第44章 THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN!NEED IT BE SO HEAVY?(2)

For gold mines and good pasture lands,mixed up with a little honour to give respectability to the business,we shall fight it out,as previously.War being thus inevitable,the humane man will rejoice that by one of those brilliant discoveries,so simple when they are explained,war in the future is going to be rendered equally satisfactory to victor and to vanquished.

In by-elections,as a witty writer has pointed out,there are no defeats--only victories and moral victories.The idea seems to have caught on.War in the future is evidently going to be conducted on the same understanding.Once upon a time,from a far-off land,a certain general telegraphed home congratulating his Government that the enemy had shown no inclination whatever to prevent his running away.The whole country rejoiced.

"Why,they never even tried to stop him,"citizens,meeting other citizens in the street,told each other."Ah,they've had enough of him.I bet they are only too glad to get rid of him.Why,they say he ran for miles without seeing a trace of the foe."The enemy's general,on the other hand,also wrote home congratulating his Government.In this way the same battle can be mafficked over by both parties.Contentment is the great secret of happiness.Everything happens for the best,if only you look at it the right way.That is going to be the argument.The general of the future will telegraph to headquarters that he is pleased to be able to inform His Majesty that the enemy,having broken down all opposition,has succeeded in crossing the frontier and is now well on his way to His Majesty's capital.

"I am luring him on,"he will add,"as fast as I can.At our present rate of progress,I am in hopes of bringing him home by the tenth."Lest foolish civilian sort of people should wonder whereabouts lies the cause for rejoicing,the military man will condescend to explain.

The enemy is being enticed farther and farther from his base.The defeated general--who is not really defeated,who is only artful,and who appears to be running away,is not really running away at all.

On the contrary,he is running home--bringing,as he explains,the enemy with him.

If I remember rightly--it is long since I played it--there is a parlour game entitled "Puss in the Corner."You beckon another player to you with your finger."Puss,puss!"you cry.Thereupon he has to leave his chair--his "base,"as the military man would term it--and try to get to you without anything happening to him.

War in the future is going to be Puss in the Corner on a bigger scale.You lure your enemy away from his base.If all goes well--if he does not see the trap that is being laid for him--why,then,almost before he knows it,he finds himself in your capital.That finishes the game.You find out what it is he really wants.

Provided it is something within reason,and you happen to have it handy,you give it to him.He goes home crowing,and you,on your side,laugh when you think how cleverly you succeeded in luring him away from his base.

There is a bright side to all things.The gentleman charged with the defence of a fortress will meet the other gentleman who has captured it and shake hands with him mid the ruins.