p. 24 | A Crisis in International Affairs

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · Jan 2, 1913

A Crisis in International Affairs

IN the Forum for December, 1912, Roland G. Usher, reviewing the political situation in Europe, says of the present outlook:—

"A great crisis in international affairs is approaching. England and her allies, among whom is the United States, are facing a situation quite as grave as when the first ships of the Spanish Armada entered the channel, or when Napoleon's fleet had swept the Mediterranean, eluded Nelson, and landed the French army in Egypt. No less a man than Lord Roberts has publicly declared that England has never been in a position of greater peril, and the leader of the opposition solemnly affirmed the truth of this opinion in debate in the House of Commons. It is, in fact, almost farcical to speak and write of the probability of war. In reality the struggle for supremacy is already well under way. . . . Indeed, it is difficult to make the average man believe that anything of consequence is occurring when every aspect of affairs that meets his eye is so utterly devoid of dramatic intensity, and so absolutely lacking in every attribute of war as the poets have sung it. Nevertheless, in this gigantic game, the very pawns are kingdoms, and the control of the world itself the stake; so vast are the forces at the disposal of the combatants that names and armies might almost be called incidental factors which it may or may not be necessary to employ, and which might not indeed be decisive for victory or defeat."