Page:Under Dispute (1924).pdf/196

 what purpose? Did any sane man ever doubt that Austria's brutal ultimatum to Serbia was a ghastly and unnecessary blunder? Did any sane man ever doubt that Germany's invasion of Belgium was a ghastly and unnecessary blunder? But if Dean Inge or his sympathizers knew of any argument, save that of arms, by which the Central Powers could have been convinced that they were blundering, and persuaded to retrieve their blunder, so that what ought not to have happened need not have happened, it is a pity that this enlightenment was not vouchsafed to an imperilled world.

It is possible for two boys to build up a friendship on the basis of a clean fight. It is possible for two nations to build up a good understanding on the basis of a clean fight. The relations between Great Britain and South Africa constitute a case in point. Germany's fighting was unclean from start to finish.