[11] It has been stated on good authority, that Mr. McKenna upheld the national interests with equal firmness, and against equal, if not greater opposition, while he was at the Admiralty. [12] A large section of the Liberal party watched with jealous anxiety our growing intimacy with France. In 1913, however, they discovered in it certain consolations in the withdrawal of our ships of war from the Mediterranean; and they founded upon this a demand for the curtailing of our own naval estimates. France according to this arrangement was to look after British interests in the Mediterranean, Britain presumably was to defend French interests in the Bay of Biscay and the Channel. When, however, the war-cloud was banking up in July 1914, these very people who had been most pleased with our withdrawal from the Mediterranean, were those who urged most strongly that we should now repudiate our liabilities under the arrangement. PART IV DEMOCRACY AND NATIONAL SERVICE Now I saw still in my Dream, that they went on until they were come to the place that _Simple_ and _Sloth_ and _Presumption_ lay and slept in, when _Christian_ went by on Pilgrimage. And behold they were hanged up in irons, a little way off on the other side. Then said _Mercy_ to him that was their Guide and Conductor, What are those three men? And for what are they hanged there? GREAT-HEART: These three men were men of very bad qualities, they had no mind to be Pilgrims themselves, and whosoever they could they hindered. They were for sloth and folly themselves, and whoever they could persuade with, they made so too, and withal taught them to presume that they should do well at last. They were asleep when _Christian_ went by, and now you go by they are hanged. MERCY: But could they persuade any to be of their opinion? GREAT-HEART: Yes, they turned several our of the way. There was _Slow-pace_, that they persuaded to do as they. They also prevailed with one _Short-wind_, with one _No-heart_, with one _Linger-after-lust_, and with one _Sleepy-head_, and with a young woman her name was _Dull_, to turn out of the way and become as they. Besides they brought up an ill report of your Lord, persuading others that he was a Task-master. They also brought up an evil report of the good Land saying 'twas not half so good as some pretend it was. They also began to vilify his Servants, and to count the very best of them meddlesome troublesome busy-bodies. _The Pilgrim's Progress_. {309} CHAPTER I THE BRITISH ARMY AND THE PEACE OF EUROPE