of 1914, the British people are studying not the past but the future of their country. I remain unshaken in my conviction that if they do not familiarise themselves with that history, and come to certain decisions in consequence, we shall experience a Second World War within the lifetime of this generation.
The working agreement between the two chief political parties to co-operate in retaining executive autocracy over foreign policy has been the most fatal event in our contemporary history. On the pretext of withdrawing foreign policy from party politics, foreign affairs have been withdrawn almost entirely from the arena of public debates. An intelligent and informed Opposition on foreign policy has totally disappeared, both in Parliament and Press. This is a national calamity.
It has been aggravated by the circumstances determining the long course of secret policy which eventually brought Britain into the war, and which contributed to the war itself. These were of such a character as to destroy effective opposition, or even constructive criticism upon the political aims of the war, from any quarter at any period of the war's duration. In this respect the nation has been the victim of those very party politics whose elimination from foreign policy is reputed a national safeguard. For effective criticism was not to be anticipated from Unionist quarters. It could only have emanated from the Liberal side, and Liberal politicians and publicists could only have expressed it at the expense of party loyalty.
Up to the very last few hours preceding Britain's entry into the war, Liberal newspapers representing the Left Wing of the party—the Wing which won the elections of 1905, but which threw away its victory when it allowed the most important departments of Government to be handed over to the Liberal imperialists—and eminent, personalities in the Liberal world, were vehemently denying that their party chiefs had committed acts which they described as "treason to the people": only to find themselves confounded in the end by those chiefs' avowals.
The issue then became one of principles earnestly and vociferously upheld for years, or loyalty to party chiefs—i.e., to party. It was decided in favour of party. The condition of the Liberal Party to-day is the direct and inevitable result of the choice. That condition is set down
