12 
LAND & WATER 
November 2, 1916 
blew up. Inall the other cases, many of which occured 
in the course of the dayhght action, it was not even 
claimed that the injured ship had to leave the line. 
In the British fleet, of course, only Marlborough was 
hit. and the excellence of her shooting afterwards, 
and the ease with which she kept her place in the 
line and then made her way home under her own 
steam wore duly emphasised by the Connnander in 
Chief. Last August year it may be remembered, the 
German battle cruiser Moltkc was torpedoed in the Gulf 
of Riga and won back to Kiel all across the Baltic Sea 
without dithculty. Now the Admiralty communique 
tells us that tlic Nubian, whose sides and bulkheads must 
be of the frailest possible, not only survived torpedo attack, 
but was in a condition in which she could be towed home. 
All this stands in sharp constrast with the fate of the 
older vessels that fell to submarines in the earlier part of 
the war. Abonkir, Crcssy, Hague . Niger, Hermes, For- 
midable, Triumph, Majestic and the rest were utterly 
doomed from the moment they were hit. It seems clear 
then that during the last ten years naval constructors 
have provided against under water attack with very 
singular success. 1 am , of course , far from suggesting that a 
single torpedo could not possibly sink the stoutest battle- 
ship in the world. But it certainly is startling and, as it 
seems to me, extremely consoling, that here we ha\e nearly 
twenty cases of modern ships being torpedoed, of which 
only one was known to have jjroved fatal. The experience of 
Jutland, then, is on all fours with an almost ecjuul number 
of cases before and since, and this may not improbably 
prove one of the most important lessons of that most 
instructive engagement. ' Arthuk Pollen 
a 
Pusillanimous Neutrality 
99 
By John G, VaiV der Veer (London Editor of the Amsterdam " Telegraaf " ) 
r 
THE King and people of Roumania joined the 
.Vllied cause, said Mr. Asquith recently in the 
House of Commons, " in defiance of a thousand 
calls to a ])usillanimous and self-regarding neu- 
trality." I have taken the liberty to use these words for 
my subject, of course without implying that Mr. Asquith 
meant them for any neutral country. But in my honest 
opinion they fittingly describe the attitude of all those 
who remain looking on at the struggle " on behalf of the 
threatened independence of small nationalities." I 
always held, and often wrote in our paper, tliat no 
country which took part in the Peace Conferences at 
The Hague, ought to have remained neutral after Ger- 
many intentionally rejected any peaceful settlement of 
the dispute and provoked war by violating one of the 
main objects of the Hague Conventions — to protect neutral 
territorj'. And' the cruel and brutal manner in which 
Germany violated the Law of Nations, even in regard 
to the rights and safety of neutrals, made the maintenance 
of neutrality towards her utterly pusillanimous. 
In a certain sense, the other adjective is less appro- 
priate. For due self-regard concerning their highest 
interests ought to induce any neutral country to follow 
the courageous example of Roumania. Every one of them 
was implicitly threatened by Germany's ambition. Her 
intended hegemony endangered as much the independence 
of Spain and Switzerland as of Denmark and Holland. 
And Lord Grey did well to remind them all, in his memor- 
able speech at the luncheon of the Foreign Press Associa- 
tion, of a statement made by the German Professor Ost- 
wald, that " the principle of absolute sovereignty of 
individual nations must be' given up." Professor 
Ostwald meant, of course, the small nations. And if 
that was the opinion of a moderate German, who called 
himself a pacifist, what then must have been at the back 
of the mind of the prime-movers to war, the pan-Ger- 
mans ? But they never concealed their view that 
Germany was " destined " to conquer and lead the 
world. They even had their eyes on America, as Pro- 
fessor Newbold of the University of Pennsylvania re- 
vealed in the New York Times of September 27th. 
It is worth while to quote his revelation. Professor 
Newbold recorded a conversation, which some years ago 
he had on a Transatlantic boat with three Austrian 
olhcers, one of whom said that the Germans, being like 
the ancient Romans the most conspicuous " male " 
race, were resolved " to fulfil their manifest destiny by 
conquering the entire earth," for which " the military 
plans had long ago been drawn up," and professed to 
have been seen by that officer. They included the cour 
quest of the United States and Canada, which was " sche- 
duled for the near future." That conquest would be 
aided by a strong organisation of Germans throughout 
the North .\merican continent, with the dhjccfhi keeping 
German Kultur and allegiance alivec, and/' some of 
whose leaders that ofticr had been visiting. This does 
tUat sound so Utopian, after all that happened in the 
"t^nited States. Professor Newbold, writes : 
At the time, Ivieutenant 's revelations, and 
prognostications e.xcited in my mind 'more amusement 
than alarm ; in fact, I laughed at them. . . . But 
a .few weeks later 1 liad reason to take a more 
serious view of Lieutenant 's ideas, in so far 
as they related to the attitude of the ruling class 
jin Germany. I met in Munich a German who had 
long been, so I was told, in the diplomatic service, who 
spoke English as well asT did, and was thoroughly con- 
versant with American conditions, having lived long in 
Washington. 1 told him something of Lieutenant 
's views as an illustration of the extremes to which 
patriotism, when not regulated by intelligence, would 
carry a man. To my surprise he replied, in effect : " I 
see nothing extravagant in all that. Nothing counts 
nowadays except brains. Wc Germans have them and 
the rest of you haven't. I don't say we shall conquer the 
entire earth, but I do say that we shall conquer as much 
of it as we please, and you cannot prevent it. Try to if 
you dare." 
Now, though such ideas may seem prodigious, they 
faithfully interpret the Teutonic mind. Only a few months 
ago the German Professor, von Stengel of Munich, a 
well-known expert vn International Law, said in a, state- 
ment which he submitted to the Dutch anti-War Council : 
" The whole war up to date has shown {sii), that Germany 
has been chosen' by Providence to lead all (jther ])eoples. 
We shall march at their head and bring them to abiding 
peace. For this mission we have the force and also the 
spiritual gifts, and we are tlie crown of tiie whole civilisa - 
tion. . . . The whole world, and especially the neutral 
countries, have only one means of profitable existence. It 
is to submit to our guidance, which is superior to all others 
from every point of view. No people has more wide- 
spread or higher ideals than we, and no one under our 
rule (mark the word) need worry about his rights." 
This was not spoken in Bedlam, but coolly put on paper 
in one of the German Universities. We know to what 
kind of " abiding peace " Germany would bring other 
peoples, and how " profitable " their existence would be 
" under " German rule. It would be Zabern on a big 
scale ! But that a German professor could still talk in 
that manner after two years futile war to bring other 
peoples " under (their) rule ! " proves clearly how thorough 
and decisive must be Germany's defeat to crush that 
baneful spirit of danger to other peoples. Left with any 
shred of power or the least opportunity, Germany will 
find other means and ways to accomplish her end, in 
bringing other peoples " under " her rule. And who will 
then help them, when they now withhold their .support 
from the Allies, while they are engaged in a terrific struggle 
to thwart the Teutonic domination of the world ? I 
have particular fear for the future independence of 
Holland, if she does not in time gain the support of the 
Entente Powers, who now have pledged their manhood 
and full resources for the restoration of Belgium, Serbia, 
and Montenegro. 
I cannot help having little faith in a League of Nations 
after the war, to which Germany should belong, for it 
will take a long time to cure her of the dpeply-iooted habit 
of intrigue. I should have more trust in a League of Free 
Nations to keep Germany for a long time under restraint, 
powerless to do mischief again, or to draw other peoples 
