Ridiculous our armed forces- certainly are. What do we mean
by security ? •.If a -nation is to be physically secure against attack, it must be strong enough to defeat possible combinations of its rivals. There cannot, in truth, be security all round on a physical basis. Armaments are a snare and a delusion, for all but the strongest industrial nations : and for them they are an expense and a menace. If everyone agreed to abolish their navies, we in Great Britain would be the strongest naval power, for we have the greater sea experience. We should have everything to gain by the abolition of ships of war if ever it came to fighting. Russia and Germany, again, are the strongest potential military powers. -They would have everything to gain by complete disarmament, if the sword is to weigh again in the affairs of Europe. As to aeroplanes, gas, tanks, it is doubtful which power is the strongest. Every War Office, including our own,. employs a host of learned gentlemen evolving new horrors in their laboratories ; they are euphemistically termed anti-poison gas experts, but in reality their business, which after all is as laudable as that of any other soldier (as an old soldier- myself, I hope no one will take offence), is to learn how to cause the maximum damage to the enemy and exploit these means. The interesting and important fact of modern war, which we must never lose sight of, is that it is infinitely more catholic and more cruel than it was even a decade ago. France could destroy a fifth part of London in a single night with incendiary bombs and deadly ethers ; we could return the compliment. If Europe really 'set its mind to it, therefore, already and to-day, it would wreck its civilization within a month. In a few years' time it might be able to commit suicide even more swiftly.
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