3 oo SCIENCE PROGRESS 



to fill the Mediterranean with German submarines. They 

 undertook expeditions — Antwerp, Gallipoli, Salonika, Meso- 

 potamia, Palestine — which have been either disasters or only 

 partially successful. Even now in the fourth year of the war 

 the food question remains doubtful, the submarine problem is 

 unsolved, and we have not provided enough aeroplanes to 

 repell raids on the capital of the empire in the full light of 

 day. But these subjects are too familiar for anything more 

 than mere mention ; and about Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, and 

 Rumania, Britons remain silent. 



It is not denied that we have much to the credit side of 

 the account. Our action was fully justified. Our navy has 

 kept the surface of the ocean. Lord Kitchener created the 

 new armies. Mr. Lloyd George created the new munition 

 factories. Our men of science have found how to destroy 

 Zeppelins and to control disease and cure wounds in the field ; 

 and the War Office has organised gigantic supply and trans- 

 port services. Either from the justice of our cause or from 

 considerate handling of neutrals, almost all of these have now 

 ranged themselves on our side. Above all, millions of our 

 young men have shown a magnificent spirit in giving them- 

 selves voluntarily for the service of our country, and won- 

 derful courage, endurance, and cheerfulness in the most trying 

 of all wars ; and our young women have helped in the hour 

 of need and have not trembled in the hour of sorrow. Even 

 our politicians have lately reformed themselves. 



The body of the nation was healthy — but it possessed no 

 brain. The fundamental error was the neglect by our poli- 

 ticians to arm the nation fully in the hour of danger — an error 

 still more colossal than that which cost us our American colonies. 

 It has had three results, first to give the Germans their oppor- 

 tunity, secondly to retard victory, and thirdly to squander 

 the youth and the treasure of the country unnecessarily. As 

 in the other case mentioned, the fault was that of our rulers — 

 utterly ignorant of war, foreseeing nothing, preparing nothing, 

 deciding nothing until driven by public opinion. Campaigns 

 commenced without full consideration ; military councils often 

 packed with politicians ; political adventurers put in supreme 

 power ; truckling to cranks — as in the cases of retaliation and 

 the so-called conscientious objectors ; appeals instead of com- 

 mands to the populace, even in the hour of extreme danger. 



