Belgium has been treated brutally. ["Hear, hear!"] How brutally we shall
not yet know. We already know too much. But what had she done? Had she
sent an ultimatum to Germany? Had she challenged Germany? Was she
preparing to make war on Germany? Had she inflicted any wrong upon
Germany which the Kaiser was bound to redress? She was one of the most
unoffending little countries in Europe. ["Hear, hear!"] There she
was--peaceable, industrious, thrifty, hard working, giving offense to
no one. And her cornfields have been trampled, her villages have been
burned, her art treasures have been destroyed, her men have been
slaughtered--yea, and her women and children too. [Cries of "Shame!"]
Hundreds and thousands of her people, their neat, comfortable little
homes burned to the dust, are wandering homeless in their own land. What
was their crime? Their crime was that they trusted to the word of a
Prussian King. [Applause.] I do not know what the Kaiser hopes to
achieve by this war. [Derisive laughter.] I have a shrewd idea what he
will get; but one thing he has made certain, and that is that no nation
will ever commit that crime again.
"The Right to Defend Its Homes."
I am not going to enter into details of outrages. Many of them are
untrue, and always are in a war. War is a grim, ghastly business at best
or at worst, ["Hear, hear!"] and I am not going to say that all that has
been said in the way of outrages must necessarily be true. I will go
beyond that, and I will say that if you turn two millions of
men--forced, conscript, compelled, driven--into the field, you will
always get among them a certain number who will do things that the
nation to which they belong would be ashamed of. I am not depending on
these tales. It is enough for me to have the story which Germans
themselves avow, admit, defend and proclaim--the burning and massacring,
the shooting down of harmless people. Why? Because, according to the
Germans, these people fired on German soldiers. What business had German
soldiers there at all? ["Hear, hear!" and applause.] Belgium was acting
in pursuance of the most sacred right, the right to defend its homes.
But they were not in uniform when they fired! If a burglar broke into
the Kaiser's Palace at Potsdam, destroyed his furniture, killed his
servants, ruined his art treasures--especially those he had made
himself, [laughter and applause], and burned the precious manuscripts of
his speeches, do you think he would wait until he got into uniform
before he shot him down? [Laughter.] They were dealing with
those who had broken into their household. ["Hear, hear!"] But the
perfidy of the Germans has already failed. They entered Belgium to save
time. The time has gone. [Loud and continued applause.] They have not
gained time, but they have lost their good name. ["Hear, hear!"]
The Case of Servia.
But Belgium is not the only little nation that has been attacked in this
war, and I make no excuse for referring to the case of the other little
nation, the case of Servia. ["Hear, hear!"] The history of Servia is not
unblotted. Whose history, in the category of nations, is unblotted?
["Hear, hear!"] The first nation that is without sin, let her cast a
stone at Servia. She was a nation trained in a horrible school, but she
won her freedom with a tenacious valor, and she has maintained it by the
same courage. [Applause.] If any Servians were mixed up in the
assassination of the Grand Duke, they ought to be punished. ["Hear,
hear!"] Servia admits that. The Servian Government had nothing to do
with it. Not even Austria claims that. The Servian Prime Minister is one
of the most capable and honored men in Europe. ["Hear, hear!"] Servia
was willing to punish any one of her subjects who had been proved to
have any complicity in that assassination. What more could you expect?
What were the Austrian demands? Servia sympathized with her
fellow-countrymen in Bosnia--that was one of her crimes. She must do so
no more. Her newspapers were saying nasty things about Austria; they
must do so no longer. That is the German spirit; you had it in Zabern.
["Hear, hear!" and applause.] How dare you criticise a Prussian
official? [laughter,] and if you laugh, it is a capital offense--the
Colonel in Zabern threatened to shoot if it was repeated. In the same
way the Servian newspapers must not criticise Austria. I wonder what
would have happened if we had taken the same line about German
newspapers. ["Hear, hear!"] Servia said: "Very well, we will give orders
to the newspapers that they must in future criticise neither Austria,
nor Hungary, nor anything that is theirs." [Laughter.] Who can doubt the
valor of Servia, when she undertook to tackle her newspaper editors?
[Laughter and applause.] She promised not to sympathize with Bosnia, she
promised to write no critical articles about Austria; she would have no
public meetings in which anything unkind was said about Austria.
"Servia Faced the Situation with Dignity."
But that was not enough. She must dismiss from her army the officers
whom Austria should subsequently name. Those officers had just emerged
from a war where they had added lustre to the Servian arms; they were
gallant, brave, and efficient. ["Hear, hear!"] I wonder whether it was
their guilt or their efficiency that prompted Austria's action! But,
mark you, the officers were not named; Servia was to undertake in
advance to dismiss them from the army, the names to be sent in
subsequently. Can you name a country in the world that would have stood
that? [Cries of "No."] Supposing Austria or Germany had issued an
ultimatum of that kind to this country, saying, "You must dismiss from
your army, and from your navy, [laughter,] all those officers whom we
shall subsequently name." Well, I think I could name them now.
[Laughter.] Lord Kitchener [loud applause] would go. Sir John French
[applause] would be sent away; Gen. Smith-Dorrien [applause] would go,
and I am sure that Sir John Jellicoe [applause] would have to go. And
there is another gallant old warrior who would go, Lord Roberts.
[Applause.] It was a difficult situation for a small country. Here was a
demand made upon her by a great military power that could have put half
a dozen men in the field for every one of Servia's men, and that power
was supported by the greatest military power in the world. How did
Servia behave? It is not what happens to you in life that matters; it is
the way in which you face it, ["Hear, hear!"] and Servia faced the
situation with dignity. She said to Austria: "If any officers
of mine have been guilty, and are proved to be guilty, I will dismiss
them." Austria said: "That is not good enough for me." It was not guilt
she was after, but capacity. ["Hear, hear!"]
Russia's Turn.
Then came Russia's turn. Russia has a special regard for Servia; she has
a special interest in Servia. Russians have shed their blood for Servian
independence many a time, for Servia is a member of Russia's family, and
she cannot see Servia maltreated. Austria knew that. Germany knew it,
and she turned round to Russia and said: "I insist that you shall stand
by with your arms folded while Austria is strangling your little brother
to death." What answer did the Russian Slav give? He gave the only
answer that becomes a man. ["Hear, hear!"] He turned to Austria, and
said: "You lay hands on that little fellow, and I will tear your
ramshackle empire [loud applause and laughter] limb from limb." And he
is doing it! [Loud applause.]
The Little Nations.
That is the story of two little nations. The world owes much to little
nations--and to little men! [Laughter and applause.] This theory of
bigness, this theory that you must have a big empire, and a big nation,
and a big man--well, long legs have their advantage in a retreat.
[Laughter and applause.] The Kaiser's ancestor chose his warriors for
their height, and that tradition has become a policy in Germany. Germany
applies that ideal to nations, and will only allow six-foot-two nations
to stand in the ranks. [Laughter.] But ah! the world owes much to the
little five-foot-five nations. The greatest art in the world was the
work of little nations; the most enduring literature of the world came
from little nations; the greatest literature of England came when she
was a nation of the size of Belgium fighting a great empire. The heroic
deeds that thrill humanity through generations were the deeds of little
nations fighting for their freedom. Yes, and the salvation of mankind
came through a little nation. God has chosen little nations as the
vessels by which He carries His choicest wines to the lips of humanity,
to rejoice their hearts, to exalt their vision, to stimulate and
strengthen their faith; and if we had stood by when two little nations
were being crushed and broken by the brutal hands of barbarism, our
shame would have rung down the everlasting ages. [Loud applause.]
"The Test of Our Faith."
But Germany insists that this is an attack by a lower civilization upon
a higher one. [Derisive cries.] As a matter of fact, the attack was
begun by the civilization which calls itself the higher one. I am no
apologist for Russia; she has perpetrated deeds of which I have no doubt
her best sons are ashamed. What empire has not? But Germany is the last
empire to point the finger of reproach at Russia. ["Hear, hear!"] Russia
has made sacrifices for freedom--great sacrifices. Do you remember the
cry of Bulgaria when she was torn by the most insensate tyranny that
Europe has ever seen? Who listened to that cry? The only answer of the
higher civilization was that the liberty of the Bulgarian peasants was
not worth the life of a single Pomeranian grenadier. But the "rude
barbarians of the North" sent their sons by the thousand to die for
Bulgarian freedom. What about England? Go to Greece, the Netherlands,
Italy, Germany, France--in all those lands I could point out places
where the sons of Britain have died for the freedom of those peoples.
[Loud applause.] France has made sacrifices for the freedom of other
lands than her own. Can you name a single country in the world for the
freedom of which modern Prussia has ever sacrificed a single life?
["No!"] By the test of our faith, the highest standard of civilization
is the readiness to sacrifice for others. [Applause.]