Unofficially, it is quite another matter. Democracy, even
Social-Democracy, though as hostile to British Junkers as to German
ones, and under no illusion as to the obsolescence and colossal
stupidity of modern war, need not lack enthusiasm for the combat, which
may serve their own ends better than those of their political opponents.
For Bernhardi the Brilliant and our own very dull Militarists are alike
mad: the war will not do any of the things for which they rushed into
it. It is much more likely to do the things they most dread and
deprecate: in fact, it has already swept them into the very kind of
organization they founded an Anti-Socialist League to suppress. To shew
how mad they are, let us suppose the war carries out their western
program to the last item. Suppose France rises from the war victorious,
happy and glorious, with Alsace and Lorraine regained, Rheims cathedral
repaired in the best modern trade style, and a prodigious indemnity in
her pocket! Suppose we tow the German fleet into Portsmouth, and leave
Hohenzollern metaphorically under the heel of Romanoff and actually in a
comfortable villa in Chislehurst, the hero of all its tea parties and
the judge of all its gymkhanas! Well, cry the Militarists, suppose it by
all means: could we desire anything better? Now I happen to have a
somewhat active imagination; and it flatly refuses to stop at this
convenient point. I must go on supposing. Suppose France, with its
military prestige raised once more to the Napoleonic point, spends its
indemnity in building an invincible Armada, stronger and nearer to us
than the German one we are now out to destroy! Suppose Sir Edward Grey
remonstrates, and Monsieur Delcasse replies, "Russia and France have
humbled one Imperial Bully, and are prepared to humble another. I have
not forgotten Fashoda. Stop us if you can; or turn, if you like, for
help to the Germany we have smashed and disarmed!" Of what use will all
this bloodshed be then, with the old situation reproduced in an
aggravated form, the enemy closer to our shores, a raid far more