THE NATITRE OF FOtlTXCS 7

happens to be the Government at the time. More accurately,
they should be subject, not so much to the Government as to
the State. The State is the permanent organisation, of law and
order; the Government is the particular people to whom* for a
time, the task of carrying out the law has been entrusted. One
of the marks of a free country is that people may criticise the
Government without being treated as enemies of the State, on
a level with criminals.

Loyalty of the Armed Forces to the State is not always easy
to obtain. If most of the officers come from the richer classes
in the community, they may use their power against a Govern-
ment which does not protect the interests of the rich. If the
Armed Forces are treated with too much reverence, amounting
to worship, they may decide to take over the task of Government
themselves. A very common device for securing loyalty to the
State is to have some symbol for it, to which the Armed Forces
are required to take the most solemn oaths. The Crown in
Britain is an obvious example. The Roman Emperor, when he
was worshipped as a God, became such a symbol, though never
an acceptable one to Jews and Christians, to whom the idea of
more than one God was repugnant. The Soviet Union adopts
the plan of encouraging the Armed Forces, when not on military
duty to mix with the ordinary people and play a part in the life
of the State. Again, it can be argued that if all citizens have some
military training, it will not be so easy for a bad Government
to use Armed Forces against its people. The problem has been
made more difficult by the improvements in military science,
since a great amount of force can now be concentrated in a
few hands.

_ But while the State, subject to safeguards, may have a trained
force, it is a rule of good Government that nobody else should
be so equipped. The Wars of the Roses are a striking example
from history of the evils of private armies. In 1934, Austria was
plunged into civil war, partly by the failure of its Government
to prevent political parties from recruiting armies. Private armies