to America. Pessimism was not permitted in the German press. Imagine
Germany holding control of the cable and allowing press despatches
from Germany to pass over it with the freedom that England allowed!
Imagine Germany having waited as long as England before making cotton
contraband! The British press demanded information from the government
which the German press would never have dared to ask. I have known an
American correspondent, fed out of hand in Germany and thankful for
anything that the fearful German war machine might vouchsafe, turning a
belligerent when he was in London for privileges which he would never
have thought of demanding in Berlin.
If an English ship were reported sunk, he believed it must be, despite
the government’s denial. Did he go to the Germans and demand that he
might publish the rumours of what had happened to the _Moltke_ in the
Gulf of Riga, or how many submarines Germany had really lost? Indeed,
he was unconsciously paying a compliment to British free institutions.
He expected more in England; it seemed a right to him, as it would
at home. Englishmen talked frankly to him about mistakes; he heard
all the gossip; and sometimes he concluded that England was in a bad
way. In Germany such talk was not allowed. Every German said that the
government was absolutely truthful; every German believed all of its
reports. But ask this critical American how he would like to live
under German rule, and then you found how anti-German he was at heart.
Nothing succeeds like success, and Germany was winning and telling no
one if she had any setbacks.
If there were a strike, the British press made the most of it for it
was big news. Pessimism is the Englishman’s natural way of arousing
himself to fresh energy. It is also against habit to be demonstrative
in his effort; so it is not easy to understand how much he is doing.
Then, pessimism brought recruits; it made the Englishman say, “I’ve
got to put my back into it!” Muddling there was and mistakes, such as
that of the method of attack at Gallipoli; but in the midst of all
this disspiriting pessimism, no Englishman thought of anything but of
putting his back into it more and more. Lord Kitchener had said that it
was to be a long war and evidently it must be. Of course, England’s
misfortune was in having the war catch her in the transition from an
old order of things to social reforms.
But if the war shows anything it is that basically English character
has not changed. She still has unconquerable, dogged persistence, and
her defects for this kind of war are not among the least admirable of
her traits to those who desire to live their own lives in their own
way, as the English-speaking people have done for five hundred years,
without having a _verboten_ sign on every street corner.
It is still the law that when a company of infantry marches through
London it must be escorted by a policeman. This means a good deal:
that civil power is superior to military power. It is a symbol of what
Englishmen have fought for with spades and pitchforks and what we
have fought Englishmen for. My own idea is that England is fighting
for it in this struggle; and starting unready against a foe which was
ready, as the free peoples always have, she was fighting for time and
experience before she could strike her sturdiest blows.
THE END
Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a
predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not
changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced
quotation marks retained.
Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.
End of Project Gutenberg's My Year of the Great War, by Frederick Palmer