MILITARISM AND PARTY-POLITICS 389 



1890 one of our politicians was so foolish as to give Germany 

 a British island not far from our own coast. This she fortified, 

 and with the aid of the Kiel Canal which she had constructed in 

 territory conquered from the Danes she established an im- 

 mensely powerful naval base facing us. At the same time she 

 began to build her navy, ship by ship, evidently in emulation 

 of ours ; and every year witnessed its greater growth. Not 

 content with the military hegemony of Europe, Germany was 

 evidently going to challenge the naval hegemony of Britain — 

 her people gloried in the idea and even spoke openly of the 

 great victory which was about to come to them. These things 

 cannot be denied. Germany was within her rights to build a 

 navy ; but it was a right which could be exercised only to our 

 danger. She denied that she was threatening us ; but of what 

 use to us was that denial when we saw the pistol pointed at our 

 head ? To us our navy was vital ; to her her navy was a toy. 

 But the toy was loaded and might be used at any moment. 

 There are times when we do wrong if we do things which we 

 have every right to do ; and that is when our right threatens 

 another's. Thus Germany had chosen her way. She rejected 

 the magnanimous way and adopted the other. She was not 

 content with the triumphs of peace, but would wrest their 

 goods from others by war. She made her choice— and it was 

 the choice, not of the warrior, but of the brigand. 



Here we must draw an obvious distinction. There is a 

 good militarism and a bad militarism. The one seeks by every 

 possible precaution to ensure an honourable defence : the other 

 seeks by every possible trick to achieve a dishonourable offence. 

 The one is the attitude of the strong man armed in his own 

 house ; the other is the attitude of the strong man armed in 

 another's house. Germany has produced many false philoso- 

 phies ; but the most evil of these has been the philosophy which 

 attempts to justify in us the spirit of the bandit — the heart of 

 the tiger. To rush upon her unprepared neighbours, to seize 

 their goods, to demand enormous indemnities from them, and to 

 hold them under while they suffer, have been her false creed. 

 And the evil has been heightened by the innumerable tricks of 

 the robber. She made treaties which she had no intention of 

 keeping — treaties with other nations and conventions regarding 

 the rules of war. She utilised her own citizens who were living 

 in foreign countries to abuse the hospitality shown to them by 



