ervice, in which
soldiering and the soldier have been rather unpopular than popular, a
country in love with peace, and with no intention or expectation of going
to war with any one?

II

For there we come to the root of everything--the _unpreparedness of
England_--and what it meant. It meant simply that as a nation we never
wished for war with Germany, and, as a nation, we never expected it. Our
Governments, of course, contained men who saw more or less plainly the
dangers ahead, and had spent years of effort in trying to avoid them. On
several occasions, during the last twenty years, as we all remember, a
wave of sudden anxiety as to German aims and intentions had spread through
the thinking portion of the nation--in connection with South Africa, with
Morocco, with the Balkans. But it had always died away again. We know now
that Germany was not yet ready! Meanwhile fruitless efforts were made by
successive English Governments to limit armaments, to promote arbitration,
and extend the scope of the Hague Tribunal. In vain. Germany would have
none of them. Year by year, in a world of peace her battle-navy grew. "For
what can it be intended but to attack England?" said the alarmist. But how
few of us believed them! Our Tariff Reformers protested against the
encroachments of German trade; but, outside a handful of persons who
seemed to most of us fanatics, the emphasis lay always on care for our own
people, and not on hostility to Germany. Those who warned us passionately
that Germany meant to provoke a struggle, that the struggle must come,
were very little heeded. Nobody slept the worse at night for their
harangues. Lord Roberts's agitation for National Service, based on the
portentous growth of the German Army and Navy, made comparatively little
way. I speak from personal experience of a large Parliamentary division.
"Did you foresee it?" I said to one of the ablest and most rising men in
the Navy a fortnight ago. He thought a little. "I always felt there might
be a clash over some colonial question--a quarrel about black men. But a
war between the white nations over a European question--that Germany would
force such a war--no, that I never believed!" Nor did any of us--except
those few--those very few persons, who Cassandra-like, saw the coming
horror plainly, and spoke to a deaf country.

"There was _no_ hatred of Germany in this country"--I quote a Cabinet
Minister. "Even in those parts of the country which had mo