is
that the English people, and especially the English military and
naval people, don't care a fig what the Americans think and feel.
They say, "We're fighting their battle, too--the battle of
democracy and freedom from bureaucracy--why don't they come and
help us in our life-and-death struggle?" I have a drawer full of
letters saying this, not one of which I have ever answered. The
official people never say that of course--nor the really
responsible people, but a vast multitude of the public do. This
feeling comes out even in the present military and naval rulers of
this Kingdom--comes indirectly to me. A part of the public, then,
and the military part of the Cabinet, don't longer care for
American opinion and they resent even such a reference to peace as
the President made in his Message to Congress[107]. But the civil
part of the Cabinet and the responsible and better part of the
public do care very much. The President's intimation about peace,
however, got no real response here. They think he doesn't
understand the meaning of the war. They don't want war; they are
not a warlike people. They don't hate the Germans. There is no
feeling of vengeance. They constantly say: "Why do the Germans
hate us? We don't hate them." But, since Germany set out to rule
the world and to conquer Great Britain, they say, "We'll all die
first." That's "all there is to it." And they will all die unless
they can so fix things that this war cannot be repeated. Lady
K----, as kindly an old lady as ever lived, said to me the other
day: "A great honour has come to us. Our son has been killed in
battle, fighting for the safety of England."

Now, the question which nobody seems to be able to answer is this:
How can the military party and the military spirit of Germany be
prevented from continuing to prepare for the conquest of Great
Britain and from going to work to try it again? That implies a
change in the form, spirit, and control of the German Empire. If
they keep up a great army, they will keep it up with that end more
or less in view. If the military party keeps in power, they will
try it again in twenty-five or forty years. This is all that the
English care about or think about.

They don't see how it is to be done themselves. All they see yet is
that th