How the War Came. By Lord Loreburn. (Methuen. 7a. 6d.
net.)—Lord Loreburn's book recalls, and seems to be inspired by, the old feud within the Liberal Party between the " Little Englanders " and the Liberal Imperialists. Most people have forgotten it, but Lord Loreburn still bears a grudge against Mr. Asquith, Lord Grey of Fallodon, and Lord Haldane, who over- came the " Little Englanders " in the Campbell-Bannerman Ministry and continued the good understanding with France founded by the preceding Ministry of Mr. Balfour. Lord Lore- burn blames his three old colleagues for developing the Entente into an unwritten defensive alliance. Yet every one knew of it ; Germany knew of it, long before Lord Haldane went to Berlin in 1912. Lord Loreburn seems to think that Great Britain was bound without her knowledge and against her will by this " honourable obligation," and that it is a mere pretence to say that we went to war for Belgium's sake. He devotes many pages to this unprofitable thesis, but fails entirely to con- sider the question whether our national interest, apart from any understanding or Treaty, did not compel us to oppose Germany in her mad striving for world-power. Surely all that we have learned about German designs in the past five years has re- moved all possible doubts as to the necessity of the decision of which the vast majority of the British people approved on August 4th, 1914, and still approve.
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