England Before the JVar 41 British colonies had long been described by Ger- man writers as the ultimate goal of German world policy. The school of which General von Bern- hardi was the most celebrated spokesman had again and again openly demonstrated the German belief that having disposed of Austria and France and thus gained military supremacy first in Germany, then in Europe, the Germans must look forward to
- ' the next war," with England and for " world
power." All this the British government had to consider. War was a thing odious to them particularly. It awakened no real enthusiasm anywhere in the na- tion. But the prospect of the peril to British exist- ence, to the empire, which a German victory would infallibly bring, and the chance now, with every con- dition as favorable as any Englishman could ever hope to have, of destroying German sea power, and so weakening her continental position that she would have to abandon her " future on the sea " for many years, these necessarily weighed heavily with the most pacifically inclined of British statesmen and Government, a title wholly deserved by the Liberal Ministry and its spokesmen, Mr. Asquith and Sir Edward Grey. Certainly the arguments for British fidelity to her allies, arguments of self-interest which are always determining with those who are responsible for their country's actions, were impressive. And in addition it was made plain by British military and naval ac-