on in favour of their own goods. Except
for these tariff-walls and bounty systems (which after all, on account
of their disturbing and crippling effect, seem to be gradually going out
of fashion) trade flows over the world, regardless of national barriers,
and will continue so to flow. It is all a question of relative
efficiency and price. German goods, owing to their cheapness and their
accuracy of construction, have of late years been penetrating
everywhere; and to the German trader, as a pure matter of trade, it
makes no difference whether he sells to a foreign nation or a German
colony.

It is the same with seaports. Holland is delighted to provide passage
for Germany's exports and imports, and probably does so at a minimum
cost. The Berlin manufacturer or merchant would be no better off, as far
as trade conditions are concerned, if Germany instead of Holland held
the mouths of the Rhine. The same with a harbour like Salonika. Germany
or Austria may covet dreadfully its possession; and for strategic or
political reasons they may be right, but for pure trade purposes
Salonika in the hands of the Greeks would probably (except for certain
initial expenses in the enlargement of dock accommodation) serve them as
well as in their own hands.

Of course there _are_ other reasons which make nations desire colonies
and ports. Such things may be useful for offensive or defensive purposes
against other nations; they feed a jealous sense of importance and
Imperialism; they provide outlets for population and access to lands
where the institutions and customs of the Homeland prevail; they supply
financiers with a field for the investment of capital under the
protection of their own Governments; they favour the development of a
national _carrying_ trade; and, above all, they supply plentiful
official and other posts and situations for the young men of the middle
and commercial classes; but for the mere extension and development of
the nation's general trade and commerce it is doubtful whether they have
anything like the importance commonly credited to them.

XIII

WAR AND THE SEX IMPULSE

_January_, 1915.

It seems that War, like all greatest things--like Passion, Politics,
Religion, and so forth--is impossible to reckon up. It belongs to
another plane of existence than our ordinary workaday life, and breaks
into the latter as violently and unreasonably, as a volcano into the
cool pastures where cows and sheep are g