“Courts of arbitration! The very name is idiotic! In a civil court, to pronounce upon matters of life and death, communicate the will of God to man, and decide the course of history!⁠—Well, so much for the ‘wings of doves.’ Now for the ‘eagles’ pinions’⁠—what about them?”

“Civilian society⁠—”

“Oh, society doesn’t know what it wants. It shouts for a campaign against the fall in the birthrate, it demands a reduction in the cost of bringing up children and training them to a profession⁠—and meanwhile men are herded like cattle, and all the trades and professions are so overcrowded that the fight round the feeding-trough puts in the shade the horrors of past wars. Open spaces, garden cities! Strengthening the stock! But why strengthen it, if civilization and progress have decided there shall be no more war? Whereas war would cure everything⁠—it would ‘strengthen the stock’ and at the same time stop the decline in the birthrate.”