Since the foregoing pages were written and before they had left the
printer's hands, two momentous events have occurred which must
profoundly influence not only the remaining course of the war, but also,
and more especially, the settlement of the peace on its termination: two
events that together mark the greatest triumph of democracy and
civilization the world has seen. The Russian revolution and the entry of
the great American Republic into the ranks of the champions of Right and
Humanity have not only brought peace nearer, they have banished any
doubt that may have existed in the minds of sceptics both in belligerent
and neutral countries that this war of wars is a struggle between the
forces of Light and Liberty and the powers of Darkness and Reaction.
After watching the course of the struggle for more than thirty months,
taking note of the difference between the methods of warfare employed by
the opposing groups of belligerents; after ascertaining their respective
aims; after long, patient and careful deliberation, the greatest of all
the neutral judges came to the conclusion that "civilization itself
seems to be in the balance." (It will not be forgotten in the Entente
countries, I feel sure, that though unlimited submarine "frightfulness"
was the immediate _casus belli_, the martyrdom of Armenia played an
important part in leading President Wilson and the people of the United
States to that conclusion.) The world's greatest Democracy, imbued with
a deep-rooted love of peace and abhorrence of war as to which no doubt
or suspicion anywhere exists, has broken away from a century-old
tradition, which was the very foundation of its external policy, and
drawn the sword impelled not by ambition or the furtherance of material
interests of any kind, but by honour and the instinctive call of true
chivalry to stand by those who have carried on a long and fierce
struggle to save the "desperately assaulted" free institutions,
principles and ideals which are its own and humanity's most precious and
sacred possessions. For the first time in history--I think one can
safely say that--a great nation, led by a great and sagacious leader,
has gone to war prompted almost entirely with the disinterested motive
of upholding its own ideals and the ideals and rights of humanity--truly
an event of which the best elements of the human race will always be
proud; which will ever stand out as a bright and noble landmark in the
history of the world.
While these epoch-making events have stamped the cause of the Allies
with the seal of supreme moral sanction, they have also made assurance
doubly sure that the end of the war will confer upon the world a lasting
peace based upon _real_ justice and equity. The presence of the
delegates of the United States at the Peace Conference side by side with
the representatives of the British Empire, France, Italy, and free
Russia will constitute a sure and sterling guarantee to the world that
the determining factors in the moulding of its destinies will not be
the selfish interests, avowed or veiled, of this or that empire, not the
whims and ambitions of despots and ruling castes or the greed of
cosmopolitan financiers, but "the pure milk," of the broad interests of
justice and peace, the rights of nations great and small and the freedom
and welfare of mankind itself.
To the Armenian people it is a final pledge that the reparation to be
demanded and obtained for them, in the terms of peace will be
commensurate, in full measure, with the magnitude of the wrongs and
sufferings inflicted upon them because, in a vast waste of ancient
barbarism and fraud, they formed an oasis embodying the ideals and
principles which the democracies of Europe and America are struggling to
vindicate.
If the great and free nations of Europe have greeted these auspicious
events with the satisfaction and enthusiasm we have witnessed in these
last days, it can be readily imagined how intense is the rejoicing they
have evoked in the hearts of the most ruthlessly oppressed of all
peoples, so long denied the blessings whose advent has been placed
beyond all doubt by President Wilson's clarion call to Democracy and by
the declarations of the Provisional Government of free Russia.
That the declarations of the Provisional Government of free and
regenerated Russia have been received with profound satisfaction by
Armenians, goes without saying. These declarations added to those
already made by the Allied Governments in regard to their war-aims, and
President Wilson's "Declaration of Liberty"--as his inspiring and
memorable address to Congress has been rightly called--finally ensure
the realization of Armenia's legitimate aspiration to freedom and
self-government. And if the Russian people should decide that the new
Russia shall be a Republic, that would open out the vista of a
thoroughly democratic, integral and united Armenian State free to work
out her regeneration according to her own national genius, under the
guidance of the Protecting Powers and with their and America's generous
moral and material support.
America's interest in Armenia and the excellent work of her Missions in
numerous Armenian centres both in Armenia itself and throughout Asia
Minor leave no doubt that when the time for reconstruction comes,
American aid--moral, material and cultural--will be forthcoming on a
scale and in a manner worthy of that great country and the lofty aims
for which she entered the war. For, what part of the vast war-stricken
area in Europe and the Near East more acutely and tragically exemplifies
the evils which the Allies and the United States are determined to put
an end to once and for all, and what nobler and more fitting culmination
to their gigantic efforts and sacrifices for humanity, than the
redemption and re-birth of this thrice-martyred ancient Christian
people?
Before concluding, I take this opportunity to call attention to a
passage in Mr. Asquith's speech in the House of Commons on the entry of
the United States into the war, which brings into strong relief the
guilt of the Governments of the Central Powers in the stupendous crime
of attempting the murder of a nation, although the occasion of the
speech was of course the very antithesis of the attitude of the Central
Powers towards the Armenian atrocities.
"In such a situation," said Mr. Asquith, "aloofness is seen to be not
only a blunder but a crime. To stand aside with stopped ears, with
folded arms, with an averted gaze, when you have the power to intervene
is to become not a mere spectator, but an accomplice."[33]
I am quoting this striking utterance by one of England's greatest living
statesmen also in the hope that it may furnish food for reflection to
those pro-Turks who have maintained during pre-war massacres, and still
maintain, with Count Reventlow and his followers, that the massacre of
his Christian subjects by the Turk is his own concern, and that nobody
has the right or the obligation to intervene and create new conditions
that will eliminate the possibility of its recurrence.