Another most important result of universal training would be that
it must have a discouraging effect upon the competi- tion for the command of the sea. To put the matter quite plainly, Germany is tempted, and very naturally tempted, to make a tremendous effort to secure the command of the sea because she knows that with our small and only partly trained troops we are absolutely at the mercy of her four millions. If our population were trained to arms and equipped like the population of Switzerland, foreign statesmen would not be beguiled as they are now by the thought that if they could only get a forty-eight hours' command of the Channel they could bring us to our knees. " What is the use," they would argue, if Britain were a nation in arms, " of spending untold millions on ships to get that forty-eight hours' start if a raid, even on the largest scale it is possible to contemplate, say, by a quarter of a million men, would not suffice to do the work P " Our defenceless condition, if the naval force can be temporarily eliminated, acts as a gigantic provocation to Germany. To with- draw that provocation in any other way than by universal training would cost us too much, especially as universal training would at the same time immensely improve the moral, physical, and intellectual condition of our young men. The notion that we can safely risk being raided because we could probably eat up the raiders is one to be rejected by all sensible men. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's words, though used on so different an occasion, should be remembered : "He comes too near who comes to be denied."
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