have depicted are eliminated. We tap (_via_ Marseilles and the
tunnel) the whole food supply of the Mediterranean and the Black
Sea. Our expeditionary force makes its transit, and has its supplies
independent of weather or naval chances. Should anything so unlikely
as a raid occur, and the forces in this country seem unable to cope
with it, a Franco-British reinforcement can be rushed through from
the Continent. The Germans have made great works like the Kiel Canal
in anticipation of war. Our answer must be the Channel Tunnel,
linking us closer to our ally.
Though this scheme was discarded (under very different naval and
political conditions) some twenty years ago, no time has, as a
matter of fact, been lost by the delay; as I am informed that
machinery for boring purposes has so enormously improved that what
would have taken thirty years to accomplish can now be done in
three. If this estimate be correct, there may still be time to
effect this essential insurance before the war with which General
von Bernhardi threatens us breaks upon us.
Let us, before leaving the subject, glance briefly at the objections
which have formerly been urged against the tunnel. Such as they are,
they are as valid now as ever, although the advantages have
increased to such an extent as to throw the whole weight of the
argument upon the side of those who favour its construction. The
main (indeed, the only) objection was the fear that the tunnel would
fall into wrong hands and be used for purposes of invasion. By this
was meant not a direct invasion through the tunnel itself--to invade
a nation of forty-five million people through a hole in the ground
twenty-five miles long would stagger the boldest mind--but that the
tunnel might be seized at each end by some foreign nation, which
would then use it for aggressive military purposes.
At the time of the discussion our relations with France were by no
means so friendly as they are now, and it was naturally to France
only that we alluded, since they would already hold one end of the
tunnel. We need not now discuss any other nation, since any other
would have to seize both ends by surprise, and afterwards retain
them, which is surely inconceivable. We are now bound in close ties
of friendship and mutual interest to France. We have no right to
assume that we shall always remain on as close a footing, but as our
common peril seems likely to be a permanent one, it is improbable
that there will be any speedy or sudden change in our relations. At
the same time, in a matter so vital as our hold upon the Dover end
of the tunnel, we could not be too stringent in our precautions. The
tunnel should open out at a point where guns command it, the mouth
of it should be within the lines of an entrenched camp, and a
considerable garrison should be kept permanently within call. The
latter condition already exists in Dover, but the numbers might well
be increased. As an additional precaution, a passage should be
driven alongside the tunnel, from which it could, if necessary, be
destroyed. This passage should have an independent opening within
the circle of a separate fort, so that the capture of the end of the
tunnel would not prevent its destruction. With such precautions as
these, the most nervous person might feel that our insular position
had not really been interfered with. The strong fortress of the
Middle Ages had a passage under the moat as part of the defence.
This is our passage.
Could an enemy in any way destroy it in time of war?
It would, as I conceive, be sunk to a depth of not less than two
hundred feet below the bed of the ocean. This ceiling would be
composed of chalk and clay. No explosive from above could drive it
in. If it were designed on a large scale--and, personally, I think
it should be a four-line tunnel, even if the cost were doubled
thereby--no internal explosion, such as might be brought about by
secreting explosive packets upon the trains, would be likely to do
more than temporarily obstruct it. If the very worst happened, and
it were actually destroyed, we should be no worse off than we are
now. As to the expense, if we are driven into a war of this
magnitude, a few millions one way or the other will not be worth
considering.
Incidentally, it may be noted that General von Bernhardi has a poor
opinion of our troops. This need not trouble us. We are what we are,
and words will not alter it. From very early days our soldiers have
left their mark upon Continental warfare, and we have no reason to
think that we have declined from the manhood of our forefathers. He
further calls them "mercenaries," which is a misuse of terms. A
mercenary is a man who is paid to fight in a quarrel which is not
his own. As every British soldier must by law be a British citizen,
the term is absurd. What he really means is that they are not
conscripts in the sense of being forced to fight, but they are
sufficiently well paid to enable the army as a profession to attract
a sufficient number of our young men to the colours.
Our military and naval preparations are, as it seems to me, adequate
for the threatened crisis. With the Channel Tunnel added our
position should be secure. But there are other preparations which
should be made for such a contest, should it unhappily be forced
upon us. One is financial. Again, as so often before in the history
of British wars, it may prove that the last guinea wins. Everything
possible should be done to strengthen British credit. This crisis
cannot last indefinitely. The cloud will dissolve or burst.
Therefore, for a time we should husband our resources for the
supreme need. At such a time all national expenditure upon objects
which only mature in the future becomes unjustifiable. Such a tax as
the undeveloped land tax, which may bring in a gain some day, but at
present costs ten times what it produces, is the type of expenditure
I mean. I say nothing of its justice or injustice, but only of its
inopportuneness at a moment when we sorely need our present
resources.
Another preparation lies in our national understanding of the
possibility of such a danger and the determination to face the
facts. Both Unionists and Liberals have shown their appreciation of
the situation, and so have two of the most famous Socialist leaders.
No audible acquiescence has come from the ranks of the Labour Party.
I would venture to say one word here to my Irish fellow-countrymen
of all political persuasions. If they imagine that they can stand
politically or economically while Britain falls, they are woefully
mistaken. The British Fleet is their one shield. If it be broken,
Ireland will go down. They may well throw themselves heartily into
the common defence, for no sword can transfix England without the
point reaching Ireland behind her.
Let me say in conclusion, most emphatically, that I do not myself
accept any of those axioms of General von Bernhardi which are the
foundation-stones of his argument. I do not think that war is in
itself a good thing, though a dishonourable peace may be a worse
one. I do not believe that an Anglo-German war is necessary. I am
convinced that we should never, of our own accord, attack Germany,
nor would we assist France if she made an unprovoked attack upon
that Power. I do not think that as the result of such a war, Germany
could in any way extend her flag so as to cover a larger white
population. Every one of his propositions I dispute. But that is all
beside the question. We have not to do with his argument, but with
its results. Those results are that he, a man whose opinion is of
weight, and a member of the ruling class in Germany, tells us
frankly that Germany will attack us the moment she sees a favourable
opportunity. I repeat that we should be mad if we did not take very
serious notice of the warning.
* * * * *
IX
AFTERTHOUGHTS
So it was so after all. I write after perusing what was written two
years ago. I lean back in my chair and I think of the past. "So it
really was so after all," represents the thought which comes to my
mind.
It seems hardly fair to call it a conspiracy. When a certain action
is formulated quite clearly in many books, when it is advocated by
newspapers, preached by professors, and discussed at every
restaurant, it ceases to be a conspiracy. We may take Bernhardi's
book as a text, but it is only because here between two covers we
find the whole essence of the matter in an authoritative form. It
has been said a thousand times elsewhere. And now we know for all
time that these countless scolding and minatory voices were not mere
angry units, but that they were in truth the collective voice of
the nation. All that Bernhardi said, all that after long disbelief
he made some of us vaguely realise, has now actually happened. So
far as Germany is concerned it has been fulfilled to the letter.
Fortunately so far as other nations have been concerned it has been
very different. He knew his own, but he utterly misjudged all else,
and in that misjudgment he and his spy-trusting Government have dug
a pit for themselves in which they long may flounder.
Make war deliberately whenever you think that you may get profit
from it. Find an excuse, but let it be an excuse which will give you
a strong position before the world and help your alliances. Take
advantage of your neighbour's temporary weakness in order to attack
him. Pretend to be friendly in order to screen warlike preparations.
Do not let contracts or treaties stand in the way of your vital
interests. All of these monstrous propositions are to be found in
this _vade mecum_ of the German politician and soldier, and each of
them has been put in actual practice within a very few years of the
appearance of the book. Take each of them in turn.
Take first the point that they made war deliberately, and took
advantage of the imagined weakness of their neighbours in order to
attack them. When was it that they backed up, if they did not
actually dictate, the impossible ultimatum addressed as much to
Russia as to Servia? When was it that they were so determined upon
war that they made peace impossible at the moment when Austria was
showing signs of reconsidering her position? Why so keen at that
particular moment? Was it not that for the instant each of her three
antagonists seemed to be at a disadvantage? Russia was supposed not
to have recovered yet from her Japanese misadventure. France was
torn by politics, and had admitted in the Senate that some important
branches of her armies were unprepared. Britain seemed to be on the
verge of civil war. It was just such a combination as was predicated
by Bernhardi. And his country responded to it exactly as he had
said, choosing the point of quarrel against the Slav race so as to
conciliate the more advanced or liberal nations of the world.
Then again they pretended to be friendly in order to cover hostile
preparations. To the very last moment the German Minister in
Brussels was assuring the Government of King Albert that nothing but
the best intentions animated those whom he represented, and that
Belgian neutrality was safe. The written contract was deliberately
dishonoured on the false and absurd plea that if they did not
dishonour it some one else would. Thus, of the five propositions
which had seemed most monstrous and inhuman in Bernhardi's book in
1912, every single one had been put into actual practice by his
country in 1914. Those of us who advised at the time that the book
should be taken seriously have surely been amply justified.
It is a singular thing that Bernhardi not only indicated in a
general way what Germany was contemplating, but in his other book
upon modern warfare he gives a very complete sketch of the strategic
conception which has been followed by the Germans. He shows there
how their armies might come through Belgium, how their eastern
forces might mark time while the western, which were to consist of
the picked troops, would travel by forced marches until they reached
the neighbourhood of the coast, or at least the west of Paris, after
which the whole line should swing round into France. The chance that
by these movements the German right would come into the region of
the British expeditionary force is dismissed lightly, since he
entirely underestimated the power of such a force, while as to the
Belgian army it is hardly admitted as a factor at all. A comparison
of the opinions of this great military authority with the actual
facts as we have recently known them, must weaken one's faith in the
value of expert judgment. He is, for example, strongly of opinion
that battles will not as a rule last for more than one day. He has
also so high an opinion of the supreme fighting value of the German
soldiers, that he declares that they will always fight in the open
rather than behind entrenchments. It makes strange reading for us
who have seen them disappear from sight into the ground for a month
at a time.
In what I have said in the previous article of the naval and
military position, I find nothing to withdraw, and little to modify.
I write with the Germans at Ostend, and yet the possibility of
either a raid or an invasion seems to me as remote as it did two
years ago. I do not of course refer to an aerial raid, which I look
upon as extremely probable, but to a landing in these islands. The
submarine which has been used so skilfully against us is an
all-powerful defensive weapon in our hands. As to the submarine, I
think that I may claim to have foreseen the situation which has
actually come upon us. "No blockade," I remarked, "can hold these
vessels in harbour, and no skill or bravery can counteract their
attack when once they are within striking distance. One could
imagine a state of things when it might be found impossible for the
greater ships on either side to keep the seas on account of these
poisonous craft. No one can say that such a contingency is
impossible." It is largely true at the present moment as regards the
North Sea. But the submarine will not shake Great Britain as
mistress of the seas. On the contrary, with her geographical
position, it will, if her internal economic policy be wise, put her
in a stronger position than ever.
The whole question of the Channel Tunnel and its strategic effect,
which is treated of in the last essay, becomes entirely academic,
since even if it had been put in hand when the German menace became
clearer it could not yet have been completed. The idea of an
invasion through it has always seemed and still seems to me to be
absurd, but we should have been brought face to face at the present
moment with the possibility of the enemy getting hold of the farther
end and destroying it, so as to wreck a great national enterprise.
This is a danger which I admit that I had not foreseen. At the same
time, when a tunnel is constructed, the end of it will no doubt be
fortified in such a fashion that it could be held indefinitely
against any power save France, which would have so large a stake in
it herself that she could not destroy it. The whole operation of
sending reinforcements and supplies to the scene of war at the
present instant would be enormously simplified if a tunnel were in
existence.
There remains the fiercely debated question of compulsory national
service. Even now, with the enemy at the gate, it seems to me to be
as open as ever. Would we, under our constitution and with our
methods of thought, have had such a magnificent response to Lord
Kitchener's appeal, or would we have had such splendid political
unanimity in carrying the war to a conclusion, if a large section of
the people had started by feeling sore over an Act which caused
themselves or their sons to serve whether they wished or not?
Personally I do not believe that we should. I believe that the new
volunteer armies now under training are of really wonderful material
and fired with the very best spirit, and that they will be worth
more than a larger force raised by methods which are alien to our
customs. I said in my previous essay, "Experience has shown that
under warlike excitement in a virile nation like ours the ranks soon
fill up, and as the force becomes embodied from the outbreak of
hostilities it would rapidly improve in quality." Already those
Territorials who were so ignorantly and ungenerously criticised in
times of peace are, after nearly three months of camp-life,
hardening into soldiers who may safely be trusted in the field.
Behind them the greater part of a million men are formed who will
also become soldiers in a record time if a desperate earnestness can
make them so. It is a glorious spectacle which makes a man thankful
that he has been spared to see it. One is more hopeful of our
Britain, and more proud of her, now that the German guns can be
heard from her eastern shore, than ever in the long monotony of her
undisturbed prosperity. Our grandchildren will thrill as they read
of the days that we endure.
* * * * *
_Printed in Great Britain by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld.,_
_London and Aylesbury._
* * * * *
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
Italic text has been denoted by _underscores_.
Characters in small caps have been replaced by all caps.
The non-printable characters have been replaced as shown below:
'oe' ligature --> oe
This book was written in a period when many words had not become
standarized in their spelling. Numerous words have multiple spelling
variations in the text. These have been left unchanged unless noted
below:
p 29 - typo: missing 'the' added (in the future)
p 75 - typo: at --> as (he exclaimed, as he gazed)
p 86 - typo: missing 'the' added (in the future)
p 111 - typo: missing 'the' added (in the future)