The aim of British policy 223 Organised and unorganised defences 223 Policy depends on armaments, armaments on policy 225 Difficulty of keeping these principles in mind 226 Diplomacy to-day depends more than ever on armaments 228 The sad example of China 229 Policy should conform to national needs 230 Dangers threatening British security (1901-1914) 231 The Committee of Imperial Defence 232 Reasons of its comparative failure 234 Parliament and the people were left uneducated 235 Naval preparations were adequate 236 Military preparations were absurdly inadequate 237 Our Foreign policy rested on an entirely false assumption as regards the adequacy of our Army 238 CHAPTER IV THE BALANCE OF POWER Security required that we should take account of Europe 241 German aim--the suzerainty of Western Europe 243 Maintenance of the _Balance of Power_ 244 This is the unalterable condition of British security 245 This need produced the Triple Entente 247 Splendid isolation no longer compatible with security 249 Meaning of a defensive war 249 Defence of north-eastern frontier of France essential to British security 250 CHAPTER V THE MILITARY SITUATION (AUGUST 1911)