The Project Gutenberg EBook of Britain at Bay, by Spenser Wilkinson
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Title: Britain at Bay
Author: Spenser Wilkinson
Release Date: January 8, 2004 [EBook #10629]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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BRITAIN AT BAY
BY
SPENSER WILKINSON
New York
1909
TO MY CHILDREN
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I. THE NATION AND THE PARTIES
II. DEFEAT
III. FORCE AND RIGHT
IV. ARBITRATION AND DISARMAMENT
V. THE NATIONALISATION OF WAR
VI. THE BALANCE OF POWER
VII. THE RISE OF GERMANY
VIII. NATIONHOOD NEGLECTED
IX. NEW CONDITIONS
X. DYNAMICS--THE QUESTION OF MIGHT
XI. POLICY--THE QUESTION OF RIGHT
XII. THE NATION
XIII. THE EFFECT OF THE NATIONALISATION OF WAR UPON LEADERSHIP
XIV. THE NEEDS OF THE NAVY
XV. ENGLAND'S MILITARY PROBLEM
XVI. TWO SYSTEMS CONTRASTED
XVII. A NATIONAL ARMY
XVIII. THE COST
XIX. ONE ARMY NOT TWO
XX. THE TRANSITION
XXI. THE PRINCIPLES ON WHICH ARMIES ARE RAISED
XXII. THE CHAIN OF DUTY
Chapters XIV. to XX. have appeared as articles in the _Morning Post_
and are by kind permission reproduced without substantial change.
I.
THE NATION AND THE PARTIES
"I do not believe in the perfection of the British constitution as an
instrument of war ... it is evident that there is something in your
machinery that is wrong." These were the words of the late Marquis of
Salisbury, speaking as Prime Minister in his place in the House of Lords
on the 30th of January 1900. They amounted to a declaration by the
British Government that it could not govern, for the first business of a
Government is to be able to defend the State of which it has charge,
that is, to carry on war. Strange to say, the people of England were
undisturbed by so striking an admission of national failure.
On the 16th of March 1909 came a new declaration from another Prime
Minister. Mr. Asquith, on the introduction of the Navy Estimates,
explained to the House of Commons that the Government had been surprised
at the rate at which the new German navy was being constructed
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