think, will be the only opportunity which will be given for expressing the views of a large section of this House, I feel that I am bound to make it clear to the committee and to the country what is the attitude of his Majesty’s Opposition on this question.  There are two things which I desire to impress upon the committee.  The first is that we have dreaded war and have longed for peace as strongly as any section of this committee; and the second is that in our belief we are in a state of war against our will, and that we, as a nation, have done everything in our power to prevent such a condition of things arising. [Cheers.] When this crisis first arose I confess that I was one of those who had the impulse to hope that even though a European conflagration took place we might be able to stay out.  I had that hope strongly.  But in a short time I became convinced that into this war we should inevitably be drawn and that it really was a question only whether we should enter it honorably or be dragged into it with dishonor. [Cheers.]

Folly and Wickedness.

I remember that on the first occasion after the retirement of my right honorable friend (Mr. Balfour) when I had to speak on foreign affairs I made this statement.  It perhaps is wrong, though I do not think so even yet.  I said that if ever war arose between Great Britain and Germany it would not be due to inevitable causes, for I did not believe in an inevitable war, but it would be due to human folly. [Cheers.] It is due to human folly and to human wickedness [cheers], but neither the folly nor the wickedness is here. [Cheers.] What other course was open to us?  It is quite true, as the Foreign Secretary explained to the House the other day, that we were under no formal obligations to take part in such a struggle.  But every member in this House knows that the entente meant this in the minds of this Government and of every other Government, that if any of the three powers were attacked aggressively the others would be expected to step in and to give their aid. ["Hear, hear!”] The question, therefore, to my mind was this:  Was this war in any way provoked by those who will now be our allies?  No one who has read the “White Paper” can hesitate to answer that question.  I am not going to go into it even as fully as the Prime Minister has done; but I would remind the House of this, that in this “White Paper” is contained a statement made by the German Ambassador, I think at Vienna, that Russia was not in a condition and could not go to war.  And in the same letter are found these words:  “As for Germany, she knew very well what she was about in backing up Austria-Hungary in this matter.”  Now, every one for years has known that the key to peace or war lay in Berlin, and at this crisis no one doubts that Berlin, if it had chosen, could have prevented this terrible conflict. [Cheers.] I am afraid that the miscalculation which was made about Russia was made also about us.  The dispatch which the right honorable gentleman referred to is a dispatch of a nature which I believe would not have been addressed to Great Britain if it had been believed that our hands were free and that we held the position which we had always held before the entente.  That, at least, is my belief.