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War Aims

like Mr. Arnold Bennett, who are not mere cranks revelling in antagonizing their compatriots, but have loyally supported the national and Allied cause, will give M. Clemenceau what he asks for, he would be in a position to give them all they want. But without his irreducible minimum of Victory there is no hope whatsoever for the world. If in the name of Democracy, Socialism, or Pacifism we allow a crafty enemy, either through von Kühlmann or von Czernin— it matters not which--to fool us as they have fooled the Bolsheviks, and lure us into negotiations while Germany remains unbeaten, Militarism will be established on an unassailable basis, because resting on the combined man-power of Mittel Europa. Other countries would have the choice that was offered Belgium four years ago-namely, absorption or destruction. With PanGermany astride the Continent, what room would there be for any of Mr. Bennett's or President Wilson's War Aims? The Hohenzollerns and Hapsburgs would retain their thrones after successfully challenging the world and defying the embattled democracies, thereby demonstrating the latter's inefficiency in the supreme trial of strength. They would be more impregnable than ever, and infinitely stronger than any conceivable combination, through having escaped the defeat which should be their lot next year, provided the full military, naval, and economic power of the Democracies is developed. Unless beaten and humiliated the Kaisers would be in a position, and, moreover, they would be compelled by circumstances, to renew the struggle in order to complete the full Pan-German programme. To suggest that the heart of Germany is changed, that Prussia is now 'humanized," is to ignore every event across the North Sea, where the " cannon fodder" remains politically negligible to-day as it was yesterday, whatever may be pretended for propaganda purposes among foreigners anxious to be duped.

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EVEN in the wildly improbable event of Prussia borrowing a Constitution from the United States, from France, or from Great Britain, is there any reason to suppose that she would be other than an armed and aggressive nation, less dangerous to her neighbours than when an autocracy? War, after all, is the only religion in which the

A Prussian
Democracy

Prussian Man in the Street believes. He would believe in it still more fervently should he now escape punishment. Modern warfare suits his mentality even better than former warfare, because cunning, not to say devilry, allied with science is infinitely potent. Thanks to the submarine and the aeroplane, a Power without conscience, such as Prussia has always been and will remain until the end of the chapter, could terrorize every nation great and small within striking distance by the sudden threat to discharge a thousand submarines and ten thousand aeroplanes, stealthily constructed under cover of "the League to Enforce Peace," while their existence was denied by the Berlin Government. The mere menace would blackmail Europe. What, then, is the use of discussing "War Aims" with unbeaten savages whose bond, signed, sealed, and delivered, is worth less than the casual conversation of the most irresponsible statesman of the least civilized State? If any of our readers can solve the enigma as to how the world can be made "safe for Democracy" without crippling the only disturber of the peace, we shall be grateful, because so far we have sought a solution in vain. Nor would the position be bettered, as some simpletons of the Labour world opine, by establishing Bolshevikism everywhere, while Germany remained under the Hohenzollerns-i.e. the only strong and organized State amid a Continent of chaos and anarchy. Trade-Union leaders eloquent upon War Aims should apply their minds to this, which, after all, is the crux of the matter-namely, how they can attain any of the objects for which they are fighting without winning the war? In the event of our defeat or "a draw," the last state of Europe would be worse than the first, because it would not mean, as Mr. Henderson fondly imagines, Hendersonianism everywhere, including Germany, but Hendersonianism everywhere except Germany, or, in other words, the ascendancy of Kaiserism and Militarism over what was once Civilization. Such is the prospect to which we are heading should we be such lunatics as to discard M. Clemenceau's Policy of "Victory."

FROM every point of view this is the very last moment at which to lower our flag or to abate any War Aim. We, therefore,

Don't lower the Flag

cannot help regretting that the ablest member of our Cabinet should in the course of a speech at Plymouth-loudly applauded by the Daily Mail-strike a decidedly minor key. It shows a perilous misunderstanding of the mentality of the Boche, who, as a born bully, invariably misinterprets any show of moderation as weakness or cowardice. One expects nothing better from most Ministers, whose ignorance of foreign affairs is stupefying, but Lord Milner is a serious man, to whom the Continent is not a sealed book. The bluffers of Berlin cannot but be encouraged by such a sentence as the following, which is all very well in Devonshire: "It is not now a question of destroying Prussian militarism. The question is whether Prussian militarism should destroy us, and make an end of all that the freedom-loving peoples of the world have been striving for centuries, and are still striving to attain." Then our Allies are somewhat bewildered and aggrieved when British Ministers casually write off their "claims " as "too high." How would our Government like other Governments to describe our aspirations for Leagues of Peace, etc., as "irrational"? That way discouragement lies. Even if we thought any of our Allies unreasonable and overambitious-though, as a matter of fact, most of us marvel at their moderation-we should not say so, least of all in public. We much prefer the robust pronouncement of that fine leader of men, Mr. Gompers, the President of the American Federation of Labour, who can talk to Germans in the only language they understand.

In the name of American Labour I say: "You cannot talk peace with us now, you cannot talk international conferences. Either you smash your autocracy or, by the gods, we will smash it for you. Before you talk of peace terms get back from France, back from Belgium, back from Serbia, and back to Germany-then we will talk peace."

FOR the cogent reasons adduced by Lord Milner we Britons have no shadow of an excuse for misgiving, associated as we are with heroic and indomitable Allies who have suffered Our Past immeasurably more than ourselves. Our own past is a standing rebuke to the Faint-Hearted or Faithless. The speaker invited the patriotic people of Plymouth to compare our position to-day with what it was in the last trial a hundred years ago, "the only equal trial to which this country has been exposed in all its long history." During the Napoleonic era

Great Britain stood for three long years almost alone against Napoleon, when he was master, not only of a greater France, but of all Central Europe, the wielder, as he then seemed to every one, of absolutely invincible power. We had no great allies at our side then. We had no America behind us; indeed, at the most critical moment we were actually involved in war with the United States, though certainly their power at that time was incomparably less than what it is to-day. We had no great ally in the Far East, nor had we the great communities of our kinsmen beyond the sea, no Canada or Australia, no New Zealand or South Africa, to help us with hundreds of thousands of splendid men, or the moral support of their profound Imperial patriotism.

As Lord Milner finely added:

Looked at all round this is, humanly speaking, an unconquerable combination, against which the greatest engine of despotic power that the world has yet seen would dash itself in vain.

Or alternatively it may be thus expressed, we can only lose if we don't deserve to win-i.e. if "I dare not waits upon I would."

The Right
Note

66

AN admirable propagandist is Admiral Sims, the distinguished American seaman, who in the course of what we hope we may be pardoned for describing as a breezy speech interpolated a profound remark worth much War Aims oratory. The occasion was the dinner given by our Navy League to celebrate George Washington's birthday. In replying for the American Navy the Admiral declared, “This war is going to be decided by sea-power"; adding, "Russia has gone out. If Italy is forced off the map, and gallant France is overrun, there remains Great Britain, her Colonies, and ourselves, and that is a combination that cannot be beaten." We do not for a moment imagine that such will be Italy's fate, seeing how splendidly she has rallied this winter, while France stands as firm as a rock, but we are grateful to Admiral Sims for reminding us of a fact we should never forget, and which we should be continually dinning into the enemy-namely, that if by any mischance such tragedies happened, so far from ending the war it would be but the beginning, for the reason the speaker gavenamely, that the pressure of the combined sea-power of the English-speaking world could and would reduce the Central Empires to red ruin. All we should need would be stout hearts in high places on both sides of the Atlantic, under which the United States and the British Empire could stick it out with absolute assurance of success. The Germans are terrified of our

realizing our powers, but they confidently count on our statesmen's ignorance of " the sea affair" and on the emasculate Whig spirit to prevent our emulating our ancestors' record under infinitely heavier handicaps.

The Imperial
Cabinet

It is peculiarly gratifying to learn on the authority of the King's Speech at the opening of another session that there will be another Imperial Cabinet this summer, which will afford the Dominions a welcome opportunity of reasserting themselves upon the larger problems of war policy, and of stamping on "Defeatism" in every shape and form. It was high time, as since the last many things have happened which require clearing up. Downing Street hardly cultivates as close touch with the British Empire as our kinsmen overseas are entitled to expect at such a time, co-operation being equally demanded in the interests of the entire Empire, especially the United Kingdom, which stands to gain by every forgathering between the war-weary Ministers of the Old World and the stimulating statesmanship of the New. We make no apology for renewing our continually reiterated appeal to the Dominions to stand uncompromisingly by their demand, which is becoming the Monroe Doctrine of the British Empire, that under no circumstances whatever, upon no consideration or pretext, however plausible, shall any inch of territory, or any native population liberated from the hideous rule of the Hun in any part of the world, be returned to that barbarous Power. We note with much satisfaction that this vital question has been actively canvassed in Australia, in New Zealand, and in South Africa, and that one representative body after another have passed resolutions of exhortation to the Home Government and protest against surrender. But this is not enough. The Governments of the Dominions must, if we may be permitted to say so, make it more than plain in London in the most authoritative manner that they regard this issue as a closed question, and that there is no scope for any of those "graceful concessions " so dear to 'Imperial statesmen." Otherwise, by the law of the line of least resistance, before they know where they are, compromising if informal pledges might be given behind the back of the Dominions which would be held to bind the British Empire at the final

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