And then the article tails off into vague horrors about the British
censorship and the Defence of the Realm Act and the deplorable profits
made by British shippers, and the "party of Lord North which is
installed at the Foreign Office!"
Everybody knows that in war censorship is necessary; every nation
employs it, Great Britain rather more leniently than the rest. It is a
pure myth to suppose that in England we are kept in the dark about
important sides of the war which are well known to neutrals. I have been
in four different neutral countries since the war began, and have read
their newspapers; so I speak with confidence. But it is just the sort of
myth that Mr. Bullard accepts without question. As to the Defence of the
Realm Act: of course the act gives the executive tremendous powers, and
would, if continued in normal times, be incompatible with civil liberty.
But everybody knows that some such special laws are necessary in war
time; there is no nation in Europe which attempts to do without such
laws, and Mr. Bullard makes no attempt to show that any other nation
applies them more leniently than England does. As to the fortunes made
by shippers, why drag in the word "British"? With the German merchant
ships out of use, with Allied and neutral ships sunk to the number of
some hundreds by submarines and extensively commandeered by the various
governments for war purposes, there is an extreme shortage of ships
together with an immense demand. Every tub that will float, of whatever
nationality, is bringing its owner fortune. And we dare not discourage
them, for we want every ship we can get. Mr. Bullard, dropping for a
moment his lofty idealism, complains simply that the British are getting
too large a share of the swag, an unproved and to me extremely doubtful
statement. Naturally ships belonging to the Allied powers are less open
to suspicion than neutrals are, and consequently are less harassed by
certain restrictions. But the British, at any rate, are not only
subjected to enormous war-taxation, but have in addition fifty per cent.
of their war-profits confiscated. And Lord North at the Foreign Office!
Really one smiles at Mr. Bullard's innocence. "The visitor thought we
were naughty, papa; but of course he has never seen us when we are
really naughty!" In every country engaged in war there is somewhere
below the surface a growling mass of passion, brutality, lawlessness,
hatred of foreign nations, contempt for reason and humanity. In Great
Britain, thank heaven, the brute is kept cowed and well chained, though
at times his voice is heard in the more violent newspapers. The brute
knows the hands that hold him down and hates almost all the present
Cabinet, but most of all, perhaps, he hates two men: the great and
moderate Liberal who presides over the government, the great and
moderate Liberal who guides the Foreign Office.--And Mr. Bullard, in his
innocence, would like to turn them out!
It is all rather pitiable. Nothing verified, nothing exact, nothing
impartially stated, not much that is even approximately true. Mr.
Bullard seems to mean well; I have no doubt that he means well. But his
present tone will not serve the ends of Liberalism. It will only serve
to foster prejudice, to make bad blood, to stir up that evil old spirit
of slander between nations, which every decent Liberal and certainly
every good internationalist would like to see buried for ever.
It is false to say that Great Britain has broken the Declaration of
London, because the Declaration was never accepted as law. It is false
to say that Great Britain is alone responsible for every unpopular act
committed at sea by the Allied navies; she is acting in concert with
nearly all the great maritime powers of the world. It is idle to
complain that Great Britain administers international law by means of
her own courts; that is the only method ever followed by other
belligerent nations, the United States included, nor has any better
practical method, so far as I know, been even proposed to her. And
lastly, I believe it is profoundly false to say that the British courts
have acted in heat and passion or at all fallen below the level of
scrupulous care which is expected from the best judicial bodies in the
world.
It is not likely that their decisions are in every case exactly right.
It is to be hoped that after the war, if we can get some fair security
of future peace and establish some permanent and effective international
tribunal, we may reach a definite code of international law which all
nations can agree to uphold. Whatever meaning there is in the catch
phrase "Freedom of the Seas" will then come up for serious discussion,
and Sir Edward Grey has officially announced our willingness to take
part in such discussion. In the meantime the great group of powers which
is, as Mr. Bullard admits, on the whole fighting for the maintenance of
public right and for honesty between nations, cannot be expected, in the
midst of its mortal struggle, to divest itself of its normal sources of
strength, to satisfy an ideal which has never been demanded of other
belligerents.
There is another tale, by the way, about that minister who was such "a
deevil at the moralities." He once found a respectable citizen being
attacked by two thieves. He first thought of helping the citizen, but
eventually put his stick between the man's legs and tripped him up. "The
man was never a good churchgoer," he explained, "and his language at the
time was a most sinful example." The analogy to Mr. Bullard is closer
than I thought. But I am certain he does not speak for his countrymen.
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