it would be better for
us and our children that Britain should be sunk beneath the sea than
that Germany should achieve a complete victory.

It must be reiterated that until Germans and Austrians can be admitted
to free intercourse with other nations we can have no complete world
peace. For such admission the conditions precedent above stated are
essential. But if these are complied with, we must make our choice
between the possibility of general peace with a League of Nations
embracing all and a state of "veiled and suspended warfare." This
pregnant phrase caught my eye after the foregoing paragraphs were
written. It is one to be remembered.

Although there is no sign at present of a changed spirit in the German
rulers, or in the party which is now dominant in Germany, the prospect
of an alteration in the spirit of the German people is not hopeless,
unless they emerge from the War victorious. A significant passage from a
German paper is quoted by Sir Dugald Clerk in the most valuable and
encouraging address on the "Stability of Britain," delivered by him to
the Royal Society of Arts in 1916. "So the Germans are awakening to a
consciousness of the futility of their dream of domination founded upon
the idea of might, irrespective of the rights of other nations, and they
will ultimately be forced to accept the idea, so strange to them
hitherto, that honesty between nations is as necessary as between man
and man." The whole address should be read as an antidote by any who
take a "gloomy joy in depreciation," as a tonic by those who are
depressed by our failures and apprehensive of our future.

To maintain a real peace based on goodwill, we want to get rid of the
jealous spirit which regards the prosperity of one nation as an injury
to others. "The economic and financial strength of this country is
founded upon the welfare not merely of the British people, but
practically of all countries." "Commerce is not a war. It will be found
that wealth increases simultaneously in industrious nations." "We must
not even forget that a poverty-stricken Germany and Austria would react
on the whole world." "Punish the Germans and Austrians by all
means--they thoroughly deserve it--but do not imagine that by cutting
those nations out of the world's commerce the other nations can be
rendered more wealthy." These general statements do not exclude, of
course, the possibility that it may be found necessary for a time by
"economic pressure"