Let Germany acquire a coaling station, a sanitorium, a health resort,
the ground for a hotel even, on some foreign shore, and "British
interests" spring to attention, English jealousy is aroused. How
long this state of tension can last without snapping could, perhaps,
be best answered in the German naval yards. It is evident that some
7,000,000 of the best educated race in the world, physically strong,
mentally stronger, homogeneous, highly trained, highly skilled,
capable and energetic and obedient to a discipline that rests upon and
is moulded by a lofty conception of patriotism, cannot permanently be
confined to a strictly limited area by a less numerous race, less well
educated, less strong mentally and physically and assuredly less well
trained, skilled and disciplined. Stated thus the problem admits of a
simple answer; and were there no other factor governing the situation,
that answer would have been long since given.

It is not the ethical superiority of the English race that accounts
for their lead, but the favourable geographical situation from which
they have been able to develop and direct their policy of expansion.

England has triumphed mainly from her position. The qualities of
her people have, undoubtedly, counted for much, but her unrivalled
position in the lap of the Atlantic, barring the seaways and closing
the tideways of Central and North-eastern Europe, has counted for
more.

With this key she has opened the world to herself and closed it to her
rivals.

The long wars with France ended in the enhancement of this position by