The Fruits of Victory / A Sequel to The Great Illusion

by Norman Angell

’“A strong citizen army on strong territorial lines,” is the advice Sir Douglas Haig urges on the country. A system providing twelve months’ military training for every man in the country should be seriously thought of.... Morally and physically the War has shown us that the effect of discipline upon the youths of the country is an asset beyond calculation.’

So that the victory which was to end the ‘trampling and drilling foolery’ is made a plea for the institution of permanent conscription in England, where, before the victory, it did not exist.

The admission involved in this recommendation, the admission that destruction of German power has failed to give us security, is as complete as it well could be.

If this was merely the exuberant zeal of professional soldiers, we might perhaps disregard these declarations. But the conviction of the soldiers is reflected in the policy of the Government. At a time when the financial difficulties of all the Allied countries are admittedly enormous, when the bankruptcy of some is a contingency freely discussed, and when the need of economy is the refrain everywhere, there is not an Allied State which is not to-day spending more upon military and naval preparations than it was spending before the destruction of the German power began. America is preparing to build a bigger fleet than she has ever had in her history[50]—a larger fleet than the German armada, which was for most Englishmen perhaps the decisive demonstration of Germany’s hostile intent. Britain on her side has at present a larger naval budget than that of the year which preceded the War; while for the new war instrument of aviation she has a building programme more costly than the shipbuilding programmes of pre-war time. France is to-day spending more on her army than before the War; spending, indeed, upon it now a sum larger than that which she spent upon the whole of her Government when German militarism was undestroyed.

Despite all this power possessed by the members of the Alliance, the predominant note in current political criticism is that Germany is evading the execution of the Treaty of Versailles, that in the payment of the indemnity, the punishment of military criminals, and disarmament, the Treaty is a dead letter, and the Allies are powerless. As the Times reminds us, the very keystone of the Treaty, in the independence of Poland, trembles.

It is not difficult to recall the fashion in which we thought and wrote of the German menace before and during the War. The following from The New Europe (which had taken as its device ‘La Victoire Intégrale’) will be recognised as typical:—

‘It is of vital importance to us to understand, not only Germany’s aims, but the process by which she hopes to carry them through. If Germany wins, she will not rest content with this victory. Her next object will be to prepare for further victories both in Asia and in Central and Western Europe.

‘Those who still cherish the belief that Prussia is pacifist show a profound misunderstanding of her psychology.... On this point the Junkers have been frank: those who have not been frank are the wiseacres who try to persuade us that we can moderate their attitude by making peace with them. If they would only pay a little more attention to the Junkers’ avowed objects, and a little less attention to their own theories about those objects, they would be more useful guides to public opinion in this country, which finds itself hopelessly at sea on the subject of Prussianism.

‘What then are Germany’s objects? What is likely to be her view of the general situation in Europe at the present moment?... Whatever modifications she may have introduced into her immediate programme, she still clings to her desire to overthrow our present civilisation in Europe, and to introduce her own on the ruins of the old order....

‘Buoyed up by recent successes ... her offers of peace will become more insistent and more difficult to refuse. Influences will clamour for the resumption of peace on economic and financial grounds.... We venture to say that it will be very difficult for any Government to resist this pressure, and, unless the danger of coming to terms with Germany is very clearly and strongly put before the public, we may find ourselves caught in the snares that Germany has for a long time past been laying for us.