I am now in Scotland, writing this at [OOG]| Glasgow, a district as much affected by the war [OOG]| as any in those islands. You may know that on [OOG]| either side of the Clyde are large shipbuilding [OOG]| and engineering yards: these are now nearly all [OOG]| on double or treble shifts, and all working on [OOG]| war material. Battleships, torpedo-boats, [OOG]| submarines, torpedoes, shells, gun carriages, [OOG]| motors and motor lorries for the battlefields [OOG]| command all attention. Similarly in Manchester, [OOG]| as regards big guns and ammunition, and [OOG]| Birmingham is turning out millions of small [OOG]| arms.
Dropping consideration as to causes, [OOG]| and viewing the situation from the standpoint of [OOG]| singleness of purpose, with the whole people [OOG]| engaged night and day, with only a short week-end [OOG]| break, it is magnificent. If ever the people of [OOG]| any country had their energy directed to the [OOG]| doing of great things to oppose any enemy [OOG]| effectively, that condition obtains now in [OOG]| Britain.
Already there are four millions [OOG]| of men in the British army, and still recruiting [OOG]| is going on all over the country. All of these [OOG]| are not yet armed, and many of them are drilling [OOG]| with rifles much out of date; but these will be [OOG]| equipped in a month or two as they are ready for [OOG]| the battlefield.
The transportation is a [OOG]| gigantic task. Every day, without exception [OOG]| scores of thousands are taken from England to [OOG]| France and horses and ammunition proportionately. [OOG]| If it is the outcome of madness, there is [OOG]| magnificent marvel, not at the blunders made, but [OOG]| at the high efficiency shown and the absence of [OOG]| either hysteria or depression. The Government are [OOG]| still advertising for all kinds of mechanics [OOG]| connected with engineering, and offering the [OOG]| highest wages and a guarantee of at least a [OOG]| year's constant work. In engineering works in [OOG]| Scotland they were working seven days a week and [OOG]| overtime each day, where they had not double or [OOG]| triple shifts. Now they find it necessary, for [OOG]| efficiency, to have the usual Saturday half- [OOG]| holiday.
Yesterday the Clydebank men, a [OOG]| shipbuilding district immediately adjacent to [OOG]| Glasgow, turned out for a demonstration at which [OOG]| I was present. I mingled with them for five [OOG]| hours, and talked with all and sundry, and there, [OOG]| as in England, I failed to find one man who [OOG]| exhibited any bitter hatred towards the Germans. [OOG]| If it exists, then I miss it; yet it must not be [OOG]| supposed they are not opposed to Germany. Almost [OOG]| to a man they are in earnest, not only in wishing [OOG]| to see the war prosecuted, but in being [OOG]| identified in the doing of it. Many more [OOG]| thousands would join the colors if they were [OOG]| allowed to leave the workshops and go; but the [OOG]| Government, by various devices of giving medals, [OOG]| with advice and instruction, as near a military [OOG]| command as they dare go, keep them at work on [OOG]| ammunition.
I am not attempting anything [OOG]| in the way of agitation to stop the war, I am [OOG]| really of opinion that it ought and must be [OOG]| fought out, and the more efficiency shown the [OOG]| better it will be. Not being on the battlefield, [OOG]| one cannot have the same stimulus to thought as [OOG]| if actually there; but I repeatedly come into [OOG]| contact with men who have returned from the war [OOG]| ~~ wounded or on furlough ~~ whom I knew before [OOG]| they went out, and conversation with these [OOG]| enables me to get pretty close to actuality. Some [OOG]| of these are really well-informed men, and were [OOG]| identified with the industrial and political side [OOG]| of the advanced Labor movement before going out. [OOG]| Some of them, also, would not have gone but that [OOG]| they were Reservists, and were compelled to go; [OOG]| yet not one of these that I have met, or of those [OOG]| I am in regular correspondence with at the front, [OOG]| wish anything done to stop the war, other than to [OOG]| beat the enemy.
I mention this because I
[OOG]| noted in your last letter to me you said you
[OOG]| would not
[OOG]|
This
[OOG]| I took to mean that you were not in the same
[OOG]| attitude of mind as myself about the war, and, as
[OOG]| a comrade and friend, I have thought I ought to
[OOG]| go into some detail, not to change your view,
[OOG]| whatever it may be, but to enable you to realise
[OOG]| that this country is really up against a set of
[OOG]| conditions absolutely unique in the history of
[OOG]| any of us now alive.
My temperament is [OOG]| more anti-Governmental than your own. I have used [OOG]| language of the most definite character, over a [OOG]| period of years in a persistent endeavor to make [OOG]| working-class solidarity possible on an [OOG]| international basis. Whatever of success or [OOG]| failure attended the efforts of those who so [OOG]| worked, events bring us up suddenly against what [OOG]| I, for one, long knew and declared to be the most [OOG]| vicious of all forms of militarism and the [OOG]| completest form of oligarchic government under a [OOG]| pretence of a political democracy.
I know [OOG]| many German workers; I think, whilst in [OOG]| Australia, as well as elsewhere, I gave evidence [OOG]| of a cosmopolitan disposition; I think I am free [OOG]| from silly racist prejudices; but this condition [OOG]| of mind does not warrant me in being indifferent [OOG]| as to the result of this war. I am very keenly [OOG]| alive to the true inwardness of the British [OOG]| governing class; I am under no delusion as to [OOG]| their real character and their diabolical [OOG]| behaviour to the workers. Even so, I am as sure [OOG]| as a human being can be that it would be most [OOG]| seriously harmful if the ruling class of Germany [OOG]| should gain the ascendancy in other countries, [OOG]| including this. Enough of this, but so much, I [OOG]| thought, was due from me.
As an indication [OOG]| of what is expected during the next two months, [OOG]| provision is being made to accommodate 200,000 [OOG]| wounded. In Manchester, as in many other [OOG]| districts, half the public schools are being [OOG]| fitted up as hospitals, and the children go to [OOG]| school half-days only.
There are now [OOG]| 25,000,000 (twenty-five million) men under arms. [OOG]| Such is that situation now. I think it is [OOG]| possible that, by the end of June, the most [OOG]| serious part of the struggle will be over. By [OOG]| that time the scene of operations on the western [OOG]| fields should not be in France or Belgium, but on [OOG]| German territory; and, after that, anything may [OOG]| happen. It is more probably that an enveloping [OOG]| movement will take place to surround Belgium and [OOG]| cut it off from the general body of Germans. Then [OOG]| it should be a relatively easy matter. But, of [OOG]| course, this may not happen. Anyhow, I look [OOG]| forward to a finish of the war this side [OOG]| Christmas.
With all good wishes and hearty [OOG]| congratulations for the splendid effort put into [OOG]| the movement. ~~ Fraternally yours
[OOG]|