ear
they are to the Dutch frontier. Look at the proximity of Holland
and Essen, and you will understand the Dutch fear of Germany. You
will grasp also the German fear, real as well as pretended, that
the battle of the Somme may one day be accompanied by a thrust at
the real heart of Germany, which, is Westphalia--Westphalia with
its coal and iron and millions of trained factory hands.

I saw when in Germany extracts from speeches by British politicians
in which the bombing of Essen by air was advocated. Perhaps the
task would have been easier if the bombing had come first and the
speeches afterwards. Forewarned, forearmed; and Essen is now very
much armed.

All German railroads seem to lead to this war monster. Attached to
almost every goods train in Germany you will see wagons marked
"Essen--special train." Wagons travel from the far ends of Austria
and into Switzerland, which is showing its strict neutrality by
making munitions for both sides.

On the occasion of my second visit to Essen during the war I
arrived at night. It was before the time of the bombing speeches,
and, though it was well into the hours when the world is asleep,
the sky glowed red with a glare that could be seen for full thirty
miles. My German companion glowed also, as he opened the carriage
window and bade me join him in a peep at what we were coming to.
"This is the place where we make the stuff to blow the world to
pieces," he proudly boasted. "If our enemies could only see that
the war would be over."

I suggested that Essen was not the only arsenal. There were, for
instance, Woolwich, Glasgow, Newcastle, Creusot, and in my own
strictly neutral country Bethlehem, Bridgeport, and one or two
other humble hamlets. He brushed aside my remarks, "But we have
also here is this very region Dortmund, Bochum, Witten, Duisburg,
Krefeld, Dusseldorf, Solingen, Elberfeld and Barmen."

As we approached nearer, freight trains, military trains and
passenger trains were everywhere. Officers and soldiers crowded
the station platforms, and though it was night the activity of
these Rhenish-Westphalian arsenal towns impressed me with the
belief that unless the British blockade can strictly exclude
essentials, such as copper and nickel, especially from their
roaring factories, the war will be needlessly protracted.

It is not necessary to be long in Rhineland and Westphalia to
realise that a shortage in these and other essentials is much more