In his speech in the Guildhall, London, on June 29, 1915, Mr. Asquith said:

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HIS is, I think, the third time since the war began that I have had the privilege of addressing you in this hall. On the first occasion, as far back as September last, I came here to appeal to you to supply men to be trained to fight our battles at the front. Today I have come to ask you here in the City of London for what is equally necessary for the success of our cause-for the ways and means which no community in the Empire is better qualified to provide, to organise, and to replenish.

This is the costliest war that has ever been waged. A hundred years ago our ancestors spent eight hundred millions to vindicate, as we are vindicating today, the freedom of Europe, in a war which lasted the best part of 20 years, which brings out a rough average of considerably less than a million pounds a week. Our total expenditure today approaches for one year a thousand millions, and we are spending now, and are likely to spend for weeks and months to come, something like three million pounds a day. Our daily revenue from

taxation, I suppose, works out less than three-quarters of a million per day.

Those are facts which speak for themselves, and they show the urgent necessity, not only for a loan, but for a national loan-a loan far larger in its scale, far broader in its basis, and far more imperious in its demand upon every class and every section of the community than any in our history.

For the first time in our financial experience no limit has been placed on the amount to be raised; and that means that every citizen in the country is invited to subscribe as much as he can to help us to a complete and speedy victory. I need not dwell on its attractiveness from the mere investor's point of view. Indeed, the only criticism which I have heard in or outside the House of Commons is that it is perhaps a little too generous in its terms. That is a fault, if it be a fault, upon the right side.

For £100 in cash you get £100 in stock, with interest at 4 per cent. on the credit of the British Exchequer. The loan is redeemable in thirty years, when every subscriber, or those who succeed him, must get his money back

in full, and the Government retain an option to repay at the end of ten years. That is the earliest date on which any question of re-investment can arise. Further, the stock or bonds will be accepted at par, with an allowance for accrued interest as the equivalent of cash, for subscription to any loan that the Government may issue in this country throughout the war.

I want especially to emphasise that this is for the first time in our financial history a great democratic loan. The State is appealing to all classes, including those whose resources are most limited, to step in and contribute their share to meet a supreme national need. The Post Office will receive subscriptions for £5, or any multiple of £5, and will sell vouchers for 5s. and upwards which can be gradually accumulated, and by December 1st next turned into stock of the new loan.

Every advantage which is given to the big capitalist is granted also in the same degree to the smallest supporter of the country's credit and finance. And, under such conditions, I am confident that the success of the loan as a financial instrument ought to be, and indeed is now, absolutely secured. (Cheers.)

This meeting was called not only to advertise the advantages of the War Loan, but to initiate a concerted national movement for what may be called war economy. My text is a very simple one. It is this: "Waste on the part either of individuals or of classes, which is always foolish and shortsighted, is, in these times, nothing short of a national danger." According to statisticians, the annual income of this country-I speak of the country and not of the Government-the annual income of this country is from two thousand two hundred and fifty to two thousand four hundred millions, and the annual expenditure of all classes is estimated at something like two thousand millions. It follows that the balance annually saved and invested, either at home or abroad, is normally between three hundred and four hundred millions.

Upon a nation so circumstanced, and with such habits, there has suddenly descended-for we did not anticipate it, nor prepared the way for it-the thundercloud of war-war which, as we now know well, if we add to our own direct expenditure the financing of other countries, will cost us in round figures about a thousand millions in the year. Now how are we, who normally have only three hundred or four hundred millions to spare in a year, to meet this huge and unexpected extraordinary draft upon our resources?

The courses open are four. The first is the sale of investments or property. We have, it is said, invested abroad something like four thousand millions sterling. Can we draw upon that to finance the war? Well, there are two things to be said about any such suggestion. The first is that our power of sale is limited by the power of other countries to buy, and that power, under existing conditions, is strictly limited.

The second thing to be said is this: That, if we were to try, assuming it to be practicable, to pay for the war in this way, we should end it so much poorer. The war must, in any case, impoverish us to some extent, but we should end it so much poorer, because the income we now receive, mainly from goods and services from abroad, would be proportionately, and permanently, reduced. I dismiss that, therefore, as out of the question.

Similar considerations seem to show the impracticability on any considerable scale of a second possible expedient, namely, borrowing abroad. The amount that could be raised in any foreign market at this moment, in comparison with the sum required, is practically infinitesimal, and, if it were possible on any considerable scale, we should again have to face the prospects of ending the war a debtor country, with a huge annual drain on our goods and our services, which would flow abroad in the payment of interest and the redemption of principal. That again, therefore, for all practical purposes, may be brushed aside.

There is a third course-payment out of our gold reserve, but that need only be stated to be discarded. We cannot impair the basis of the great system of credit which has made this City of London the financial centre and capital of the world.

There remains only one course, the one we have come here today to advocate, and to press upon our fellow-countrymen to diminish our expenditure and to increase our savings.

If you save more you can lend the State more, and the nation will be proportionately enabled to pay for the war out of its own pocket. A second proposition, equally simple, and equally true, is this. If you spend less, you either reduce the cost and volume of our imports, or you leave a larger volume of commodities available for export.

The state of the trade balance between ourselves and other countries at this moment affords grounds-I do not say for anxiety, but for serious thought. If you look at the Board of Trade returns for the first five months-that is, to the end of the month of May-of the present year you will find, as compared with the corresponding period of last. year, that our imports have increased by thirty-five and a half millions; while our exports and re-exports have decreased by seventy-three and threequarter millions. What does that mean? It means a total addition in five months of our indebtedness to other countries of nearly a hundred and ten millions, and if that rate were to continue till we reached the end of a completed year, the figure of indebtedness would rise to over two hundred and sixty millions.

That is a serious prospect, and I want to ask you, and those outside, how can that tendency be counteracted? The answer is a very simple one-by reducing all unnecessary expenditure, first, of imported goods — familiar illustrations are tea, tobacco, wine, sugar, petrol; I could easily add to the list-and that would mean that we should have to buy less from abroad; and next, as regards goods which are made at home-you can take as an illustration beer-setting a

larger quantity free for export, which means that we have more to sell abroad, and enable capital and labour here at home to be more usefully and appropriately applied. That may seem a rather dry and technical argument— (laughter)-but it goes to the root of the whole matter.

If you ask me to state the result in a sentence, it is this: All money that is spent in these days on superfluous comforts or luxuries, whether in the shape of goods or in the shape of services, means the diversion of energy which can be better employed in the national interests, either in supplying the needs of our fighting forces in the field or in making commodities for export which will go to reduce our indebtedness abroad.

And, on the other hand, every saving we make by the curtailment and limitation of our productive expenditure increases the resources which can be put by our people at the disposal of the State for the triumphant vindication of

our cause.

I said our cause. That, after all, is the summary and conclusion of the whole matter. We are making here and throughout the Empire a great national and Imperial effort, unique, supreme. The recruiting of soldiers and sailors, the provision of munitions, the organisation of our industries, the practice of economy, the avoidance of waste, the accumulation of adequate war funds, the mobilisation of all our forces, moral, material, personal-all these are contributory and convergent streams which are directed to and concentrated upon one unifying end, one absorbing and governing purpose.

It is not merely with us a question of self-preservation, of safeguarding against hostile design and attack the fabric which has withstood so many storms of our corporate and national life. That in itself would justify all our endeavours. But there is something even larger and worthier at stake in this great testing trial of our people.

There is not a man or a woman among us but he or she is touched even

in the faintest degree with a sense of the higher issues which now hang in the balance, who has not, during this last year, become growingly conscious that, in the order of Providence, we here have been entrusted with the guardianship of interests and ideals which stretch far beyond the shores of these islands, beyond even the confines of our world-spread Empire, which concern the whole future of humanity. (Cheers.)

Is right or is force to dominate mankind? Comfort, prosperity, luxury, a well-fed and securely sheltered existence,

not without the embellishments and concentrations of art and literature, and perhaps some conventional type of religion-all these we can purchase at a price, but at what a price! At the sacrifice of what makes life, national or personal, alone worth living. My Lord Mayor and citizens of London, we are not going to make that sacrifice (loud and prolonged cheers, the audience rising and waving their hats). Rather than make it, we shall fight to the end, to the last farthing of our money, to the last ounce of our strength, to the last drop of our blood. (Loud cheers.)

The Lord Mayor of London, in calling upon Lord Kitchener, said the Empire had indeed been highly fortunate in having him at the head of the War Office in this great national crisis. Earl Kitchener was received with cheers as he said:

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ITHERTO the remarks that I have found it necessary to make on the subject of recruiting have been mainly addressed to the House of Lords; but I have felt that the time had now come when I may with advantage avail myself of the courteous invitation of the Lord Mayor to appear among you, and in this historic Guildhall make another and a larger demand on the resources of British manhood. Enjoying as I do the privilege of a Freeman of this great City(hear, hear!)—I can be sure that words uttered in the heart of London will be spread broadcast throughout the Empire. (Cheers.) Our thoughts naturally turn to the splendid efforts of the Oversea Dominions and India, who, from the earliest days of the war, have ranged themselves side by side with the Mother Country. The prepared armed forces of India were the first to take the field, closely followed by the gallant Canadians (cheers)-who are now fighting alongside their British and French comrades in Flanders, and are there presenting a solid and impenetrable front

against the enemy. In the Dardanelles the Australians and New Zealanders(cheers)-combined with the same elements, have already accomplished a feat of arms of almost unexampled brilliancy, and are pushing the campaign to a successful conclusion. In each of these great Dominions new and large contingents are being prepared, while South Africa, not content with the successful conclusion of the arduous campaign in South-West Africa, is now offering large forces to engage the enemy in the main theatre of war. (Cheers.) Strengthened by the unflinching support of our fellow-citizens across the seas, we seek to develop our own military resources to their utmost limits, and this is the purpose which brings us together today.

Napoleon, when asked what were the three things necessary for a successful war, replied: "Money, money, money." Today we vary that phrase, and say: "Men, material, and money." As regards the supply of money for the war, the Government are negotiating a new loan, the marked success of which is greatly due to the very favorable response made by the City. To meet the need for material, the energetic manner in which the new Ministry of Munitions is coping with the many difficulties which confront the production of our great requirements affords abundant proof that this very important work is being dealt with in a highly satisfactory