The speech: David Lloyd George, 23 November, 1918

WHAT is our task? To make Britain a fit country for heroes to live in. I am not using the word "heroes" in any spirit of boastfulness, but in the spirit of humble recognition of the fact. I cannot think what these men have gone through.

I have been there at the door of the furnace and witnessed it, but that is not being in it, and I saw them march into the furnace. There are millions of men who will come back. Let us make this a land fit for such men to live in. There is no time to lose. I want us to take advantage of this new spirit. Don't let us waste this victory merely in ringing joybells. Let us make victory the motive power to link the old land up in such measure that it will be nearer the sunshine than ever before, and that at any rate it will lift those who have been living in the dark places to a plateau where they will get the rays of the sun. We cannot undertake that without a new parliament ... We have seen places we have never noticed before, and we mean to put these things right.