Mr. Harry H. Woodring, U.S. Secretary of War, has been outspoken in the manner in which he has referred to the dictatorships of the world and the danger that if they pushed the democratic nations too far war would be inevitable. As Mr. Woodring very rightly says the democracies at present are pacifist, and the last thing they want is war, realizing that no one (wins in a war nowadays and that the cost of victory is just as great, if not greater than the penalties of defeat, It was noticeable at the commencement of the Great War that much of German policy was based on the belief that there was so much disloyalty in the British Empire that it was doubtful whether it would hold together in the event of an outbreak of war. That belief arose out of the frankness of expression which s inherent in any well planned democracy, for indeed much was said to justify a foreigner fo ing the opinion that the Empire was route disloyalty. But war wiped all that Directly there was a threat to the Empire as a whole the loyalty which was always there. though shrouded by much criticism, flared up in a manner which surprised even Britons themselves, There still exists the danger that one or other of the dictatorships might go just ioo far and the danger would then be that the consequent wave of indignation. would sweep the democracies into that very war which it ernestly desired to avoid. For this reason, as Mr. Woodring points out, it is essential that the aggression which has marked certain policies for recent years should be discontinued. Fortunately, even in democracies, it is not the people but the governments who declare war, and to that extent there is a reasonable element of safety still in existence. But pushed too far even governments have to yield to the wilt of the people supporting them, and it must not be believed for one moment that the democracies are any more afraid of war than the races under a different form of government, It is as well that these things should be remembered, for in the matter of aggression the pitcher can'still be taken too often to the. well.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.