An Autobiography of an Ancient Athlete & Antiquarian

1 54 AUTOBIOGRAPHY " Should we ever be conquered we should be under practi– " cally military discipline, our teeth would be drawu, aud we "should never have the chance of becoming free again. Where– ,, ever we went-to the railway station, the theatre, or the post " office-- we should be told what to do, and have to obey the "irksome discipline and routiue under which all foreign nations "suffer. This wouldn't suit us. "For many years now we have had licence and freedom of "speech and action to a degree unheard of on tlle Continent, " and freedom to manage our own business affairs our own way. " All this would be goue in a day, and we should be reduced to " the level of being practically slaves of an alien race. "Theoretically it is very right to try to be at peace with all "men, aud practically it eases our pockets to keep down arma– " meuts. But there is a limit to peace. We buy peace too dear "if we emasculate our lllen. The Quaker when asked what he '' would do if a man struck him. and whether be would turn the " other cheek to him, replied tllat be would, but if he bit that– " well, the moral was left to the hearer. "Iu old days, when Euglan<l was a first-rate fighting power, "couscripliou was, in effect, all over the country, under one "name or another. The squire held bis land on the terms of " leading so many men lo war for so many mon tbs e,·ery year "in war time, the poorer man was liable to be called out to "serve. We had conscription in Norwich at the time of Cressy. "The rolls of citizen soldiers are still existent in the Castle "Museum, and there is an adlllirable article in last month's "' Nineteenth Century' by Mr. Coulton, of Lynn, proving this "up to the hilt. "Then we are told conscription would interfere with busi– " ness. Yet strangely enough the Germans, who are beating us "at our own game of commerce, don't seem to find it so. But "(say the Radical and the Socialist) what do we want with a "large standing army? We want no aggressive continental "wars, and as to invasion it's absurd. We have the silver streak "and a magnificent Navy to keep it inviolate. 'My good man' " (I always feel inclined to say when I bear rubbish like this '' talke<l), · it's not what you want, but what the other nations "want.' " So first the Little Englander whittles away at the Army, "and now he is having a go at the very Navy which was to act "as its substitute, so soon we shall have nothing left but the " silver streak itself. And now they are hankering to do away "with even that also, and want a Channel Tunnel to save their "weak and queasy stomachs. "Then there bas lately developed a new danger from which "the sea will not protect us-the airships which are already in "existence, and which can drop explosives on our battleships "and Army from a height at which no missile will reach them. "They may not yet be available for transport, they may not " be able to act in high winds, and they may be very dangerous " to their crews, but ~hey exist, and are probably not more "dangerous than our present torpedo-boat destroyers. And we ·" alone are making no progress with their manufacture, we who