[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR ."71
file,—If I may venture a criticism on your handling of the Nation, I think that paper's attitude is not so much that " we can never hope to win," as that we have done all that we set out to da—meaning that Germany by now would be glad to come to terms on the basis of the status quo ante—and therefore if we *till go on fighting it can only be for the sake of "conquest," or with the desire of crushing our opponent. (Here comes in the implication : " and that you will never do.") I wonder how often during the last six months the Nation or its correspondents have charged us with rebuffing the overtures of a chastened Germany, with having abandoned the ideals with which we entered the war, and sacrificing yet more of the youth of Europe to our own ever- growing " militarism." What appears to deflect your contem- porary's judgment is that it looks upon the present war as tout corn me une attire, except in scale, rather than as presenting a problem the like of which has never been seen in the world before, and demanding a commensurate solution. For it must be remembered that the keystone of the Nation's war policy is that Germany (as regards her future at least) shall come out of the war morally and materially unimpaired. She is to sit at the Peace as an equal, and retain hereafter all the honours and Potentialities of a Great Power. As an instance of the paper's bias, compare the terms in which it speaks of the fallen Tsar with its " Hands off " as regards the Hohenzollern dynasty.-
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