"(_a_) To conquer and destroy the enemy's armed force. "(_b_) To get possession of the material elements of aggression, and of the other sources of existence of the hostile army. "(_c_) _To gain Public Opinion._[15] "To attain the first of these objects, the chief operation must be directed against the enemy's principal army, for it must be beaten before we can follow up the other two objects with success. "In order to seize the material forces, operations are directed against those points at which those resources are chiefly concentrated: principal towns, magazines, great fortresses. On the road to these the enemy's principal force, or a considerable part of his army, will be encountered. "Public Opinion is ultimately gained by great victories, and by the possession of the enemy's capital."[16] This almost prophetic (as it was in his day) recognition by Clausewitz of the vast importance of gaining Public Opinion _as one of the three great aims in war_, is fundamental. It is just one of those instances of his rare insight into the principles and development of modern national war which make his book of such great and enduring value to us. For since his day Europe has become organized into great industrial nations, democracy and popular passion have become more and more a force to be reckoned with, and the gaining and preserving of Public Opinion in war has become more and more important. It has, in fact, become the statesman's chief business during a great modern national war. It has become necessary for him to study intently war in its relation to industry, and to the industrial millions over whom he presides, or over whom he may preside. REFLECTIONS (1) In the time of Clausewitz we in Britain were a nation of 18,000,000, practically self-supporting, and governed by an aristocracy. To-day we are a crowded nation of 43,000,000 dependent upon over-sea sources for three-fourths of our food, for our raw materials, for our trade, for our staying power, _and_ we are governed by a democracy. In a modern democratic State it will only be possible to carry on the most just and unavoidable war so long as the hardships brought on the democracy by the war do not become intolerable. To prevent these hardships from thus becoming intolerable to the people, to Public Opinion, will be the task of the modern statesman during war, and this can only be done by wise prevision and timely preparation. _It requires the internal organization of the Industrial State for war._ It appears to the _writer_ that internal organization can be subdivided as follows:-- I. An adequate gold reserve.