MR. HENDERSON'S HOPE

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 101, 28 April 1917, Page 3

MR. HENDERSON'S HOPE

"THE BLOW IN, THE SUMMER." Mr. Arthur Henderson,' M.P. (Labour member of the War Cabinet), speaking at Manchester on 16th February said: "There is a feeling that the next few months are going to test this great nation and its gallant Allies as we have never ' been tested since the first stroke in the war. I share that feeling to the very full. lam not going to prophesy, but I will say this, that never during the whole period of the war-have I felt such confidence as I feel to-day that the Allies have at last got,the measure .of their fighting opponents.... (Cheers.) Aye, and the great leaders of the Allied armies in the-Held- will, be very bitterly disappointed if in the coming summer we do not strike such a blow as will, with other circumstances which we know to exist, lead to the final victory upon which we have set our hearts.". (Cheers.)

The reports from General Haig, he continued, showed that the nibbling process that was in operation was having a much more important bearing upon final success than a vast numper of peoplo at Home imagined. He could think of nothing so destructive of the moral of the German army as that never for a single moment at this time' of the year, under the worst of weather conditions, did our Commander-in-Chief give them a moment's rest. (Cheers.) He was doing it not only with remarkable success but. with comparatively little loss to our own armies. Not only must we keep up the Army, we must keep up to the highest standard ,otfr output, of munitions. Nothing had encouraged him so much as the marvellous success which followed the organisation of the Ministry of Munitions. When the history .of tho war came to be written one of the finest features would.be found to be the part that was played byi the present Prime Minister in the organisation of munition manufacture. (Loud cheers.) We must meet the German ' effort by ; calling on those who were free to undertake work of national importance, in order that th§y ■ might share in the victory that was'coming. The Army needed hundreds of thousands of men, munitions factories needed tens of thousands more men, while at the same time there was the obligation to maintain agriculture, engineering, shipbuilding, 'and other essential industries. '-'...-.

Volunteers must.enrol in numbers far larger than were actually required. It might' be essential later to ask for parttime service, but .not at present. ' Today, they wanted men for full time, workmen who would go to any part of the country to do the jobs for which they were best fitted. If the appeal was riot responded to > satisfactorily then the Government must do its duty to the nation. '■' He was one. of those who gave a pledge that the .; Military Service Act would not be used for the purpose of industrial compulsion, and he had done his best to live up to it. .If his duty.took hirk beyond that pledge. then he was prepared tp do the honourable thing— that was to go to his constituents and to. his Labour friends and to ask to be relieved from the pledge. (Cheers.)