ck will be much more
difficult than it has been in the past. While the fighting organisation
of armies has been improved, their healing organisation has been
neglected. It will, besides, be almost impossible to give aid to the
wounded. Their removal will have to be conducted under fire, and both
the wounded man and his rescuer will run a constant risk of death. Many
wounded will have to lie on the field, exposed to a hail of bullets and
fragments of shells, until the end of the battle--and the battle may
last for days. This cannot but have an evil effect on the morale of an
army. If a soldier were convinced that he had a good chance of being
taken care of if wounded, he would fight with a better spirit than if he
feared that, if he fell, he would be left to prolonged hunger and agony.

It is evident that a vast difference exists between war as it has been
in the past and war as it will be in the future. Wars formerly were
carried on by standing armies consisting mainly of long-service
soldiers. Armies in future wars will be composed mainly of soldiers
taken direct from peaceful occupations; many of the older ones will be
heads of families torn from their homes, their families, and their work.

The economic life of whole peoples will stand still, communications will
be cut, and if war be prolonged over the greater part of a year, general
bankruptcy, with famine and all its worst consequences, will ensue. It
is to be expected, therefore, that popular discontent with militarism
will continue to grow. The immense expenditure on military aims, and the
consequent growth of taxation, are the favourite arguments of agitators,
who declare that the institutions of the Middle Ages were less
burdensome than modern preparations for war.

The question is naturally asked: What will be given to the people after
war as compensation for their immense losses? The conquered certainly
will be too exhausted to pay any money indemnity, and compensation must
be taken by the retention of frontier territories, which will be so
impoverished by war that their acquisition will be a loss rather than a
gain.

With such conditions, can we hope for good sense among millions of men
when but a handful of their officers remain? Will the armies of Western
Europe, where the socialist propaganda has already spread among the
masses, allow themselves to be disarmed; and, if not, must we not expect
even greater disasters than those which marked the short-liv