December 19, 191 8 
LAND 
WATER 
23 
The Victory of Justice : By L. P. Jacks 
MORALLY considered, the British people are 
at this moment in a dangerous position. I do 
not mean that we are showing signs of moral 
decay — far from it. The danger lies in the 
circumstances in which we are placed. These 
circumstances are such as to con- 
front us, at one and the same 
moment, with an easy and 
attractive wrong, and a difficult 
and rather repellent right. If 
we follow the line of least 
resistance we shall do the wrong 
thing. In order to do the right 
thing we shall have to be hard 
upon ourselves. The position I 
supfxise is not unfamiliar to most 
of us as a matter of personal ex- 
perience, and we know well how 
dangerous it is. At the present 
moment it confronts the nation as 
a whole. We are in presence of 
a strong temptation, yielding to 
which will inevitably put us in 
the wrong. If we are to do right 
we shall have to take courses 
which are outwardly and super- 
ficially not very attractive ; 
indeed, quite the reverse. It is 
on occasions like this that the 
stuff of a nation's soul is put to 
the test. 
This, it will be said, is no 
new thing. All through the war 
we have had it dinned into 
us, in season and out of season, 
that the national soul was being 
put to the test. And have 
we not stood the ordeal well ? 
Have we not emerged trium- 
phantly ? What better proof could you have that the 
heart of this p2jple is sound than that afforded by its 
conduct during the last four years ? And is not the 
tim2 now cima when W3 cin afford ourselves a moral 
h3lidiy ? Is the testing process to go on for ever ? 
As a person who is not by 
nature a rigorist I should like to 
think that the long strain was at 
an end. I should be glad, very 
glad, of a moral holiday myself ; 
but as a citizen of the British 
Empire I don't see my way to 
getting one just yet. The testing 
process through which we have 
passed during these years seems 
to me to have been leading up to 
a climax which is just beginning. 
We have not done with this ex- 
perience, and shall not have done 
with it for some time to come. 
We are indeed approaching the 
critical moment, the chief danger 
point in the long trial ; and one 
can only hope that what we 
have already endured in this way 
has seasoned and hardened us for 
the last great struggle. It will 
be mainly a struggle with our- 
selves, that is with a more 
formidable oppwnent than the 
external foe ever is or can be. 
The war has left us possessed 
of a giant's f)ower, and the 
question is whether we are going 
to hold and use this power for 
ourselves or whether we are 
going to hold and use it as a 
trust for humanity. We can 
MR. LLOYD GEORGE 
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M. CLEMENCEAU 
armies of brave and well-disciplined soldiers. The whole 
of the able-bodied male papulation is trained to the use of 
arms. We are replete with every kind of armament. We 
have built up a great military organisation. We have 
acquired military experience and military skill to a degree 
unparalleled in our history. 
Our martial aptitudes were never 
in a higher state of efficiency. 
And above all we are victors ; 
the instinct of conquest which 
is in the blood of our race 
has been refreshed by a great 
draught of victory. If we 
are so minded we can use 
all this to our own advantage. 
We can secure for ourselves the 
most favourable position in 
the trade of the world. In spite 
of the losses of the war we 
can make the British Empire 
richer than ever, and we can do 
so at the expense of others. We 
have the pick of the world's 
opportunities. Of course we 
should provoke opposition if 
we took them, but our pwwer 
is such that we could make the 
opposer beware of us and nip 
his opposition in the bud. In 
short we can, if we choose, play 
the part which Germany intended 
to play if she were to win the 
war. Need it be said that our 
salvation depends on our not 
playing it ? But who will deny 
that the temptation is great ? 
I have never attached much 
importance to the saying that 
has been so much bandied about 
— " this war is 'to end "war." The truth is that every war 
that is waged makes«war more difficult to abolish. It does 
so in many ways : by leaving grievances on the side of 
the vanquished ; by prompting insolence and selfishness on 
the side of the victors ; by creating vast armaments ; by 
teaching the people the use of 
arms ; by filling the atmosphere 
with martial influence and mar- 
tial knowledge ; by making war 
more familiar to the public mind. 
The horrors of war have always 
been known, but have never been 
an effectual deterrent, any more 
than the fear of hell-fire, even 
where hell is seriously believed 
in, has prevented men from evil- 
doing ; and the increase in the 
horrors, due to modem conditions 
of warfare, makes very little dif- 
ference. The memory of horrors 
is evanescent and even when it 
is fresh makes less appeal to the 
imagination than is commonly 
supposed. The memory of war- 
like achievement is lasting, and 
acts as an incentive long after the 
horrors are forgotten. War, in 
fact, is a hahit of States, and 
every fresh war renders the habit 
more difficult to shake off. It is 
with war as with all other habits 
— its tendency is to repeat itself, 
not to end itself. " I will have 
one more throw," says the gam- 
bler, " and then I will never 
touch the accursed dice again. 
This last gamble shall end my 
gambling for ever." And yet we 
know very well that this " last 
do either but we cannot do 
both. If we choose to do the first, 1 know of no opposing gamble " is precisely what makes it certain that his gambling 
power in existence at the moment, or likely to arise through will be resumed next day. So each war that is waged serves to 
nny combination of States, that can effectively say us nay. strengthen the general body of the war-making forces and to 
Sei-power is key power, and at the moment it is in our hands, deepen the grooves in which they nm. A mere res(jJution 
Our Navy has grown into what, taking it all in all, is probably " not to do it again " is a feeble thing in comparison, and 
the greatest force the world has ever seen; We have immense the fact that most of us are conscious of having made such 
