CURRENT LITERATURE
In this short essay (George Routledge, is.); hurriedly and carelessly produced, Mr. Blythe shows why the Spanish Civil war, and Spain itself, is of vital in- terest to the security of the British Empire. Their importance rests prim- arily on the essential part played by the Mediterranean in both French and British Imperial communications ; on the degree to which control of Spain threatens those communications ; on the process by which Italian interven- tion will give Italy control of Spain ; and on the ability thus conferred on Italy to transform her weak strategical position into a strong offensive one. The author's facts are incontrovertible ; his figures for Italian intervention are moderate and unbiased. Unfortun- ately he assumes that there can be such things as strategic considerations in abstraction from politics, which lead by their own intrinsic force to inevitable results ; from this therefore he claims to draw necessary conclusions. The assumption is false ; the conclusions are not necessary and sometimes are empiri- cally false. If the author's assumptions were true the chain of causation from Italian intervention to the fall of the Brit- ish Empire would already be established ; all we could do is sit back and wait. As it is, it may be already that the British Em- pire has been saved by the strength of the Spanish Government's resistance, a poll- cal factor of imponderable value, yet of far greater effect than any strategical consideration. It is a pity that the author spoils an argument which is fun- damentally sound and, properly stated, of immense value by claiming for it a logical force which it does not possess.
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