No peace, Mr. Asquith continued, would be worth the name
if it permitted the continuance of a" veiled war." "A clean peace ! That is what the people of this country and all the Allied peoples desire." To attain it, and nothing less, they are prepared to go on with the war. Mr. Asquith pointed out, in a later speech to an over- flow meeting, that the enemy had never yet indicated what they would think to be the conditions of an honourable and lasting peace. The Allies did not want to go on fighting" to the bitter end, without any regard to possible terms of adjustment." But they could not stop the war until the small nations, Belgium, Serbia, and Rumania, had been compensated for the injury they had received and until their independence had been guaranteed and safeguarded. We could not agree to any peace "which does not provide for these small countries to have not only restitution but the power of self .develop. ment and self-extension which is needed for their national life." Mr. Asquith has never spoken more firmly or more clearly. Ri8 fine speech will serve as a tonic for those impatient people who are unduly depressed by passing reverses.
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