34$ Extracts from Addresses
of the suffering that was brought about by that war. There were some
things that never appeared in the newspaper at all. Just before I came
away I met one of our boys walking across the quadrangle. He looked
perfectly well. I went up to him and shook hands with him, and he
turned his handsome face to me, and I discovered he was dumb, could
not speak. He took out a piece of paper and he wrote on it, “Shell
shock,” and he wrote down that he had had it for six months. Well, it
is very improbable that he will ever get his voice back again.
Now, gentlemen, I think I have said enough, because my point is this—
that something ought to be done at once! If this infernal thing is not
going to happen all over again, something must be done at once, and not
wait until the public forget this nightmare that has afflicted the world
for four years. What can be done? There is only one thing can be
done, and that is, that we secure for the future that England and America
shall understand each other. There real security lies. You know it, as
well as I, that England and America should police the world in friend-
ship, affection and understanding, and in no other way can you avoid
a horror like that which has already been gone through coming all over
again. It is the only way. There are many details as to how this plan
is to be carried out, and it is too late to go into it, but there is just one
I would like to refer to, more especially in connection with this point
about the great sacrifice that has been made. That is the hope that men
of means, those who have lost friends or children in the war, or those
who are simply men of benevolence, will come forward and endow in
the universities of America and of England, memorial fellowships or
scholarships, which will take the lads across from the West to the East,
and from the East to the West, for one year. That is all that is required.
They will make friendships. They will come back far better educated
than if they had not gone. As time goes on and as you and I pass away
one by one, as surely we must, on such a scheme there is still hope that
England and America will look at the future together, with the eyes of
boyhood, full of daring, full of confidence and full of faith.