Divine Teacher’s commands for a rigidly sectarian observance of Sunday.
A seventh day’s rest was wisely and rightly instituted by Moses for the
relief of the Israelites when they had been worked as slaves by their
Egyptian taskmasters; but Christ never incorporated its observance as
any part of the instructions He gave to His disciples. “What man shall
there be among you,” He said, “that shall have one sheep, and if it
fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it and lift
it out? How much, then, is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore, it is
lawful to do well on the sabbath days.”
Mark those last words! They were spoken by One “in whom there was no
guile.” It is lawful to do well on the sabbath days. And yet, Oh!
narrow and rigid men who “profess” Christ, you, who see and know that
on the feeding of our population depends their health, their strength,
and their ultimate victory over a barbarous foe, you would discourage
the willing hearts and hinder the ready hands from virtuous and
unselfish labour on Sundays in a time of unexampled national necessity!
Shame! For the blessing of God must be on all such honest workers whose
toil is for the help and honour of their country. Christ told us there
were but two commandments, not ten--the first: “Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy
strength”--and the second: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
There is none other commandment greater than these.”
* * * * *
Now what do the dogmatists make of this? If we truly love God, we
surely know His “work” never ceases. We could not live a second
without His sustaining principle. Every moment of every hour some
active propulsion of creative force labours to produce a result which
is perfect of its kind. On whatever day we sow our wheat we cannot
stop its growing on Sundays. The energies of Divine beneficence never
slacken. If they did, existence itself would be at an end. Our “love”
of God must therefore include our consciousness of His unresting “work”
for His creation. Then, if we are to love our neighbour as ourselves,
it follows that we must care for his sustenance as well as our own. In
times like the present we must help him to produce food for himself and
his family, even if we till the land on Sundays, which, so employed,
may be considered truly “holy” days. For “it is lawful to do well on
the sabbath days,” and it is better to benefit a neighbour than listen
to a sermon. That is, if we accept the teaching of Christ and assume
to be Christians. The times are pressing; the necessity for food
production urgent; and men owe it as a duty to the land God gives them
that it should yield sufficient to keep the population in health and
safety. Therefore, if this needful, noble work has to be done quickly,
there is no sin, but rather great virtue and self-sacrifice, in working
on Sundays as well as weekdays during a time of war and stress. If any
of the clergy can quote a single one of Christ’s own words forbidding
necessary work on Sundays, let them do so. Christ’s own words,
remember! They are generally ignored by all Churches. Had they ever
been obeyed, the purity and strength of a perfect Faith would, long
ere this, have exterminated War. Now, all good “Christian” clergy, who
object to necessary national work on Sundays, produce your Master’s
warrant for such action--if you can! I say you cannot!
THE WAR LOAN
HOW IT MIGHT BE INCREASED
(_Published in the “Pall-Mall Gazette”_)
We are all bound for victory. Every nerve and sinew of every man and
woman in Imperial Britain is bent on the task of winning it, not only
for ourselves, but for the whole civilised world. America knows, and
the intimidated and secretly tampered with neutrals also know, as well
as we do, that the full triumph of the Allies means their great peace
as well as ours--their advantage, their progress, their commerce, as
well as ours. That brave and straight-speaking hero of science, Thomas
Edison, recently said: “The people of the world have willed that they
shall be their own masters, and what the people will is sure to come to
pass.” True enough, it is the people only who can realise every aim,
every ideal, every conquest; and in this matter of the War Loan they
can raise a veritable mountain of gold if they so determine. But--there
is a “but” in their willingness: an obstacle in the race--they will
not give as much as they would if they have to realise that some of it
or any of it may be used to pay wages and provide food for German foes
dwelling in our very midst.
* * * * *
Think of it! Is it reasonable, is it just, to ask this patient, docile,
strong, and law-abiding people of Britain to give their lives, their
homes, their children, their time, with all their service and money,
towards the vigorous and incessant prosecution of the war, when they
know that there are more than 20,000 German foes kept at large in
this realm, free to do as they will? Twenty thousand, who go about
in all towns and villages unchallenged, listening, spying, noting
every coign and circumstance of vantage, and often (assuming to be
English themselves) using persuasion to prejudice the Loan among the
uninstructed classes.
Twenty thousand enemies, prepared and ready to work devastation at the
first opportunity, while we “hush up” all that may seem unchivalrous
or to the dear creatures’ detriment! Is it right that these same
Germans should have their own meeting places and restaurants in London
as freely as if they were in Berlin? And, to add insult to the injury
of the whole position, is it even sane that our authorities should
actually permit Germans to work in our munition factories? Germans
who, when they leave the works and go to their eating houses, take off
their munition badges and spit on them in token of their contempt for
Britain, even while they are accepting British pay and eating British
food!
* * * * *
What does it mean, this employment of Germans in British munition
factories? Death-dealing explosions, of course! What else can any one,
not entirely a drivelling idiot, expect? Is it likely that a German
will make shells absolutely as they should be made for the destruction
of his own countrymen? No; he would rather burn down the whole
factory!--and he does if he gets the chance. Nor can he be blamed;
it is the authorities who are to blame for putting him in the way of
temptation to murder. There is something so “dumb-driven, cattle-like”
in the sheer stupidity of two or three of our Governmental Departments
that one is fain to compassionate them as one might compassionate sheep
bumping their heads against a stone wall and expecting to get through.
* * * * *
If a house is threatened with burglary, is it reasonable to ask the
burglar in on a “dine and sleep” visit? Yet that is what is being done
with the Germans in our country to-day. And it is not possible that our
people can or will rise to their full strength, either in service or
in money, as long as they are affronted by the presence of the enemy
in the centres of their business and social life. The extraordinary
indulgence shown to the Huns in London is a perpetual worry to our
French friends, who cannot understand it. They discuss it and deplore
it as a sign of weakness. But whatever it is, we may be sure it will
not be allowed to last. Once the people take the law into their own
hands nothing will stop them. _Après ça le deluge!_
No spitting on British munition badges then! No extra allowances of
food to German prisoners while British folk are ordered to measure
their rations! No “official” posts for men with German wives! Taken
as a whole, the position is more than scandalous. The British people
have every right to demand that their own land shall be cleansed of
all the associates of the pirates and murderers who slay their men,
women, and children without mercy, and who yet remain here, living
at the nation’s expense. Every German at large in these islands is a
walking “wireless” of swift and useful information to headquarters.
Each new device of Britain for worsting the foe is at once conveyed to
those most interested, and our newspapers, frequently more zealous than
discreet, lend their aid by giving details, and often illustrations, of
the latest of our scientific inventions for warfare.
* * * * *
It is time this matter was handled boldly, with “gloves off,” as Queen
Elizabeth would have handled it. She would have sent all Germans out
of the country at the very declaration of war, and so would have saved
an infinite number of treasons against the State. Late in the day as
it is, why not send them now? Send them all, in comfort and luxury if
you will, with “rations” of first-class food, on British ships flying
the British flag, and let them take their chance of the kindness and
humanity of their own countrymen. They will be useful additions to the
“national service” of their Vaterland--we do not want them here. Our
own men and women will suffice us for our own labor, and work will be
done more readily, while money will flow in more plentifully, when we
are sure that our own land is purged of the Hun, and that we are not,
like fools, paying to keep and feed plotters against the peace of the
realm.
FOOD PRODUCTION
A PLEA FOR COMMON SENSE
(_Published in the “Pall-Mall Gazette”_)
Talk of “National Service!” Where is the man, woman, or child that
refuses to do any really necessary or useful work for the country? Such
cannot be found! There is an eager and splendid willingness in every
one to give his or her best; but without proper organisation the fine
forces of this fine, patient, and enduring people are scattered and
disunited. From all that the bewildered mind can gather through the
roaring megaphone of an apparently semi-crazed and ruinously expensive
system of advertisement, the National Service most demanded is “food
production.” So says Mr. Prothero. Very well. Then why not set about
it in an orderly practical manner, without screaming our shortcomings
aloud for the amusement of the Germans? There is no difficulty whatever
in sufficient food production if some sort of method be brought into
the present chaos. Take this for an example:--
With the help of an old soldier with a wooden leg and an old man of
seventy, a pig farmer and market gardener was able to put on the market
in six months £1487 worth of pork and £174 of garden produce.
In the next three months he anticipates an addition to his stock of
about 240 pigs from his twenty-five breeding sows.
Already he has 211 pigs on the place, apart from the breeding animals.
What can be done in one place can be done in another, and if every
rural town and village were encouraged to work its own allotments, if
every cottager were persuaded to grow his or her own garden produce,
and keep pigs and poultry, half the food problem would be solved. Why
not organise such a plan and concentrate scattered forces? It would
be a mistake to confide the management of such a scheme to “local”
magnates, whether mayors or members of corporations, for those who
have any experience of such “bodies” know well enough what hindrances
they are in the way of active progress, having always their own axes
to grind. But an impartial, unprejudiced, friendly director of each
agricultural centre, a man or woman of helpful, sympathetic and
practical knowledge, who would encourage the workers and spare them
any of that “superior” tone of insolence so hurtfully employed by some
of the temporary jacks-in-office on our military tribunals, could
very easily energise the whole business. Suppose, too, that instead
of a daily patter about potatoes and “shortage,” the Government were
to offer prizes from ten to a hundred pounds for the cottagers and
holders of allotments who, in six months, should produce most food
for their own families and neighbours, would it not cost less money
than the printing of millions of “food tickets”? Certainly, it would
hearten, not dishearten, the workers, and give them an extra zest for
“production.”
Moreover, it is high time our rulers and Ministers left off talking
about “shortage of food” altogether, if the following is true:--
A statement made in the House of Commons recently emphasises the fact
that German agents are still active in this country. In refusing
to supply a member with certain information about the supply of
aeroplanes, he said: “Any answer we give in this House is at once sent
to Germany.”
Printed or written information can always be stopped by the censor. The
question remains: How is the information conveyed?
How, indeed? Why should we give the Huns the satisfaction of supposing
we need food? Or allowing them to think their U-boats are “blockading”
us into famine? Let the public keep its “weather eye” open, and
consider recent events in Russia! There, part of the German scheme was
“to create an artificial scarcity of food, so as to precipitate food
riots and compel a separate peace.”
Beware of the dog! How about Great Britain? Who can swear that the same
“influence” is not at work here, “to create an artificial scarcity of
food”? And if it should be so, why do our politicians fall sheer into
the trap and spread the mischief which the foe may have started? Food
was poured into Petrograd as soon as the German “unseen hand” was cut
off. It is a significant fact worth remembering!
* * * * *
Again, let it be emphasised that there is no difficulty about food
production in these islands if the work be properly organised. Food is
not grown on emotional impulse, such as that displayed by a charming
lady I lately met, who told me with sweet resignation: “I will not
have flowers in my window boxes this summer. I shall plant potatoes
in them instead!” Dear soul! She evidently thought it worth while!
Just as some folks think it worth while to dig up and disfigure the
parks of London with potato growing when there is any amount of waste
land around which needs cultivation! One deplores “the falsehood of
extremes.”
* * * * *
If we are to accept Mr. Prothero’s statement, the most important line
of “national service” is this food production. Then, let him take
action and not listen to hearsay or report. Let him see for himself
the thousands of acres in this country waiting to be cultivated and to
produce richly and royally all that is needed for the population. Let
there be common sense organisation in each district--not “compulsion”;
the people are too cheerfully brave and willing to be “compelled.”
But no one cares to work in the dark without a plan, and without any
encouragement. They are told to “produce food,” but are denied labour
to produce it. The capable field-worker is taken, and inefficient
substitutes sent instead--men who do not know how to plant a root or
sow a seed, with the obvious result that plants and seeds represent so
much money thrown away. But, once more to emphasise the need of common
sense, let us hold fast the fact that no lack of food is possible to
this country if things are properly organised. And as we see by report
that, despite U-boats, ships laden with useful cargoes are constantly
arriving in our ports, let us not forget the possibility of “the
creation of that artificial scarcity” which stirred the blood and
roused the devil in Russia!
OUR FORTUNATE “RESTRICTIONS”
(_Published in the “Pall-Mall Gazette”_)
The Germans are reported to be in ecstasy over what they call the
“despairing appeal” of the Prime Minister’s great “restrictions”
speech. But, however great their “ecstasy” may be, it can hardly equal
ours! For we have sufficient sense to see what hope and strength for
our Empire springs, like a bright rainbow, from what the Boche obtusely
imagines is a cloud. Our “lead” is towards increasing prosperity and
happiness for all. We are invited to look forward to a self-supporting
country; we are given fresh chances of barring the ungrateful Teuton
from our trades by showing him that we can do all our own work
ourselves. We are promised another “Merrie England” of the spacious
days of yore, when foreign supplies were rare and costly, and when all
the fields were thick with golden grain and all the orchards glowed
with many-coloured fruits and the agricultural population were given
the chance to reap what they had sown.
* * * * *
Now, in our lovely rural villages we may perhaps hope to see the last
of many frowsy, idle sluts who for years have preferred to gossip
away their time rather than do any useful work; and in their stead we
may look for healthy, active girls and women who are proud of their
dairies and poultry farms, and glad to show interested customers the
great bowls of milk, the churning of butter, the making of cheese, and
all the endless charms of “country” work well done. If the submarine
menace teaches us to produce all the food that can be produced in these
islands, it will be a blessing in disguise, a helper and saviour of
the grit, stability, and fine reasonableness of the British race. Talk
of potatoes! There are many hundred of acres of waste land in South
Cornwall alone, notably wide, treeless fields running into sand dunes
by the sea, where the potato would flourish as well as it does in
similar Dutch soil, and all this precious land is empty and untilled.
To urge the digging up of parks and public recreation grounds, where it
is doubtful whether potatoes would grow at all, when there is all this
acreage available, is sheer nonsense. I would that I had even a hundred
acres of that Cornish sandy soil by the sea just now. With a few
skilled labourers (for one must know _how_ to plant potatoes) it should
yield gold! At Newquay, by the way, there is a golfing ground reserved
for the amusement of a dozen or so of privileged selfish persons; it
would grow tons of potatoes and other good edibles with very little
trouble.
* * * * *
Nothing has ever been a greater source of wonder to me than the
improvidence of such British folk as prefer to buy their vegetables
and fruit food rather than grow it. Nowhere are allotments so untidily
kept or so altogether neglected as in certain parts of England; nowhere
is so little grown in them. Surely it stands to sense that if each
cottager grew his own vegetable and fruit food there would be less need
for foreign supplies. And if every waste field were made to produce
_something_ in the way of foods a submarine blockade must needs prove
futile in any attempt to starve the population. We may, if we will,
foresee the vision of a happier, grander Britain than ever, when the
people of these fruitful islands are given _their own_, and no longer
have need to sever their lives from the homes of their kindred because
there is no work for them here owing to the intrusion of German
influence and German labour. We might also consider with belated sorrow
the depopulation of the Scottish Highlands, and the preservation of
vast tracts of moor and forest for mere “sport,” which has for years
been a scandal and a disgrace to the nation. Let us have the people
back on the land, and let the deer and the grouse take their own wild
chances of existence. The submarine menace has come to teach us what we
ought to have learned long ago--namely, that what we want on our own
land are our own men, as skilled farmers and workers in every useful
and profitable department, and that it ought never to be possible to
see, as I once saw posted up on a large factory in London itself: “No
English Need Apply.”
* * * * *
Look at the thing squarely. With each householder, in rural districts
at least, growing his own vegetable and fruit supply, and the farmers
growing for the community in general, what lack should there be of
the necessities of life? The Prime Minister has restricted nothing
that we cannot well do without. Somebody has grumbled about apples.
Where will you beat homegrown apples? Plant orchards of them without
stint; they will repay the trouble. Somebody else grumbles--yes, we
know somebody always grumbles! This time it is about “Paris hats.”
They are “forbidden.” O wise judge! O learned judge! No more (for a
time, at least) shall we be pestered by receiving elaborate circulars
printed in gold stating that Monsieur Satanique “presents” his latest
“creations,” as if the good Satanique were a sort of deity. Nor will
he, with all his persuasive charm, be able to entice the foolish among
women to pay him six or eight guineas for a bit of wire, a scrap of
lace, a feather, and a ribbon. O bold “restriction”! No more “Paris
hats”--but, let us hope, a great deal more common sense!
“HIS PAINFUL DUTY”
THE SORROWS OF THE HOME SECRETARY
(_Published in the “Pall-Mall Gazette”_)
We grieve for Sir George Cave. He suffers as a martyr suffers in the
cause of his country. Martyrs are not so common as heroes nowadays,
but Sir George puts in no claim to heroism. He leaves that to “Tommy.”
“Tommy” makes short work of the Huns wherever and however he meets
them, but Sir George is almost on the verge of tears because he
is unable to make their stay on in this country as agreeable and
profitable as he would wish.
* * * * *
In the House of Commons he said: “Only the other day it was his
_painful duty_ to order the internment of sixteen members of one alien
club alone!” Alas, alas! “Sixteen” out of twenty thousand wandering
spies! “One club alone,” out of hundreds of enemy information centres!
Poor Sir George! How his heart must have been torn! how it must, even
now, be lacerated and sore! “Had this club been in existence during
the whole war?” asked Sir Henry Dalziel pointedly. And surely Sir
George must have fetched a sigh from the bottom of his soul as he was
compelled to answer “Yes!” Mr. Herbert Samuel, the late Home Secretary,
was also apparently in sad plight, for he “seemed very anxious about
the thousands of friendly aliens” in the East End of London and other
large towns. He may well be “very anxious.” For these “thousands of
friendly aliens” are _not_ “friendly,” and in nine cases out of ten
“show,” as Mr. Samuel gravely observed, “that their hearts are not with
this country.”
* * * * *
Is Mr. Samuel really so ingenuous, so simple, so altogether infantile
in experience as to suppose their hearts _could_ be “with this
country”? Are the hearts of Britishers interned in Germany “_with_”
Germany? The Germans have turned English and Americans out of Berlin;
why is not the same course pursued by us with Germans in London?
Every German in the British Isles hopes for their “invasion” by his
countrymen, and with invasion the signal to mobilise. With 30,000
interned and 20,000 at liberty, 50,000 foes are in our midst, ready
to turn upon us at short notice. Why should this matter be dealt with
in such a spineless, semi-paralytic way? What are the British public
to think of the Ministers who put them on “rations” of four pounds
of bread a week, while the German prisoner is allowed ten? Two and a
half pounds of meat to the German’s three and a half? And everything
on the same scale, so that, summing up the total, the honest British
worker gets seven pounds four ounces of food to his enemy prisoners’
_fourteen pounds fourteen ounces_! Can any Controller of any department
be so blind as to think the British people will stand such injustice?
Many of us know all about Donnington Hall, though an honest attempt
to clear up that scandal was nipped in the bud by some “Unseen Hand.”
But what of the life of ease led by the German prisoners interned in
the Isle of Man? There, in the great internment camp, officers are
“at home,” and are permitted to buy whatever quantity of food they
like to pay for--food which the native population cannot get! Just as
the enemy officers at Donnington Hall can order all they like “without
restriction,” while British prisoners in Germany are given hardly
enough to keep them from starving!
* * * * *
Sir George Cave, in his extreme solicitude for “enemy aliens,” has
committed himself to one utterance which he may live to regret. It
is this: “Enemy aliens freed from internment ought certainly to be
employed on _useful work of national importance_.”