The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-12-30
TnA BIRMINGHAM AGEHERAID MONDAY DECEMBER 8oJ 1918

TI1A BIRMINGHAM AGl And they said to us. If you want to de- feat the submarines, take your troops away from these side-shows. You are wasting your ships. You are running risks. Bring them home.'
 fSuspposing we had done it, Bulgaria would not have gone out. There would have been no one to attack her, and even King Ferdinand would have been brave-Cloud laughter)-if there had been no one to attack him. He was d hero everywhere except on the battle field. Turkey would not have been broken. We should have had to aban- don Mesopotamia, with all the disas- trous effect upon our prestige in the east, and prestige stands for much in government in the east. We should have probably been doing our best to defend Egypt against Turkish attacks, perhaps successfully, perhaps not, and our road to the east must have been cut off if all the troops had been taken away from the side shows. Bulgaria would not have fallen. Turkey would not have fallen. Austria fell when she found that the back door had been shat tered by the allied troops. She was all right as long as she was facing Italy alone with great Alpine mountains be- hind to help herr but when she saw hundreds of miles of a door opened behind her, Austria said, Tt is over If we had dropped the side-shows it would not have been over today. CCheers) Turkesy fell, Bulgaria fell. then Austria fell and Germany said:
 Here, they have all gone it is time we should stop, too Qaughter), and they are marching as hard as they can.
 Loud cheers.)
 GOOD OLD SHIPS OF BRITAIN
 q need not tell you about March Fl. how. when that great crisis came men were hurried across the channel. how a cable was sent to President Will son---I shall never forget that morning when I sent cable to President Will son telling him what the facts were, ana how it was essential that we should get American help at the speediest pos sible rate, inviting him to send 120.- GOO nfantrymen and machine gunneTs per month to Europe, and if he did that we would do our besi to help to carry them. I sent that telegram across 10 Lord Reading. and the following day came telegram from President Wilson: Send your ships across and we will send the 120.000 men. (Cheers.) Then I invited Sir Joseph Maclay, the shipping controller, to 10 Downing SLTctl, anu SAUL oCHu every Sulp tOu can They were alh engaged in es- sential trades, because we were cut down to the bone. There was nothing that was not essential. We said This
 is the time for taking risks. We ran risks with our food. we ran risks with essential raw material. We said, The thing to do is to get these men across at all hazard.' America sent 100000 men across, and out of that number l..
 rrto " ri tSh merchant marine. The good old ships of Britain--( (cheers)-t ships which have saved the liberty of the world many a time kaved it in the days Of Queen Elizabeth, saved it in the days of Louis XIV. saved it in the days of Napoleon, saved it in the days Of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Cloud cheers)
 Tt is a change from December, 1916, change from the days when at the end of the year we made our balance sh eet and found Germany had acquired mere allied territory than she had be fore that new ally had fallen, and that another ally was tottering to her fall, and that Germany was advancing ruthlessly along from conquest to con- quest That was the story up to the end of December, 1916. What Is the story today? Every German submarine is in British port today. Cloud cheers.) The best battleships and cruisers and torpedo boats of Germany are now, with lowered flags, under the surveillance of British seamen in Brit ish harbors; and the British army, which has fought so gallantly tcheers), the British army, which has fought with a heroism which the world has never matched, not in the wars of old, where you had great battle, and another great battle three months afterwards, and in between marches and perhaps seges, but one constant strain upon nerve, upon the strength, upon the endurance, upon the courage, upon the fearlessness of the heart of man-for four years the British army went through it, and to victory Qoud cheers)-that army. after years of fight ing and of suffering. is today, today,
 at this hour. marching across the Rhine into Germany-Ooud cheers)- into one of the most famous cities of Germany. Well, 1t Is great story a great story. (Cheers.) It is due to the valor, to the endurance of our troops and our sailors. All I can say is, you had the same valor in 1914, and in 1915, and in 1916. The men who fought at Ypres, the men who fought at Festubert, and on the Somme were just as dauntless as the men who hurled back the German army in 1918. (Cheers) But valor is in vain if there is disorganization, lack of direc- tion absence of vision, no energy pe- hind the armies. You must give the army chance as we'll as the navy, and that is all I claim for the men who worked with me during 1917 and 1918.
 REACTIONARIES RECORD
 But I am told we are very re- actionary government, and certain names are always quoted as the bogy man of progress They say, Can you expect any good to come out of any government that has MT. So-and- So and Lord So-and-So in it?' Well, By their fruits shall ye know them Slaughter and cheers) We have had three gov ernments during this war--three gov- ernments. I have been a member of the three, In fact, I may tell you one curious fact, am the only min- ister in Europe who has been min ister from the first day of the war to this hour. They have gone in Eng land. Iaughter.) They have gone in France, and in Austria, and in Ger many. They were changing constant ly. do not claim that it is case of the survival of the Attest 0augh- ter); all can say is. that I am the only man who remains in the boat. Slaughter. I have been a member of threA poyernrnau during the war