From ‘Prolonging the War’, The Spectator, 20 March 1915:
Owing to our mad refusal to think war possible or to prepare for it, we neglected to keep by us a sufficient store of extra rifles and equipment. A large portion of the nation even went so far as to regard preparation for war as partaking of the crime of making war without a just cause. Shortage due to the want of preparation in peace time is, however, spilt milk which it is useless to cry over. No regrets, no outcries of “I told you so!” can add one rifle or one round of ammunition to our store. Therefore they are to be deprecated. Much worse than the shortage due to this cause is the shortage due to the fact that even since the war began we have not done as much as we ought to have done or as we could have done. We have shown our patriotism and our sense of the needs of the hour by raising men on a voluntary basis on a scale beyond all precedent. That is good and in every way worthy of the nation. But unfortunately men without arms and equipment are useless, and we have not done our utmost in the matter of arms and equipment. That is the situation we have got to face. It is necessarily full of peril.
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