We may end this war without winning it, and at the same time without being defeated. And although it appears to be still believed by some persons that we can win, in some sort of fashion, without accepting the principle of national service, even those who entertain this dangerous confidence will hardly dare to deny that, after a war which ends without a crowning victory, we shall have to accept conscription at once upon the signature of peace. For it should be remembered that we have other things to take into account besides the mood of Germany. If we stave off defeat, only with the assistance of allies--all of whom have long ago adopted universal military service in its most rigorous {415} form--we shall have to reckon with their appraisement of the value of our assistance. If we are to judge by Germany's indomitable enterprise during the past two generations, she is likely to recover from the effects of this war at least as rapidly as ourselves. And when she has recovered, will she not hunger again for our possessions, as eagerly as before, if she sees them still inadequately guarded? And maybe, when that time comes, there may be some difficulty in finding allies. For a Power which declines to recognise the obligation of equal sacrifices, which refuses to make preparations in time of peace, and which accordingly, when war occurs, is ever found unready, is not the most eligible of comrades in arms. In a recent letter the Freiherr von Hexenküchen refers, in his sour way, to some of the matters which have been discussed in this chapter.... "The British People," he writes, "appear to be mightily exercised just now about their own and their neighbours' consciences; about what they may or may not do with decency; about whether or no football matches are right; or race-meetings; or plays, music-hall entertainments, concerts, the purchase of new clothes, and the drinking of alcohol; whether indeed any form of enjoyment or cheerfulness ought to be tolerated in present circumstances. "But although you vex yourselves over these and other problems of a similar kind, you never seem to vex yourselves about the abscess at the root of the tooth. "The Holy Roman Empire, which was not holy, nor Roman, nor yet an empire, reminds me not a little of your so-called voluntary military system, {416} which is not voluntary, nor military, nor yet a system. It is only a chaos, a paradox, and a laughing-stock to us Germans. "It is our army, and not yours, which really rests on a voluntary basis. Our whole people for a century past have voluntarily accepted the obligation of universal military service. Those amongst us who have raised objections to this system are but an inconsiderable fraction; negligible at any time, but in this or any other great crisis, not merely negligible, but altogether invisible and inaudible.