THE GERMAN MENACE
After Thoughts--The Great Factor--National Service--False Ideals
as to the German Soldier--The Danger of Under-estimating Germany’s
Resources--Great Britain’s Helpers--Crush the German--“Wait Till
We Get to England.”
Now that I am back in London quietly meditating on my recent
experiences, I cannot help feeling ill at ease. I see in my mind’s eye
once more, just as if I were sitting at a kinematograph show, those
thousands of young, sturdy-looking Germans on their way to the Near
East. I see the magnificent new bridges and the reconstructed tunnels
in Serbia. I hear the crowds at different stations cheer the Balkan
Express on its way back to Berlin. “Are people in this country,” I ask
myself, “fully aware of the seriousness of the present situation? Does
the Government of this country fully realise that unless the British
Fleet be left to show its might in cutting off what is the food of the
German War-Machine, the war itself cannot be brought to a successful
issue?”
Great changes have taken place since I left London at the beginning of
November. On my return I find that National Service has been adopted by
the Government and accepted by the people. To me this was the best news
I had heard for many months. A step nearer victory, I told myself.
At last the British people have realised that compulsion to defend
the country of their birth is no disgrace, and they have learned that
it in no way threatens their personal liberty. The French and Dutch,
to mention two countries famed for their love of independence and
liberty, never have and never will consider it against their freedom
to be compelled to learn how to defend themselves in the hour of need.
An Englishman does not consider it a disgrace to be compelled to pay
his rates and taxes; why should it be regarded as anything but an
honour, and a very great honour, to be compelled to defend the greatest
freedom that subjects of any country have ever known--to give up his
life for his Motherland?
The adoption of the National Service Scheme has caused me the liveliest
possible satisfaction, but there is still another danger to be met
by, not only the British people, but the British Government itself;
that is, the under-estimation of the power and resources of the German
menace. The misleading statements which for the past year have figured
in many English journals, to the effect that men of fifty and boys of
fifteen are sent to the front on account of the exhaustion of German
man power, have done incalculable harm in convincing thousands of
people that the end of the war is at hand, and that the end will be
victory for the Entente Powers. The Germans have now been fighting for
eighteen months, and they are very far from being beaten.
A man may, to his own entire satisfaction, come to the conclusion that
given the Spring and sufficient munitions that the German resistance
will crumble. The German resistance will never crumble; it will fight
as fine a defensive campaign as it has fought a series of offensive
campaigns. To under-rate an enemy is to undermine your own chances of
victory.
Shortly after my return to England I was talking with a Frenchman who
for some time has lived in this country. He seemed to be convinced that
the Germans had only old men and boys in the trenches in France, and
that they were a mere army of cowards.
“If that be the case,” I replied, “if they really are an army of
cowards who throw down their arms and hold up their hands as soon as
they are attacked, then why does not the glorious French Army hurl them
back across the Rhine?”
To this my friend made no reply. I relate the incident merely to show
how many excellent people hypnotise themselves into the belief that
the Germans are cowards. Any British “Tommy” who has participated in
an attack on the German trenches, or who has helped to hold the lines
against a German onslaught, will confirm me in my opinion that the
Germans are very far indeed from being cowards.
It will aid the Allies nothing to underestimate German cunning and
German efficiency. I firmly believe that in the long run Great Britain
can hold out far better than her foes; but Great Britain is not
fighting alone, she has to consider France, Russia and Italy, and
finish this fight with the utmost possible expedition.
It is incumbent upon this country to put forth its entire manhood,
as well as to husband all its resources for the great struggle that
is looming in the very near distance. In short, all must wake up to
the great German danger. Away with kid gloves! Away with all thought
of the Hague Convention! Fight the reckless, ferocious, wild animal
which has broken loose over Europe, fight it with every weapon at your
disposal! If Great Britain allows this animal to conquer it, there will
be no pity, and the glorious British Empire will be a thing of the
past. Those thousands and thousands of young men of the Empire from
every corner of the globe who have died on the battlefields of France
and Gallipoli shall then not have died in vain, and the most glorious
monument to the memory of those fallen heroes will be the complete
defeat of the brutal Hun.
This is not the hour for seeking personal glory, but it is the moment
for searching for efficiency, be it in the field of battle or on the
Government benches in the House of Commons.
Britons, as well as neutrals, who love this, to me, dear old country
and all that it stands for should give their all to crush Germany. The
blunders that have been made are for the most part almost excusable
blunders. No one can expect that in a short time a country that has
always been anti-militarist can turn into a highly organised military
power. The Germans themselves have taken some forty years to achieve
this. I repeat, Germany is still very far from being beaten. Personally
I firmly believe in the eventual victory of the Allies, but only if
every man according to his ability throws the weight of his influence,
his money, or his life into the scale. Then, and then only, shall we
see the German War Machine break down, one part after another, and once
more peace shall be restored to a Europe torn with strife and soaked
with blood.
France, Russia and Italy are merely Great Britain’s helpers. Great
Britain is the real opponent to German Militarism. She is the great
store-house from which supplies and munitions pour, and without which
her Allies cannot continue the struggle. It is she who is fated to be
the great factor in the crushing of German ambition, and its mad lust
for world-wide domination. Germany is to this century what Napoleon was
to the last, a menace to individual and national independence. It has
been seen what German Kultur did for Belgium and Serbia. “Wait till we
get to England!” is a remark I have heard from German lips, uttered in
a tone so significant, so sinister, that I have involuntarily shuddered.