A. TRIBUTE TO AMERICA 



By Herbert Henry Asquith 



Formerly Prime: Minister oe Great Britain 



IT IS only right and fitting that this 

 House, the chief representative body 

 of the British Empire, should at the 

 earliest possible opportunity give definite 

 and emphatic expression to the feelings 

 which throughout the length and breadth 

 of the Empire have grown day by day in 

 volume and fervor since the memorable 

 decision of the President and Congress 

 of the United States. 



I doubt whether, even now, the world 

 realizes the full significance of the step 

 America has taken. I do not use lan- 

 guage of flattery or exaggeration when I 

 say it is one of the most disinterested acts 

 in history. For more than ioo years it 

 has been the cardinal principle of Ameri- 

 can policy to keep clear of foreign en- 

 tanglements. A war such as this must 

 necessarily dislocate international com- 

 merce and finance, but on the balance it 

 was doing little appreciable harm to the 

 material fortunes and prosperity of the 

 American people. 



What, then, has enabled the Presi- 

 dent — after waiting with the patience 

 which Pitt described as the first virtue of 

 statesmanship — to carry with him a 

 united nation into the hazards and hor- 

 rors of the greatest war in history? 



Not calculation of material gain, not 

 hope of territorial aggrandizement, not 

 even the pricking of one of those so- 

 called points of honor which in days gone 

 by have driven nations, as they used to 

 drive individuals, to the duelling ground. 



It was the constraining force of con- 

 science and humanity, growing in strength 

 and compulsive authority month by 

 month, with the gradual unfolding of the 

 real character of German aims and meth- 

 ods. It was that force alone which 

 brought home to the great democracy 

 overseas the momentous truth that they 



*An address in the House of Parliament 

 April 17, 1917. 



were standing at the parting of the ways. 

 The American nation had to make one of 

 those great decisions which in the lives of 

 men and nations determine for good or 

 ill their whole future. 



What was it that our kinsmen in Amer- 

 ica realized as the issue in this unexam- 

 pled conflict? The very things which, if 

 we are worthy of our best traditions, we 

 are bound to vindicate — essential condi- 

 tions of free and honorable development 

 of the nations of the world, humanity, 

 respect for law, consideration for the 

 weak and unprotected, chivalry toward 

 mankind, observance of good faith — ■ 

 these things, which we used to regard as 

 commonplaces of international decency, 

 one after another have been flouted, men- 

 aced, trodden under foot, as though they 

 were effete superstitions of a bygone 

 creed. 



America sees in this clear issue some- 

 thing of wider import than the vicissi- 

 tudes of the battlefields, or even of a re- 

 arrangement of the map of Europe on 

 the basis of nationality. 



The whole future of civilized govern- 

 ment and intercourse, in particular the 

 fortunes and faith of democracy, has 

 been brought into peril. In such a situ- 

 ation aloofness is seen to be not only a 

 blunder, but a crime. To stand aside 

 with stopped ears, with folded arms, with 

 averted gaze, when you have the power 

 to intervene, is to become not a mere 

 spectator, but an accomplice. 



There was never in the minds of any 

 of us a fear that the moment the issue 

 became apparent and unmistakable the 

 voice of America would not be heard. 

 She has now dedicated herself without 

 hesitation or reserve, heart and soul and 

 strength, to the greatest of causes, to 

 which, stimulated and fortified by her 

 comradeship, we here renew our fealty 

 and devotion. 



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