WHY ENGLAND IS FIGHTING. 11

CHAPTER II.

WHY ENGLAND IS FIGHTING.

This is by no means an easy thing to find out. Every nation and every country will give us a different answer. France will probably tell us that we are a nation of shopkeepers, and that we are merely fighting for money. Ger¬ many, perhaps, will say we are fighting to keep up our prestige—whatever that may mean. Russia says we are aggressive. The Conservatives think

we are not fighting half enough. Gladstone does not know whether we are or not, but enigmatically says that we must not “ merely secure tranquility for the moment, but must obviate future perturbations.”

Perhaps the truth lies in a mixture of all these. I shall not trouble you, my reader, to go into details ; we will keep clear for the present of all such phrases as condominium, entente cordiale, unified debt, Daira estates, Domain lands, caisse, dual control, protocol, finance adviser, procureur-general, etc., etc. Let us put the events that led up to