ABSTRACT
It required an immense disaster to rouse the British nation to a sense of its critical position, and British citizens to a knowledge of their duties and responsibilities. The news of the débâcle at Chatham was flashed over the country the next morning, Englishmen read with white faces that the British army had been hurled down into Chatham, and ringed round by an immense force of Germans, after fighting a hideous battle for twenty hours. Later in the day they heard that the entire army had surrendered, and every British soldier was a prisoner of war. The whole country was stunned by the blow. Not a soldier, not a gun left. At first England lay paralysed and silent as if frozen by the blow. Then the whole country writhed in the terrible anguish of remorse and anxiety.
