From ‘The Inexpugnability of Russia’, The Spectator, 26 June 1915:
In dealing with the military problems which confront Russia we must never forget the size and the thickness of her Empire. It is like an enormous cloak. The fringe may get very ragged, and you may cut huge pieces out of it before and behind, but so vast are its dimensions that it will still remain for all purposes of warmth and security a perfectly serviceable garment. Pieces cut from it are hardly noticed—pieces which if cut from a smaller coat would leave nothing but a collar and a pair of sleeves. That is why the duration of war, which is so dangerous to smaller and more concentrated States, affects Russia so little.
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