"
Persistent pacifist propagandists to-day may well take warning from that
utterance. He still believes it.
The spark that flashed at Agadir now burst into flame. The Great War
broke and half the world saw red. What Lloyd George believed impossible
now became bitter and wrathful reality. Though he did not know it at the
moment, the supreme opportunity of his life lay on the lap of the god of
Battles.
The Lloyd George who sat in council in Downing Street was no dreaming
pacifist. He who had tried to stop the irresistible flood of the Boer
War now rode the full swell of the storm that threatened for the moment
to engulf all Britain.
As Chancellor of the Exchequer he was called upon to shape the fiscal
policies that would be the determining factor in the War of Wars. "The
last L100,000,000 will win," he said. Only one other man in
England--Lord Kitchener--approached him in immense responsibility of
office in the confidence of the people. It was a proud but equally
terrifying moment.
Then indeed the little Welshman became England's Handy Man. As custodian
of the British Pocketbook he had a full-sized job. But that was only
part of the larger demand now made on his service. Popular faith
regarded him as the Nation's First Aid, infallible remedy for every
crisis.
If a compromise with Labor or Capital had to be effected it was Lloyd
George who sat at the head of the table: if an Ally needed counsel or
inspiration it was the Chancellor who sped across the water and laid
down the law at Paris or Petrograd: if the Cause of Empire clamoured for
expression from Government Seat or animated rostrum, he stood forth as
the Herald of Freedom.
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