... There is undoubtedly a widespread plot against Western civilisation as we know it, and probably against British liberal institutions as a principal mainstay of that civilisation. Yet if our institutions, and Western civilisation with them, are to withstand the present onslaught, they must be defended.... We never doubted the staunchness and vigour of England six years ago, and we doubt them as little to-day.'[48] And so we must have even larger armaments than ever. Field-Marshal Earl Haig and Field-Marshal Sir Henry Wilson in England, Marshal Foch in France, General Leonard Wood in America, all urge that it will be indispensable to maintain our armaments at more than the pre-war scale. The ink of the Armistice was barely dry before the _Daily Mail_ published a long interview with Marshal Foch[49] in the course of which the Generalissimo enlarged on the 'inevitability' of war in the future and the need of being 'prepared for it.' Lord Haig, in his Rectorial Address at St Andrews (May 14th, 1919) followed with the plea that as 'the seeds of future conflict are to be found in every quarter, only waiting the right condition, moral, economic, political, to burst once more into activity,' every man in the country must immediately be trained for war. The _Mail_, supporting his plea, said:-- 'We all desire peace, but we cannot, even in the hour of complete victory, disregard the injunction uttered by our first soldier, that "only by adequate preparation for war can peace in every way be guaranteed." '"A strong citizen army on strong territorial lines," is the advice Sir Douglas Haig urges on the country. A system providing twelve months' military training for every man in the country should be seriously thought of.... Morally and physically the War has shown us that the effect of discipline upon the youths of the country is an asset beyond calculation.' So that the victory which was to end the 'trampling and drilling foolery' is made a plea for the institution of permanent conscription in England, where, before the victory, it did not exist. The admission involved in this recommendation, the admission that destruction of German power has failed to give us security, is as complete as it well could be.