298 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



The Great Folly 



But was it only the Germans who were to blame ? 



The writer was in Germany just before the war. Surprise 

 was expressed to him by several persons of distinction, favour- 

 able to England, at the passive attitude of our politicians 

 towards the doings of the Irish and of the suffragettes. There 

 was evidently a veiled feeling of contempt and an idea that 

 Britain was becoming degenerate ; and similar feelings cer- 

 tainly existed widely in our colonies and in America. Our 

 trades and manufactures were passing in bulk to other nations. 

 Our cities were collections of slums full of unhealthy people 

 all clamouring for their rights and neglecting their duties as 

 much as possible. Strikes were incessant. Games, proces- 

 sions, shows, and elections were the only things that interested 

 the populace. Education was bad, science and art neglected, 

 the drama despicable. The army was reduced in numbers to 

 the lowest possible limit. There was no sense of discipline any- 

 where ; and the hustings-orators who ruled us by pandering 

 to the mob scarcely dared even to maintain the common law. 



Brigandage can exist only under two conditions, the effi- 

 ciency of the brigand and the inefficiency of his neighbours. 

 From their previous wars the Germans had learnt the old 

 lesson that war may be made a paying game, and had become 

 a brigand-nation. Quietly they perfected their organisation, 

 and watched with amusement the disorganisation of the 

 nations which surrounded them. 



The danger was apparent to everyone : how did our poli- 

 ticians meet it ? We need only recapitulate the well-known 

 facts. 



In 1890 they gave Heligoland to Germany, thus enabling 

 the Germans to form with the aid of the Kiel Canal a strategic 

 base of extreme strength for their navy, situated just opposite 

 our shores, difficult of attack by us but invaluable for attacks 

 upon us. The Germans now commenced to increase their 

 navy rapidly, obviously to challenge our supremacy. After 

 the Boer War, the danger began to be urged in innumerable 

 articles, pamphlets, professional books, and even novels and 

 plays ; the National Service League, numbering many thou- 

 sands of members, was formed ; and the old Lord Roberts 

 undertook his prophetic propaganda to induce the country 



