh"1d waved the tat names of battles fought -long ago in the Low Countries upon them, and a descendant of the victor of Families was on the platform--he in whose strong hands has been placed the sure shield of the British navy.
 Just before the last stirring out burst of Rule Britannia during which the lord mayor and the speak CTS entered, the band played Home, Sweet Home It moved the great throng as more stirring music could not have done. They sang the refrain softly, with break in their voices. They were thinking of those other homes in France and Belgium. It made an appeal which confirmed many
 Asquith's Indignant Speech
 The white-haired prime minister. locking well for all the burdens which lie upon his shoulders. spoke in words of flaming indignation, which showed how hot is the heart within him. Magnificently did he vindicate our action in entering the struggle. We should, he said, have shown paralysis of our sense of honor to be false to our word and faithless to our friends The b,Vning of Louvain, he declared. amid cheers which rolled deep and long as a thunderclap. was a shame less holocaust of irreplaceable treas ures lit by. blind barbarian vengeance, and he touched his highest point when he described the war as not merely a material but a moral and spiritual con- test.
 Tt was a noble speech, worthy of the audience. place and occasion.
 MT. Bonar law, following the prime minister, struck the right note at once when he acclaimed the latter, until the war is over. as the mouthpiece not of a party but of the nation. The war, he declared, was the worst of crimes, but crime in which we had no share, and he drew loud and long cheers by his clos Ing words-'May the accursed system which the war lord represents perish by the swordv
 Balfour Tongue-Tied by Emotion
 ''Ex-Premier Balfour came next For once his rich eloquenoe failed him. He was tongue-tied by emotion, but in a few