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GERMANY AND
ENGLAND
The War That Was Foretold
BY
ROBERT BLATCHFORD
New and, Revised Edition

m

New York
Edward J. Clode
Publisher

COPTBIGHT, 1914, BY
EDWARD J. CLODE

FOEEWOED
I DO not reprint this pamphlet for the
purpose of saying " I told you so," When
I wrote the articles in The Bail'y Mail, I
plainly disclaimed the pose of the prophet.
On page 43 of the pamphlet, as it appeared
four years ago, I said: —
The facts are not my facts. The ideas
are not my ideas. The case is not my
case, I have only repeated and restated
a case which has been stated again and
again during the last five years in all the
Service papers in the kingdom, I have
said in The Daily Mail what has before
been said by naval and military officers,
and by naval and military experts in this
country, in Germany, in America, and in
France, The case, as I have submitted

iv FOEEWOED
it, is the case as it has been stated by
hundreds of men of eminence and special
knowledge. Now that this war has come, I repeat
and stress that statement. In this pam
phlet I told the people nothing new ; I of
fered them nothing on my own authority.
But I told the people. I offered to the
public a statement of a case which had not
hitherto reached them because the public
never read the books, the journals, or the
reviews in which it had previously been
stated by naval and mihtary writers.
All I did was to take the facts and ideas
so often given by naval and military men,
and state them briefly and plainly in the
columns of The Daily Mail. My object
was to make the warnings of the Service
papers known to the entire nation, Li that
object, thanks to The Daily Mail, I suc
ceeded.

FOEEWOED V
If now I were to claim that the prophecy
has been verified, I should have to say
not, " I told you so," but " They told you
so." A reference to this new edition of the
pamphlet will show that I asked four years
ago that Lord Kitchener should be made
War Lord, and that he should be commis
sioned to prepare an army of half a mil
lion men as an expeditionary force for
the defence of Belgium.
When the war cloud burst. Lord Kitch
ener was made Secretary of State for War,
and his first request was for 500,000 men.
But I did not discover Lord Kitchener.
At the time when I wrote the pamphlet the
demand that Lord Kitchener should be
given carte hlam,che in the matter of Army
organisation was an almost national
chorus. Neither is the coincidence of Lord
Kitchener's asking for half a million of
men at all remarkable. That was the num-

vi FOEEWOED
ber of men most military writers thought
necessary for the work.
I need not point out, in the face of re
cent events in Belgium, how great would
have been the effect of the immediate land
ing of 500,000 British troops in Belgium.
The efficiency of the Liege forts and the
gallantry of some thirty thousand Belgian
soldiers have checked the German advance,
have dislocated the German plans, and
gained for the French an invaluable exten
sion of time in which to complete their
mobihsation and arrange their dispositions.
Could we have put half a million troops
behind the defences of Liege and Namur,
the German flank movement would have
been rendered impossible.
To-day we are at war. Mistakes have
been made in the past; it is useless to re
call them. We are at war, and shall be
well advised to take example by Lord
Kitchener, and make the best of the means

FOEEWOED vii
at our disposal. Do not let us bicker about
what might have been, let us show a solid
front to that which is to come.
EOBEET BLATCHFOED,
London,
August SO, 1914.

GERMANY AND ENGLAND

I
THE MENACE
From The Daily Mail, December 13th, 1909,
I WRITE these articles because I believe
that Germany is deliberately preparing to
destroy the British Empire ; and because I
know that we are not able or ready to de
fend ourselves against a sudden and formi
dable attack,
I write from a sense of duty, and from a
conviction that the destruction of the Brit
ish Empire would be a misfortune for
Europe and a blow to civilisation through
out the world.
I take this course against my own inter
ests and against the feeling of most of my
political and many of my private friends.
I write in The Daily Mail in the hope of

4 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
arousing the public from the fatal apathy
and complacent optiinism which blind them
to the greatest peril the nation has ever
been called upon to face.
At the present moment the whole coun
try is in a ferment about the Budget, and
the Peers, and the Election, It seems
sheer criminal lunacy to waste time and
strength in chasing such political bubbles
when the existence of the Empire is
threatened by so brave and powerful and
indefatigable a nation as Germany,
The public do not realise the gravity of
the German menace.
Serious warnings have been uttered pub
licly by Mr. Asquith, by Mr. Balfour, by
Sir Edward Grey, by Lord Lansdowne, by
Lord Cromer, and by Lord Eoberts. But
these warnings have not been sufficiently
gross or sufficiently explicit to be under-
standed of the people. They have been
forgotten in the national excitement about

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 5
the Steinheil case, the football matches,
and the terrific struggle as to whether the
dukes shall pay a halfpenny tax or foist it
/ upon their neighbours.
The Empire is in danger, but the people
do not believe it. They have been taught
to regard the German menace as a wild
scare of invasion, and they believe the
Navy can protect them while they make
their money or take their ease.
But the danger of invasion is not the
greatest or the only danger; and the
strongest Navy in the world could not save
us from disaster should the lowering
war clouds break before we are pre
pared. Invasion is not the greatest danger; is
not the nearest danger; there is a greater
danger, and a nearer, from which the Navy
alone, howsoever powerful and gallant,
could not deliver us.
But what motive can the Germans have

6 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
for attacking us? And how can they at
tack us except upon the sea?
Let us consider these two questions.
What motive can the Germans have for
attacking us?
What motive had they for attacking
Denmark in 1864? What motive had they
for attacking Austria in 1866? What mo
tive for attacking France in 1870?
Germany is preparing to attack us be
cause we stand in the way of her ambi
tions. The ambition of the Pan-Germans, who
are the war party, who are the masters of
Germany, is no new thing iu world-history;
it is a very old thing, as old as it is evil.
For the Pan-Germanic ambition is the am
bition for empire; the ambition to domi
nate and exploit the world. It is the old,
old lust for power and glory, the old, old
greed for trade and wealth.
World-domination, conquest! That was

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 7
the dream of Babylon, of Persia, of Greece,
of EonTe, of Spain, and France, and Eus-
sia. It is the dream of Germany to-day.
What motive can Germany have for at
tacking Britain? Nearly every German
could tell us, if he would. Every public
man in America, France, Italy, and Eus-
sia could answer the question. We have
been told over and over again by speak
ers and writers in Germany why Germany
should and will attack us.
A motive? What has caused most of the
great wars recorded in history? Ambition
and greed; the lust for glory and wealth
and power.
Why should Germany attack Britain?
The population of Germany is rapidly
increasing. Germany needs Colonies;
Britain has taken all the Colonies worth
having, Britain holds India, Australia,
Canada, New Zealand, Egypt, and the
most desirable parts of Africa,

8 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
Germany is hungry for trade and for in
fluence in distant seas; Britain holds for
tresses and coaling stations all over the
earth; Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, Cape
Town, the West Indies, and many
others. If we glance at a map we find the North
Sea exit threatened by Dover and the
Mediterranean entrance threatened by
Gibraltar. Germany sorely needs more ports; a
greater seaboard. Belgium and Holland
would be to her invaluable. How many
wars has Eussia waged in her efforts
to gain access to the sea?
Germany and Britain are keen commer
cial rivals. How many wars have been
caused by commercial jealousy? A year
ago the Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung,
boasting of the growth of German trade,
concluded with the following significant
words : —

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 9
Germany is gaining more and more
ground, and hems in the other countries
in an increasing degree. And the natural
result of commercial competition is po
litical (mtagonism.
The National Defence Magazine for Oc
tober last quotes from an article which ap
peared in the Standard as far back as July,
1907. The following passage is worth re
peating here : —
" German policy," writes Eegierungs-
rat Martin, " does not now aim at in
corporating the Baltic provinces of Eus
sia and Eussian Poland in the German
Empire, nor . does it aim at bringing
about a closer relation between Ger
many and Austria-Hungary. German
policy does not aim at establishing a
German protectorate over European and
Asiatic Turkey, nor at the addition of
Holland and Belgium to the Federal Ger
man Empire. Nevertheless, all these
changes will take place in our own time,

10 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
within the next twenty or thirty years,
and no one in Germany will be able to
arrest the inevitable trend of events.
Germany will adiieve her destiny with
out consciously pursuing these aims."
England, having realised that Germany
will be driven by the course of events
to expand m this direction and to this
extent, and perceiving the extraordinary
progress which the Germans are already
making towards a world-supremacy in
commerce and politics, has adopted the
deliberate policy of hampering German
expansion at every possible point. Ger
many, declares the author, will not wait
till she is attacked or until the anti-Ger
man coalition is in a better position to
dictate terms to her. She wiU strike out
at the first sign that her interests and
her national honour are nqenaced.
Germany will " strike out " at the first
sign of danger. She regards world-domi
nation as her " destiny," and is ready to
" strike out " for it. She has an Army

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 11
of four million men and a Fleet second
only to ours, and she will " strike out "
with these. And Britain is regarded by
her as the last barrier to the realisation of
her destiny.
Why should Germany attack Britain?
Because Germany and Britain are com
mercial and political rivals; because Ger
many covets the trade, the Colonies, the
infiuence, and the Empire which Britain
now possesses; because Germany, having
defeated France and made friends with
Austria, and having no fear of Eus
sia for some years to come, feels
that Britain is her only dangerous oppo
nent. Finally, and this I would say with em
phasis, Germany wUl attack Britain be
cause she knows herself to be strong, and
because she believes that Britain, her rich
and influential rival, has grown fat and im
potent and would fall an easy victim to a

12 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
well-planned, resolute, and powerful at
tack. The policy of Germany is the Bismarck-
iau; policy of deliberate and ruthless con
quest, with world-dominion for its goal.
The traditional policy of Britain is the ex
pansion of the Empire and the main
tenance of the balance of power in
Europe. It is not for the general good that any
single Power should dominate Europe. It
would not be well that Britain, or France,
or Italy, or Eussia should dominate Eu
rope. It would not be well that Germany
should dominate Europe. It is desirable
that Britain and France and Germany and
Italy and Holland should be free and
strong and independent. It is desirable
that those nations should preserve their in
tegrity and should remain free to realise
the genius of their peoples.
But in the pursuit of a quite unlawful

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 13
ambition the Pan-Germans menace the
honour and the liberty of the British, and
the French, and the Danes, and the Dutch,
All Europe is to be Teutonised, We are
all to be drilled and schooled and uni
formed and taxed by Pi-ussian officials, and
the Emperor William II, is to rule us with
a rod of iron.
That is the Pan-Germanic dream. That
is the ambition which is driving Germany
into a war of aggression against this coun
try. But the British people do not believe it.
The British people take Httle interest in
foreign affairs, and less in military mat
ters. The British people do not want to
bother, they do not want to pay, they do
not want to fight, and they regard as
cranks or nuisances all who try to warn
them of their danger.
The danger is very great and is very
near. It is greater and nearer than it was

14 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
when I began to give warning of it, more
than five years ago.
The public will not believe it ; let us look
at the evidence.

n
EVIDENCES OF GEEMAN
HOSTILITY
The Daily Mail, December 14th, 1909.
Bismabck's famous declaration that the
destinies of Germany were to be worked
out not by votes and speeches, but by blood
and iron, is the soul of the Pan-German
policy. Let those who credit Germany
with a lamb-hke nature ponder that grim
phrase, and weigh it in conjunction with
the following historic facts :
In 1862 Bismarck became Prime Minis
ter of Prussia. He immediately forced
through the Eeichstag an Army reorgani
sation scheme, Moltke and Von Eoon re
organised the Army, In 1864 Prussia at
tacked Denmark, and annexed Schleswig-

16 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
Holstein, This gave Kiel to Prussia, In
1866 Prussia attacked and defeated Aus
tria, crushing the Austrians in six weeks
and annexing Hanover, Hesse, and Nassau.
La 1870 Bismarck altered the Ems tele
gram, and Prussia fought and defeated the
French, and annexed Alsace and Lorraine.
The French paid also an indemnity of 200
millions. The result of this war was- the
formation of the German Empire and the
foundation of the largest and most scien
tific Army in Europe. Such was the policy
of blood and iron.
Is there any reason to suppose that the
nation which attacked Denmark, Austria,
and France would hesitate to attack us if
their interests dictated the step and they
felt sure of victory?
Is Germany under William II, mor^e
lamb-like than Prussia under Bismarck?
There was the Kruger telegram. Was
that or was it not a hostile act against

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 17
Britain? And there was the significant
speech of the Emperor just afterwards, in
which he said, " the Trident must be in
our fist,"
Then came the fierce outbreak of Anglo
phobia during the Boer War, and again
the Emperor voiced the general feeling
by saying:— We are in bitter need of a strong Ger
man Navy, . , , If the increased de
mand during the first years of my reign
had not been continually refused to me
, , . how differently should we be able
to further our flourishing commerce and
our interests over-sea.
Then came the German Navy Bill, which
laid the foundation of Germany's naval
power. The preamble to that Bill was
fairly suggestive, but said less than the
Kaiser had said in a telegram to his
brother: " I will never rest until I have

18 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
raised the Geraaan Navy to the position
which the German Army holds to-day."
The premier position. The position which
would reduce Great Britain to the rank
of a third-class Power.
But the Emperor's speeches were mild
and pacific in comparison with the speeches
of German statesmen, generals, admirals,
and professors. Here is an extract from
an article by the great German historian.
Professor Treitsche: —
If our Empire has the courage to fol
low an independent Colonial pohcy with
determination, a collision of our inter
ests and those of England is unavoid
able. It was natural and logical that
the new Great pQwer of Central Europe
had to settle affairs with all Great Pow
ers. We have settled our accounts with
Austria-Hungary, with France, and with
Eussia. The last settlement, the settle
ment with England, will probably be the
lengthiest amd most difficult.

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 19
A year after the Boer War began Von
der Goltz wrote in the Deutsche Rundschau:
The material foundations of our pow
ers are broad enough to warrant the
thought of successful opposition to Brit
ish supremacy. Germany must meet
this war if it comes — and must lose no
time in making her preparations.
In how many novels, speeches, articles,
and pamphlets have German soldiers and
civilians declared the national hope and
purpose of destroying British naval su
premacy and breaking up the British Em
pire? Their name is legion.
The national enthusiasm for Count Zep
pelin arises mainly from the hope that
German war balloons may be able to de
stroy the British fleets and leave this
country open to an irresistible German in
vasion in force. No sooner does a German
succeed in flying a hundred miles in any

20 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
airship than the artists and writers of the
Fatherland are busy with tales and pic
tures of German air fleets raining down
destruction upon British squadrons.
Is Germany as pacific and dove-like as
British Liberals and Labourists believe?
What of the humihation of France during
the Morocco trouble, when Germany
threatened to invade France unless M.
Delcasse were compelled to resign office?
What of the German humihation of Eus
sia during the recent squabble in the Bal
kans ? It is the pohcy of blood and iron, or,
to use a more modern phrase, the policy
of the "Mailed Fist."
The German Navy League was founded
upon the passing of the German Navy Act.
Of this organisation the Qum-terly Review
says : —
The German " Flottenverein " or
Navy League boasts a million paying

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 21
members and is the largest and most
spirited patriotic organisation of its
kind that has ever existed in any coun
try. It draws its adherents from all
parts of the Empire, It is strong in the
South German cities like Munich and in
the northern seaports. It is filled with
Pan-Germanic feehng, and it is, of
course, saturated with anti-British sen
timent. The open aim of this organisa
tion is the eventual achievement of naval
supremacy. The achievement of that
aim would mean, of course, the destruc
tion of the British Empire.
In " Our German Cousins," a Daily Mail
publication, I read: —
It was a close imitation of the British
Navy League, but with this difference,
that it enjoyed from the first the patron
age of all the German royalties. Prince
Henry of Prussia became its patron, and
the leaders of the German nobility en
rolled themselves in its ranks. It grew

22 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
in strength with marvellous rapidity,
till to-day it numbers over a million
members, till the circulation of its jour
nal Die Flotte reaches nearly half a mil
lion, till its publications and maps are
seen throughout Germany, in barbers'
shops, in hotels, in railway stations. It
maintains armies of lecturers; it gives
oinematographio shows everywhere.
While the British Navy League has a
revenue of only about £3,500, the Ger
man Navy League has a revenue exceed
ing £50,000. For more than ten years it
has carried out an educational campaign
throughout Germany in favour of an all-
powerful Fleet, until to-day its work is
practically done.
One million members; imperial and
aristocratic support of an organisa
tion which is Pan-Germanic and anti-
British. Who has forgotten the Emperor's action
after the Japanese war with China, when

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 23
France and Eussia and Germany handed
Port Arthur over to Eussia? And what
of the httle attempt of our German cousins
to raise a coalition of Germany, France,
and Eussia against us ?
And that toast drunk every night in
every German warship, " To the Day," a
friendly and pacific toast to the day when
the German Fleet shall defeat the British
Fleet in the North Sea; how do the peace
party relish that toast?
Three years ago the British made pro
posals for a restriction of naval arma
ments. That was- at the time of the Hague
Conference, Germany declined to consider
such proposals.
And when the British made more or less
tentative suggestions to the same effect to
Germany, the offer was rejected with con
tempt. Still the Liberal Government were loath
to accept the situation. They would not

24 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
believe in the alleged magnitude and celer
ity of the German naval increase; they held
back the construction of British Dread
noughts; and they found that Germany
had secretly rushed her naval preparations
in the hope of stealing a march on us.
So much for the historic evidence of
German hostility. Let us take next the
evidence of our own action.
In the preamble to the German Navy Act
stress was laid upon the fact that our
fleets must in peace and war be scattered
over the world, while the German Fleet
could be concentrated in the North Sea.
Very well : we brought home ships from
the Mediterranean and from the China
station, and we gradually concentrated
most of our naval strength in home waters.
The strategic base of our Navy to-day is
the North Sea. When I began to write on
the German menace five years ago we had
no fleet in the North Sea. Couple together

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 25
the German statement that our Fleet must
be scattered and the fact that the German
Fleet is always in the North Sea and the
fact that our naval power is now based on
the North Sea, and read the lesson. What
do these things mean?
Five years ago our officials said that
there was no need for the naval base at
Eosyth. To-day that base is being con
structed in some haste. Why?
The King and his counsellors have
strained every nerve to establish ententes
with Eussia and with Italy; and have
formed an entente with France and an al
liance with Japan, Why? To isolate Ger
many: the country with whom we are on
such cordial terms: the country whose in
tentions towards us are so brotherly and
pacific. As I have said. Lord Eoberts, Mr, As
quith, Mr, Balfour, and Sir Edward Grey
have made speeches in which they have

26 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
warned us of some impending danger.
What is that danger? We are in no dan
ger of attack by Eussia, by France, by
Italy, by America. By whom, then, are we
so seriously menaced if not by Germany?
To some of us there is' sufficient cause
for anxiety as to German intentions in the
facts within our own knowledge.
The Ministers and ex-Ministers of the
King must in the nature of things possess
knowledge which we lack; and they are
anxious, and warn the country of impend
ing dangers. •
Very well: let us now consider the evi
dence of facts.

ni
THE EVIDENCE OF FACTS
The Daily Mail, December 15th, 1909.
The strongest evidence of Germany's
designs against Britain is the German
Navy, There can be no stronger evidence
of any nation's intention to make war than
that afforded by wholesale, feverish, and
systematic preparations for war.
Now the German preparations are naval
preparations. Against whom can these
preparations be directed if they are not di
rected against us? Manifestly they are
not meant for Eussia, nor for France, nor
for America. The magnitude of the prepa
rations points to a prospective struggle
with a fleet more powerful than that of
Eussia or France, The construction of

28 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
the German ships prohibits their use in
distant seas, against Japan, for instance,
or the United States, And whereas we
have been told in a hundred books and
newspapers and pamphlets and speeches
that the German Navy is meant to wrest
from Britain her command of the sea, it
would be difficult to find a single German
suggestion that the German Navy is meant
to try conclusions with any power other
than Britain. Germany can reach France
or Eussia by land. Her Fleet is already
more than a match for Eussia and France
combined. Her Fleet is built for the North Sea, it
is exercised in the North Sea, it remains in
the North Sea.
Her ships are built against our ships,
the object of the German builders being
always to go one better than the British
in each type.
In any discussion of the speed or power

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 29
of her ships, and in any discussion of the
merits of her guns, or the quality of her
officers and men, Germany invariably
makes her comparison with the guns and
ships and men of the British Navy.
I do not believe there is a single naval
or military officer in England or on the
Continent who does not know this and un
derstand it.
Consider the magnitude of the German
naval preparations. When her programme
is completed Germany will have a fleet of
at least thirty, and probably fifty, battle
ships of the Dreadnought and super-
Dreadnought class. ,
But German energy has not confined it
self to the construction of a number of
ships as laid down in the various Naval
Acts. Every effort has been made to in
crease the capacity for rapid construction
of ships and gtms. Two years ago we could
outbuild and outgun Germany with ease.

30 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
But to-day it is doubtful whether we can
build as rapidly or arm as rapidly as she.
During the last two years (I quote The
Daily Mail) Germany has launched nine
battleships of the Dreadnought and super-
Dreadnought class.
And, I think, no one will be foohsh
enough to suppose that all this effort has
been made for the protection of German
commerce, or for use against the Navy of
either Eussia or France, No; it is aimed
at the naval supremacy of Britain, and at
nothing else in the world.
But the Germans have not confined them
selves, as we have, to the building and
arming of battleships. They have forti
fied Heligoland, and are working night and
day at a harbour there. They are widen
ing the Kiel Canal. They are construct
ing or have constructed seventeen docks
capable of holding ships of the largest
class.

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 31
Mines, again, have been made in vast
quantities, and will be largely used
in any naval war which Germany may
wage. All these preparations, it must be re
membered, are made in the North Sea and
its tributaries. It is in the North Sea that
the German Navy means to fight. Against
whom? Not the Chinese, nor the South
American Eepublics, nor the Danes. No;
obviously against the nation which is so
wisely sure of German friendship, so sanely
convinced of the criminal folly of the
Jingoes w'ho take a perverse delight in
fomenting mischievous and ridiculous war
" scares,"
And then there is Emden, with its ' ' long
quays," At Emden, which is a small, ob
scure town, every preparation has been
made for the embarkation of enormous
masses of troops. Against whom could
such troops be used? Not against Eus-

32 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
sia ; not against France, which could be so
much more easily and effectually assailed
by land. No; the long quays were made
for the embarkation of an army for the
invasion of England. If the long quays
were made for any other purpose they
were made by fools. Now, the Germans
are not fools.
This is not all the evidence; but it will
serve. The German method has always
been to prepare secretly and thoroughly
for war, -jvhile professing peace. Germany
is now preparing for war upon a greater
scale than she ever before attempted, and
is at the same time professing peace to us.
Germany behaved in the same way to Aus
tria and to France, and when occasion
served she fell upon her victims, defeated
them, and annexed their territory.
Germany has on more than one occa
sion given way to furious and bitter mani
festations of hatred against Britain. The

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 33
acts and speeches of the Emperor, of his
Ministers, and of his officers have been
hostile and unfriendly to us on many oo-
casions. The German Press is, and long''
has been, sporadically unfriendly to Brit
ain. Germany has during the past eight
years made naval preparations on an un
precedented scale, and in three years ' time
will have an enormous and powerful fleet
in the North Sea, and behind the fleet
everything needed in the way of construc
tion and armament, and docking and re
pairing. Germany has ships, quays, equip
ment and men ready for an invasion of an
enemy's country. The German nation is a
nation of soldiers, all organised, all
equipped, all capable of rapid mobilisation.
Germany is the commercial and political
rival of Britain. Britain alone stands in
the way of Germany's realisation of her
dream of world-power and domination.
Germany has threatened us and warned us

34 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
over and over and over again through a
thousand tongues and pens.
It has been said that all these threats
and warnings come from irresponsible
Chauvinists. But it is a significant fact
that all the utterances of these Chauvinists
have been borne out by the acts of the
rulers and leaders of the German people.
The German Government may be doves and
lambs; but they have made, and continue
to make, strenuous and gigantic prepara
tions for war with Great Britain.
It is easy, perhaps, to find a plausible
answer to any one piece of evidence. But
the cumulative evidence is overwhelming.
It admits of no other conclusion than the
conclusion drawn by all capable critics and
judges in every country of the globe.
Quite evident to the dimmest eyes, and
reiterated over and over by German poli
ticians and military men, is the German
motive for hostility to Britain,

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 35
Very significant is the historic evidence
of Germany's past action against Den
mark, Austria, and France,
Very significant are the anxiety of our
soldiers and statesmen and the prepara
tions, naval and military, which our Gov
ernment has made against a prospective
attack which no nation other than Ger
many is capable of attempting.
Very significant are the thousands of
abusive or threatening utterances from the
Pan-Germanic party.
Most significant are the magnitude and
eagerness of the German naval prepara
tions. Weighing the evidence calmly and dis
passionately, I feel it my duty to declare
my conviction that the British Empire is
to-day confronted by the most tremendous
danger that has ever threatened its exist
ence. And I must confess, with sorrowful mis-

36 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
giving, that the nation is blind to its peril,
and is proving itself impotent to meet that
danger as it must be met if the Empire is
not to go down in complete and irretriev
able disaster.

rv
CONCILIATION OE COMPEOMISE?
The Daily Mail, December 16th, 1909.
The Pan-Germanic policy is based upon
Bismarck's theory: " The destiny of Ger
many must be worked out in blood and.
iron," It is a blood and iron policy, and
all hopes of overcoming it by a policy of
milk and water are doomed to failure.
Take, as an example, the fate of the in
nocent proposal for the limitation of arm
aments. Any limitation of armaments must em
body the principle of Britain's naval su
premacy. But it is exactly that which the
Pan-Germans resent and defy.
It does not require a very great effort
of the imagination to enable us to see that

38 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
proposal with German eyes. Were I a
German, I should say, " These islanders
are cool customers. They have fenced in
all the best parts of the globe, they have
bought or captured fortresses and ports in
five continents, they have gained the lead
in commerce, they have a virtual monopoly
of the carrying trade of the world, they
hold command of the seas, and now they
propose that we shall all be brothers, and
that nobody shall fight or steal any more."
That is how a German must see the posi
tion. But the Germans see and believe
much more than that. They believe that
Britain has grown fat, and stupid, and
cowardly. They see that Germany has a
population 50 per cent, larger than Britain,
and very much better educated, better
trained, and better organised. They see
that our Army is small and unready and
they know that theirs is excellent in qual
ity, overwhelming in numbers, and in readi-

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 39
ness and organisation without a peer.
They are sure that they can crush us on
land; they believe they can beat us in
trade; they hope that they can outbuild
and outspend us, and so become our mas
ters on the sea.
And their rulers hold the theory that the
destiny of Germany must be worked out in
blood and iron.
To these strong, resolute, and stem men
of blood and iron come the suave and mod
est British ambassadors of compromise and
conciliation, "My dear brothers," says
one ambassador, " may I suggest a cessa
tion of this ruinous rivalry in battleships?
Would you mind curtailing your naval pro
gramme so that I may retain command of
the seas without incurring more expense
than my constituents will approve. I am
really very sorry ; but the command of the
sea is essential to our national existence.
Our people absolutely decline to become

40 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
soldiers, and unless we are allowed to boss
the sea we shall become an easy prey for
an enemy. So, if you don't mind, we will
arrange with you for a limitation of arma
ments, which will save us money and pre
vent you from using your superior military
strength against us."
Now, is not that a pretty dish to set be
fore a Kaiser? Eeally, the men of blood
and iron did not laugh so loudly as one
might have expected.
In fact, they did not laugh at all. They
just shrugged their shoulders and went on
building harder than ever. It is one of the
funniest political episodes I can remem
ber; and the funniest thing about it was the
British Government's innocent and pained
surprise. " Ha," said the men of blood and iron,
' * I smell funk ! They are beginning to feel
the pinch. Hurry up with those super-
Dreadnoughts! " And it was so.

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 41
Then the Labour delegates went over to
Germany and slapped their German com
rades on the back, and cried, " Hoch, hoch,
hoch! " And Mr, Keir Hardie actually be
lieved that the fraternising of British and
German Socialists in Germany would so
dehght the Emperor that he would, to use
Mr, Hardie 's own words, perform the re
markable feat of " killing the war spirit
before it was born."
Well, the British and German comrades
" hoched," and our boys came home. And
when I was in Germany a few weeks ago
I stood in Essen and looked at the chimney
forest of Krupp-town, and reflected that
the German blood and iron works had re
cently taken on twenty-eight thousand new
hands, and that, in spite of our Labour
members, Germany was now able to arm
thirteen super-Dreadnoughts in a year. It
really looks as though the Socialists had
not conciliated the Kaiser for nuts. Even

42 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
the resolution of the Labour Party seems
to have failed ; perhaps because ' ' the des
tiny of Germany is to be worked out not by
speeches and majorities, but by blood and
iron." Then there is the expedient of building
Germany in with a series of alhances, A
really statesmanlike idea, were it not that
Germany's obstinate resolution to break
out makes it very unpleasant for the allies
who are within reach of the giant's arms.
And there is the Sociahst theory of joint
action by British and German. Socialists
for the prevention of war. The idea is to
stop the supply of coal and stores by means
of strikes. It is one of those harmless
games with which some Labour statesmen
amuse themselves on dull days. The main
result of it would be to hamper our Fleet.
The Germans would settle their strike in
swift and summary fashion — ^by the argu
ments of " blood and iron."

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 43
Building to a two-Power standard
means, when Germany is in full swing,
the arming of twenty-six super-Dread
noughts in a year. This, as the Frenchman
said when the band-box fell on his hat for
the third time, " becomes amusing."
But we are told by many well-meaning
countrymen of ours that all this scare
about Germany is absurd, because of the
evident friendhness of the German people
and the British people for each other.
" The British do not want war: the Ger
mans do not want war," say these amiable
persons. How true — ^how true! But it
does not account for thirty-nine battleships
a year. Now, I shall suggest that all these at
tempts at conciliation and compromise are
based upon a misconception of the policy
and government of Germany,
I believe the German people (although
they have a milhon members in their Navy

44 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
League) are not unfriendly to us. JBut the
German people have no control over the
German policy. They cannot prevent the
increase of German naval power, even if
they would — ^which is doubtful. They can
not prevent a war when once their rulers
have decided upon war. They do not know
the game their rulers are playing. They
would be plunged into war before they
were aware of the danger, and once in
their own soldiers would suppress any at
tempt at interference, supposing any at
tempt were made.
The Bismarck theory of blood and iron
has the great merit of being simple and
concise. The German theory of warfare
fits it as a bludgeon fits the hand of a foot
pad, " Full steam ahead! " is the motto
for the German Navy, " Forward! " is
the motto for the Army, Go straight for
the enemy and smash him. Never mind
the cost. We have plenty of men. We

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 45
can afford heavy losses. But we must
win. This theory demands loyalty, courage,
and discipline from officers and men.
The German Army and Navy possess
them. The theory of blood and iron is simple.
You single out one of your neighbours at
a time. You cajole him with friendly
treatment while you prepare to make an
irresistible and unexpected attack upon
him. When you are quite ready, and when
he is off his guard, you knock him down,
jump on his chest, and accept his watch
and purse as compensation. Thus is your
destiny fulfilled.
Now, a gentleman working on those lines
is not to be fobbed off with fine speeches.
He will not restrain his mailed fist because
his victim is weak. Weakness is the op
portunity he looks for.
No. If we do not want war with Ger-

46 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
many we must be strong enough to cause
Germany to want peace.
Though Germany is a brave, resolute,
and mighty enemy, she is not omnipotent,
nor is she invulnerable. But she means
business — blood and iron business — and all
conciliation, subterfuge, and compromise
provoke her to contempt and scorn,
Germany puts her destinies into the
hands of warriors; we leave ours in the
hands of politicians, Germany acts; we
talk. Words count for nothing in the game
of blood and iron.
Arm or surrender ; fight for the Empire
or lose it. We can choose our alternative;
no middle course is open to us.

V
WANTED: A MAN
The Daily Mail, December 17th, 1909.
Thbbb is danger ahead. Mr. Asquith has
told us so. Lord Eoberts has told us so. Sir
Edward Grey has told us so. And we are
not ready to meet that danger. And we
are not making ready to meet that danger.
And the great majority of our people are
oblivious of that danger or refuse to
recognise its existence.
A few years ago Lord Wolseley said : —
We are never ready for war, and yet
we never have a Cabinet that dare tell
the people this truth.
That is a grave statement of a grave
danger. Let us consider what that state
ment implies.

48 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
It implies that we have had many Cabi
nets who were conscious of our unreadiness
for war and were afraid to tell the people
what they knew.
The statement is Lord Wolseley 's, not
mine. It is a grave statement gravely
made by a distinguished general of long
and wide experience.
Is the statement true? It was proven
true in the days of the Crimean War, and
again in the days of the Boer War. It is
true to-day.
It is true to-day for there is danger
ahead, as several Cabinet Ministers of
both parties have declared, and we are not
ready for war, as all our military authori
ties well know.
Noble lords and honourable gentlemen
are afraid. Lord Wolseley says so. The
facts say so. History says so. The de
bates prove it, the Budget proves it, the
Army and the Navy know it. Noble lords

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 49
and honourable gentlemen are afraid of
the electorate, and will repeat again and
again a breach of trust rather than face
their betrayed countrymen with the ugly
truth. Should a great war come suddenly upon
us, noble lords and honourable gentlemen
would have worse things to face than the
hostile votes of a crowd too stingy to pay
and too selfish to fight. The days of dis
aster would be bad days for Cabinet Min
isters, Now I am going to say, in the teeth
of the anti-miUtarist and anti-patriotic
masses, what I believe noble lords and
honourable gentlemen know and have not
the pluck to declare,
I am going to say that unless the British
people are ready to fight and pay and work
as they have not fought and paid and
striven for a hundred years — if ever— -the
Empire will assuredly go to 'pi,eces and

50 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
leave us beggared and disgraced under the
conquest of a braver, better trained, and
better organised nation.
Against the Germans our Ministers have
to work under serious disadvantages.
Here the Army, the Navy, and the Cabi
net are separate institutions, and the naval
and mihtary policy changes with each
change of Government. Here the Cabinet
fears to demand supplies, fears to demand
service, fears to disclose facts. The Serv
ices are starved and disorganised for fear
of an electorate who like their glory cheap
and their security cheap, and whose igno
rance of foreign affairs and of all matters
military and naval causes them to swallow
with avidity the clap-trap of amiable doc
trinaires who preach peace in the face of
armed nations marching to battle'.
' The people are conceited, self-indulgent,
decadent, and greedy. They want to keep
the Empire without sacrifice or service.

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 51
They will shout for the Empire, but they
will not pay for the Empire or fight for it.
Germany knows this. The world knows it.
The Cabinet Ministers know it. But no
Minister dares to say it. We are in sore
need of a mam,.
In Germany the men are all trained and
disciplined soldiers or sailors. In Ger
many the work of the Army and Navy or
ganisation, control, and direction is not
tossed from Cabinet to Cabinet at the
whim of an uninformed body of civilian
electors: it is continuous. It goes on
steadily day after day, year after year.
To it is devoted the best work of the best
brains 'in a military nation.
What chance have we against such thor
oughness, experience, and diligence as
that? It is related of Von Eoon, the Prussian
War Minister, that when war was declared
with France he went home to take a few

52 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
days' rest. His work was done. The
Army was ready. The War Minister had
nothing to worry about. Imagine the Brit
ish Minister of War's condition of mind
if war were declared against us by Ger
many to-day!
The French were defeated by the Ger-
mans because they were not ready; the
Spaniards were defeated by the Ameri
cans because they wer^ not ready; the
Eussians were defeated by the Japanese
because they were not ready. We are not
ready: Germany is ready. We are never
ready: Germany is always ready.
The Liberal Government made a fatal
blunder when they hesitated to lay down
the four extra Dreadnoughts. They were
trying to economise. They were hoping
for a cheap way out of the difficulty. They
were waiting for something to turn up.
The Germans knew this, and made a tre
mendous effort to get ahead of us. It is

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 53
not safe to trust the tradition of Micaw-
ber against the tradition of blood and
iron. Had the British Government, instead of
trying to save a few milhons, asked the na
tion boldly for the full amount required,
and set about the necessary work in ear
nest, the Pan-Germans might have had an
unpleasant time with the German tax
payer. It is time our Government and our peo
ple recognised the facts. Germany has
challenged us. If we show weakness we
are lost. We cannot bluff our enemy. We
cannot evade him. We cannot buy safety
for an old song. We can only hold our own
against so powerful and resolute an an
tagonist by showing an equal power and
resolution. In the crisis to which I have just re
ferred we took the weak course when we
ought to have taken the strong one. Econ-.

54 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
omy at such a time is the most profligate
extravagance. When the Government held the four
Dreadnoughts back they should have been
pushing a dozen Dreadnoughts forward;
when they tried to save a few millions they
should have laid out fifty milhons. Instead
of reducing the artUlery and pottering
about with a handful of Territorials they
should have demanded an Army.
But the Cabinet were afraid. We want
a man.

VI
AEMAGEDDON: THE GEEATEE
DANGEE
The Daily Mail, December 18th, 1909.
Mb. Balfour once declared that the prob
lem of Imperial defence was the problem
of the defence of Afghanistan. But times
have changed since then, and I shall pro
pose an amendment to the following ef
fect : —
The problem of British defence, is the
defence of France.
There it is : the greater danger, the nearer
danger than the danger of a German in
vasion of England, is the danger of a Ger
man invasion of France.
A German writer, quoted by me in a

56 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
previous article, says that directly Ger
many feels herself menaced she wiU strike,
and France will be her victim. He con
tinues thus: —
Unhappy France! The British Navy
may destroy the German Fleet and ruin
German foreign trade. But nothing on
earth can prevent the German Army
from over-running France from Paris to
Lyons and from the Enghsh Channel to
the Mediterranean. The French are la
bouring under a dangerous delusion if
they suppose that Germany would be
satisfied with an indemnity at the termi
nation of such a war. Germany would
take permanent possession of the north
ern provinces of the French Eepublic,
thereby gaining access to the sea at
Calais and Boulogne, while Belgium and
Luxembourg would be annexed to com
plete the triumph of the Teutons.
Now, what do the Blue Water school say
to that? Supposing France attacked and

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 57
conquered by Germany, how would our
Fleet prevent the annexation of Calais and
Cherbourg? And what could our Fleet do
to prevent the German conquest of France?
As for Belgium and Holland, there
would be no need for Germany to annex
them. With Calais in German hands, the
Netherlands would be quietly absorbed.
Then Germany would have Calais at one
end of the Channel and Cherbourg at the
other. Also she would have Amsterdam
and Eotterdam and Antwerp, which Na
poleon said was like a pistol pointed at the
heart of England, Also she would have
the Dutch Navy and the Dutch craftsman
ship. Then France would be a crippled
Power, and Britain would be imable to keep
pace with the German output of battle
ships and sailors.
That is why I say that the problem of
British defence is the problem of the de
fence of France.

58 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
Whether or not we form an offensive
and defensive alliance with France, the re
sult is the same: the defeat of France is
the defeat of Britain, The downfall of
France is the downfall of the British Em
pire. The aggrandisement of Germany is
the humihation of Europe,
Now, let us ask ourselves whether the
defeat of France by Germany is possible.
The Germans feel sure of it. The French,
apparently, believe it; for it is not long
since France was challenged by Germany
and dechned the combat.
The French have a grand Army : numer
ous, gallant, hardy, and well trained. But
the impression in mihtary circles seems
to be that France lacks the German perfec
tion of organisation and readiness.
Perhaps the presence of a great general,
a Moltke or a Napoleon, on either side
would make the difference. But that may
not be known until the war begins. If

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 59
Germany has the great commander,
France is lost; if France has the great
commander, Germany may suffer a disas
trous repulse. But so far as we may judge,
the chances are in Germany's favour.
Now, should France prove unequal to
the task of repelling a German invasion,
the Blue Water school would be helpless.
Our Navy could do nothing.
No, To make France secure, and in do
ing that to make ourselves secure, we
should need a first-class British Army of
at least half a million men — a million would
be better. With a British force of half a
miUion men in Belgium and Holland, with
the French, British, and Dutch Fleets
united, Eussia, France's ally, might attack
Germany on the eastern frontier. Then if
Austria and Italy came in we should have
Armageddon. Now, the Blue Water school
have left Armageddon out of their calcula
tions.

60 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
The Germans are a brave, stubborn, well-
disciplined people, very obedient to their
rulers. But it is doubtful whether they
would allow themselves to be driven into a
war so desperate and so unprovoked. A
wanton invasion of France without the
pretext of a quarrel would not, one may
suppose, be popular in Germany, even un
der present conditions, but a universal Eu
ropean conflict, provoked by the ambition
of the Pan-Germanic Party, would be cal
culated to exhaust the patience of the Ger
man people.
But we have not an Army of half a mil
lion to send; and a two-Power standard
Fleet could not help France nor defend the
Dutch and Belgium.
That is what I call the greater and
nearer danger: the danger of a French
defeat by Germany. While such a
defeat is possible, the Germans have
no need to risk an invasion of Britain.

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 61
They can defeat Britain without fighting
her. . The old theory of splendid isolation can
be no longer held by Britain. An Empire
like ours cannot stand aloof from the
struggles of Europe. The balance of power
means more to us to-day than it ever
meant. A German Empire embracing Ger
many, Holland, Belgium, Austria, and per
haps Turkey, and having ports and for
tresses at Calais, Cherbourg, Trieste, Ant
werp, and Amsterdam, would wipe us out :
would defeat and conquer us without firing
a shot. Our Fleet would go; our trade
would go, our Colonies would go; India
would go. We should sink into the posi
tion of what one of our Cabinet Ministers
calls " the conscript appanage of . a
stronger Power."
I am treating this problem from the
point of view of self-interest alone. I
need only hint in passing that there is a

62 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
nobler and more human aspect of the case.
The downfall of France would be a calam
ity for civihsation. France is and long
has been the leader in literature and art,
in most of the beauties and graces of civil
ised life. It would be an evil day for the
world should Prance be Germanised or
Anglicised or Eussianised, We owe
France much, we admire her much, we
respect and love her much: our hope is
that she may remain France: France
happy and free and gallant and proud:
France great in art, in arms, in science,
and in letters.
But then, again, to keep the position
clear, I must say that we would not see
Eussia or Germany injured or humiliated.
Let each people keep its honour and its
freedom, realise its own genius, fulfil its
own destiny. Keep, to that end, the balance
of power. Arm and unite against any at
tempt on the part of any one Power to

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 63
impose one-race Csesarism or Bismarckian
domination upon the rest of Europe. In
the past we had to resist France : we had
to resist Spain. Side by side with Ger
many we fought against Bonaparte at
Waterloo. To-day we have to stand by
France or fall when she falls. We cannot
escape our fate. We must uphold France
or partake of her humiliation and share
her ruin.
That is why the Blue Water school is
wrong; that is why the strongest Navy will
not serve our turn ; that is why the nearer
and the greater danger for us is not the
invasion of Britain but the invasion of
France; that is why the problem of the
defence of Britain is the problem of the
defence of France.
That is why we must have an Army as
well as a Navy,
That, I believe, is what lay heavy at the
heart of Lord Eoberts and the Cabinet

64 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
Ministers when they spoke darkly of im
pending danger.
That is what the British people do not
understand and ought to understand while
there is time to avert the threatened doom.

vn
THE TASK
The Daily Mail, December 20th, 1909.
In my preceding articles I have tried to
show : —
1. That Germany aims at European
domination. 2. That to aliain her ends she must
break the power of Britain.
3, That aU attempts at conciliation
and compromise are foredoomed to fail
ure; nothing will deter Germany but a
demonstration of power,
4. That if France falls we shall be
unable to hold our own.
5. That France is not generally re
garded as a match for Germany.
6. That we are not in a position to
help France.

66 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
7, That unless the British people
make greater sacrifices than they are at
present prepared to make we shall lose
our Empire and our independence,
8. That our Cabinet Ministers of both
parties know this and are afraid to tell
the people the truth.
Now, what are the sacrifices demanded
of us by the situation? What is it that
our Ministers want and fear to ask
for? Money and service.
Let us first consider the Task, and then
the means for its performance.
At present the British people think of
the German menace as nothing more than
a distant possibility of invasion. That is
why they are hot on the Navy and cold to
the Army, That is why the Blue Water
theory holds the field, Eetain the /Com
mand of the seas and we are safe is the
first and only article of the public faith.

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 67
Maintain the two-Power standard and we
have nothing to fear, says one Minister,
But we have a greater task than that.
We have to maintain the balance of power
in Europe, On the day when we fail to
maintain the balance of power in Europe
our fall begins. Every British statesman
of any worth during the past three cen
turies has recognised that as true. Every
British statesman of the first rank to-day
knows that it is true.
Now the command of the seas will not
enable us to maintain the balance of power :
a two-Power standard Fleet will not en
able us to maintain the balance of
power. Therefore the Blue Water theory is
wrong, and Lord Eoberts is right.
We must have an Army.
We must have an Army and an invincible
Navy. We must have both.
This will entail heavy expenditure and

68 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
great personal sacrifice. Those who put
their trust in a big Navy or in foreign alli
ances overlook one vital factor in the prob
lem. The maintenance of the balance of
power in Europe is more difficult because
the military situation has changed.
In the Peninsular and Crimean days our
Army was strong enough to turn tiie scale.
But now the Continental nations have all
adopted universal military service, and our
Army is too small to serve any useful pur
pose. Hence Britain has fallen in the military
scale. On land she is not even a second-
rate Power. Therefore she has lost influ
ence in the Councils of Europe.
That is one great reason why we cannot
depend upon alhances. We have nothing
to offer our allies but our Navy, which can
not help them.
If we had an Army of two millions of
trained men of the best class, and capable

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 69
of rapid mobilisation, the balance of power
would be safe, and the German dream of
invasion would vanish into thin air.
The needs, the immediate needs of the
Empire in face of a great and growing
danger are, first, a large vote for naval pur
poses : we want docks and naval bases for
the North Sea, and we want a large in
crease in the number of submarines and
destroyers; secondly, a highly efficient,
perfectly equipped and well-officered Army
of a milhon men.
If I were a Cabinet, or an ex-Cabinet,
Minister, I should go into the impending
election with never a word to throw at the
Budget or the Peers, and with never a
thought about Protection or Free Trade.
I should go to the country with a plain
warning of a great impending danger, and
with an equally plain appeal for the public
sacrifices which I believe to be absolutely
necessary for the safety of the Empire

70 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
and for the preservation of our trade, our
honour, and our independence.
I shoufd go out and face the anger and
the ridicule of an ill-informed and self-in
dulgent people with the foUowing pro
gramme : —
1. An immediate vote of fifty millions
for the Navy.
2, The immediate passing of a Com
pulsory Service Bill: to come into im
mediate operation,
3, A Bill for the elementary military
training of all schoolboys over the age
of ten,
4. The immediate establishment of a
General Staff for the Army and the
Navy. 5. A large increase in the vote for
secret service and naval intelligence.
6, An official appeal to all employers
of labour to employ British subjects in
preference to foreigners.

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 71
The country is in danger and we want
the men : we want them now.
Volunteering is no use; we shaU have
to ami and train the manhood of the
nation, or other nations whose manhood
is armed and trained wUl wipe us
out. Do I think the country would accept such
a proposal? No. It is only a few months
since Mr, Haldane asked for a few hundred
thousands of Territorial volunteers, and
failed to get them. It is only a few years
since a British Cabinet Minister refused
a request for a comparatively small sum
for a General Staff because we could not
" afford " it. He knew that it was a
vital necessity, but we could not afford it.
We who had to afford three hundred mil
hons for the South African War.
No. The public will not hsten. They
do not want to pay, they do not want to
drill, they do not want to fight.

72 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
But they want to keep the Empire, and
they want to keep their hberty, and they
want to keep their trade. And they will
have to be taught that they will lose their
Empire, their liberty and their trade, and
wUl suffer famine, disaster, financial ruin,
and personal humihation first, and have to
submit to conscription and taxation after
wards unless they prove themselves worthy
of the advantages and the liberties which
their forefathers won for them by their
valour and their unselfishness.
If the British people refuse to defend
themselves they will become vassals; and
they will have proved that they are un
worthy to be anything better.
This is not a party question ; it is an Im
perial question: it is also a European
question. It is an urgent question, too. The posi
tion is too precarious now to admit of long
delay or discussion. Let every commercial

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 73
man in the Empire understand that un
readiness for war means bankruptcy and
panic and such suffering and distress as
this favoured people have never known.
Let every workman imderstand that his
bhnd and obstinate refusal to serve his
country wUl inevitably drive him into a
hateful form of mihtarism under foreign
officers. If I did not feel this very strongly I
would not say it. I am no longer young.
I have had more than my share of thank
less labour in unpopular causes. I would
like to live a quiet hf e. I am reluctant to
offend and oppose my own party and my
own friends. But I have never shrunk
from a duty because it was unpleasant
Or unprofitable, and I wUl not begin
now. The Empire is in danger. It cannot be
saved by talk : it can only be saved by sacri
fice and work. We shall need aU our cour-

74 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
age; we shall need all our money; we shall
need all our strength.
This warning is not written by a politi
cian; it does not come from a Socialist, nor
from a Liberal, nor from a Tory ; it comes
from an EngMshman.

vni
THE COST
The Daily Mail, December 21st, 1909,
But the cost! Yes, the cost would be
heavy. But consider the stake. The stake
is honour, liberty, and the Empire. Be
the cost what it may, the stake is worth it.
Besides, as to the cost there are three
things to be said: the stake is worth the
price ; we can well afford the price ; and if
we refuse to pay the price of safety we
shall have to pay the tenfold heavier price
of defeat,
Eichard Cobden, who has never been ac
cused of Jingoism, said in a speech at
Eochdale in 1861: —
I would vote a hundred million pounds
rather than allow the French Navy to be

76 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
increased to a level with ours, because I
should say that any attempt of that sort,
without any legitimate grounds, would
argue some sinister designs upon this
country.
A hundred million pounds — on the Navy
— Eichard Cobden! And our Government
is afraid of the price of a Dreadnought or
the cost of a General Staff.
Now, if there exists a danger of war, and
a danger of Imperial disaster, I think no
Enghshman would deny that, let the price
of safety be a thousand or two thousand
mUlions, it would be wise to pay it.
But the cost of a two-Power standard
Navy and an Army equal to that of France
would not be nearly so terrible as might at
first sight seem probable.
It would not be equal to the cost of the
South African War, and we paid that, and
paid it without serious inconvenience.
Three hundred miUion pounds ! If we can

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 77
pay three hundred million pounds for a
war, how much can we pay for peace?
It is cheaper to prevent a war than to
wage one, even if we win. But if we lose !
And, again, it must be said that if
France and Germany can afford to pay for
universal military training we can. We
are richer than Germany, and Germany is
already doing all that we need do for
safety. Germany can put four mUhon sol
diers into the field, fully armed and
equipped. And the British Empire cannot
afford the money for a General Staff !
The fact is that in our present dangerous
situation we cannot afford to consider the
cost. We cannot afford to be economical.
We have to pay some of our money to
save our all : we have to make a temporary
sacrifice of some of our hberty to avoid
slavery. The trouble is that the nation does not
recognise its danger. If Germany declared

78 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
war against us, or if Eussia attacked India,
we should not hesitate for a moment over
the cost. We should understand that let
the cost be what it would, it must be borne.
Once at war we should give our serAdces
and our millions freely; but then it would
be too late.
Yet, if we could only see things as they
are to-day, we should understand that the
war has already begun. We are at war
with Germany now. For years the British
and the Germans have been at war : it is a
bloodless war, but it is war for aU that. It
is confined to the buUding of ships and
harbours and the finding of money for
material and men; but it is war. Again,
the integrity of France is essential to our
safety, and to-day France has a German
pistol pointed at her breast. What is all
this but a state of war; or how far is it re
moved from war?
The cost of peace may be high; but

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 79
peace is worth it many times told. Let us
think of the cost of defeat and ruin.
Some of us who are no longer young can
remember the effect of the cotton famine
in Lancashire. Thousands of workers
were starving, MUls and shops were
closed. Provisions were very dear. The
distress in the north of England was ter
rible. And that was all caused by a tem
porary stoppage of the supply of raw
material and a decrease in the supply of
food. But imagine the effect of a disaster to
the Navy; imagine the effect of a German
annexation of the ports of France and Hol
land, Credit would be shaken to its foun
dations. Banks would break, food would
rise to famine prices, commerce and indus
try would be paralysed. And then as our
power waned we should be starved and
crushed into an abject surrender. We
should lose India and our Colonies, We

80 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
should lose our Fleet. We should lose
our trade. We should have to pay ten
times as much as security would have cost
us, and after unimaginable suffering we
should become " the conscript appanage "
of the men of blood and iron, and should
be compelled to serve as German soldiers
under German commanders.
To say we will not serve and wUl not pay
is folly: we must serve and we must pay.
If we do not serve our own country we shall
have to serve a foreign country; if we do
not pay for safety we shall have to pay
for defeat. The price of peace is less than
the price of war: the price of security is
incomparably smaller than the cost of dis
aster and disgrace.
The choice the fates have thrust upon
us is not the choice as to whether we will
or will not build British ships and serve as
British soldiers: it is the choice as to
whether we wiU buUd British ships or pay

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 81
for the ships being built in Germany : it is
the choice as to whether we will serve as
defenders of our own country or as con
scripts under alien control. The battle
ships and the soldiers we must pay for —
ours or Germany's.
Australia, I rejoice to see, has adopted
universal service, and is preparing the
nucleus of a fleet. If Australia can afford
it surely Britain can. We are an Empire;
if only we would make good use of our
advantages we are a powerful and wealthy
Empire. For in estimating our military
and naval force we must reckon on the
loyalty of our Colonies. Australia, South
Africa, and Canada, once trained and or
ganised, would be a valuable military asset.
And the Colonies are high-spirited and
loyal; free from much of the poverty and
degeneration of our overcrowded indus
trial centres.
We must remember also that we are'

82 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
already paying thirty-four million pounds
for an Army which is quite inadequate to
our needs. We must not forget that we
have many sources of wealth unused and
untouched within the bounds of our Em
pire, and many workers now producing
nothing who, if organised, would produce
much wealth.
How should we JSnd the money?
Where did we find three hundred mil
hons for the Boer War? We should get it
from those who have it; and there are
many who have much. But if it meant
hard pinching, if it meant self-denial, if it
meant a period of poverty and hardship,
we must find the money still. Whatsoever
the price our safety costs us it wUl be
trifling in comparison with the price we
must pay for disaster.
If the situation is as dangerous as I be
lieve it to be (and I think the evidence is
irresistible), then the people have no

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 83
choice but the choice between security and
ruin. The money price we could meet without
serious hardship ; the price of service seems
to me a trifle. When I was a young man
I served seven years in the Army and three
years in the Volimteers. That is very
much longer than the service required
from young Englishmen to make the Em
pire safe, I served that time and enjoyed
it. Having served that time, I cannot un
derstand the dread and dislike which most
Englishmen feel towards military service.
Such a training would do them much more
good than harm.
No. The service is nothing to trouble i
any young man. And for the money, we
must find it, and we can find it, as we have
had to find it on previous occasions.
The chief danger is the nation's igno
rance that any danger exists. To the great
majority of the British people these warn-

84 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
ings wUl sound like wUd exaggeration.
But they are simply the plain and frank
expression of opinions held by thousands
of the sanest and best-informed men in the
Army, the Navy, and the House of Com
mons. The pubhc dread of mUitarism; the
pubhc reluctance to pay the inevitable cost
of safety; and the public complacency and
ignorance of danger are the source of the
Pan-Germans' strongest hope. If the Brit
ish people can be kept in their present
state of innocence untU Germany is quite
ready, the Pan-Germanic destiny will be
worked out in blood and iron without risk
of failure.
Blood and iron : that is what we have to
face. Our fathers and our grandfathers
faced them often; faced them cheerfully,
with fortitude and success. And I believe
the men of Britain are as good to-day as
in the past, and that they will be equal

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 85
to any demand the Empire may make upon
them — ^if only they understand in time.
If only we can get the British people to
understand in time.

IX
SOLDIEEING OE SLAVEEY AN
ALTEENATIVE
The Daily Mail, December 22nd, 1909,
Lycuegus told the Greeks that " the best
walls a city can have are walls of brave
men trained to arms, ' ' All the Continental
nations have put the idea into practice.
But Britain, because of her insular posi
tion, has neglected to foUow suit.
Now, Britain is no longer an island in
the military sense. Britain can be attacked
by land — ^in France.
But the British people, who never study
foreign politics, and are indifferent to ex
traneous, historical, and geographical
facts, preserve their traditional depend
ence on the Navy, and their ingrained

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 87
prejudice against compulsory military
training. I, having been in the Army, have known
for forty years the mental, moral, and
physical advantages of mihtary training,
but I have never gone out of my way to say
so — for political reasons. However, of late
years those political reasons have seemed
to me less cogent, or less real, while my
conviction has deepened that universal
military training would be the salvation
of the British race.
For mihtary training, if conducted on
reasonable lines, is not a bad thing, but a
good thing for all young men. And I am
sure, and most soldiers will agree with me,
that no gymnastics, nor athletics, nor
sports can replace it. Because mihtary
training infuses a collective spirit and an
instructive discipline which can be gained
in no other way.
I have recently attended the German and

88 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
the British Army manoeuvres ; and I have
recently travelled a good deal in England
and in Germany.
A while ago I described in these columns
the appearance of our troops in Oxford
shire, and the march of the 10th Infantry
Brigade through Swindon. Since then I
have had occasion to visit some of the work
ing-class districts of London, and I have
seen something of the London poor. The
contrast between the young men in Ber-
mondsey and the Borough and the young
soldiers who marched into Swindon made
a deep impression upon me. The soldiers
were healthy, active, merry; well fed,
well washed, properly disciplined, and as
fit as fiddles.
The young men in the London streets
were none of those things. Yet the soldiers
and the .others were of the same class, the
same material.
I have seen coster boys, miU hands, town-

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 89
bred hooligans, ignorant, round-shouldered,
pallid, unwashed, and morally loose come
into a regiment; and in six months they
were clean, smart, well-conducted, well-
spoken, well-built soldiers. I have seen the
transformation effected. I have myself
gone through the mill. I am convinced that
the Army saved my life. I am sure that it
did me more good than any other experi
ence I have had.
The German working classes are more
sober, more orderly, more intelhgent than
the British. It is largely because in their
youth they have been trained and taught
and disciplined.
Military training compels cleanliness and
order and good behaviour. It gives a youth
at the right time, and in the right way,
good food, good clothing, healthy, open-air
exercise. It provides a course of physical
culture. It enforces early rising, habits
of discipUne, and regular hours of sleep.

90 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
It improves the health and the physique,
and it sharpens the mind and breeds a
habit of self-reliance and alertness.
But it does very much more than that.
It trains men in comradeship; it infuses
what I call the collective spirit. The dif
ference between an army and a crowd is
enormous ; but its chief and most valuable
factor is that collective spirit. A regiment
is very much more than a crowd of men
all dressed in the same uniform. It is a
regiment. It has that which a mob never
has : a collective mind, a collective soul.
The 10th Infantry Brigade is a very dif
ferent thing from a crowd of 3,000 young
men in khaki; it is an organism; all its
units are parts of a whole; all its units
move and feel and act together. It is
not what so many civilians often caU it
— a machine. A machine has no soul; but
a brigade of soldiers has a soul. When
it marches all its 6,000 legs move as one.

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 91
When it charges all its bayonets are in line.
When it sings it has one great thrilling -
voice. It is alive; it is an organism; it is
the 10th Infantry Brigade.
Let the police attack a huge crowd of
undrilled civihans and instinctively the
crowd scatters. The men do not know each
other, cannot trust each other, have never
been taught to hold with each other. But
when the Arabs broke the square at Mc-
NeU's zareba the soldiers did the very op
posite to what a crowd of civilians would
have done; they did not scatter; they
closed; they did not run; they stood; in
stinctively they formed together back to
back in groups with their faces and their
bayonets turned to their assailants.
In camp and on the march, in action and
at drill, in barracks and at play, the sol
diers learn comradeship and acquire the
spirit of collectivism. This is the great
moral value of military training; this gives

92 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
power and coherence to the people of Ger
many. The German nation is an army.
The British nation is a mob of antagonistic,
helpless atoms.
I think it would be weU in this country
to pass first of all a compulsory service Act
for a limited number of years. Two years'
training would be enough, and aU young
men over twenty should be hable. But at
first, in order to get a large force quickly,
it would be advisable to take as many
young men between the ages of eighteen
and thirty as could be spared without dis
organising trade too much.
This army should be put under the direc
tion of one man, and the man is Lord
Kitchener. To him should be left also the
arrangement of the plans of organisation
and mobilisation. That is what Lord
Kitchener was born for, and it would be a
pity to waste him.
I beheve, and I think most mihtary men

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 93
will agree, that in our often unsuccessful
looking youth we have a material for the
making of soldiers such as no nation coidd
excel. I believe that, properly handled, our
youth would train into one of the finest
armies the world has seen.
The German Army is very good; the
French Army is very good; but I hold to
the behef that both are capable of much
improvement. I believe we could make the
best army in the world in a couple of years.
But anything I know, or think I know, as
to these matters is not for publication.
This much I will say : our Army should,
as far as possible, hve throughout the sum
mer in cantonments and be engaged in con
tinual field training, under conditions as
closely as possible approximated to the con
ditions of actual war. They should be sci-
entificaUy and thoroughly taught the use
of the rifle, and they should be trained to
think and act for themselves.

94 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
On the day when the King of Prussia
was declared German Emperor Britain
ought to have adopted compulsory military
service. Had we raised a proper army at
that time, I think it is not too much to say
that there would have been no Boer War,
no Afghan War, no Eusso-Turkish War,
and no prospect of any war with Germany,
It is essential to the maintenance of the
world's peace that Britain should be
strong. Universal mihtary training would
make Britain strong: it would make for
peace. Besides — the alternative is slavery.

A WOED FOE THE HOMELAND
The Daily Mail, December 23rd, 1909.
Before concluding this series of articles
I shaU endeavour to avoid or to remove a
few misconceptions. Firstly, as to patriot
ism : if a patriot is one who wishes his coun
try to dominate the world I am not a
patriot; but if a patriot is one who loves his
country as he loves his mother, or his
friend, or his wife, seeing her merits as well
as her faults, hoping that she may be happy
and free, trying to be helpful to her when
he may, then I am a patriot, and have been
always. Next, as to Jingoism. He who appeals
to his countrymen to arm in their own de
fence is not a Jingo, He who warns them

96 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
of their dangerous unreadiuess is' not a
Jingo, He who tries to rouse them to con
sciousness of the threatening conduct of a
foreign nation is not a Jingo. The Jingo
is one who is boastfuUy and offensively ag
gressive, who vaunts his country's power,
who shouts for war upon the slightest
provocation, I despise and dislike a Jingo
as I despise and disUke a bully. But if we
condemn a British Jingo, why should we
refrain from condemnation of a German,
or a French, or a Eussian Jingo? And if
we wax indignant when our own country
attacks or threatens a foreign Power, why
should we be blamed for speaking the truth
when a foreign Power attacks or threatens
us? Next, as to peace and war. Those who
object to the expenditure of money on
armaments are prone to caU themselves the
Peace Party. But most of those who think,
as I do, that the Empire should keep itself

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 97
ready for war are as much in love with
peace as the fiercest " Little-Navyite "
of them aU. But we think a weak; nation
with large possessions is more likely to
be dragged into war than a strong
one. Therefore we believe that readi
ness for war is the surest guarantee of
peace. There are better methods of keeping the
peace than the way I have been recom
mending. Universal disarmament would
be better for all than universal armament.
If all the warhke preparations, aU the fieets
and armies in the world, could be abolished,
we should be happier, richer, and safer for
the change. But Britain cannot disarm
while the other nations are armed : Europe
caimot disarm while America and Asia are
armed. Dismiss every soldier on the globe,
and there will be universal peace. But is
Eussia likely to dismiss her troops? Is
Germany? Is France? Is Britain? The

98 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
man who suggested it would be regarded as
a fool. Failing universal disarmament there is
still a better course than that at present
foUowed by the Great Powers. It were
better to have the United States of Eu
rope than the Disunited States of Europe.
But we shall have no United States of Eu
rope while one of the Great Powers is bent
on working out her destiny by methods of
blood and iron.
These two arrangements being as yet im
possible,' the next best course is the main
tenance of the balance of power. That
course requires that Britain shaU be pre
pared for war. While she has not a suf
ficient Army she is not prepared for war.
Next, as to the use of the word Army.
Many of those who advocate the raising of
Volunteers or Mihtia for home defence
make the mistake of supposing that a large
number of soldiers is an army. Such a

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 99
force could be raised and trained in less
than a year. Yet it would not be an army
in the true sense of the word. It is possible
to make a soldier in a year, or less; but
not an army. An army must be trained as
an army, not as a number of separate
squadrons or battahons. Eegiments must
be used to working in divisions; divisions
must be trained together as an army. It is
the training of the officers and generals and
the practice of coherent action by large
numbers of troops in strange country that
take up the time. Then there is the or
ganisation: the transport, the hospital
service, the communications, and there are
the scientific branches of the modem sol-
dier's work, the signalling, telegraphy, bal
looning, mining, entrenching, scouting,
mapping, cycling, motoring, and ambulance
work. All these require intelligence, dih
gence, and time. And an army must have
them.

100 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
Therefore it is absolutely necessary that
at least two years shall be given to diligent
and serious training. That is why the only
possible way of getting an army under
present conditions is by means of universal
service. The training must be continuous
and the numbers large.
Next a word as to the strategic positions
of the German and the British Navies.
It is generally understood, not only in
German and British naval and mUitary cir
cles, but in the naval and mUitary circles
of America and Europe, that in any contest
between Germany and another nation hos-
tihties wiU precede a declaration of war.
The Germans do not intend to give warning
of their attack. They mean to attack sud
denly. Before any declaration of war is
made they intend to do, on a larger scale,
what the Japanese did at Chemulpo and
Port Arthur.
Let us consider what this implies. It im-

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 101
phes that until it suits Germany's book
to strike we have to remain continuaUy on
the defensive. We have to maintain day
and night a sleepless watch; we have to
keep continually in the North Sea a fleet
of sufficient power to meet the whole con
centrated naval forces of Germany at any
moment. This fleet must never relax its
vigUance, must never extend its line too far,
must be always ready for action, because
we shall never know the day nor the hour
when the Germans may attempt their coup.
Is it necessary to enlarge upon the im
mense strategic advantage which this state
of affairs gives to Germany? Surely that
is patent.
With the threat of a sudden attack in
force, in the night, in the mist, continually
hanging over their heads, a great fleet has
to wait and watch in the North Sea. It
must not quit the North Sea. It must not
divide its forces. It must never cease to

102 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
watch nor suspend its readiness for instant
action. It must not he in harbours nor in
rivers, for there it wUl be defeated if at
tacked in force. It must remain at sea,
where the best authorities declare that no
fleet is safe from attacks by submarines, or
torpedo-boats, or mines.
Finally, it must never go and seek its
enemies; it must never approach the
enemy's coast; because the enemy is a
friendly Power and war is not declared.
Such is to be the strategic position of
the future. And I hope that every Briton
will understand that such a strategic sit
uation demands a Navy of overwhelming
force, manned by officers and seamen of a
vigilance and courage more than human.
Although I have often described myself
as a Little Englander I have been cognisant
of certain considerations which the more
aggressive Little Englander seems, com
monly to ignore.

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 103
Granting that we got most of our Empire
by robbery under arms — though often at
the expense of less capable robbers who had
got the booty in no honester way — grant
ing that we had no moral right to snatch
Colonies from the French, the Dutch,
the Spaniards, the Mohammedans, or
the Zulus, who had stolen them before
us, there stiU remain several knotty
questions to be answered before we
hand over the stolen property to any
other people.
We cannot give Australia back to the
aborigines, for we have civilised them off
the face of the earth. If we gave New
Zealand back to the Maoris we should sim
ply be transferring it to Japan, America,
or some European Power.
If we have no right to our Colonies,
neither has any other foreign Power.
And then, again, there is the question:
Would any other Power govern our Colo-

104 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
nies better than we, or leave them to govern
themselves as fully as we?
Now I have no doubt that in India and
the other subject States our rule is fuU of
imperfections. But would our retirement,
in many cases, be an advantage or a dis
advantage to the subject race? It is not
a question only of the faults of British
rule ; it is a question also of the compara
tive virtues of British and other foreign
rule. If we left India, could the natives hold
it? If Eussia, or France, or Germany con
quered India, would the Indians be better
off or worse than they now are?
It has always seemed to me that we can
not abandon our Colonies or dependencies ;
and that we might have to defend them
against other foreign Powers until we can
make reasonably sure that our retirement
wiU not expose them to worse evUs than
our own rule.

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 105
To give India to the Indians, Canada to
the Canadians, and Egypt to the Egyptians,
I for one am quite willing : when these peo
ples wish for and are fit for self-govern
ment and self-defence. But to atone for
an injury by exposing our victim to a
greater injury seems to me an aggravation
of the wrong.
Let us be just, even to our own country.
The Belgians in the Congo State, the Ger
mans in Poland, the Spaniards in Cuba,
the Eussians in all their dependencies, do
not seem to have improved on British
methods, imperfect though our methods
may be. The Japanese in Korea, the Span
iards in Morocco, do not seem to have in
spired much love or confidence in the native
breast. Give up India? To whom? And
how? And why?
Improve the government of India? Cer
tainly. And while we are about it we might
do a little for England.

106 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
The Empire is in danger. It is not well
with us at home: it looks dark for us
abroad. What the British nation stands most in
need of in this portentous hour is a man.
Look where we will, we see only party
pohticians ; listen as we may, we hear only
party politics. The nation is broken up
into purposeless factions ; will for weeks be
crazy over meaningless election cries.
The German nation is homogeneous : or
ganised. Their Imperial pohcy is continu
ous. Their rulers work strenuously, sleep-
lessly, silently. Their principle is the the
ory of blood and iron.
I do not want war: I want peace. I
am not an enemy of the Germans, but a
friend. I like Germany; but I love Eng
land, as a man loves his mother, or his wife,
or his comrade, or his home.
And the Empire is in danger; and we are
unready; and we need a man.

" THE DAY "
The Daily Mail, August 25th, 1914.
" The Day " has come; Germany is
" making war with the utmost violence,"
and the destinies of five Great Powers are
in the melting pot. At last the British
people are obliged to own that the German
menace was real, and that the ' ' war scare ' '
they laughed at was a danger and must now
be met.
But do they yet understand how great
the danger is and what it will cost to
meet it?
A few days ago I was at Eastbourne and
at Brighton, watching the holiday crowds
in their innocent and placid enjoyment.
Thousands of young men and women were
walking on the promenade, thousands were

108 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
lounging on the beach; children were
laughing and paddling and building sand
castles ; the band was playing, the sea and
sky were beautifully blue and serene. And
this was more than a fortnight after our
Government had declared war with Ger
many. Who could reahse that these people were
engaged in the greatest war of human his
tory? Who could reahse that a few hours'
journey across that smooth band of spark
ling water the troops of four nations were
at death grips? I looked keenly along the
misty horizon; not a warship was in sight;
behind me were the parades, the hotels, the
motor-cars ; not a soldier, not a trench, not
a gun. One allows much for British phlegm;
does one allow enough for British lack of
imagination? Are our people brave in a
superhuman degree, or are they rather ig
norant, rather stupid, rather slow?

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 109
We are at war. We are committed to a
war that will be desperate and terrible in
its action, and in its resiUts appalling.
And here are young men flirting,
laughing, riding, swimming — ' ' fleeting
the hours away as men did in the golden
age." Every one of those merry, careless young
men ought to have a rifle on his shoul
der. Every one of those happy girls ought
to be at work preparing for the hardest
trial that ever came upon the British na
tion. This is no time for play. This is a
time of war!
Do the British people understand it ? Do
they realise yet why we are at war and
what war means to aU of us?
Of the great mass of our people, how
many dream of what they have to face or
why they have to face it?
Some of them understand the origins of
this world war, some of them' realise that

110 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
the cost will be dreadful. Many perhaps
have got so far as to suppose we are at war
in fulfilment of the French entente or in
defence of the neutrality of Belgium; but
for most of them the situation is expressed
by the John Bull contents biU : " To HeU
with Servia! "
To these puzzled, apathetic millions it
eannot be too soon made plain that we are
not fighting about Servia. We are not
fighting for Servia, nor are we fighting
solely or directly for Belgian neutrahty, or
for the honour and integrity of France.
No. This is a British war as much as it
is a French war. We are fighting for our
Empire and our Colonies, we "are fighting
for our independence and our trade, we are
fighting for our honour, for our hberty, and
for our brfead and butter.
We are not fighting because we want to
fight, we are fighting because we must.
I say we must fight. It is not only the

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 111
professional soldiers and saUors who must
fight : we must aU fight. We must fight or
go under ; more than that, we must win or
go under.
This war did not originate in the mur
der of the Austrian Grand Duke. It arose
out of the German desire to dominate the
world. It is not a casual war, caused by
some offence of yesterday : it is a deliberate
war of aggression, for which German am
bition has been arming and preparing for
more than twenty years.
This war did not spring up suddenly be
cause a Servian fanatic threw a bomb. Its
seed was sown by the Prussian mUitary
writer Clausewitz, the master of Bismarck,
Since Prussia adopted the politics and
strategy of Clausewitz this war has been
coming. The Prussian attack on Denmark
in 1864, upon Austria in 1866, and upon
France in 1870 were steps towards this
war^ the building of the German Fleet, the

112 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
fortifications of Heligoland, the making of
the Kiel Canal, the increase in the German
Army, the imposition of the great German
war tax of fifty millions, the construction
of strategic railways to the Belgian bor
der — all these were steps towards this
war. We could not keep out of this war be
cause, had we been so cowardly as to desert
the Belgians and the French, we should
have had to fight Germany afterwards, and
without aUies.
We are fighting, and so are the French,
because we must fight; because Germany
means to take our trade and Colonies and
to reduce us to third-rate Powers under the
heel of the Kaisef and his swashbucklering
generals. What is the Prussian ideal, put into
plain words ? Every able-bodied male shaU
be drilled and armed, the Army and Navy
of Germany shall always be ready for war.

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 113
Any nation that is weak or unready shaU
be attacked. Might is right. The rule is
to the strong. Britain and France are
played out, and it is the destiny of Ger
many to trample on them with her iron heel
after she has crushed them with her mailed
fist. That is the German ideal, the German
policy; that is the German menace.
And now Britain and her Allies must
beat Germany or Germany will beat them,
I have said in previous chapters why we
must fight on land as weU as on sea, but
I wUl here quote from a leading article in
the Observer of August 23d of this year: —
" We pointed out that Germany's next
aim after creating the second strongest
Fleet in the world would be to enlarge her
territorial basis in a manner intended to
create the conditions of absolute naval su
premacy. For this purpose she would seek

114 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
to extend her seaboard to Antwerp and if
possible to Calais and Boulogne, so as to
get just beyond that serious impediment
to all her plans, the Straits of Dover. To
do this she would use her military force.
She could only be prevented by a superior
military force on the side of the Triple
Entente. To make sure of a superiority
on land essential to our most vital interests
and to our whole future, England would
have to raise in addition to her Fleet a
fighting strength large and effident enough
to turn the scales on the Continent. That
minimum of military powef for the pur
poses of a European war could not be esti
mated at less than half a million men. But
to keep that number in the field to the end,
despite the wastage of war, we would al
ways reqxure to have at any given moment
double that number seriously trained.
This was the basis of our reasoning on
behalf of the Milhon Men Standard. The

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 115
years have passed. There is no need to
defend the proposal now. Everyone can
see that it represents the very minimum of
our requirements for a European emer
gency." The fact is, we have stood by France and
Belgium in this war because our national
existence depended upon them. We are
fighting in our own defence as actually and
as inevitably as we should be had an enemy
invaded Britain. In fact, the Germans did
invade Britain when they attacked the Bel
gian forts at Liege.
There is the point of honour, too: the
cause of justice. Some say we need not
have helped the French or Belgians because
our Navy is able to protect us from all in
jury. That is not true. But if it were true,
are men to think only of self? Are we to
look out safely from the window of our
insular house while German robber bulhes

116 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
wound and plunder our friends before our
eyes? Are we to rest content with full
pockets and whole skins while Germany
perpetrates the horrors and crimes which
have just stained with blood the soil of
gallant Belgium? Empire is not worth
holding, nor hfe wortib. hving, on such dis
graceful terms.
And having understood the reason and
the cause of this war, we have to under
stand and recognise the fact. Be the cause
what it may, we are at war. Whatsoever be
the reasons why we went to war, the fact
remains : We are at war with Germany.
Being at war we have to go on until we
win, and to win we must use every atom of
our strength.
It is too late now to talk of what might
or might not have been. Let us understand
and reahse what is. Let us look steadily
at the fact and prepare at once to
face it.

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 117
We must look for trials and losses, for
suffering and travail. We are engaged
in a life or death struggle. We must fight
for our Empire or lose it, we must fight for
our trade or lose it, we must fight for our
manhood or lose it, we must fight for our
liberty or lose it. We must fight to a finish
against a nation armed and desperate. We
must know that victory will cost us dear,
and we must understand that defeat will
mean ruin and a shame as bitter as
slavery. I hope those responsible to the nation in
this war will have the great courage to tell
the British people the truth. The safety
of the Empire depends upon immediate and
unconditional response of the whole of the
people of the Empire.
It is the duty of the Government to caU
up and to arm every man capable of bear
ing arms. It is the duty of the people,
women as weU as men, to submit cheerfully

118 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
to any sacrifice. Should the struggle prove
a long one and the supply of food run short,
it is the duty of the Government to com
mandeer all food supplies and put the na
tion upon rations as would the commandant
of a fort besieged.
This is not a royal war, nor a Govern
ment war, nor a war of diplomatic making :
it is a war of free nations against a devU-
ish system of imperial domination and na
tional spohation. There can be no security
in Europe until Germany is defeated.
Germany will fight hard, and the victory
over her must be decisive and final. This
time the armed bully must be disarmed.
This war must end the German menace for
ever. This time Europe must put an end
to the hope of kings or kaisers to win by
force of an armed nation of robber buUies
the domination of the world.
Do the British people understand this?
If they do not, it were weU to trust them

GEEMANY AND ENGLAND 119
with the truth. The British people are slow
to move and difficult to convince, but they
wiU prove splendid in an emergency — ^if
only they understand.
There are no classes now, no parties ; we
are all Britons, united for a common cause
and in a common danger. It is our duty to
trust and help the Government; and it is
the duty of the Government to trust us.
There ought not, in a month's time, to
be in these islands a single sound man or
boy between the ages of sixteen and sixty
without arms and some skill to use them.
This is a time of war, and war is a matter
not of words but deeds.
For theatrical patriotism, fiag-waving,
and the singing of foolish songs we have no
use. But tmless we are the cowardly
decadents the Germans think us, it were
well we should unite in the great shout of
the patriots of old France : " To arms, citi
zens, to arms ! ' '

120 GEEMANY AND ENGLAND
For the foreign service army we may
trust Lord Kitchener; but for any service
which a sane and manly Briton may be
eaUed upon to do, the Government may
trust the people.

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