sympathy and co-operation, but to picture us as a degenerate race from
whom anything might be gained by playing upon our imagined weakness and
cowardice. A nation which attends quietly to its own sober business
must, according to their mediaeval notions, be a nation of decadent
poltroons. If we fight our battles by means of free volunteers instead
of enforced conscripts then the military spirit must be dead among us.
Perhaps, even in this short campaign, they have added this delusion also
to the dust-bin of their many errors. But such was their absurd
self-deception about the most virile of European races. Did we propose
disarmament, then it was not humanitarianism but cowardice that prompted
us, and their answer was to enlarge their programme. Did we suggest a
navy-building holiday, it was but a cloak for our weakness and an
incitement that they should redouble their efforts. Our decay had become
a part of their national faith. At first the wish may have been the
father to the thought, but soon under the reiterated assertions of their
crazy professors the proposition became indisputable. Bernhardi in his
book upon the next war cannot conceal the contempt in which he has
learned to hold us. Neibuhr long ago had prophesied the coming fall of
Britain, and every year was believed to bring it nearer and to make it
more certain. To these jaundiced eyes all seemed yellow, when the
yellowness lay only in themselves. Our army, our navy, our colonies, all
were equally rotten. "Old England, old, indeed, and corrupt, rotten
through and through." One blow and the vast sham would fly to pieces,
and from those pieces the victor could choose his reward. Listen to
Prof. Treitschke, a man who, above all others, has been the evil genius
of his country, and has done most to push it toward this abyss: "A thing
that is wholly a sham," he cried, in allusion to our empire, "cannot, in
this universe of ours, endure forever. It may endure for a day, but its
doom is certain." Were ever words more true when applied to the narrow
bureaucracy and swaggering Junkerdom of Prussia, the most artificial and
ossified sham that ever our days have seen? See which will crack first,
our democracy or this, now that both have been plunged into the furnace
together. The day of God's testing has come, and we shall see which can
best abide it.
*The Blame Not England's.*
I have tried to show that we are in no way to blame for the hostility
which has grown up between us. So far as it had any solid cause at all
it has arisen from fixed factors, which could no more be changed by us
than the geographical position which has laid us right across their exit
to the oceans of the world. That this deeply rooted national sentiment,
which forever regarded us as the Carthage to which they were destined to
play the part of Rome, would, sooner or later, have brought about war
between us, is, in my opinion, beyond all doubt. But it was planned to
come at the moment which was least favorable for Britain. "Even English
attempts at a rapprochement must not blind us to the real situation,"
says Bernhardi. "We may, at most, use them to delay the necessary and
inevitable war until we may fairly imagine we have some prospect of
success." A more shameless sentence was never penned, and one stands
marveling which is the more grotesque--the cynicism of the sentiment or
the folly which gave such a warning to the victim. For be it remembered
that Bernhardi's words are to be taken very seriously, for they are not
the ravings of some Pan-German monomaniac, but the considered views of
the foremost military writer of Germany, one who is in touch with those
inner circles whose opinions are the springs of national policy. "Our
last and greatest reckoning is to be with Great Britain," said the
bitter Treitschke. Sooner or later the shock was to come. Germany sat
brooding over the chessboard of the world waiting for the opening which
should assure a winning game.
* * * * *
It was clear that she should take her enemies separately rather than
together. If Britain were attacked it was almost certain that France and
Russia would stand by her side. But if, on the contrary, the quarrel
could be made with these two powers, and especially with Russia, in the
first instance, then it was by no means so certain that Great Britain
would be drawn into the struggle. Public opinion has to be strongly
moved before our country can fight, and public opinion under a Liberal
Government might well be divided upon the subject of Russia. Therefore,
if the quarrel could be so arranged as to seem to be entirely one
between Teuton and Slav there was a good chance that Britain would
remain undecided until the swift German sword had done its work. Then,
with the grim acquiescence of our deserted allies, the still bloody
sword would be turned upon ourselves, and that great final reckoning
would have come.
* * * * *
Such was the plan, and fortune favored it. A brutal murder had, not for
the first time, put Servia into a position where a State may be blamed
for the sins of individuals. An ultimatum was launched so phrased that
it was impossible for any State to accept it as it stood and yet remain
an independent State. At the first sign of argument or remonstrance the
Austrian Army marched upon Belgrade. Russia, which had been already
humiliated in 1908 by the forcible annexation of Bosnia, could not
possibly submit a second time to the Caudine Forks. She laid her hand
upon her sword hilt. Germany sprang to the side of her ally. France
ranged herself with Russia. Like a thunderclap the war of the nations
had begun.
* * * * *
So far all had worked well for German plans. Those of the British public
who were familiar with the past and could look into the future might be
well aware that our interests were firmly bound with those of France,
and that if our faggots were not tied together they would assuredly be
snapped each in its turn. But the unsavory assassination which had been
so cleverly chosen as the starting point of the war bulked large in the
eyes of our people, and, setting self-interest to one side, the greater
part of the public might well have hesitated to enter into a quarrel
where the cause seemed remote and the issues ill-defined. What was it to
us if a Slav or a Teuton collected the harbor due of Saloniki! So the
question might have presented itself to the average man who in the long
run is the ruler of this country and the autocrat of its destinies. In
spite of all the wisdom of our statesmen, it is doubtful if on such a
quarrel we could have gained that national momentum which might carry us
to victory. But at that very moment Germany took a step which removed
the last doubt from the most cautious of us and left us in a position
where we must either draw our sword or stand forever dishonored and
humiliated before the world. The action demanded of us was such a
compound of cowardice and treachery that we ask ourselves in dismay what
can we ever have done that could make others for one instant imagine us
to be capable of so dastardly a course. Yet that it was really supposed
that we could do it, and that it was not merely put forward as an excuse
for drawing us into war, is shown by the anger and consternation of the
Kaiser and his Chancellor when we drew back from what the British Prime
Minister had described as "an infamous proposal." One has only to read
our Ambassador's description of his interview with the German Chancellor
after our decision was announced, "so evidently overcome by the news of
our action," to see that through some extraordinary mental aberration
the German rulers did actually believe that a vital treaty with
Britain's signature upon it could be regarded by this country as a mere
"scrap of paper."
*The Treaty of 1839.*
What was this treaty which it was proposed so lightly to set aside? It
was the guarantee of the neutrality of Belgium signed in 1839 (confirmed
verbally and in writing by Bismarck in 1870) by Prussia, France, and
Britain, each of whom pledged their word to observe and to enforce it.
On the strength of it Belgium had relied for her security amid her
formidable neighbors. On the strength of it also France had lavished all
her defenses upon her eastern frontier, and left her northern exposed to
attack. Britain had guaranteed the treaty, and Britain could be relied
upon. Now, on the first occasion of testing the value of her word it was
supposed that she would regard the treaty as a worthless scrap of paper,
and stand by unmoved while the little State which had trusted her was
flooded by the armies of the invader. It was unthinkable, and yet the
wisest brains of Germany seem to have persuaded themselves that we had
sunk to such depths of cowardly indolence that even this might go
through. Surely they also have been hypnotized by those foolish dreams
of Britain's degeneration, from which they will have so terrible an
awakening.
* * * * *
As a matter of fact the General Staff had got ahead of the diplomatists,
and the German columns were already over the border while the point was
being debated at Berlin. There was no retreat from the position which
had been taken up. "It is to us a vital matter of strategy and is beyond
argument," said the German soldier. "It is to us a vital matter of honor
and, is beyond argument," answered the British statesman. The die was
cast. No compromise was possible. Would Britain keep her word or would
she not? That was the sole question at issue. And what answer save one
could any Briton give to it? "I do not believe," said our Prime
Minister, "that any nation ever entered into a great controversy with a
clearer conscience and stronger conviction that it is fighting, not for
aggression, not for the maintenance of its own selfish interest, but in
defense of principles the maintenance of which is vital to the
civilization of the world." So he spoke, and history will indorse his
words, for we surely have our quarrel just.
* * * * *
So much for the events which have led us to war. Now for a moment let us
glance at what we may have to hope for, what we may have to fear, and,
above all, what we must each of us do that we win through to a lasting
peace.
What have we to gain if we win? That we have nothing material to gain,
no colonies which we covet, no possessions of any sort that we desire,
is the final proof that the war has not been provoked by us. No nation
would deliberately go out of its way to wage so hazardous and costly a
struggle when there is no prize for victory. But one enormous indirect
benefit we will gain if we can make Germany a peaceful and harmless
State. We will surely break her naval power and take such steps that it
shall not be a menace to us any more. It was this naval power, with its
rapid increase and the need that we should ever, as Mr. Churchill has so
well expressed it, be ready at our average moment to meet an attack at
their chosen moment--it was this which has piled up our war estimates
during the last ten years until they have bowed us down. With such
enormous sums spent upon ships and guns, great masses of capital were
diverted from the ordinary channels of trade, while an even more serious
result was that our programmes of social reform had to be curtailed from
want of the money which could finance them. Let the menace of that
lurking fleet be withdrawn--the nightmare of those thousand hammers
working day and night in forging engines for our destruction--and our
estimates will once again be those of a civilized Christian country,
while our vast capital will be turned from measures of self-protection
to those of self-improvement. Should our victory be complete, there is
little which Germany can yield to us save the removal of that shadow
which has darkened us so long. But our children and our children's
children will never, if we do our work well now, look across the North
Sea with the sombre thoughts which have so long been ours, while their
lives will be brightened and elevated by money which we, in our darker
days, have had to spend upon our ships and our guns.
Consider, on the other hand, what we should suffer if we were to lose.
All the troubles of the last ten years would be with us still, but in a
greatly exaggerated form. A larger and stronger Germany would dominate
Europe and would overshadow our lives. Her coast line would be
increased, her ports would face our own, her coaling stations would be
in every sea, and her great army, greater then than ever, would be
within striking distance of our shores. To avoid sinking forever into
the condition of a dependant, we should be compelled to have recourse to
rigid compulsory service, and our diminished revenues would be all
turned to the needs of self-defense. Such would be the miserable
condition in which we should hand on to our children that free and
glorious empire which we inherited in all the fullness of its richness
and its splendor from those strong fathers who have built it up. What
peace of mind, what self-respect could be left for us in the remainder
of our lives! The weight of dishonor would lie always upon our hearts.
And yet this will be surely our fate and our future if we do not nerve
our souls and brace our arms for victory. No regrets will avail, no
excuses will help, no after-thoughts can profit us. It is now--now--even
in these weeks and months that are passing that the final reckoning is
being taken, and when once the sum is made up no further effort can
change it. What are our lives or our labors, our fortunes or even our
families, when compared with the life or death of the great mother of us
all? We are but the leaves of the tree. What matter if we flutter down
today or tomorrow, so long as the great trunk stands and the burrowing
roots are firm. Happy the man who can die with the thought that in this
greatest crisis of all he has served his country to the uttermost, but
who would bear the thoughts of him who lives on with the memory that he
had shirked his duty and failed his country at the moment of her need?
There is a settled and assured future if we win. There is darkness and
trouble if we lose. But if we take a broader sweep and trace the
meanings of this contest as they affect others than ourselves, then ever
greater, more glorious are the issues for which we fight. For the whole
world stands at a turning point of its history, and one or other of two
opposite principles, the rule of the soldier or the rule of the citizen,
must now prevail. In this sense we fight for the masses of the German
people, as some day they will understand, to free them from that
formidable military caste which has used and abused them, spending their
bodies in an unjust war and poisoning their minds by every device which
could inflame them against those who wish nothing save to live at peace
with them. We fight for the strong, deep Germany of old, the Germany of
music and of philosophy, against this monstrous modern aberration the
Germany of blood and of iron, the Germany from which, instead of the old
things of beauty, there come to us only the rant of scolding professors
with their final reckonings, their Weltpolitik, and their Godless
theories of the Superman who stands above morality and to whom all
humanity shall be subservient. Instead of the world-inspiring phrases of
a Goethe or a Schiller, what are the words in the last decade which have
been quoted across the sea? Are they not always the ever-recurring words
of wrath from one ill-balanced man? "Strike them with the mailed fist."
"Leave such a name behind you as Attila and his Huns." "Turn your
weapons even upon your own flesh and blood at my command." These are the
messages which have come from this perversion of a nation's soul.
*A Mighty Despotism.*
But the matter lies deep. The Hohenzollerns and the Hapsburgs have used
their peoples as a great landowner might use the serfs upon his estate.
It was, and is, their openly expressed theory that they were in their
position by the grace of God, that they owed no reckoning to any man,
and that kingdom and folk were committed for better or worse to their
charge. Round this theory of the Dark Ages there gathered all the forces
of the many courts of the empire, all the nobility who make so huge a
class in Germanic countries, all the vast army to whom strict discipline
and obedience were the breath of life, all the office-holders of the
State, all the purveyors of warlike stores. These and their like were
the natural setting to such a central idea. Court influence largely
controlled the teaching at school and universities, and so the growing
twig could be bent. But all these forces together could not have upheld
so dangerous and unnatural a theory had it not been for the influence of
a servile press. How that press was managed, how the thoughts of the
people could be turned to the right or the left with the same precision
as a platoon of grenadiers, has been shown clearly enough in the memoirs
of Bismarck. Public opinion was poisoned at its very roots. The average
citizen lived in a false atmosphere where everything was distorted to
his vision. He saw his Kaiser, not as an essentially weak and impetuous
man with a dangerous entourage who were ever at his ear, but as Germany
personified, an angel with a flaming sword, beating back envious
assailants from the beloved Fatherland. He saw his neighbors not as
peaceful nations who had no possible desire to attack him, but on the
contrary lived in constant fear of him, but as a band, of envious and
truculent conspirators who could only be kept in order by the sudden
stamp of the jackboot and the menacing clatter of the sabre. He
insensibly imbibed the Nietzsche doctrine that the immorality of the
Superman may be as colossal as his strength and that the slave-evangel
of Christianity was superseded by a sterner law. Thus, when he saw acts
which his reason must have told him were indefensible he was still
narcotized by this conception of some new standard of right. He saw his
Kaiser at the time of a petty humiliation to Great Britain sending a
telegram of congratulation to the man who had inflicted this rebuff.
Could that be approved by reason? At a time when all Europe was
shuddering over the Armenian massacres he saw this same Kaiser paying a
complimentary visit to the Sultan whose hands were still wet with the
blood of murdered Christians. Could that be reconciled with what is
right? A little later he saw the Kaiser once again pushing himself into
Mediterranean politics, where no direct German interest lay, and
endeavoring to tangle up the French developments in Northern Africa by
provocative personal appearances at Morocco, and, later, by sending a
gunboat to intrude upon a scene of action which had already by the
Treaty of Algeciras been allotted to France. How could an honest German
whose mind was undebauched by a controlled press justify such an
interference as that? He is or should be aware that, in annexing Bosnia,
Austria was tearing up a treaty without the consent of the other
signatories, and that his own country was supporting and probably
inciting her ally to this public breach of faith. Could he honestly
think that this was right? And, finally, he must know, for his own
Chancellor has publicly proclaimed it, that the invasion of Belgium was
a breach of international right, and that Germany, or, rather, Prussia,
had perjured herself upon the day that the first of her soldiers passed
over the frontier. How can he explain all this to himself save on a
theory that might is right, that no moral law applies to the Superman,
and that so long as one hews one's way through, the rest can matter
little? To such a point of degradation have public morals been brought
by the infernal teachings of Prussian military philosophy, dating back
as far as Frederick II., but intensified by the exhortations of press
and professors during our own times. The mind of the average kindly
German citizen has been debauched and yet again debauched until it
needed just such a world crisis as this to startle him at last from his
obsession and to see his position and that of his country in its true
relation with humanity and progress.
*The Final Stakes.*
Thus I say, that for the German who stands outside the ruling classes,
our victory would bring a lasting relief, and some hope that in future
his destiny should be controlled by his own judgment and not by the
passions or interests of those against whom he has at present no appeal.
A system which has brought disaster to Germany and chaos to all Europe
can never, one would think, be resumed, and amid the debris of his
empire the German may pick up that precious jewel of personal freedom
which is above the splendor of foreign conquest. A Hapsburg or a
Hohenzollern may find his true place as the servant rather than the
master of a nation. But apart from Germany, look at the effects which
our victory must have over the whole wide world. Everywhere it will mean
the triumph of reasoned democracy, of public debate, of ordered freedom
in which every man is an active unit in the system of his own
Government, while our defeat would stand for a victory to a priviliged
class, the thrusting down of the civilian by the arrogance and
intolerance of militarism, and the subjection of all that is human and
progressive to all that is cruel, narrow, and reactionary. This is the
stake for which we play, and the world will lose or gain as well as we.
You may well come, you democratic oversea men of our blood, to rally
round us now, for all that you cherish, all that is bred in your very
bones, is that for which we fight. And you, lovers of freedom in every
land, we claim at least your prayers and your wishes, for if our sword
be broken you will be the poorer. But fear not, for our sword will not
be broken, nor shall it ever drop from our hands until this matter is
forever set in order. If every ally we have upon earth were to go down
in blood and ruin, still would we fight through to the appointed end.
Defeat shall not daunt us. Inconclusive victory shall not turn us from
our purpose. The grind of poverty and the weariness of hopes deferred
shall not blunt the edge of our resolve. With God's help we shall go to
the end, and when that goal is reached it is our prayer that a new era
shall come as our reward, an era in which, by common action of State
with State, mutual hatreds and strivings shall be appeased, land shall
no longer be estranged from land, and huge armies and fleets will be
nightmares of the past. Thus, as ever, the throes of evil may give birth
to good. Till then our task stands clear before us--a task that will ask
for all we have in strength and resolution. Have you who read this
played your part to the highest? If not, do it now, or stand forever
shamed.
*Conan Doyle on British Militarism*
Early last year, in the course of some comments which I made upon the
slighting remarks about our army by Gen. von Bernhardi, I observed: "It
may be noted that Gen. von Bernhardi has a poor opinion of our troops.
This need not trouble us. We are what we are, and words will not alter
it. From very early days our soldiers have left their mark upon
Continental warfare, and we have no reason to think that we have
declined from the manhood of our forefathers." Since then he has
returned to the attack.
With that curious power of coming after deep study to the absolutely
diametrically wrong conclusion which the German expert, political or
military, appears to possess, he says in his "War of Today": "The
English Army, trained more for purposes of show than for modern war,"
adding in the same sentence a sneer at our "inferior colonial levies."
He will have an opportunity of reconsidering his views presently upon
the fighting value of our oversea troops, and surely, so far as our own
are concerned, he must already be making some interesting notes for his
next edition, or, rather, for the learned volume upon "Germany and the
Last War," which will, no doubt, come from his pen. He is a man to whom
we might well raise a statue, for I am convinced that his frank
confession of German policy has been worth at least an army corps to
this country. We may address to him John Davidson's lines to his enemy:
Unwilling friend, let not your spite abate.
Spur us with scorn and strengthen us with hate.
There is another German gentleman who must be thinking rather furiously.
He is a certain Col. Gadke, who appeared officially at Aldershot some
years ago, was hospitably entertained, being shown all that he desired
to see, and on his return to Berlin published a most deprecatory
description of our forces. He found no good thing in them. I have some
recollection that Gen. French alluded in a public speech to this
critic's remarks, and expressed a modest hope that he and his men would
some day have the opportunity of showing how far they were deserved.
Well, he has had his opportunity, and Col. Gadke, like so many other
Germans, seems to have made a miscalculation.
*Germans Untried in War.*