is the same. The plan is, by a combination of fighting,
bargaining, and well-timed strokes of treachery, to acquire a ring of bases
completely encircling one or other of the rival states, and then to sign a
pact of friendship with that rival and remain on peaceful terms for so many
years as to lull suspicion to sleep. During this time rockets loaded with
atomic bombs can be assembled at all the strategic spots; finally they will
all be fired simultaneously, with effects so devastating as to make
retaliation impossible. It will then be time to sign a pact of friendship
with the remaining world-power, in preparation for another attack. This
scheme, it is hardly necessary to say, is a mere daydream, impossible of
realization. Moreover, no fighting ever occurs except in the disputed areas
round the Equator and the Pole: no invasion of enemy territory is ever
undertaken. This explains the fact that in some places the frontiers
between the superstates are arbitrary. Eurasia, for example, could easily
conquer the British Isles, which are geographically part of Europe, or on
the other hand it would be possible for Oceania to push its frontiers to
the Rhine or even to the Vistula. But this would violate the principle,
followed on all sides though never formulated, of cultura