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Lloyd George's Mansion House Speech -Agadir Crisis-21 July, 1911
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The Times, London, July 22, 1911.
In 1911, Germany sent its gunboat Panther to the port of Agadir as a display of force and a protest
against French influence in Morocco and the Congo. Rather than accept Germany's assertion that
the matter was between Germany and France alone, David Lloyd George, then British Chancellor
of the Exchequer used the occasion of his speech at Mansion House to deliver a stern warning
against further German expansion.
Personally I am a sincere advocate of all means which would lead to the settlement of international
disputes by methods such as those which civilization has so successfully set up for the adjustment
of differences between individuals, and I rejoice in my heart at the prospect of a happy issue to Sir
Edward Grey's negotiations with the United States of America for the settlement of disputes which
may occur in future between ourselves and our kinsmen across the Atlantic by some more merciful,
more rational, and by a more just arbitrament than that of the sword.
But I am also bound to say this -- that I believe it is essential in the highest interests, not merely of
this country, but of the world, that Britain should at all hazards maintain her place and her prestige amongst the Great Powers of the world. Her potent influence has many a time been in the past, and may yet be in the future, invaluable to the cause of human liberty. It has more than once in the past
redeemed Continental nations, who are sometimes too apt to forget that service, from overwhelming
disaster and even from national extinction. I would make great sacrifices to preserve peace. I
conceive that nothing would justify a disturbance of international good will except questions of the
greatest national moment. But if a situation were to be forced upon us in which peace could only be
preserved by the surrender of the great and beneficent position Britain has won by centuries of
heroism and achievement, by allowing Britain to be treated where her interests were vitally affected
as if she were of no account in the Cabinet of nations, then I say emphatically that peace at that price
would be a humiliation in tolerable for a great country like ours to endure. National honour is no
party question. The security of our great international trade is no party question; the peace of the
world is much more likely to be secured if all nations realize fairly what the conditions of peace
must be....
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