From The Spectator, 31 October 1914:
The Germans are doing rapidly and effectively what we ought to be doing, and what we must do if we are to win. They are raising new armies and training the remaining portion of their adult male population to arms. When the war began we all thought that about four million German fighting men was the most we need reckon with. These men have already been put into the firing line in the two theatres of the war, and now Germany is turning to that part of her adult male population—another four millions—who have not yet been trained, or else were trained so long ago that they hardly count as trained men. These four million men—we speak in very round numbers—are not first- class “cannon fodder,” to use the hideous and brutal German phrase, but the Germans with their splendid organization will soon make them into troops which, backed by the masses of machine guns and artillery which Germany possesses, are capable of taking the field and coming on in that black incessant stream which is the piece de resistance of German field tactics.
If we are to end the war we must meet these new levies man for man. If not, either we shall be beaten, or else the Germans will be able to prolong the war, as the Revolutionary leaders and Napoleon did, till the world will be bled, in Bismarck’s phrase, as white as veal. Happily we can raise the men, and better men, to meet the new armies that Germany is rapidly creating if only our people are made to realize what depends upon their springing to arms and springing quickly. If we cannot get them into the firing line as soon as the Germans, we may hear that awful voice, which is the supreme tragedy of nations, echoing in our ears : “Too late ! Too late ! Too late ! “—a voice that will be answered by the cry of the awakened man : “Why was I told too late ? Why did those whom I trusted never let me know what the real need was ? Why did they let me go on at the plough, or the forge, or in the cotton mill when I ought to have been training to save the country from this awful curse. If we had ever dreamt of how great the need was, I and all my mates would have joined the colours a year ago.”
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