cy may best be seen in the "White Books" of
diplomatic correspondence, periodically published by the Foreign Office,
such, for instance, as the successive volumes of _Correspondence Respecting
the Affairs of Persia_. Perhaps the best idea of the actual labour of
foreign relations can be gained by consulting such compilations as
Hertslet's _Commercial Treaties_--23 vols. 1827-1905--which are a record of
work actually completed.

On the staffing of the Foreign Office and the Diplomatic Service, see the
fifth Report of the Royal Commission on the Civil Service (Cd. 7748), just
published (5-1/2 d.).

CHAPTER VII

THE ISSUES OF THE WAR

"March ahead of the ideas of your age, and it will follow you: go
with them, and you can feel at ease: remain behind them, and you are
lost."--NAPOLEON III.

Sec.1. _Is there an Idea behind the War?_--The object of the preceding
chapters has been to provide the historic background without which it is
impossible to understand either the motives of our opponents or the events
which led up to their quarrel. It is now necessary to attempt a survey of
the issues raised by the war, both as concerns Europe as a whole and the
individual nations which form its component parts. This is a task of no
small difficulty, for just as it is true to say that no war in the previous
history of mankind has ever been waged on so huge a scale as this, so it is
also true to say that the issues raised by it are vaster and more varied
than those of any previous European conflict. It is as though by the
pressure of an electric button some giant sluice had been opened,
unchaining forces over which mortal men can hardly hope to recover control
and whose action it is wellnigh impossible to foresee.

Yet complex as is the problem before us, it is essential that we should
face it bravely. There is grave danger lest, just as we have been "rushed
into" this war (through no fault of ours, as the diplomatic correspondence
abundantly proves), so we may at a given moment be "rushed out" of it,
without having reached any very clear idea as to what issues are involved,
and how far our vital interests have been affected.

The essence of the problem before us is to discover whether there is an
Idea behind this war--whether on our own side or on that of the enemy. A
dangerous question, this!--a question posed again and again by the jingoes
and the fanatics of history, and invariably answered according to the
dictates of