detestable division of popular feeling in the face of the enemy.


*The Disarmament Delusion.*

Objections to the Western Pacifist settlement will come from several
quarters, including the Pacifist quarters. Some of the best disposed
parties will stumble over the old delusion of disarmament. They think it
is the gun that matters. They are wrong: the gun matters very much when
war breaks out; but what makes both war and the gun is the man behind
them. And if that man really means the peace of the world to be kept, he
will take care to have a gun to keep it with. The League of Peace must
have a first-rate armament, or the League of War will very soon make
mincemeat of it. The notion that the men of evil intent are to have all
the weapons will not work. Theoretically, all our armaments should be
pooled. But as we, the British Empire, will most certainly not pool our
defenses with anyone, and as we have not the very smallest intention of
disarming, and will go on building gun for gun and ship for ship in step
with even our dearest friends if we see the least risk of our being left
in a position of inferiority, we cannot with any countenance demand that
other Powers shall do what we will not do ourselves. Our business is not
to disable ourselves or anyone else, but to organize a balance of
military power against war, whether made by ourselves or any other
Power; and this can be done only by a combination of armed and fanatical
Pacifists of all nations, not by a crowd of non-combatants wielding
deprecations, remonstrances, and Christmas cards.


*America's Example: War at a Year's Notice.*