Governments may as well resign themselves to an obvious necessity. Naval and military authorities in the United States, as well as many other American citizens, realise perfectly well the necessities of this war as they appear to those engaged in the conflict. They understand that no such war as this has ever been seen or has been fought under similar conditions of equipment on land or sea. They understand that to treat this war as one would a prize fight or a duel and attempt to provide a set of rules to which all combatants would give close adherence is an absurdity. When a man is attacked by a highwayman the niceties of the boxing contest go by the board. This is a life and death struggle, the victory going to the strongest, most determined, and most enduring.

The writer has expressed the belief in the pages of the FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW several times already since the war began that the best way to deal with neutrals was to serve notice that whatever seemed to inflict the greatest injury upon the enemy would be done regardless of all protests from those non-combatants whose daily and usual activities were interfered with thereby. When twenty million or more men are in arms and the fate of several of the oldest and greatest nations is at stake, those who fortunately remain at peace cannot expect to be entirely free to pursue their usual international activities, and yet that is what most neutral interference amounts to at this time.

Under British rule neutral interests have been safeguarded at times even to the detriment of the British cause, and this at a time when over ten million human beings have already been killed, mutilated, invalided, or imprisoned through the raging human passion which now shakes the earth. For England to yield to the demand of neutral trade for greater freedom, comfort, or convenience is to yield a point to Germany and to invite a request for further concessions. So long as neutral and noncombatant lives are safeguarded, as they have been by England from the first day of this war, any and all measures for the defeat of her foes are justifiable, even though neutral material interests may suffer for the time being. The one thing that England must guard against is the giving of any ground for the belief that the military or naval measures taken are for any other than warlike purpose. To give ground for the suspicion that English trade interests are being advanced under the plea of military necessity would stultify her whole justification.

There are, unfortunately, thousands of men of all nationalities now battening on the sufferings of the nations of Europe, and in their greed to increase their profits they care not as to the effect their demands may have upon the duration of the war. A very

large percentage of the importers and exporters of New York, whose business is affected by the British blockade of German ports, are Germans or of German extraction. Through their business organisations they are in a position to bring great pressure to bear, not only upon the American Government, but upon the Governments of all the neutral countries. England is the one Power which stands effectively in the way of "trading with the enemy," and hence to England come all the protests, complaints, and requests for this or that concession in the domain of ocean-borne trade. No sooner is one request granted than another is ready for presentation, and so it will be to the end. The yielding upon one point but paves the way for a demand for yielding upon another.

To protect humanity from suffering for which there is no justification of military necessity is the duty of combatant and neutral, and had the Lusitania been a German boat sunk by a British submarine, a protest from America would have been as necessary as it was with the nationality of the two boats reversed. To talk, however, of carrying on this war so that combatant or neutral can make money, to carry it on under a set of rules which will allow of all neutral activities to continue as in normal times and without loss, is treason to the cause for which the Allies are now pouring out lives and treasure; that is, the speedy, honourable, and safe termination of the carnage and robbery now in progress over half the once civilised world.

To concoct the elaborate Notes now exchanged between Governments, in which details are given as to the material loss incurred by the seizure of this ship, the detention of another, and the citing of laws which died and were buried at sea on August 4th, 1914, seems a piffling waste of time and effort, and bespeaks a lack of frankness which would bring home to all concerned what is really happening in this year of 1915 and what is going to happen in the months to come. It is one of the most amazing features of this most amazing war. It is not too late for England to notify the world of what it should have been notified of at least a year ago, and that is, that this war is going to be ended as soon as possible in the only way it can be ended, and that is by the employment of the Allied Navies and Armies in the suppression of all the normal activities of the whole world which tend in the slightest degree to prolong the resisting power of the enemy, and even to pretend that this can be done and still preserve to neutral peoples their freedom of international exchanges is a farce.

Had this position been taken at an early date there would have been few subsequent disputes as to the invasion of neutral rights,

and if this war can be shortened by a month through such a course enough money will be saved to reimburse all just claims made by neutrals for loss of property, to say nothing of the curtailment of human misery which would be represented by one month less of war. Had the British Government taken this position frankly and openly and firmly a year ago, the relations between England and the United States would still be as friendly as they are, and with less prospect for friction in the near future. The American people as a whole are good sports; they would have grumbled, understood, admired-and acquiesced.

There is considerable danger in the tone of the despatches sent to the London newspapers from America by their correspondents in that country. These men are mostly Englishmen, extremely competent, and ranking high in their profession. In their anxiety to assist in maintaining good relations between the two countries they are inclined to optimism in their written opinions as to the effect of this or that upon American public opinion. If it is anti-German they exaggerate it for the benefit of their readers at home. If pro-Ally they likewise expand. Much advice has been cabled to England from America as to what England should do to keep on good terms with America and how important it all was. The truth of the matter is that England is trying to keep on good terms with a lot of exporters, many of them Germans or German Americans, and it cannot be done, now or at any future time. The vast majority of American exports are free from any interference as they are concerned with Allied rather than German trade.

It would be a mistake to attach too much importance to what may happen in the matter of German-American relations in consequence of the sinking of the Ancona, brutal and unnecessary as this crime appears. In the first place it has not yet been determined whether the ship violated the laws of war and thus made herself technically liable to destruction, or whether she was sunk entirely without justification. It also appears that much of the loss of life was due to the panic which ensued on board subsequent to the attack and the alleged bad behaviour of the crew. It is also yet to be determined whether the submarine was a German or an Austrian ship. Even if the boat was built in German yards it might have been transferred to Austrian ownership. The United States Government has had no dispute. with Austria over matters of this kind, and from a diplomatic point of view, Austria alone can be held responsible, and the act will have to be treated as a first offence. It will be necessary for the whole matter to be authoritatively cleared up to the satisfaction of the Washington Government before judgment can

be passed by Americans upon the action of the submarine, no matter how brutal and unnecessary such act may now appear to have been, and until the case is stated as it really exists, no criticism can be made as to the action or inaction of the American Government.

A matter upon which there is already much trustworthy testimony is the widespread interference by German and Austrian agents with American industry at home. The American people are fully aroused to this alien influence at work in their own country, and the demand is general that the United States and the Local Governments shall take drastic measures to put an end to this intolerable condition. Some of these agents have already been caught in the legal net and more are promised by those who are investigating the matter for the legal arm of the Government. This is a matter that can safely be left to the American people, for short shrift will be given the culprits when proof is available that will ensure their conviction.

Slowly but surely it is being brought home to neutral America that a great war is being fought not so very far from its own doors, and Americans are beginning to realise that such a war cannot be fought without its effects being made apparent in every community throughout the world, no matter how peaceful or how far removed from the scene of hostilities. It is possible that this growing realisation of the greatness of the conflict will bring with it a livelier interest as to the outcome and its effect upon the world. No American of impartial mind and without previous race prejudice, when brought into close contact with this war, has failed to become pro-Ally. The increasing discomfort of America at the conditions which now prevail at home and abroad owing to the war may prove to have an educational value which will afford vast compensation to the soul of the people.

JAMES DAVENPORT WHELPLEY.

NATIONAL CADET CORPS AS THE BASIS OF OUR FUTURE ARMY.

THIS article is not intended to be a contribution to the controversy between voluntary service and conscription, as that controversy has been proceeding for some time. It is not intended either to oppose or to adopt what Mr. Seddon, the President of the Trade Union Congress, described as "the sacred right of voluntaryism." But it is intended to show that while in the future we must secure our national safety and existence by the constant possession of what may be described as a latent military power, that power may be stored up in an organised manner in time of peace without undue interference with the works of peace and the freedom of the individual.

A feature of the last decade before the war was the unreasoning optimism of our people, both the leaders and the led, as to the future. A great ship was declared to be "unsinkable" and a great war was henceforth "unthinkable." Yet the "unsinkable" ship went down in its first voyage and the "unthinkable" war is consuming Europe.

The same kind of people who proclaimed that a great war was "unthinkable" are now comforting themselves with the idea that the colossal nature of the present war makes it certain that it is the end of all war. This is not the view of the Baden Socialist leader, Anton Fendrich, who published at the beginning of the present year an article in which he wrote: "After the experience of the summer of 1914 we must be armed for decades to come. We know not whether Japan may not overwhelm Germany with Asiatic hordes in twenty years or less. Armed defence is now the watchword, and for this are needed millions of healthy children of the people." The views of the Socialist and of the Junker in Germany seem to meet in a common ideal of war-readiness; and we cannot doubt that in this matter we find our national existence threatened by a united people of Germany. Even if we succeed in thoroughly beating the Germans in the present war, we shall not destroy that ideal. It will remain; it will be fostered; during the last fifty years it has been worked effectively into a type of human nature especially fitted by origin and history to receive it; and there is no sign of the coming of the kind of national revolution which would change it. In the Seven Years' War the Prussian Frederick the Great on more than one occasion meditated suicide as a release from his difficulties; but the "Spirit of Prussia" prevailed, and the end of that war saw the kingdom