The Wanderings of a Spiritualist

We had a favourable journey across the Bay and came without adventure to / Gibraltar, that strange crag, Arabic by name, African in type, Spanish / by right, and British by might. I trust that my whole record has shown / me to be a loyal son of the Empire, and I recognise that we must have a / secure line of communications with the East, but if any change could / give us Ceuta, on the opposite African coast, instead of this outlying / corner of proud old Spain, it would be good policy as well as good / morality to make the change. I wonder how we should like it if the / French held a garrison at Mount St. Michael in Cornwall, which would be / a very similar situation. Is it worth having a latent enemy who at any / time might become an active one, or is it wiser to hold them to us by / the memory of a great voluntary act of justice? They would pay, of / course, for all quays, breakwaters and improvements, which would give us / the money to turn Ceuta into a worthy substitute, which could be held / without offending the pride of a great nation, as old and proud as / ourselves. The whole lesson of this great war is that no nation can do / what is unjust with impunity, and that sooner or later one's sin will / find one out. How successful seemed all the scheming of Frederick of / Prussia! But what of Silesia and of Poland now? Only on justice can you / build with a permanent foundation, and there is no justice in our tenure / of Gibraltar.

We had only an hour ashore, a great joy to the children, / and carried away a vague impression of grey-shirted Tommies, swarthy / loungers, one long, cobblestoned street, scarlet blossoms, and a fine / Governor's house, in which I picture that brave old warrior, / Smith-Dorrien, writing a book which will set all the critics talking, / and the military clubs buzzing a year or two from now. I do not know if / he was really forced to fight at Le Cateau, though our sympathies must / always go to the man who fights, but I do feel that if he had had his / way and straightened the salient of Ypres, there would have been a / mighty saving of blood and tears. There were sentimental reasons against / it, but I can think of no material ones -- certainly none which were worth / all the casualties of the Salient. I had only one look at the place, and / that by night, but never shall I forget the murderous loop, outlined by / star shells, nor the horrible noises which rose up from that place of / wrath and misery.