XII 



A FOREIGN INVASION OF ENGLAND 



OUR worst enemies are not always the most 

 apparent ones. It is easy enough to build 

 forts for the protection of our towns and 

 harbours against French or Germans, but it is 

 very difficult to devise means of defence against 

 such insidious foreign invaders as the influenza 

 germ or the Colerado beetle. France lost much 

 by the war with Germany, but she probably lost 

 more by the silent onslaught of the tiny phylloxera, 

 which attacked her vineyards attacked them, liter- 

 ally, root and branch, and paralysed for several 

 years one of her richest industries. Yet invasions 

 like these, being less obvious to the eye than 

 the landing of a boat-load of French or German 

 marines on some bare rock in the Pacific claimed 

 by Britain, attract far less attention than aggres- 

 sions on the Niger or advances in Central Africa. 

 The smallness of the foe makes us overlook its 

 real strength it has the force of numbers. We 

 forget that while we can exterminate hostile human 

 bands with Armstrongs and torpedo-boats, the re- 

 sources of civilisation are still all but powerless 

 against the potato blight, the vine disease, and the 



destroying microbe. 



284 



