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- The other day I read a statement by the German poet Schiller- The nation is worth nothing that does not joyfully stake all on its honour. That statement is worth quoting in these days. I wish that the poet would commend it to his own rulers, for they have violated the honour of their nation, and have violated their solemn pledges given to the world many years ago. Now that we are in this fight our attitude should be that of Polonius when he says - Beware Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in, Bear't that the opposer may beware of thee. We must make them beware how they hack their way through solemn treaties, and violate the neutrality of small kingdoms who had every claim to their protection and support ! Sir, I believe that war is not all bad. It is bad enough. On the platform the other night the honorable member for Barrier, in the course of a very eloquent and moving speech, said that he could only see in war all that was bad. There are, however, more things in war than those that are ineradicably andunmistakablybad. When one comes to think that out of many a war in the past has come the great fillip to the freedom of the various peoples of the world one can only hope that some such result may come from this war. There is just a gleam of truth in the words of Hosea Biglow - Not but abstract war is horrid, - Isign to thet with all my heart, - Butcivyzation doos git forrid Sometimes upon a powder-cart. The nation is worth nothing that does not joyfully stake all on its honour. That statement is worth quoting in these days. I wish that the poet would commend it to his own rulers, for they have violated the honour of their nation, and have violated their solemn pledges given to the world many years ago. Now that we are in this fight our attitude should be that of Polonius when he says - Beware Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in, Bear't that the opposer may beware of thee. We must make them beware how they hack their way through solemn treaties, and violate the neutrality of small kingdoms who had every claim to their protection and support ! Sir, I believe that war is not all bad. It is bad enough. On the platform the other night the honorable member for Barrier, in the course of a very eloquent and moving speech, said that he could only see in war all that was bad. There are, however, more things in war than those that are ineradicably andunmistakablybad. When one comes to think that out of many a war in the past has come the great fillip to the freedom of the various peoples of the world one can only hope that some such result may come from this war. There is just a gleam of truth in the words of Hosea Biglow - Not but abstract war is horrid, - Isign to thet with all my heart, - Butcivyzation doos git forrid Sometimes upon a powder-cart. I hope it will be so on this occasion. At any rate, I believe that this war, when it is over, will, among other things, end that mad race of armaments which has beggared - I am not sure that I should not say brutalized - Europe for many years past. The New Age the other day said that Germany's attempt to found an effective navy has cost Western Europe a thousand million pounds. We could not go on very long at that rate. There had to come a stop to it all, to that mad race of armaments which we have seen going on for many years past. So far as we in Australia are concerned, I believe that the sentiment expressed the other day by Harold Begbie is our own, and that we - War for the end of war : Fighting that fighting may cease. Why do our cannons roar? For a thousand years of peace. We cannot hope to get a thousand years of peace, but we can hope for a peace which will last for many years to come when this tremendous war is over.