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 xii. secret diplomatic history of the pre-war years which reveal with such blinding light how remote were the ostensible causes of the war from the real causes; or which show so clearly that Belgium was a mere pawn in a great game—of importance only because, as Lord Loreburn puts it, she was the strategic "corridor" into France.

It was a fine and chivalrous impulse which caused very many of our young men to join up in the opening weeks of the war: to fling themselves into the "great adventure" on behalf of a weak nation trampled underfoot. Could the latent forces from which that impulse sprung be enlisted in a sustained moral and intellectual assault upon Secret Diplomacy, that deadly enemy of all peoples, great and small, humanity would be permanently benefited.

I desire to place on record my warm thanks to Mrs. Bowen-Wedgwood for the invaluable assistance she has given me in the compilation of this volume.