"HOW ENGLAND PREPARED FOR WAR."

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue LXVIII, 19 December 1914, Page 5

"HOW ENGLAND PREPARED FOR WAR."

A SECRET THAT SURPRISED THE WORLD.

Mr Archibald Hurd lately contributed a remarkable article to the Fortnightly Review, in which he tells some pages of history— secret and otherwise —of How England Prepared for War." •

Everyone must have been astonished at the preparedness for war which. England displayed. This is why we were- ready: "A few simple orders, and an Expeditionary Force was ready to be moved over sea directly the navy could give a guarantee of safe transport," says Mr Hurd. "Only a few months before. Field-marshal Earl Roberts had declared 'We have no army.' The army which we had not got exercised, if we may believe French statements, no small influence on the course of military events on the Continent of Europe. WHAT WAS DONE. "The groundwork of a war organisation had been'created, owing largely to the Prime Minister's foresight, at a time when men talked only of peace. What was the result? Before the declaration of war a number of precautionary measures were taken without causing panic or commotion by all the departments of State—the Admiralty, the War Office, the Treasury, the Home Office, the Board of Trade, the Post Office, the Board of Customs, and others. In less than a week from the first shock, which was calculated to produce panic in a great democracy living upon the sea, the commercial affaire in the great cities and towns of England began to resume their normal condition. "Without excitement or the slightest signs of confusion, every department of State took up its war burden, and without delay orders issued forth mobilising the nation in support of. its fighting arm. For the first time for 100 years the British people were confronted with war by land and sea, and a war which in prospect had defied imagination in its probable horrors, and they remained undismayed. A FAMOUS COMMITTEE. "The secret of our preparedness is to be traced to the patient labors of the Committee of Imperial Defence, its sub-committees, and its small permanent staff directed by Captain Maurice Hankey, C.8., the successor to Rear-Admiral Sir Charles Ottley, who laid the foundations of the organisation which enabled us to face war in calm confidence. ' 'It costs the country,' so the Prime Minister has stated, 'very little more than £5000 (a year) in salaries and expenses.' This body has been the great advisory organisation of the British Government in matters of defence, and has been responsible for the co-ordination of all our commercial activity so as to render us fit to stand the strain of war. A WISE £5000. "Two years ago Mr Asquith, in a notable speech in the House of Commons, gave the nation some conception of the character of one aspect of the work which was then being quietly performed by this small body, unrecognised, though it'is, in our Constitution i regarded, as it has been since its birth, with no little suspicion and disI trust. Mr Asquith related that the Committee of Imperial Defence had I appointed what was styled 'a sub-com-i mittee for the co-ordination of departmental action at the outbreak of war.' Describing this particular work of the Committee of Imperial Defence Mr Asquith added: — ' " 'This sub-committee, which is composed of the principal permanent officials of the various Departments of fetate, has, after many months of continuous labor, compiled a War Book. We call it a War Book—and it is a book which definitely, assigns to each aepartment—not merely the War Office and the Admiralty, but the Home, Otnce, the Board of Trade, and every department of the State—its responsibility for action under every head of war policy. The departments themselves ill pursuance of the instructions given by the W-ar Book, have drafted I •i ifj. Proclaniations, Orders-in-Coun-cil letters telegrams, notices, and so ki whlch *? n be foreseen. Every possible provision has been made to avoid delay in setting in force the machinery in the unhappy event of war taking place. It has been thought necessary to make this committee permanent in order that these war arrangements may be constantly kept up to date. REVISED MONTHLY. "When the cataclysmistic war did com© we were not unready. The War Book had been revised from month to month; it had only to be opened and action taken on the lines specified. It was only'necessary for the various officials in the dozen or go Departments of State concerned to turn to the War Look and the proclamations, Orders-in-Coimcil. letters, and telegrams flowed forth as from automatic machines. Owina; to this business-like procedure, confidence was soon established, and the British people, convinced by decisive acts that every conceivable eventuahtv had been foreseen and provided for. were able to reap all the blessing which sea power confers upon an island kingdom whiHi is the nerve centre of a maritime Empire. AND THE RESULT. "Within a few days of the declaration of war, Germany, by the influence of the British fleet-in-being, was divorced from the colonial possessions on which she had .set such store; her shipping was captured or frightened off the seas; her oversea supplies of raw material—so essential to her economic health, and never more essential than when engaged in war —were cut off. Though not a gun was fired on board a British battleship, nor a torpedo sent hissing from its tube, the influence of British sea power was immediately effective, in the absence of immediate challenge, sealing the North Sea, commanding, in association with the French fleet, the Mediterranean, and holding dominion over all the ocean highways of the world. Within less than a week the British people were nresented with an impressive picture of the silent pressure of sea power. SEA POWER, "As the British army of nearly 400,000 men was placed on a war footing, and the Territorial Force, a quarter of a million strong, was embodied, not a word was heard of the peril of invasion. The nation had faith in the fleet. As the dominions turned to the task of preparing to support the Mother Country, they were embarrassed by no fear of aggression from overseas. From end to end of the Empire it was realised in the hour of j supreme crisis that we were a people who lived on and by the sea, and that we could do no other .than place reliance on the sauadvons and flotillas under the White Ensign. "No one can prophesy the course of future events, but in facing the stupendous issues which have to be decided, we have at least the consoling satisfaction that, in spite of many obstacles thrust in its path of duty by idealists with their heads in the air and pacificists with their hands in their pockets, dhe' nation was not

caught unready when the great emergency arose. Before the struggle k over everyone in these islands will assuredly, realise the truth-that battleships are cheaper that battles.

THE MAN

"All men, irrespective of party, will pay homage to the man, above all others, whose keen foresight, cool judgment, and level-headedness contributed to enable us to face the blows of Fate with calm courage. "Under the direction of Mr Asquith.the tack of preparation was carried forward when most people believed peace was assured. Whatever the issue," concludes Mr Hurd, "the British people will never forget the services of the British Prime Minister, the leader of a great democratic party, who proved himself the greatest of'all War Ministers the nation has ever honored."