THE PERIL OF STIFLING THE TRUTH
Ignorance of the real truth about the war--an ignorance purposely
imposed upon us by official red-tape--is, I am convinced, the gravest
peril by which our beloved country is faced at the present moment.
I say it is the gravest peril for the simple reason that it is the
root-peril from which spring all the rest. And this ignorance springs
not from official apathy, or from the public wilfully shutting its
eyes to disagreeable truths. It is born of the deliberate suppression
of unpleasant facts, of the deliberate and ridiculous exaggeration
of minor successes. In a word, it is the result of the public having
been fooled and bamboozled under the specious plea of safeguarding
our military interests. Are we children to believe such official
fairy-tales? The country is not being told the truth about the war.
I don't say, and I do not believe, that it is being fed with false
news of bogus victories. But untruths can as easily be conveyed by
suppression as by assertion, and no one who has studied the war with
any degree of attention can escape the impression that the news
presented to us day by day takes on, under official manipulation, a
colour very much more favourable than is warranted by the actual facts.
Day after day the Press Bureau, of course under official inspiration
from higher sources, issues statements in which the good news is unduly
emphasised and the bad unduly slurred over. Day by day a large section
of the Press helps on, with every ingenious device of big type and
sensational headlines, the official hoodwinking of the public. Many
pay their nimble halfpennies to be gulled. A naval engagement in which
our immensely superior forces crush the weaker squadron of the enemy
is blazoned forth as a "magnificent victory" for our fighting men,
when, in sober truth, the chief credit lies with the silent and utterly
forgotten strategist behind the scenes, whose cool brain worked out the
eternal problem of bringing adequate force to bear at exactly the right
time and in just exactly the right place.
I say no word to depreciate the heroism of our gallant bluejackets.
They would fight as coolly when they were going to inevitable
death--Cradock's men did in the _Good Hope_ and _Monmouth_--as if they
were in such overwhelming superiority that the business of destroying
the enemy was little more dangerous than the ordinary battle-practice.
My whole point is that by the skilful manipulation of facts a wholly
false impression is conveyed. There is, in truth, nothing "magnificent"
about beating a hopelessly inferior foe, and our sailors would be the
last to claim to be heroes under such conditions. It is, of course,
the business of our naval authorities to be ready whenever a German
squadron shows itself, to hit at once with such crushing superiority
of gunfire that there will be no need to hit again at the same object.
That can only be achieved by sound strategy, for which we are entitled
to claim and give the credit that is due. When our Navy has won a
decisive success against great odds we may be justified in talking
of a "magnificent" victory. To talk of any naval success of the
present war as a "magnificent victory" is simply to becloud the real,
essential, vital facts, and to assist in deceiving a public which is
being studiously kept in the dark.
By every means possible, short of downright lying of the German type,
the public is being lulled into a false and dangerous belief that all
is well--a blind optimism calculated to produce only the worst possible
results, a state of mental and physical apathy which has already
gone far to rob it of the energy and determination and driving force
which are absolutely necessary if we are to emerge in safety from the
greatest crisis that has faced our country in its thousand years of
stormy history.
As an example of what the public are told concerning the enemy, a good
illustration is afforded by a well-Known Sunday paper dated March 7th.
Here we find, among other headings in big type, the following: "Stake
of Life and Death!" "Germany's Frantic Appeal for Greater Efforts!"
"Russia's Hammer Blow." "German Offensive from East Prussia Ruined:
Losses 250,000 in a Month." "German Plans Foiled: Enemy's 3,000,000
Losses." "On Reduced Rations: German Troops Getting Less to Eat."
"Germany Cut Off from the Seas." "Germans Cut in Two: 15,000 Prisoners
and 'Rich Booty' Taken." "Killed to Last Man: Appalling Austrian
Losses." "The Verge of Famine: Bread Doles cut down again in Germany:
Frantic Efforts to Stave Off Starvation."
And yet, in the centre of the paper, next to the leader, we find a huge
advertisement headed "The Man to be Pitied," calling for recruits,
appealing to their patriotism, and urging them to "Enlist To-day."
Surely it is the reader who is to be pitied!
Again, we have wilfully neglected the formation of a healthy public
opinion in neutral countries. While Germany has, by every underhand
means in her power, by wireless lies, and by bribery of certain
newspapers in America and in Italy, created an opinion hostile to the
Allies, we have been content to sit by and allow the disgraceful plot
against us to proceed.
We have, all of us, read the screeches of the pro-German press in the
United States, and in Italy the scandal of how Germany has bribed
certain journals has already been publicly exposed. The Italians have
not been told the truth by us, as they should have been. In Italy the
greater section of the public are in favour of Great Britain and are
ready to take arms against the hated Tedesco, yet on the other hand we
have to face the insidious work of Germany's secret service and the
lure of German gold in a country where, unfortunately, few men, from
contadino to deputy, are above suspicion. We must not close our eyes
to the truth that in neutral countries Germany is working steadily
with all her underhand machinery of diplomacy, of the purchase of
newspapers, of bribery and corruption and the suborning of men in high
places. To what end? To secure the downfall of Great Britain!
I have myself been present at a private view of an amazing cinema film
prepared at the Kaiser's orders and sent to be exhibited in neutral
countries for the purpose of influencing opinion in favour of Germany.
The pictures have been taken in the fighting zone, both in Belgium and
in East Prussia. So cleverly have they been stage-managed that I here
confess, as I sat gazing at them, I actually began to wonder whether
the stories told of German barbarities were, after all, true! Pictures
were shown of a group of British prisoners laughing and smoking, though
in the hands of their captors; of the kind German soldiery distributing
soup, bread, etc., to the populace in a Belgian village; of soldiers
helping the Belgian peasantry re-arrange their homes; of a German
soldier giving some centimes to a little Belgian child; of great crowds
in Berlin singing German national songs in chorus; of the marvellous
organisation of the German army; of thousands upon thousands of troops
being reviewed by the Kaiser, who himself approaches you with a salute
and a kindly smile. It was a film that must, when shown in any neutral
country--as it is being shown to-day all over the world--create a
good impression regarding Germany, while people will naturally ask
themselves why has not England made a similar attempt, in order to
counteract such an insidious and clever illusion in the public mind.
Such a mischievous propaganda as that being pursued by Germany in all
neutral countries we cannot to-day afford to overlook. Our enemy's
intention is first to prepare public opinion, and then to produce
dissatisfaction among the Allies by sowing discord. And yet from the
eyes of the British nation the scales have not yet fallen! In our
apathy in this direction I foresee great risk.
With these facts in view it certainly behoves us to stir ourselves into
activity by endeavouring, ere it becomes too late, to combat Germany's
growing prestige among other nations in the world, a prestige which is
being kept up by a marvellous campaign of barefaced chicanery and fraud.
The dangerous delusion is prevalent in Great Britain that we are past
the crisis, that everything is going well and smoothly, perhaps even
that the war will soon be over. In some quarters, even in some official
quarters, people to-day are talking glibly of peace by the end of
July, not openly, of course, but in the places where men congregate
and exchange news "under the rose." The general public, taking its
cue from the only authorities it understands or has to rely upon, the
daily papers, naturally responds, with the eager desire of the human
mind to believe what it wishes to be true. Hence there has grown up a
comfortable sense of security, from which we shall assuredly experience
a very rude awakening.
For, let there be no mistake about it, the war is very far from ended;
indeed, despite our losses, we might almost say it has hardly yet
begun. For eight months we have been "getting ready to begin." To-day
we see Germany in possession of practically the whole of Belgium
and a large strip of Northern France. With the exception of a small
patch of Alsace, she preserves her own territory absolutely intact.
Her fortified lines extend from the coast of Belgium to the border
of Switzerland, and behind that seemingly impenetrable barrier she
is gathering fresh hosts of men ready for a desperate defence when
the moment comes, as come it must, for the launching of the Allies'
attack. On her Eastern frontiers she has at least held back the Russian
attack, she has freed East Prussia, and not a single soldier is to-day
on German soil. I ask any one who may be inclined to undue optimism
whether the situation is not one to call imperatively for the greatest
effort of which the British nation and the British Empire are capable?
We are assured by the official inspirers of optimism that time is on
the side of the Allies, and is working steadily against the Germans.
In a sense, of course, this is true, but it is not the whole truth.
I place not the slightest reliance upon the stories industriously
circulated from German sources of Germany being short of food; all the
evidence we can get from neutrals who have just returned from Germany
condemns them _in toto_. The Germans are a methodical and far-seeing
people, and no doubt they are very rightly looking ahead and prudently
conserving their resources. But that there is any real scarcity of
either food or munitions of war there is not a trace of reliable
evidence, and those journals, one of which I have quoted, which delight
to represent our enemy as being in a state of semi-starvation are doing
a very bad service to our country. The Germans can unquestionably hold
out for a very considerable time yet, and we are simply living in a
fool's paradise if we try to persuade ourselves to the contrary. If
it were true that Germany is really short of food, that our blockade
was absolutely effective, and that no further supplies could reach the
enemy until the next harvest, it might be true to say that time was on
the side of the Allies. But supposing, as I believe, that the tales of
food shortage have been deliberately spread by the Germans themselves
with the very definite object of working upon the sympathies of the
United States, what position are we in? Here, in truth, we come down to
a position of the very deepest gravity. It is a position which affects
the whole conduct and conclusion of the war, and which cannot fail to
exercise the most vital influence over our future.
Speaking at the Lord Mayor's banquet last November, Mr. Asquith said:
"We shall never sheathe the sword, which we have not lightly drawn,
until Belgium recovers in full measure all, and more than all, she
has sacrificed; until France is adequately secure against the menace
of aggression; until the rights of the smaller nationalities of Europe
are placed on an unassailable foundation; and until the military
domination of Prussia is wholly and finally destroyed."
Those noble words, in which the great soul of Britain is expressed in
half a dozen lines, should be driven into the heart and brain of the
Empire. For they are, indeed, a great and eloquent call to Britain to
be up and doing. Four months later, Mr. Asquith repeated them in the
House of Commons, adding:
"I hear sometimes whispers--they are hardly more than whispers--of
possible terms of peace. Peace is the greatest of all blessings,
but this is not the time to talk of peace. Those who do so, however
excellent their intentions, are, in my judgment, the victims, I will
not say of a wanton but a grievous self-delusion. The time to talk of
peace is when the great purposes for which we and our Allies embarked
upon this long and stormy voyage are within sight of accomplishment."
Every thinking man must realise the truth and force of what the
Premier said. The question inevitably follows--are we acting with such
swiftness and decision that we shall be in a position, before the
opportunity has passed, to make those words good?
There is a steadily growing volume of opinion among men who are in a
position to form a cool judgment that, partly for financial and partly
for physical reasons, a second winter campaign cannot possibly be
undertaken by any of the combatants engaged in the present struggle.
If that view be well founded, it follows that peace on some terms or
other will be concluded by October or November at the latest. We, more
than any other nation, depend upon the issue of this war to make our
existence, as a people and an Empire, safe for a hundred years to come.
Have we so energetically pushed on the preparations that, by the time
winter is upon us again, we shall, with the help of our gallant Allies,
have dealt Germany such a series of crushing blows as to compel her to
accept a peace which shall be satisfactory to us?
There, I believe, we have the question which it is vital for us to
answer. If the answer is in the negative, I say, without hesitation,
that time fights not with the Allies but with Germany. If, as many
people think, this war must end somehow before the next winter, we
must, by that time, either have crushed out the vicious system of
Prussian militarism, or we must resign ourselves to a patched-up peace,
which would be but a truce to prepare for a more terrible struggle
to come. Despite our most heroic resolves, it is doubtful whether,
under modern conditions of warfare, the money can be found for a very
prolonged campaign.
I do not forget, of course, that the Allies have undertaken not
to conclude a separate peace, and I have not the least doubt that
the bargain will be loyally kept. But we cannot lose sight of the
possibility that peace may come through the inability of the combatants
to continue the war, which it is calculated will by the autumn have
cost nine thousand millions of money. And we can take it for granted
that the task of subduing a Germany driven to desperation, standing
on the defensive, and fighting with the blind savagery of a cornered
rat, is going to be a long and troublesome business. We are assured
that the Allies can stand the financial strain better than Germany.
Possibly; but the point is that no one knows just how much strain
Germany can stand before she breaks, and in war it is only common
prudence to prepare for the worst that can befall. This is precisely
what we, most emphatically, are _not_ doing to-day. Thanks to the
reasons I have given--the chief of which is the unwarrantable official
secrecy and the wholly unjustifiable "cooking" of the news--the British
public is _not yet fully aroused to the deadly peril_ in which the
nation and the Empire stand.
The British people are, as they ever have been, slow of thought and
slower of action. They need much rousing. And in the present war it is
most emphatically true that the right way of rousing them has not been
used. Smooth stories never yet fired British blood. Let an Englishman
think things are going even tolerably well, and he is loth to disturb
himself to make them go still better. But tell him a story of disaster,
show him how his comrades fall and die in great fights against great
odds: bring it home to his slow-working mind that he really has his
back to the wall, and you fan at once into bright flame the smouldering
pride of race and caste that has done, and will yet do, some of the
greatest deeds that have rung in history. Is there, we may well ask,
another race in the world that would have wrested such glory from the
disaster at Mons? And the lads who fought the Germans to a standstill
in the great retreat did so because the very deadliness of the peril
that confronted them called out all that is greatest and noblest and
most enduring in our national character.
Is there no lesson our authorities at home can learn from that
deathless story? Are they so blind to all the plainest teachings of
history that they fail to realise that the British people cannot be
depressed and frightened into panic by bad news, though, such is
our insular self-confidence, we can be only too easily lulled into
optimism by good news? If the autocrats who spoon-feed the public with
carefully selected titbits truly understood the mental characteristics
of their own countrymen, they would surely realise that the best,
indeed the only, way to arouse the British race throughout the world
to a sense of the real magnitude of the task that lies before them
is to tell them the simple truth. We want no more of the glossing
over of unpleasant facts which seems to be one of the main objects of
the press censorship. We want the real truth, not merely because we
are, naturally, hungry for news, but because the real truth alone is
capable of stimulating Englishmen and Welshmen, Scotchmen and Irishmen,
the world over to take off their coats, turn up their sleeves, and
seriously devote their energies to giving the German bully a sound and
effective thrashing.