Continental commitment

Michael Howard, The Continental Commitment The Dilemma of British Defence Policy in the Era of the Two World Wars (London Temple Smith, 1972), p. 7. 

G. C. Peden, The burden of imperial defence and the continental commitment reconsidered . Historical Journal, 27 (1984), 405-23. 

Howard, Continental Commitment, p. 146. See also Barnett, Collapse of British Power, p. 581 Brian Bond, British Military Policy between the World Wars (Oxford Clarendon Press, 1980), pp. 337—9. 

Britain never again enjoyed the advantage of huge balance-of-payments surpluses that had marked the pre-1914 period. Victory had been achieved by a combination of Britain s traditional way of warfare -blockade, loans or subsidies to allies and maritime operations - and an unprecedented continental commitment, but it came at the price of a permanent weakening of British power. 

Howard, Continental Commitment p. 100 Peden, Burden of imperial defence . Defence expenditure in future years , CP 316 (37), GAB 24/273, paras. 98—9, TNA. Ibid., paras. 80-99. 

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