Of course I had my Susan volunteer. Nor was this
the first occasion in the week when I had surrendered to patriotic rapture. I had read the account of the boarding of the Altmark ' with feelings of (and I use this stark word deliberately) delight. Surely it was most unfitting for an internationalist and a man of peace to surrender to such crude emotions, and to derive from incidental triumphs feelings which were almost bloodthirsty, and which in any case were out of proportion to the issues involved? The Battle of the Rio Plate ought, I know, to have aroused in me feelings no more extravagant than those of temperate relief ; the delight which I in fact experienced was most intemperate. The ' Cossack's' feat amid the ice and rocks of Norway ought to have struck horror to the soul of any ex-diplomatist: twice over did I read the accounts of that dramatic exploit and there was no trace of horror in my soul. Obviously, after only six months of war, I was declin- ing from my own standards of impassivity, and was, in spite of all my good resolutions, developing a belligerent, nay a pugnacious, state of mind. * * * *
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