CHAPTER XIII 



NATIONAL TRIBUTES 



On Monday, October zg, 1917, Parliament, with 

 deep gratitude, acknowledged the devoted services 

 of the Navy and Army during three years of un- 

 paralleled warfare. The Prime Minister had the 



portunity, of which he took full advantage, of 

 paying an impressive tribute to the lo\-alty and 

 courage of every class of fighter on laud and sea and 

 in the air and under water, but as Mr. Asquith, 

 who also spoke, declared, the commonplaces of 

 eulogy or sympathy, though expressed with the art 

 of Pericles or Lincoln, would be meagre and inade- 

 quate. 



First and naturally came the Navy, said .Air. 

 Lloyd George, who affirmed that it had been the 

 anchor of the Allied cause, and that if it had lost its 

 hold the 1 of the Alliance would have been shat- 



tered and Prussia would have been the insolent mis- 

 tress of Europe and through Europe of the world. 

 He ed in a sentence or two what a colossal task 



had fallen upon the Navy and how marvellously well 

 that task had been fulfilled. He gave the following 

 figure: men and material transported since the 



L69 



