The Defenceless Islands. By L. Cope Cornford. (E. Grant Richards.
2s. 6d. net.)—Mr. Cornford prefaces his book with one of Ruskin's most extravagant utterances to the effect that all good things come out of war, all evil things out of peace. The practical conclusion should be that Great Britain should go to war on the earliest possible occasion. As Mr. Cornford is convinced that war would speedily land us in irretrievable disaster, there seems to be a certain inconsistency. His object is to recommend conscription. "The mass of the people is utterly oblivious of sound military principles." But surely the practical difficulty is the food-supply. The gravity of this we do not for a moment deny, and Mr. Cornford does well to insist upon it. There cannot be too high a rate of insurance to pay for a property so inestimably valuable as is the United Kingdom, and all the talk of unbearable taxation is folly or worse. But we cannot see how England would be profited, as far as food import is concerned, by having half-a- million men under arms. Our enemy would simply leave England alone, and devote all his energies to attacking our trade routes.
Previous page
