protected
by a semi-circle of wolds, which could be easily held by the German
covering force. Its left would be protected by the Humber and the
right by the Tees, so that the landing could be carried out without
interruption.

That was their plan--based on careful investigation by a small army
of spies--some five or six years ago, before our naval bases had been
established in the north. If they had declared war then, they, might
have had no serious interference from our Navy during the passage of
their transports, which, of course, would be protected on that flank
by their entire fleet of warships.

At first glance, it seems too fanciful a plan to commend itself to
belief, but in talking it over with German officers, I found they
fully believed in it as a practical proposition. They themselves
enlarged on the idea of the use that they would thus make of the civil
population, and foreshadowed their present brutality by explaining
that when war came, it would not be made with kid gloves. The meaning
of their commands would be brought home to the people by shooting down
civilians if necessary, in order to prove that they were in earnest,
and to force the inhabitants through terror to comply with their
requirements.

Further investigations on the subject proved that the embarkation
arrangements were all planned and prepared for. At any time in the
ordinary way of commerce there were numerous large mail steamers
always available in their ports to transport numbers even largely in
excess of those that would be assembled for such an expedition. Troops
could be mobilised in the neighbourhood of the ports, ostensibly for
manoeuvres, without suspicion being aroused.

It is laid down in German strategical textbooks that the time for
making war is not when you have a political cause for it, but when
your troops are ready and the enemy is unready; and that to strike the
first blow is the best way to declare war.

I recounted all this at the time in a private lecture to officers,
illustrated with lantern slides and maps, as a military problem which
would be interesting to work out on the actual ground, and it was not
really until the report of this leaked into the papers that I realised
how nearly I had "touched the spot." For, apart from the various
indignant questions with which the Secretary of State for War was
badgered in the House of Commons on my account, I was assailed with
letters from Germany of most violent abuse f