THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



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standing was more acute, on both sides, 

 between the English-speaking countries. 



Even the best-informed Americans had 

 but inadequate conception of the burden 

 Britain was carrying. Prejudice was rife 

 in this country, and was sedulously culti- 

 vated in many quarters and by divers in- 

 terests. On the other hand, opinion in 

 Britain was settling down to conviction 

 that America would stand any humilia- 

 tion, submit to any insult, rather than 

 fight. 



Britain had without hesitation entered 

 a war to which the enemy had not chal- 

 lenged her, because she believed she was 

 doing right. She wanted the moral sup- 

 port, and she sorely needed the material 

 aid, that the great daughter State could 

 bring. Why was America so slow to see 

 and understand? Were we indeed as 

 sordid and selfish as the Anglophobes 

 among us were wont to charge Britain 

 with being? Were we merely a race of 

 profiteers ? 



Britain's moral leadership 



Today, with our millions of soldiers 

 and billions of wealth fighting alongside 

 Britain's, we may remind ourselves of 

 those trying months, and the reminder 

 must make us grateful that things are as 

 they are. It would be alike futile and 

 foolish to ask how long our aloofness 

 might have continued without creating 

 incurable distrust between the two An- 

 glo-Saxon nations and bringing disaster 

 to the world. 



Eor that she furnished the moral lead- 

 ership, the instant courage, the true per- 

 ception of underlying issues, Britain^ is 

 entitled to recognition as the force which 

 made this war, from its first gun, essen- 

 tially a contest between systems rather 

 than States ; between ideals, not alliances ; 

 between good morals and bad morals. 



It was the confidence of the nations, 

 small and great, near and far, in this 

 moral leadership of Britain that saved 

 the world. That confidence nerved Bel- 

 gium to bare her breast to the first blow, 

 to meet the first shock of invasion with 

 all she could summon, and to stay it for 

 a little time while the forces of civiliza- 

 tion could make their initial rally. That 

 confidence brought Portugal, oldest of 

 England's allies, into the field. 



It brought Japan, newest and most 

 powerful of Britain's allies, with shin- 

 ing armor and well-tried sword, into the 

 arena as sentinel of the eastern gateways, 

 guardian over the peace of the East, too 

 long and insidiously tempted by the plot- 

 ters of Berlin. 



It brought the colonies and dominions 

 of the world-flung Empire straightway to 

 "shoulder arms" at the foot of Britain's 

 democratic throne, bearing their yet un- 

 sought pledges of loyalty and devotion. 

 The princes of India, the Boers of Africa, 

 the men of Canada and Australia, the 

 Maoris of New Zealand, trooped unbid- 

 den to their places in the ranks. 



Yet the wealth and resources of the 

 Empire — in men, money, and industry — 

 were not the greatest of Britain's contri- 

 butions. More potent than these was the 

 fund of moral credit enlisted in the cause 

 on the day when Britain gave it her en- 

 dorsement. The scales of prejudice fell 

 from a thousand million eyes in that hour 

 when men envisaged the contrast between 

 autocracy, prepared, and democracy, in- 

 spired. 



BRITAIN SAVED HER DEMOCRACY 



What has the war done in Britain, to 

 Britain, for Britain, and through Britain, 

 for the world? 



First of all, it has saved Britain for 

 democracy ; it has reincarnated, in a new 

 Britain, the spirit of democracy, the love 

 of freedom, the devotion to fair play 

 and substantial justice that for a thou- 

 sand years have made Britain the leader 

 of civilization. Other peoples may have 

 at times displayed equal zeal in behalf of 

 human rights and equality, but what one 

 has been able to temper and direct these 

 fine aspirations as they have been directed 

 by the genius of the British race for 

 political and institutional construction ? 



Before the war the world heard much 

 about British decadence. Your true Brit- 

 isher has an almost morbid tendency to 

 misgiving about the state of the national 

 soul. He is pretty positive, when affairs 

 wear a favorable aspect, that there is 

 something radically wrong just under- 

 neath ; and when they look thoroughly 

 bad, that they are really much worse. 



The Britisher's passion for self-depre- 

 cation is only equaled by the German's 



