Press Cuttings | Page 5

Its unfortunate. He was at Oxford with
Bobby Bassborough.
MITCHENER. Worse and worse. What shall we do?

Balsquith shakes his head. They contemplate one another in miserable
silence.
A VOICE WITHOUT. Votes for Women! Votes for Women!
A terrific explosion shakes the building--they take no notice.
MITCHENER (breaking down). You dont know what this means to me,
Balsquith. I love the army. I love my country.
BALSQUITH. It certainly is rather awkward.
The Orderly comes in.
MITCHENER (angrily). What is it? How dare you interrupt us like
this?
THE ORDERLY. Didnt you hear the explosion, Sir?
MITCHENER. Explosion. What explosion? No: I heard no explosion: I
have something more serious to attend to than explosions. Great
Heavens: Lady Richmond's nephew has been treated like any common
laborer; and while England is reeling under the shock a private comes
in and asks me if I heard an explosion.
BALSQUITH. By the way, what was the explosion?
THE ORDERLY. Only a sort of bombshell, Sir.
BALSQUITH. Bombshell!
THE ORDERLY. A pasteboard one, Sir. Full of papers with Votes for
Women in red letters. Fired into the yard from the roof of the Alliance
Office.
MITCHENER. Pooh! Go away. Go away.
The Orderly, bewildered, goes out.

BALSQUITH. Mitchener: you can save the country yet. Put on your
full-dress uniform and your medals and orders and so forth. Get a guard
of honor--something showy--horse guards or something of that sort;
and call on the old girl--
MITCHENER. The old girl?
BALSQUITH. Well, Lady Richmond. Apologize to her. Ask her leave
to accept the command. Tell her that youve made the curate your
adjutant or your aide-de-camp or whatever is the proper thing. By the
way, what can you make him?
MITCHENER. I might make him my chaplain. I dont see why I
shouldnt have a chaplain on my staff. He showed a very proper spirit in
punching that young cub's head. I should have done the same myself.
BALSQUITH. Then Ive your promise to take command if Lady
Richmond consents?
MITCHENER. On condition that I have a free hand. No nonsense
about public opinion or democracy.
BALSQUITH. As far as possible, I think I may say yes.
MITCHENER (rising intolerantly and going to the hearthrug). That
wont do for me. Dont be weak-kneed, Balsquith. You know perfectly
well that the real government of this country is and always must be the
government of the masses by the classes. You know that democracy is
damned nonsense, and that no class stands less of it than the working
class. You know that we are already discussing the steps that will have
to be taken if the country should ever be face to face with the
possibility of a Labor majority in parliament. You know that in that
case we should disfranchise the mob, and, if they made a fuss, shoot
them down. You know that if we need public opinion to support us, we
can get any quantity of it manufactured in our papers by poor devils of
journalists who will sell their souls for five shillings. You know--
BALSQUITH. Stop. Stop, I say. I dont know. That is the difference

between your job and mine, Mitchener. After twenty years in the army
a man thinks he knows everything. After twenty months in the Cabinet
he knows that he knows nothing.
MITCHENER. We learn from history--
BALSQUITH. We learn from history that men never learn anything
from history. Thats not my own: its Hegel.
MITCHENER. Whos Hegel?
BALSQUITH. Dead. A German philosopher. (He half rises, but
recollects something and sits down again.) Oh confound it: that
reminds me. The Germans have laid down four more Dreadnoughts.
MITCHENER. Then you must lay down twelve.
BALSQUITH. Oh yes: its easy to say that: but think of what theyll
cost.
MITCHENER. Think of what it would cost to be invaded by Germany
and forced to pay an indemnity of five hundred millions.
BALSQUITH. But you said that if you got compulsory military service
there would be an end of the danger of invasion.
MITCHENER. On the contrary, my dear fellow, it increases the danger
tenfold, because it increases German jealousy of our military
supremacy.
BALSQUITH. After all, why should the Germans invade us?
MITCHENER. Why shouldnt they? What else has their army to do?
What else are they building a navy for?
BALSQUITH. Well, we never think of invading Germany.
MITCHENER. Yes we do. I have thought of nothing else for the last
ten years. Say what you will, Balsquith, the Germans have never

recognized, and until they get a stern lesson, they never WILL
recognize, the plain fact that the interests of the British Empire are
paramount, and that the command of the sea belongs by nature to
England.
BALSQUITH. But if they wont recognize it, what can I do?
MITCHENER. Shoot