Committing the nation to fighting

Britain and her allies were at war with Germany and the central European powers from 4 August 1914 to 11 November 1918. The conflict cut across the political, economic and social debate of late Victorian and Edwardian times, overwhelming it with an experience of traumatic depth. It brought the greatest state manipulation of society that Britain had ever known, involving all available techniques from persuasion to conscription and civilian coercion.

How far were those who had control of the state justified in the uses they made of it? Part of the answer lies in the nature of these uses, for there is the question of the choice of the most appropriate means in given circumstances in pursuing a chosen end.

But it was with the end itself that the great question of justification lay. Was it right to go to war with Germany and her allies, and to persist in such a war for more than four years? Two levels of motivation were at work. There was the moral aspect, having to do with the integrity of small nations and the sanctity of treaties entered into for their defence. When the commitment lengthened, the more fundamental question, that of the security of Britain herself, came to the fore. Since the seventeenth century Britain, by instinct born of geography, had resisted all attempts at continental hegemony. Once more this was the issue.