13 
LAND & WATER 
June 7, Kji; 
France, her formidable and permanent rival, she did lier best 
to destroy, and the only flaw in hei success was licr inaliitity 
to achieve this altogether. She went very far towards accom- 
plishing it I These things done she proceeded to develop 
upon her own lines the new material power of the German 
peoples and their common consciousness. The success was 
colossal. The whole thing from 1864 to 1914 is a model of 
what victory means in the full political sense of the word. 
Now let as ask ourselves what, under the present circum- 
stances, a similar victory means for us. 
Great Britain and her Dominions arc fighting in alliance 
with the French and others to defeat Prussia and her Allies 
.n the held. That is, to disarm Prussia and her .\llies. Hut 
with what political object ? The deeper you go into that 
object, the more successfully vou detine it, the nearer you 
get to the simple word " security." There must be seciii"ity 
in the future for the existence, for the civilisation of liurope to 
live in its own fashion. But especially, and in particular for 
Britain, tiiere must be security. There must be security for 
the arrival of material without which Britain cannot live, and 
for the communications between Britain and the Depend- 
encies and the Dominions. Behind all this there must be 
security for that ancient civilisation of Furope by which Bri- 
tain, though patriots may be reluctant to admit it, lives as by 
the breathing of a common air. 
We have learnt in these last years to appreciate only too 
vividly what that spirit of Europe is. We have seen it con- 
trasted with a spirit usually in rebelHon with the traditions of 
Europe and through that contrast we have awakened to 
the truth that the tradition of European civilisation is the 
very air we breathe. A man would hardly know there was 
such a thing as breathable air unless he were at times in part 
deprived of it. We, in these last years, have seen what it 
means to be deprived by the barbarian of the decencies, and 
the sanctities, which make up the tradition of Hluropc. We 
used simply to take it for granted that the medical service 
in modern war was immune ; that prisoners would never be 
.turned into slaves ; that certain poisons, though known to 
and available by our high modern science, would not be 
allowed to tarnish the record of war ; that our great inheri- 
tance of monuments from the past was a thing no one would 
to-day dream of destroying. We even took it for granted, 
most of us, that by something necessary to the soul of Europe 
neutral soil was inviolable, etc., etc. It is only by the German 
negation of these things one after the other that we have come 
to learn both their positive value and the peril in which they 
stand. The German peoples who have rebelled against the 
right reason of Europe have, point by point, broken all those 
laws which we took to be, as it were, in the nature of things. 
They will break, before the end coines, many more which we 
still think universally sacred. There is no limit to their 
l>ower of desecration, for they are base and in full revolt. 
When the baser thing breaks out and defies its master, we 
know what follows. 
Well, then, that word security applied most generally to the 
security of European tradition, is our main object. It is that 
•which must be achieved. But it will not be achieved and 
cannot be achieved unless the enemy is finally defeated in the 
field. Let him escape and he is stronger than ever. The 
future will be full of his pride and power. Let him be broken 
thoroughly, then and then only is he tamed. 
Now, there is for Great Britain in particular, a meaning 
attaching to this word " security " which gives it a sjiecial 
value for these islands. Every habit of the English mind, 
every rule and practice of the constitution at the centre, and 
of daily life at the circumference, presupposes a most ample 
security. The tolerant spirit that can be so easily earned 
to an excess, the refusal to organise, the conservation of 
custom, all these obvious things, and from them down to the 
very details of art, clothing, and building, presuppose this 
security. The whole economic system of the country with its 
vast development of industry based upon imported material, 
presupposes this security. All the pleasant illusions pre- 
supposed it, but so did also all the stronger virtues of the race. 
It was not a security granted by climate, or any other geo- 
graphical circumstance, or by any accident, still less was it 
a gift from others. It was a security acquired by a certain 
internal discipline coupled with a sufieriority in the building 
and handling of ships. And both of these have been guaran- 
teed by certain limits beyond which it was believed that our 
neighbours would never go in the prosecution of attack. 
Certain savage and distant peoples, we knew, would transgress 
tiiose limits, but then they were not possessed of the material 
power to destroy the security by which wc hved. We all 
took it for granted that tlie man civilised in mind had also 
the monopoly of sujierior instruments. That the sort of man 
who would sink hospital ships or burn a cathedral or enslave 
wuineii was liere in Eurnpf, ))ossessed of our common 
Euinptaii science, llt:il we never dreamt. 
Huv,', at the present nioiucut, in view ul what has passed 
and after the revelation the enemy has made of himself, all 
this fundamental condition is in jeopardy and at stake. 
Unless we can reach as a result of victory certain political 
objects which will re-establish the security of which 1 speak, 
the war has been fought in vain, and we shall lie under the 
burden of heavy defeat. The German armies might have 
withdrawn, payment for wanton destructicm might have been 
made — and yet that security would be finally lost and we 
should come out of the war a defeated country — with further 
humiliation before us. 
How is that goal of security to be reached ? What is the 
method by which true victory can be reached and main- 
tained ? 
To this question the answer too often given is cither one 
of mechanical arrangement — which may be more properly 
called paper arrangement — or of sheer illusion 
.As an example of mechanical or paper arrangement, you 
have the innumerable .schemes for international conferences,, 
an international Court and the rest of it, which shall in some 
mysterious fashion have power — though no man is willing to 
die for it, though it has not even an army at its back. And 
this Court in some equally mysterious waV, is going to concern 
itself specially with the" security of (ireat Britain and her 
system, and to prove indifferent, or even harsh to interests 
which conflict with her owii. 
Such ideals in their insular exaggeration are absurd. But 
the conception of general peace though a sort of European 
conscience, is not ignoble nor even fantastic, always supposing 
that there is an opinion re-established in Europe which will 
support it. The crux lies in the re-estabhshment of that 
opinion : nothing short of defeat will enforce it on Germany. 
As for illusions they also take their place. Some seem to 
think that the mere possession of the persons of the Prussian 
Hohcnzollern family will in some fashion make the enemy turn 
into something other than what he is and what he has proved 
himself to be. Others have persuaded themselves that the 
Germans would never have been i'ailty of these nameless 
horrors save for the orders of wicked taskmasters ; others 
hark back to some idea that the German enthusiasm for evil 
is passing, and that it will disappear as the result of the 
" bleeding," already suffered, even if peace were made to-day. 
No one of these mechanical arrang ments or of these illusions 
can secure true victory. The illusions or anything ba.sed upon 
the illusipns would sirnply throw victory away. The mechanical 
arrangements would simply work in the void— if the enemy's 
organisation survives. 
Just Retribution 
One thing only will restore security and that is a 
\ictory over the armed forces of the enemv, his di-;- 
armament, and then the exaction of just retribution. If 
that is not done from lack of will and tenacity, then we have 
voluntarily lost in the great debate, and we .shall no longer be 
ourselves again for ever. If it cannot be done from lack of 
power, then we have comptilsorily lost the future of luigland. 
If it is done — and only if it is done— can the security of 
Britain with all that it means, be restored. 
Retribution is a part of justice and still more in the present 
connection a necessary part of folicv. Those who have de- 
liberately destroyed must restore. Those who were guilty of 
breaking the public law of Europe, must suffer a penalty. For 
there is nothing final that is not rooted in the spirit, and if 
yon do not break the evil will you do not conquer evil. 
The Eng ish papers have not printed the greater .part of the 
evidence against the enemy. The reason they ha\e not done 
so is, I think, in the main, that sort of reticence with regard to 
things physically repulsive which is a very maiked character 
in the modern Enghsh temperament. But if any one will ask 
those of his friends who can bear ' vidence as to what has 
happened in the invaded countries, if any one will ask such a 
man for his own particular experience, ";ind m:my such men 
for their own particular experiences, I think he will'be app ilkd. 
It is not only a record of cruelty, it is a record of amazing and 
inhuman dirt. It is not only" a record of amazing and in- 
human dirt, it is a record ofdiabolic.il things in the way 
of calculated insult and oppression. When that spirit gets 
into an individual or into a communitv. you must extirpate it. 
You must kill it or it will kill its neighbours, and amongst its 
neighbours 'k yoilVself. You can only extir])ate it by breaking 
its will, and you can only break its will by punishment. There 
will be fno true victory unless by its own labour the German 
comnfunity which has done these things of its own free will, 
and even with delight, is compelled to restore the material 
part of that which it has destroyed. There will be no victory 
unless a very large number of men personally and demon- 
strably guilty of the evil deeds are personally punished for 
thrill ; and there will be no victory unless the instrument 
- I mean the tierman army— by which these things were done 
with the full consent, remember, the full aiiproval and full 
