But though, if things go wrong at But, the nation
will feel • pang as deep as any they have yet felt in the war, it would be most unwise to let our regrets lead us into exaggerating the importance of the event from a military point of view. The loss of Nut, except that it will hearten our enemies, will diminish our fighting force hardly at all. One day's heavy fighting at the front in a German attack and a British counter-attack, say in the Salient, might easily account for casualties double the number of the effectives which we should lose by the fall of lint. The Govern- ment and the nation, if the worst comes, must make up their minds to take our failure sanely as well as bravely. Here, if ever, is a case for showing "danger more than ire." If the nation gets into a state of rage and irritability, it will merely be wasting energies that ought to be preserved for a harder, intenser prosecution of the war.
