Genius has set forth the most brutal characteristic of the Hun. In
moments of triumph, invariably he is the bully, and, as invariably, he
wallows in brutality--witness Belgium under his iron heel and, in this
cartoon, stricken Serbia impotent to ward off the blow about to be dealt
by a monstrous fist. That is the Teuton conception of War, Merry War
(_Lustige Krieg_)! In the English prize-ring we have an axiom indelibly
impressed upon novices--"Follow up one stout blow with
another--_quick_!" That, also, is the consummate art of war. But when a
man is knocked out we don't savage him as he lies senseless at our feet.
The Hun does. His axiom is--"As you are strong, be merciless!"
In the small pig-eyes, in the gross, sensual lips, the mandril-like jaw,
the misshapen ear, I see not merely a lifelike portrait of a Hun but a
composite photograph of all Huns, something which should hang in every
house in the kingdom until the terms of such a peace have been imposed
which will make the shambles in Belgium, Poland, and Serbia an eternal
nightmare of the past, never to be repeated in the future. And over the
anaemic hearts of the Trevelyans, the Ramsay MacDonalds, the Arthur
Ponsonbys, who dare to prattle of a peace that shall not humiliate
Germany, I would have this cartoon tattooed, not in indigo, but in
vermilion.
If Ulysses Grant exacted from the gallant Robert Lee "Unconditional
Surrender," and if our generation approves--as it does--that grim
ultimatum, what will be the verdict of posterity should we as a
nation--we who have been spared the unspeakable horrors under which
other less isolated countries have been "bled white"--descend to the
infamy of a compromise between the Powers of Darkness and Light? The
Huns respect Force, and nothing else. Mercy provokes contempt and
laughter. I hold no brief for reprisals upon helpless women and
children; I am not an advocate of what is called the "commercial
extermination of Germany"; but it is my sincerest conviction that
criminals must be punished. The Most Highest War Lord and his people,
not excluding the little children who held high holiday when the
_Lusitania_ was torpedoed, are--CRIMINALS.