waters!

In the light of what has happened since it is not too much to say that
if the British Fleet had taken up its cue only forty-eight hours later
the north coast of France would have been bombarded, every town on our
east coast from Aberdeen to Dover would have been destroyed, and Lord
Roberts's prophecy of German invasion would have been fulfilled. But,
thank God, the watchdogs of the British Navy were there to prevent that
swift surprise. They are there (or elsewhere) still, silently riding the
grey waters in all seasons and all weathers, waiting and watching and
biding their time, and meanwhile (in spite of the occasional marauding
of submarines, the offal of fighting craft) keeping the oceans free to
all ships except those of our enemies. And now, when we hear it said, as
we sometimes do, that Great Britain holds only thirty-five miles of land
on the battle-front in Flanders, let us lift our heads and answer, "Yes,
but she holds thirty-five thousand miles of sea."

THE PART PLAYED BY BELGIUM

One of the earliest, and perhaps one of the most inspiring, of the
flashes as of lightning whereby we saw the drama of the war was that
which revealed the part played by Belgium. Has history any record of
greater heroism and greater suffering? Such courage for the right! Such
strength of soul against overwhelming odds and the criminal suddenness
of surprise! Although the world has been told by Germany's spokesmen,
including Herr Ballin, Prince von Buelow, and even Professor Harnack
(all "honourable men," and the last of them a churchman), that down to a
few days before the outbreak of hostilities "not one human being" among
them had "dreamt of war," it is the fact that within a few hours of the
dispatch of Germany's ultimatum, to Belgium, before the ink of it could
yet be dry and while the period of England's ultimatum in defence of
Belgian integrity was still unexpired, the German legions were attacking
Liege.

It was a cowardly and contemptible assault, but what a resistance it
met with! A little peace-loving, industrial nation, infinitely small and
almost utterly untrained, compared with the giant in arms assailing
it, having no injury to avenge, no commerce to capture, no territory
to annex, desiring only to be left alone in the exercise of its
independence, stood up for six days against the invading horde, and
hurled it back.

But war is a crude and clumsy instrument for the defence of the right,
and after