“HOLD FAST.”
PREMIER’S MESSAGE TO THE BRITISH EMPIRE.
In every theatre, every cinema. every place of public meeting where great Bank Holiday crowds were assembled last night, the following message from the Prime Minister was read, to the accompaniment of enthusiastic cheers:
10, Downing-street. S.W. 1.
The message which I send to the people of the British Empire on the fourth anniversary of their entry into the war is “Hold Fast!” We are in this war for no selfish ends. We are in it to recover freedom for the nations which have been brutally attacked and despoiled, and to prove that no people, however powerful, can surrender itself to the lawless ambitions of militarism without meeting retribution, swift, certain, and disastrous, the hands of the free nations of the world. To stop short of victory for this cause would be to compromise the future of mankind. I say “Hold Fast,” because our prospects of victory have never been so bright as they are to-day. Six months ago the rulers of Germany deliberately rejected the just and reasonable settlement proposed by the Allies. Throwing aside the last mask of moderation, they partitioned Russia, enslaved Roumania, and attempted to seize supreme power by overwhelming the Allies in a final and desperate attack. Thanks to the invincible bravery of all the Allied armies it is now evident to all that this dream of universal conquest, for the sake of which they wantonly prolonged the war, can never be fulfilled. But the battle is not yet won. The great autocracy of Prussia will still endeavour by violence or guile to avoid defeat and so give militarism a new lease of life. We cannot seek to escape the horrors of war for ourselves by laying them up for our children. Having set our hands to the task we must see it through till a just and lasting settlement is achieved. In no other way can we ensure a world set free from war. Hold Fast! D. LLOYD GEORGE. Aug. 4, 1918.
ENTHUSIAST1C SCENES.
Mr. George Roberts, the Minister of Labour, spent a busy hour in visiting theatres and reading the message, and there was a remarkable scene of enthusiasm at the Palace Theatre. Precisely at nine o’clock Mr. Roberts appeared on the stage, and in the presence of a perfectly stilled “house”, broke the seal of the envelope, and proceeded to read. Only once was he interrupted. This was when he read the Prime Minister’s pronouncement that the prospects of victory were never so bright as to-day. Here the audience could not restrain itself and broke into cheers, which wore renewed again and again when Mr. Roberts had finished. When the cheering had subsided the Minister briefly addressed the gathering. Carlyle, he said, once described a hero as one who was sincere. The people of this country and every Allied country regarded Mr. Lloyd George as a sincere man, because he had subordinated party and self to the one great purpose of winning the war. To him nothing else mattered, and they rejoiced in the fact that they had at the helm a man of undoubted courage and great skill, who might be relied upon to guide the destiny of their country until the Hun was compelled to acknowledge defeat and peace in the world was certain. They desired that Great Britain and every Allied nation should enter the solemn compact that they would use every power at their command – military, naval, and economic – in order to subdue the Germans and make it impossible for them ever to threaten the peace of the world again. The Allies would make peace, but only when the Germans were defeated beyond the possibility of military revival. We had in our midst some calling themselves of our race, and claiming citizenship with us, but who had never rendered any assistance to the great and righteous cause for which we were fighting. We would never forget them nor would we ever forget those tens of thousands who had marched down the “valley of the shadow,” suffering in order that we might not suffer here at home. In France he had seen veritable towns of white crosses, beneath each of which lay a precious soul. Thinking of them, he asked his hearers that night to pledge themselves never to forget them. We would ever be reluctant to resume relationship with a race that had proved itself the most bestial ever known in the history of civilisation. Let them pledge themselves to hold fast, so that not one of those heroes would have died in vain. (Cheers.) As soon as the cheering had subsided the audience rose and sang the National Anthem. There were similar scenes at the Empire and Gaiety Theatres, whore Mr. Roberts also read the message; at the Coliseum, where it was presented by Miss Lillan Mccarthy; and at the London Opera House, where the reader was Sir A. W. Yeo, M P. At Brixton Empire the message was afterwards sold for fifteen guineas, the proceeds going to the Mayor of Lambeth’s Comforts’ Fund for the local regiments. Fifteen hundred soldiers, representing the Alliance, heard the message read by Mr. W. D. Young, Entertainments Director of the Young Men’s Christian Association, at the Aldwych Theatre, and cheered it as soldiers can cheer.