will necessarily complete the campaign.  The whole of Germany will have to be invaded and subdued, and that is a process which will take a very long time even under the most favourable auspices.  Or take the opposite hypothesis.  Let us suppose that the Germans capture Paris, and manage by forced marches to defend their country against the Muscovite incursion.  Even so, nothing is accomplished of a lasting character.  France will go on fighting as she did after 1870, and we shall be found at her side.  Or, assuming the worst hypothesis of all, that France lies prostrate under the heel of her German conqueror, does any one suppose that Great Britain will desist from fighting?  We know perfectly well that, with the aid of our Fleet, we shall still be in a position to defy the German invader and make use of our enormous reserves to wear out even Teutonic obstinacy.  The great sign and seal of this battle to the death is the recent covenant entered into by the three members of the Triple Entente.[1] They have declared in the most formal fashion, over the signatures of their three representatives, Sir Edward Grey, M. Paul Cambon, and Count Benckendorff, that they will not make a separate peace, that they will continue to act in unison, and fight, not as three nations, but as one.  Perhaps one of the least expected results of the present conjuncture is that the Triple Entente, which was supposed to possess less cohesive efficiency than the rival organisation, has proved, on the contrary, the stronger of the two.  The Triple Alliance is not true to its name.  Italy, the third and unwilling member, still preserves her neutrality, and declares that her interests are not immediately involved.

[1] Subsequently joined by Japan.

NEVER AGAIN!

In order to attempt to discover the vast changes that are likely to come as a direct consequence of the present Armageddon, it is necessary to refer in brief retrospect to some of the main causes and features of the great European war.  Meanwhile, I think the general feeling amongst all thoughtful men is best expressed in the phrase, “Never again.”  Never again must we have to face the possibility of such a world-wide catastrophe.  Never again must it be possible for the pursuit of merely selfish interests to work such colossal havoc.  Never again must we have war as the only solution of national differences.  Never again must all the arts of peace be suspended while Europe rings to the tramp of armed millions.  Never again must spiritual, moral, artistic culture be submerged under a wave of barbarism.  Never again must the Ruler of this Universe be addressed as the “God of battles.”  Never again shall a new Wordsworth hail “carnage” as “God’s daughter.”  The illogicality of it all is too patent.  That everything which we respect and revere in the way of science or thought, or culture, or music, or poetry, or drama, should be cast into the melting-pot to satisfy dynastic ambition