Intimidation was again their weapon in the case of Captain Fryatt.  “We planned it well,” snarled a member of the Reichstag, incensed over my expression of disapproval, “Before we sent our ships to intercept the Brussels we determined to capture him, try him quickly and execute him.  Since our submarines will win the war we must protect them by all passible means.  You see, when the next British captain thinks of ramming one of our submarines he will remember the fate of Captain Fryatt and think twice!”

Once more Germany is attempting intimidation, and seeking to make neutrals her ally in an attempt to starve Britain into defeat.  The American Ambassador is leaving Berlin, hundreds of neutral vessels hug havens of safety all over the world, but the women in Grimsby and Hull still wave farewell to the little trawlers that slip down the Humber to grapple with death.  Freighters, mine-sweepers, trawlers, and the rest of the unsung tollers of the sea continue their silent, all-important task.  They know that for them Germany has declared the law off, that they will be slaughtered at sight.  They know also that despite the Grand Fleet and the armies in France, the Allies and their cause will go down in complete defeat if Germany succeeds in blocking the routes of commerce.  The insurmountable obstacle in her path is the simple, old-fashioned dogged courage of the average British seaman.

The Germans have developed to an astounding degree the quality of incorrectly diagnosing other peoples, due partly to the unbounded conceit engendered by their three wars of unification and their rapid increase of prosperity.  Their mental food in recent years has been war, conquest, disparagement of others and glorification of self.  They entered the struggle thinking only in army corps and siege artillery.  Certain undefinable moral qualities, such as the last-ditch spirit of the old British Army on the Yser, did not come within their scope of reckoning.

British illusions of the early part of the war are gone.  The average Briton fully appreciates Germany’s gigantic strength, and he coldly realises that as conditions are at present, his country must supply most of the driving force—­men, guns, and shells—­to break it.  He thinks of the awful cost in life, and the thought makes him serious, but he is ready for any sacrifice.  He welcomes help from Allies and neutrals, but whether the help be great or small, he is willing and resolved to stand on his own feet, and carry on to the end.  It is this spirit which makes Britain magnificent to-day.

When losses are brought home to the Germans they generally give vent to their feelings by hurling maledictions upon their enemies.  The Briton, under similar circumstances, is usually remarkably quiet, but, unlike the German, he is individually more determined, in consequence of the loss, to see the thing through.  Somehow the German always made me feel that his war determination had been organised for him.