It is not wisdom but folly to assume that all the chances are going to favour the enemy. ... It is admitted on all hands that the losses which would accompany voluntary retirement would be very heavy; I admit also that the losses which would accompany an involuntary retirement would be heavier still. But I suggest that, if we succeed in staying on [in Gallipoli], we shall suffer neither the kind of loss, and that in any case it may be worth while to risk the difference between the two, rather than desert, in the sight of East and West, an important strategic position, which has been gloriously captured, is gloriously held, and may perhaps never be dangerously threatened.
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About Arthur Balfour
Arthur Balfour was prime minister of the united kingdom from 1902 to 1905. Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, was a British statesman and Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905. As foreign secretary in the Lloyd George ministry, he issued the Balfour Declaration of 1917 on behalf of the cabinet, which supported a "home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, and later issued the Balfour Declaration of 1926 as Lord of the Privy Council, which announced a co-equal relationship between the United Kingdom and its Dominions, laying the groundwork for the Statute of Westminster 1931 which granted full independence to the former colonies. Read more on Wikipedia →