England will be secure when England is dead, just as the streets
of London will be safe when there is no longer a man in her
streets to be run over, or a vehicle to run over him. When you
military chaps ask for security you are crying for the moon.

MITCHENER (very seriously). Let me tell you, Balsquith, that in
these days of aeroplanes and Zeppelin airships, the question of
the moon is becoming one of the greatest importance. It will be
reached at no very distant date. Can you as an Englishman, tamely
contemplate the posssibility of having to live under a German
moon? The British flag must be planted there at all hazards.

BALSQUITH. My dear Mitchener, the moon is outside practical
politics. Id swop it for a cooling station tomorrow with Germany
or any other Power sufficiently military in its way of thinking
to attach any importance to it.

MITCHENER (losing his temper). You are the friend of every
country but your own.

BALSQUITH. Say nobodys enemy but my own. It sounds nicer. You
really neednt be so horribly afraid of the other countries.
Theyre all in the same fix as we are. Im much more interested in
the death rate in Lambeth than in the German fleet.

MITCHENER. You darent say that in Lambeth.

BALSQUITH. Ill say it the day after you publish your scheme for
invading Germany and repealing all the reform Acts.