Of course we may, and do, wish they would make
the experiment, and make it in as large numbers as possible. If they would only come a quarter of a million strong, we could make sure of disposing of them both from the naval and the military point of view. But if they lost such a force in men and good material as that, a real blow would have been dealt not merely to their military prestige but to their available man-power. In truth, a small expedition might very well be more tiresome to us, because a defeat of fifty or sixty thousand men would not mean very much, and the care and feeding of many thousands of prisoners would be embarrass- ing. No doubt the Germans would have the priceless consolation of feeling that they had cut down the orchards in one or two rural sanitary areas, and obtained for the immediate marauders the punishment they deserved. But in reality very little would have been accomplished except -what would no doubt be dear to the German heart, a military insult.
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