[To THE EDITOR Or THE " SPECT1TOE."1 SIR, —I notice two
things about your note to my letter of last
week. You make no attempt to substantiate your statements of the week before about the Union of Democratio Control,
which were the origin of my indignation. Next, you do not deny that you have constantly " crabbed " our Services, encouraged rebellion, and held up to opprobrium the British Government, presumably representative of the majority of the British people. But you object to my summarizing this policy as "preaching British decadence." I am sorry if I have misunderstood the real nature of your depreciation, but I still think that the impression you constantly give is that you think the power and prestige of Great Britain are declining. I do not care to insist upon isolated quotations, but, since you ask me, I lay my hand upon one of March of the present year :- "If we wanted to egg the Germans on to overspend themselves and to impair their land power by too great additions to their Navy, no doubt we should be playing the game admirably in acting as we are acting. But since no one suggests that such a Machiavellian policy is being pursued, or ought to be pursued, we stand condemned as people unable to play the great game with calmness and dignity, or to inspire that feeling of confidence which ir the forerunner of success in all human affairs."
14 Great College Street, Westminster.
[We deny that we have " crabbed " the national Ser- vices. For example, we have again and again defended the Territorials, and, though it is rather embarrassing for us to bring the point forward, we may perhaps be allowed in self- defence to allude to our share in founding the National Reserve, from which already some eighty thousand men, and those of the very best, have passed into the active forces of the nation. But it is useless to argue with people like Mr. Trevelyan. We are quite content to leave the question whether we did or did not "crab " our soldiers and sailors to our readers, Unionist and Liberal. They are the best judges.—ED. Spectator.]
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