It is no answer to this question to suggest that war educes many splendid qualities.  Of course it does.  And so, too, does exploration of Polar solitudes, or even climbing Alpine or Himalayan heights.  Either war is a detestable solution of our difficulties, or it is not.  If it is not, then we have no right whatsoever to object to the Prussian ideal.  But if it is, let us call it by its proper name.  Let us say that it is devil’s work, and have done with it.

EVIL OF ARMAMENTS

We are trying not only to understand what Europe will be like if, as we hope, this war ends successfully for the Allies, but what sort of new Europe it will be in the hands of the conquerors to frame.  Those who come after us are to find in that new Europe real possibilities of advance in all the higher kinds of civilisation.  Not only are the various states to contain sane and healthy people who desire to live in peace with their neighbours, but people who will desire to realise themselves in science, in philosophic thought, in art, in literature.  What is an indispensable condition for an evolution of this sort?  It must be the absence of all uneasiness, the growth of a serene confidence and trust, the obliteration of envy, jealousy, and every kind of unreasonableness.  The cause, above all others, which has produced an opposite condition of things, which has created the unfortunate Europe in which we have hitherto had to live, is the growth and extension of armaments.  The main factor, then, in our problem is the existence of such swollen armaments as have wasted the resources of every nation and embittered the minds of rival peoples.  How are we to meet this intolerable evil of armaments?

ABSENCE OF PROVOCATION

In the first place, let us remark that on our supposition—­the eventual victory of the Allies—­one of the great disturbing elements will have been put out of the field.  Europe has hitherto been lulled into an uneasy and fractious sleep by the balance of two great organisations.  Under the happiest hypothesis the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente will have disappeared into the deep backward and abysm of time.  For all practical purposes there will be no Triple Alliance, and therefore no Triple Entente to confront it.  With Austria wiped out of the map for all purposes of offence, and Germany restricted within modest dimensions, the three powers of the Triple Entente—­Great Britain, France, and Russia—­can do what they like, and as they are sworn friends and allies they can take their own steps undisturbed by fears of hostile combinations.  Why should these three allies consent any further to keep up bloated armaments?  It is against their own interests and against the interests of the world.  So long as Germany existed as a power and developed her own ambitions, we were always on the edge of a catastrophe.  With the conquest of Germany that nightmare will have