the shock of a tremendous sorrow to one whom he loved, but
not all the shovings of all the halfpenny editors of our commercialized
journalism, not even the most contemptible desertion of his friends,
could move his equilibrium by a hair's breadth.

After the noble tributes paid to him by Lord Haig and Lord French I need
not trouble the reader by dealing with the accusations brought against
the greatest of our War Ministers by the gutter-press or by the baser
kind of politicians. It is now acknowledged in all circles outside of
Bedlam that Lord Haldane prepared a perfect instrument of war which,
shot like an arrow from its bow, saved the world from a German victory,
and among the intellectual soldiers it is generally held that if France
and Russia had been as well prepared to fulfil their engagements as we
were to fulfil ours the war would have ended in an almost immediate
victory for the Allies.[2]

It will be more instructive to ask how a man who never made an enemy in
his life, and for whom many of our greatest men have a deep affection,
came of a sudden to be the target of such general and overwhelming
abuse. I think I can do something to clear up this mystery.

When he saw that the great conflict was inevitable, Lord Haldane
suggested to Mr. Asquith, then acting as War Secretary, that he should
go down to the War Office, where he was still well known and very
popular with the intellectual generals, and mobilize his own machine for
war. The harassed and overburdened Mr. Asquith gratefully accepted this
suggestion.

Accordingly Lord Haldane went down to the War Office, and knowing that
speed was the one thing to save us from a German avalanche, began to
mobilize the Expeditionary Force. Some of the generals were alarmed. War
was not yet declared. The cost of mobilization ran into millions.
Suppose war did not come after all, how were those millions to be met?
Lord Haldane brushed aside every consideration of this kind.
Mobilization was to be pushed on, cost what it might. He had not studied
his Moltke to no profit.

On leaving the War Office that same day, after having mobilized the
British Army, he went across to the Foreign Office and was there stopped
by a certain soldier who asked him how many divisions he was sending to
France. Lord Haldane very naturally rebuked this person for asking such
a question, telling him that war was not yet declared and that therefore
perhaps no divisions at all would go to Franc