LAND AND WATER 
September 5, 1914 
In the view of the <1.iiis;pis ai-.J the i-ircumstance tliat we are 
net frtixiiig enough to entertain any idea of provoking a b;vUlc, the 
quest-cn remaine. What are the means of defensive naval strategy 
to secnre protection from a superior and welJ-preparcd enemy, and 
gradually to become its maetcr? 
The plan might be fomicd of anticipat.ing the enemy by a 
euddcn attatk, instead of waiting passively for Lim to attack first, 
and of opening the war as the Japanese did before Port Arthur. 
In this way the English fleet might be badly damaged at the out- 
set of the real hostilities, its superiority might be lessened, and 
the beginning of the effective blockade delayed at least for a short 
time. It is not unthinkable that 6Uoh an attempt will be made. 
Such au undertaking, however, doee not seem to me to proniise 
any great success. 
The war against the English commerce must none the Jess be 
boldly and energetically prosecuted, and sliould start unexpectedly. 
The priws which fall into our hands must be remorsclesdy 
destroyed, since it will usually be impossible, owing to the great 
English superiority and the few bases we have abroad, to bring 
them back in safety without exposing our vessels to great risks. 
It would be necessary to take further steps to i>ecure tie 
importation from abroad of supplies necessary to us, since oni' own 
••oniraunicatione will be completely cut off by the English. The 
simplest and cheapest way would be if we obtained foreign goods 
through Holland or perhaps neutral Belgium; and could e-xpoit 
some part of our own products through the great Diitch and 
Flemish harbours. New commercial routes might ba discovered 
through Denmark. Our own oversea commerce would remain 
suspended, but such measures would prevent an absolute stagnar 
tiou of trade. 
It is, liov.ever, very unlikely that England would tolerate such 
communications through neutral temtory, since in that way the 
effect of her war on our trade would be much reduced. The 
attempt to block these trade routes would approximate to a breach 
of neutrality, and the States in question would have to face the 
luomeiitoos question, whether they would conform to England's 
will, and thus incur Germany's enmity, or would prefer that 
adhofiion to the German Empire wliich geography dictates. They 
would have the choice between a. naval war witi England and a 
Continental war with their German neighbours — two possibilities, 
each of which contains great dangers. That England would pay 
much attention to the neutrality of weaker neighbours when such 
a stake was at i^sue is hai'dly credible, 
GERMANY, WHEN THE SEA HATH SPOKEN. 
Yet after a month's war only four unarmed merchant ships 
Under the British flag have been " remorselessly destroyed,'' 
plus a boat line-fishing iu Icelandic waters. 
A country like the German Empire depends on an extensive 
foreign trade in order to find work and food for it* grov.ing 
population. 
Ixt us imagine the endless misery which a protracted stoppage 
or definite destruction of our oversea trade would bring upon the 
whole n.Ttion, and in particular on the masses of the industrial 
cla.'^.sefi who live on our export trade. 
* « * • • • 
Complicated and grave questions, military as well as political, 
are thus raised by an Auglo-German war. Our trade wotdd in ajiy 
case suffer greatly, for sea communications coidd be cut off on every 
side. Let us assume that France and Russia seal our land frontiers, 
then the only trade route left open to us is through Switzerland 
and .\ustria — a condition of affairs whicih would aggravate diffi- 
culties at home, and should stimulate us to carry on the war with 
incicased vigour. In any caee, when war threatens we must lose 
no time .in preparing a road on which we can import the most 
essential foodstuffs and raw materials, and also exi»rt, if only in 
small quantities, the surplus of our industrial products. .Such 
measures (annot be made on the spur of the moment. They nmeS, 
be etaLoratcd in peace time, and a definite department "of the 
Government must be responsible for these preparations. 
These suggestions indicate the preliminary measures to be 
adopted by us in the eventuality of a war with England. We 
should at first carry on a defensive war, and would therefore h.ave 
to reckon on a blockade of our coasts, if wc succeed in repelling 
the probable English attack. 
Such a blockade can be carried out in two ways. England 
can blockade closely our North Sea coaift, and at the same time 
bar the Danisli straits, so as to cut off communi«itions with our 
Baltic ports; or she can seal up on the one side the Channel 
between England and the Continent, on the other side the open 
eea betweeii the north of Scotland and Norway, on the Peterhcad- 
Ekcrsund line, and thus cripple our oversea commerce and also 
control the Belgo-Dutoh, Danish, and Swedish shipping. 
We must fight the French fle.^t, so to spCitk, on land—;'.*'., we 
must defeat France so decisively that she would be compelled to 
rciKHiMce her alliance with England and withdraw her fleet to R.ave 
Iier.self from total destruction. Jntt a.? in 1870-71 we marched to 
the ehore« of the Atlantic, .eo this time again we must resolve on 
«M absolute conquest, in order to capture the Frencli naval ports 
atid d&otroy the French naval depots. It would be a war to the 
knife with Fi-ance, one which would, if victorious, aniiihihite once 
for all the French position a."? a Great Power. 
I, — • ' » » * ■ 
Who, then, can doubt that Germany has set herself the 
task of ruling the world? 
Since war broke out Germans have bunit Belgian libraries, 
universities and churches, shot priests and doctors, destroyed 
public monuments and hospitals. Their Emperor's instructions 
■were to act like the Goths with Alaric, and by " ruthlessly 
destroying" the population to strike such terror into man, 
woman, and child that none might dare to raise thedr cyc« 
whilst his destroyers passed. Wc know why General Bernhardi 
endorses and quotes from Trcitschke's " Politic." 
"God will fee to it," says Treit«thke, "that war aJwaya 
recurs as a drastic medicine for the human race ! " 
His Calho'ic allies from Austria and Bavaria secure this 
crumb of comfort : 
The dogmatism of Protestant orthodoxy and the Jesuitic ten- 
dcncics of ultiamoutaniEiu of the Catholics must be sinnKiuiited 
before any common i-cligiou6 movement can be contemplated. Cut 
no Gennau statesman can disregard this aspect of affairs, nor must 
he ever forget that the greatness of our nation is rooted exdutively 
on Protestantism. Jyfgaily and socially, all denominations enjoy 
equal rights, but the Gcrmaji State must never rcnouuee the 
leadership in the domain of free spiritual development. To do ce 
would mean loss of prestige. 
The late Professor Cramb (lecturer on Modern History, 
Queen's College, London), with his Gennan education and wide 
knowledge of German histoid, literature, and thought, here 
confirms Bemhardi. He declares that Germany's part in the 
future is 
to resume that creative rMe in religion which the whole Tcutonio 
race abandoned fourteen ccntuiies ago. Judsea and Galilee cast 
their dreary spell over Greece and Rome when Greece and Rome 
were already sinking into decreptitude and the creative power in 
them was exhausted, when wearinees and bittemces wakened with 
their greatest spirits at day and sank to Sleep again with them 
at niglit. But Judsea and Galilee struck Germany in the splendour 
and heroism of her prime. Germany and the whole Teutonic people 
in the fifth century made the great error. They conquered Rome, 
but, dazzled by Rome's authority, they adopted the religion and 
the culture of the vanquished. Germany's own deep relii^ious 
instinct, her native genius for religion, manifested in her creative 
success, was arrested, stunted, thwarted. But, having once 
adopted the new faith, she strove to Uve that faith, and for more 
than thirty generations she has struggled and wrestled to see with 
eyes that were not her eyes to worsliip a God that wa£ not her 
God, to live with a world vision that was not her vision, and to 
strive for a heaven that was not her heaven. 
Very consoling for the Rhine Provinces and South Ger- 
many, apparently ! Germany, if victorious, will not confine ita 
ilirective powers to the ways of Nations, but will invade the 
re-alms of God and produce a new and universal religion ! 
What a portentous concept! Theru is foetus in the womb o£ 
destiny which, if not destroyed, promises to grow into a 
monster. The new Germany seeks to tumble down old ideals, 
shatter old faiths, destroy human liberty, set us a spurious 
Napol.^ouism, and force us to bow before a shrine from whence 
the spirit has departed. Such is the new " Protestantism " oil 
which the greatness of the Gennan Empire is to be exdusivelj 
rooted. Its gospel, however, is not to be found in Luther, nor 
is it even original — it has been taken without acknowledge- 
ment from the '' Decline and Fall," and is but a pale reflex of 
the pigments used by Gibbon. 
Professor Cramb suggests that the new cult is already an 
established creed in Germany, for he proclaims: 
In Europe, I say, tlxis conflict between Christ and Napoleon 
for the masiteiy over the minds of men is the most sigmficant 
spiritual phenomenon of the twentieth century. 
^lore tlian the Em-ope of 1800 and 1801, which saw in the 
vi«tor of Marengo the ilohanvmcd of a new era, the cnunciator of 
a new faith, young Gemiany, the Germany of to-day, in the 
writings of 'Treitachke and of the followers of Tmtschke, studies 
Napoleonism, illumining politics with an austere and uplifting 
grandeur. In the wiitings of Nietzsche and of the followers of 
Nietzsche they study the same Napoleoniem, transforming the 
principles of everyday life, breathing a new spirit into ethics, 
transfiguring the tedious, half-hypocritical morality of an earlier 
generation. 
The baleful fires of Louvain University are but lit from 
the torch with which Khalif Omar fired the Librai-y of Alex- 
andria — the philosophies of Paynim and Teuton toucli a 
common periphery. 
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