our ships were not able to cope with their ships plus their superiority
in aircraft. Our trained men were good against their trained men, but
they could not be in several places at once, and the enemy could. Our
half-trained men and our untrained men could not master the science of
war at a moment's notice, and a moment's notice was all they got. The
enemy were a nation apprenticed in arms, we were not even the idle
apprentice: we had not deemed apprenticeship worth our while. There was
courage enough running loose in the land, but it was like unharnessed
electricity, it controlled no forces, it struck no blows. There was no
time for the heroism and the devotion which a drawn-out struggle, however
hopeless, can produce; the war was over almost as soon as it had begun.
After the reverses which happened with lightning rapidity in the first
three days of warfare, the newspapers made no effort to pretend that the
situation could be retrieved; editors and public alike recognised that
these were blows over the heart, and that it was a matter of moments
before we were counted out. One might liken the whole affair to a snap
checkmate early in a game of chess; one side had thought out the moves,
and brought the requisite pieces into play, the other side was hampered
and helpless, with its resources unavailable, its strategy discounted in
advance. That, in a nutshell, is the history of the war."

Yeovil was silent for a moment or two, then he asked:

"And the sequel, the peace?"

"The collapse was so complete that I fancy even the enemy were hardly
prepared for the consequences of their victory. No one had quite
realised what one disastrous campaign would mean for an island nation
with a closely packed population. The conquerors were in a position to
dictate what terms they pleased, and it was not wonderful that their