Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustration. See 63910-h.htm or 63910-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/63910/63910-h/63910-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/63910/63910-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/womanwarwar00warw [Illustration: Frances Evelyn Warwick _Photo, Sarony & Co., Ltd._] A WOMAN AND THE WAR by THE COUNTESS OF WARWICK Author of "Warwick Castle and Its Earls," "Autobiography of Joseph Arch," "An Old English Garden" New York George H. Doran Company Copyright, 1916, by George H. Doran Company Printed in the United States of America PREFACE It is not without serious reflection that I have collected these thoughts in war time to offer in book form to those who may care to read and ponder them. They were written for the most part on the spur of vital moments, when some of the tendencies of the evil times through which we are living seemed to call for immediate protest. I have felt more strongly than ever in the past two years that we are in danger of accepting as something outside the pale of criticism the judgments of those who lead, and sometimes mislead us. The support or hostility of the newspaper press--in some aspects the greatest distorting medium in the world--is still ruled by party considerations. Loyalty or ill-will to the men in office colours all the views of those who praise or blame, and it happens often that a good measure is damned for what is best or lauded for what is worst in it. Again, I have felt that while much of the fighting spirit of the country is subject to army discipline, the tendency of government has been to make helpless puppets of the citizens who remain behind the forces in the field. In the near future, if we would save what is left of our heritage of freedom, and would even extend the comparatively narrow boundaries that existed before the autumn of 1914, we must relieve the press of the self-conferred duty of thinking for us. We must not give our rulers a blank cheque; their best efforts tend more to rouse our suspicions than to compel our confidence.