as seriously on these matters as
we do, and in your unpreparedness for modern war you would do well to
think very seriously indeed. Yours truly,

RUDYARD KIPLING.

*On the Impending Crisis*

*By Norman Angell.*

_To the Editor of The London Times:_

Sir: A nation's first duty is to its own people. We are asked to
intervene in the Continental war because unless we do so we shall be
"isolated." The isolation which will result for us if we keep out of
this war is that, while other nations are torn and weakened by war, we
shall not be, and by that fact might conceivably for a long time be the
strongest power in Europe, and, by virtue of our strength and isolation,
its arbiter, perhaps, to useful ends.

We are told that if we allow Germany to become victorious she would be
so powerful as to threaten our existence by the occupation of Belgium,
Holland, and possibly the North of France. But, as your article of
today's date so well points out, it was the difficulty which Germany
found in Alsace-Lorraine which prevented her from acting against us
during the South African War. If one province, so largely German in its
origin and history, could create this embarrassment, what trouble will
not Germany pile up for herself if she should attempt the absorption of
a Belgium, a Holland, and a Normandy? She would have created for herself
embarrassments compared with which Alsace and Poland would be a trifle;
and Russia, with her 160,000,000, would in a year or two be as great a
menace to her as ever.

The object and effect of our entering into this war would be to insure
the victory of Russia and her Slavonic allies. Will a dominant Slavonic
federation of, say, 200,000,000 autocratically governed people, with a
very rudimentary civilization, but heavily equipped for military
aggression, be a less dangerous factor in Europe than a dominant Germany
of 65,000,000 highly civilized and mainly given to the arts of trade and
commerce?

The last war we fought on the Continent was for the purpose of
preventing the growth of Russia. We are now asked to fight one for the
purpose of promoting it. It is now universally admitted that our last
Continental war--the Crimean war--was a monstrous error and
miscalculation. Would this intervention be any wiser or likely to be
better in its results?

On several occasions Sir Edward Grey has solemnly declared that we are
not bound by any agreement to support France, and there is certainly n