Were I privileged to have a hand at the Peace Conference, my cooperation
would take the part of deeds and I should only ask to hang the walls of
the council chamber with life-size reproductions of Raemaekers in
blood-red frames. For human memory is weak, and as mind of man cannot
grasp the meaning of a million, so may it well fail to keep steadily
before itself the measure of Belgium--the rape and murder, the pillage
and plunder, the pretences under which perished women and priests and
children, the brutal tyranny--the left hand that beckoned in friendly
fashion, the right hand, hidden with the steel.
We can very safely leave France to remember Northern France and Russia
not to forget Poland; but let Belgium and Serbia be at the front of the
British mind and conscience; let her lift her eyes to these scorching
pictures when Germany fights with all her cunning for a peace that shall
leave Prussia scotched, not killed.
Already one reads despondent articles, that the English tradition, to
forgive and forget, is going to wreck the peace; and students of
psychology fear that within us lie ineradicable qualities that will save
the situation for Germany at the end.
To suspect such a national weakness is surely to arm against it and see
that our contribution to the Peace Conference shall not stultify our
contribution to the War.
The Germans have been kite-flying for six months, to see which way the
wind blows; and when the steady hurricane broke the strings and flung
the kites headlong to earth, those who sent them up were sufficiently
proclaimed by their haste to disclaim.
But when the actual conditions are created and the new "Scrap of Paper"
comes to light, since German honour is dead and her oath in her own
sight worthless, let it be worthless in our sight also, and let the
terms of peace preclude her power to perjure herself again. Make her
honest by depriving her of the strength to be dishonest. There is only
one thing on earth the German will ever respect, and that is superior
force. May Berlin, therefore, see an army of occupation; and may "peace"
be a word banished from every Allied tongue until that preliminary
condition of peace is accomplished, and Germany sees other armies than
her own.
Reason has been denied speech in this war; but if she is similarly
banished from the company of the peace-makers, then woe betide the
constitution of the thing they will create, for a "stable peace" must be
the very last desire of those now doomed to defeat.