1906.] Field-Marshal Earl Roberts on Imperial Defence. 279 



WEEKLY EYENING MEETING, 

 Friday, March 28, 190G. 



His Grace the Duke of Northumberland, K.G. D.C.L. F.R.S., 

 President, in the Chair. 



The Right Hon. Field-Marshal Earl Roberts, V.C. 

 K.G. G.C.B. O.M. CI.C.S.I. G.C.I.E. D.C.L. LL.D. 



Imperial Defence. 



I need not dwell upon the assurance that it is a source of the greatest 

 satisfaction to me to be permitted to address this audience, amid 

 surroundings associated with the best intellectual traditions of the 

 country, upon a subject which I believe to be, if rightly understood, 

 the most important and the most urgent which can be placed before 

 the thoughtful consideration of patriotic men. That subject, as you 

 are aware, is a matter which has been recognised at all times in 

 history as the first and most momentous duty to which statesmanship 

 can ever address itself — I mean the subject of National Security ; 

 and, with the length of service that now lies behind me, and in the 

 circumstances under which I have worn the uniform of the Sovereign, 

 you will readily believe that nothing but tlie strictest sense of duty 

 could have induced me to devote to an arduous, and it may be pro- 

 longed, crusade whatever of life and strength under Providence may 

 still remain to me. 



There is a special fitness in our assembling here together, under 

 the roof of the Royal Institution, to recognise at the outset that the 

 proper place of a sound military organisation, in the whole scheme of 

 National Defence is a subject which is no longer regarded as a merely 

 professional or ornamental matter, but is henceforth a serious and 

 necessary part of our national interests as a whole. 



National efficiency depends upon dealing with all these subjects 

 in a proper relation to each other. We must realise that the whole 

 of our national life hangs together, and that the question of real 

 preparation for the stern emergencies of war is one which affects 

 every aspect of the ordinary existence of the country. All scientific 

 progress influences the machinery and the spirit of war, and every 

 great war exercises in its turn a far-reaching effect upon human 

 thought and upon the conditions of commercial enterprise throughout 

 the world. 



We now have a Secretary of State for War who has dwelt during 



