Our enemies can put in the field barely half that number.
Much as I should like to talk about the need for more men, that is not
the point of my special appeal today. We stand more in need of equipment
than we do of men. This is an engineers' war, [cheers,] and it will be
won or lost owing to the efforts or shortcomings of engineers. I have
something to say about that, for it involves sacrifices for all of us.
Unless we are able to equip our armies our predominance in men will
avail us nothing. We need men, but we need arms more than men, and delay
in producing them is full of peril for this country. You may say that I
am saying things that ought to be kept from the enemy. I am not a
believer in giving any information which is useful to him. You may
depend on it he knows, but I do not believe in withholding from our own
public information which they ought to possess, because unless you tell
them you cannot invite their co-operation. The nation that cannot bear
the truth is not fit for war, and may our young men be volunteers, while
the unflinching pride of those they have left behind them in their deed
of sacrifice ought to satisfy the most apprehensive that we are not a
timid race, who cannot face unpleasant facts! The last thing in the
world John Bull wants is to be mollycoddled.
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