Some of the ‘explanations’ of the war are foolish; some are cynical. The Hon. Bertrand Russell, for example, has written a book on the war in which he says the nations of Central Europe are fighting for much the same reason dogs do—because ‘_they don’t like each other’s smell_‘! Would anyone quote now, as an explanation of the war, that couple of pistol-shots in a street in Serajevo which slew the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife? It is like offering the bursting of a soda-water bottle as the explanation of a Niagara, or tracing an earthquake to the explosion of a cracker. The Austrian ultimatum to Servia seems to be the match which fired the magazine; but if there had been no ‘magazine’ the ‘match’ would have been quite innocent. For Great Britain, the first reason of the war was something immediate and concrete—the German invasion of Belgium. Great Britain was pledged, both by express treaty and by its historic policy, to maintain that neutrality; and when the German columns crossed the Belgian frontier war was inevitable. It was a simple question of good faith; England, Mr. Asquith declared, must keep her pledged word. But when the war was begun it was quickly realised that the existence of the Empire depended on its result; and so Mr. Bonar Law told the House of Commons, ‘This is a fight for our national existence.’ That is certainly true, and it applies with greatest force to the Dominions. If the British Empire goes into liquidation, the most coveted assets will be Australia, with its 12,000 miles of girdling sea, its radiant climate, its mineral wealth, its vast pastures, or New Zealand, the Great Britain of the Pacific. The men in the French and Flemish trenches are certainly fighting for—amongst other things—the safety of every home in Australia and New Zealand. But the war raised the question of the value of the treaty relations which bind civilised States together; so, as Lord Rosebery put it, we are fighting for ‘the sanctity of public law in Europe.’ A German victory would turn every treaty throughout Christendom into a ‘scrap of paper.’ In the first message, again, King George addressed to the Empire, he said, ‘We are fighting for the continuity of civilisation;’ and _that_ also is true. The defeat of the Allies would put not only Europe, but Christendom, back into the Dark Ages.