Personally I think we ought to take stern action in regard to the internment of all Germans in this country. My argument is not based on trivial ideas of retaliation or punishment, but it is based on facts such as the following: (_a_) I am a Britisher, Britain is fighting; so I fight for Britain and wish to see her everywhere victorious: (_b_) In Nature the strongest survive and the weaker go to the wall, and in this war Britain must prove herself either the stronger or the weaker: (_c_) Our policy must be guided by the idea of proving ourselves the stronger in deeds, not words--not by talk of justice or right, because invariable universal abstract standards of justice and right never existed, and never will exist, in this world. The ideal never was anything but a dream--that is why the poet can never be a politician, and vice versa. We must not let sentimental considerations stand between us and victory. Sounds just like a German talking, doesn't it? Yes, I do agree with the German point of view--except as regards frightfulness, which is really folly and does not achieve its end--but I transfer the point of view to England. Why should England allow any rival to stand in her way? In any case, are we not the world's greatest political people and the best colonisers? Leave the realms of Art to the other nations if you like--England never will be artistic, I fear--but Art is not politics. Politics--I mean primarily foreign policy--signifies the adaptation of a nation to environment of time, place and circumstance, and it is that which is the ruling fact of life. I am now quite converted to the doctrine of facts. Though passionately idealistic in many respects, I realise that the _Facts_ of life are in cruel but deadly opposition to the _Ideals_ of life, and that while the Ideal remains a dream the cruel Fact remains the reality.