So I reckon that Germany will be held east and west, and that she will get her fleet practically destroyed.  We ought also to be able to sweep her shipping off the seas, and lower her flag forever in Africa and Asia and the Pacific.  All the probabilities, it seems to me, point to that.  There is no reason why Italy should not stick to her present neutrality, and there is considerable inducement close at hand for both Denmark and Japan to join in, directly they are convinced of the failure of the first big rush on the part of Germany.  All these issues will be more or less definitely decided within the next two or three months.  By that time I believe German imperialism will be shattered, and it may be possible to anticipate the end of the armaments phase of European history.  France, Italy, England, and all the smaller powers of Europe are now pacific countries; Russia, after this huge war, will be too exhausted for further adventure; a shattered Germany will be a revolutionary Germany, as sick of uniforms and the imperialist idea as France was in 1871, as disillusioned about predominance as Bulgaria is today.  The way will be open at last for all these western powers to organize peace.  That is why I, with my declared horror of war, have not signed any of these “stop-the-war” appeals and declarations that have appeared in the last few days.  Every sword that is drawn against Germany now is a sword drawn for peace.

If the Germans Raid England

By H.G.  Wells.

From The Times of London, Oct. 31, 1914.

To the Editor of The [London] Times: 

Sir:  At the outset of the war I made a suggestion in your columns for the enrollment of all that surplus of manhood and patriotic feeling which remains after every man available for systematic military operations has been taken.  My idea was that comparatively undrilled boys and older men, not sound enough for campaigning, armed with rifles, able to shoot straight with them, and using local means of transport, bicycles, cars, and so forth, would be a quite effective check upon an enemy’s scouting, a danger to his supplies, and even a force capable of holding up a raiding advance—­more particularly if that advance was poor in horses and artillery, as an overseas raid was likely to be.  I suggested, too, that the mere enrollment and arming of the population would have a powerful educational effect in steadying and unifying the spirit of our people.  My proposals were received with what seemed even a forced amusement by the “experts.”  I was told that I knew nothing about warfare, and that the Germans would not permit us to do anything of the sort.  The Germans, it seems, are the authorities in these matters, a point I had overlooked.  They would refuse to recognize men with only improvised uniforms, they would shoot their prisoners—­not that I had proposed that my irregulars should become prisoners—­and burn the adjacent villages.