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[OOR]| [OOR]| Comments and Criticism. Part 1.

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Shaw's Common [OOR]| Sense

In the War Supplement of the [OOR]| New Statesman, [OOR]| Mr George Bernard Shaw gives all the views of the [OOR]| European conflict, under the title of [OOR]| Common Sense About the [OOR]| War. Good common sense, indeed, he talks, [OOR]| though there appears to be a fatal discrepancy [OOR]| between his premises and his conclusions.

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It is refreshing, after the mountains of [OOR]| nauseating stuff which the journalists of all [OOR]| political parties have deposited over the facts of [OOR]| the case, to hear the wholesome words of truth. He [OOR]| spares us none of the ugly facts in the first six [OOR]| pages of his pamphlet.

British [OOR]| Junkerdom.

In Britain, he assures us, we [OOR]| possess the Junker, par excellence, whom Germany [OOR]| must despair of ever surpassing. He points out [OOR]| that we produced the first militarist literature, [OOR]| and before Germany was a State at all we were at [OOR]| the militarists' game in the Crimea, glorifying [OOR]| bloodshed and brute force. He outlines the phases [OOR]| of our Jingoism, how it was WE who were first [OOR]| anti-German, when the Germans looked upon Russia [OOR]| and France as their enemies; but why does Mr Shaw [OOR]| omit to remind us of how recently we were at [OOR]| enmity with fair Republican France?

Very [OOR]| startling is Mr Shaw's admission that the Junker [OOR]| Kaiser is less autocratic than the Junker Sir [OOR]| Edward Grey, who can send us to war [OOR]|

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He reminds us how our most popular publicists [OOR]| explained in clear, unmistakable terms what an [OOR]| excellent thing it would be for us to sink the [OOR]| German fleet and capture her commerce. He refers [OOR]| to an article by Lord Roberts in the November [OOR]| Hibbert [OOR]| Journal for the story of how our Junker [OOR]| diplomats hemmed Germany and Austria in with an [OOR]| Anglo-Franco-Russian alliance, preparing for the [OOR]| delectable moment when the overmastering force of [OOR]| our armada should crush our only rival on the [OOR]| sea.

Bernhardt Adopts Doctrine from [OOR]| British.

Mr Shaw admits, what our present [OOR]| day Jingo journalists overlook, that General von [OOR]| Bernhardt has adopted his doctrine from us. He [OOR]| shows in the clearest way that, if Germany does [OOR]| not smash England, England will smash Germany by [OOR]| springing at her the moment she can catch her at a [OOR]| disadvantage. In a word, he prophesies that we, [OOR]| [OOR]|

Who Began the War?

Moreover, [OOR]| he disposes of the theory that Germany began the [OOR]| war by pointing out that it broke out when she was [OOR]| occupying just the isolated position into which [OOR]| our Junkers at the Foreign Office had so [OOR]| sedulously worked to drive her.

Peace ~~ [OOR]| Perhaps?

Of the contention that smashing [OOR]| Germany will establish peace, Mr Shaw very easily [OOR]| makes hay, for, as he points out, France might use [OOR]| the German war indemnity in building an invincible [OOR]| fleet, and come to regard us as the Imperial Bully [OOR]| who needs to be crushed, while Russia might embark [OOR]| upon a career of liberation in India and [OOR]| Egypt.

Shaw's Diplomatic History.

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Mr Shaw's [OOR]| Diplomatic History of the War is most engaging, [OOR]| and, in the main, very just. The militarists wanted war [OOR]| with Germany, and they had the country, which is [OOR]| grossly misled as to Foreign affairs, insular to [OOR]| its youngest child, steeped in the idea that [OOR]| Liberty is to be found wherever the British Flag [OOR]| flies, and nowhere else.

The English people [OOR]| have also been taught to believe that sweating and [OOR]| unemployment are due to German competition, though [OOR]| Mr Shaw does not tell us that.

Mr Shaw's [OOR]| note upon No. 123 in the White Paper is the best [OOR]| thing in his pamphlet. No. 123 gives the whole [OOR]| British case away, for it clearly states that we [OOR]| are in the war to smash Germany, and for no other [OOR]| reason at all.

Where Shaw's Case Breaks [OOR]| Down.

Now, where it seems to me that Mr [OOR]| Shaw's case breaks down first is when he comes to [OOR]| the reason of the people's support of the Foreign [OOR]| Office policy. He is inclined to assume something [OOR]| which is not capable of proof ~~ namely, that our [OOR]| friendship with France was the pure and [OOR]| disinterested affection for a white, woolly lamb, [OOR]| bleating for our protection.

British Love [OOR]| of No. 1.

As a matter of plain, unvarnished [OOR]| fact, British people, at the bottom of their [OOR]| hearts, care for no nation but their own, which [OOR]| purely selfish doctrine has been instilled into us [OOR]| from childhood, generation after generation, as [OOR]| the zenith of patriotic fervor. It pleases us for [OOR]| the moment to ascribe all the virtues possible to [OOR]| Republican France and to pretend that she is less [OOR]| of a military Power than Germany, and to slobber [OOR]| over her culture and intellectual achievements; [OOR]| but we are quite as prepared to clasp Russia to [OOR]| our bosom, and scarcely anybody but Mr Bernard [OOR]| Shaw cares the snuff of a candle about what her [OOR]| Government is so long as she serves our turn.

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Representatives of the Nation.

It is all [OOR]| very well for Mr Shaw to assert that, while Sir [OOR]| Edward Grey and Mr Asquith do not represent the [OOR]| nation, Mr H. G. Wells and Mr Arnold Bennett do. [OOR]| Let either of the latter gentlemen come forward [OOR]| with a suggestions that Great Britain should [OOR]| renounce the command of the seas as a plank in an [OOR]| election platform, and see how many votes he would [OOR]| secure!

Germany's Proper Course of [OOR]| Action

Mr Shaw thinks that the proper [OOR]| course of action for Germany to have taken would [OOR]| have been as follows:~~

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The facts [OOR]| are, unfortunately, against Mr Shaw, for that is [OOR]| exactly what Germany tried to do and failed. The [OOR]| Kaiser telegraphed a request to France to remain [OOR]| neutral, and made us an offer to refrain from any [OOR]| attack upon her if we would guarantee her [OOR]| neutrality. The terms of the Franco-Russian [OOR]| Alliance, of which both Sir Edward Grey and Mr [OOR]| Bernard Shaw profess to be ignorant are revealed [OOR]| in the refusal of France even to discuss the terms [OOR]| of neutrality.

Shaw's Mental Myopia.

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Mr Shaw says he fails to see how the French [OOR]| Government could have justified an attack on [OOR]| Germany to its own people. I should be sorry to [OOR]| call him somewhat dull ~~ but surely he must [OOR]| remember how our Government persuaded us all, in [OOR]| 1899 that we were fighting in self-defence against [OOR]| the Dutch Republics because President Kruger was [OOR]| supposed to have said he intended to drive the [OOR]| British into the sea.

The Gullibility of [OOR]| Clever Men and Common People

Why, the [OOR]| French press, like the English press, has only to [OOR]| make up a cock-and-bull tale about the Kaiser (or [OOR]| the German War Party) wanting to rule the world, [OOR]| and even clever men like Mr George Bernard Shaw [OOR]| will believe it. What is commonly said by those [OOR]| who set themselves to explain the refusal of [OOR]| Germany's terms by France is that Germany wanted [OOR]| to fight every country one by one ~~ and a surmise [OOR]| of that kind is quite enough for the public, who [OOR]| never ask for proof. I suppose we have GOT to [OOR]| believe that Philip of Spain, Louis XIV, and [OOR]| Napoleon really meant to rule the world, and that [OOR]| it was not we who had our eye on their [OOR]| possessions; but it is just a little suspicious [OOR]| that, as a result of our disinterested efforts for [OOR]| the liberty of humanity, the possessions of the [OOR]| tyrant have always fallen into our lap. There is [OOR]| some evidence to prove, as the Danes and the Dutch [OOR]| would no doubt like to tell us if they dared, that [OOR]| some of the liberated nations have not looked upon [OOR]| us as an unadulterated blessing.

To Smash [OOR]| Potsdamism as We Smashed Mahdism.

Mr [OOR]| Bernard Shaw tells us we have set out to smash [OOR]| Potsdamism just as we set out to smash Mahdism. [OOR]| Exactly, so we have. We smashed the Mahdi by [OOR]| annexing his country, as we smashed Kruger by [OOR]| annexing his. History repeats itself and we have [OOR]| started well by annexing Germany's colonies and [OOR]| driving her out of China and stealing her ships [OOR]| and her trade.

Who is the [OOR]|

says Mr [OOR]| Shaw, [OOR]| Who, then, is the There is a [OOR]| certain Power in Europe who, first by stealth, and [OOR]| then with the fire and sword, laid low a nation [OOR]| struggling for independence; who bombarded a quiet [OOR]| city, and bayoneted women and children; whose [OOR]| Government committed treachery of the basest sort, [OOR]| repudiated her pledged word, and perpetrated [OOR]| crimes innumerable; who established a tyranny [OOR]| where Democracy might have grown. Was that Power [OOR]| Germany? No, it was France ~~ Republican France ~~ [OOR]| that cares no longer for material things. And [OOR]| another Power kept cave while the robbery was [OOR]| proceeding; that Power was England, threatening [OOR]| Germany, who was pledge to the independence of [OOR]| Morocco, that wretched and despoiled land, with [OOR]| war if she kept her word and protected her [OOR]| legitimate interests.

The Oldest of All [OOR]| Political Dodges.

Surely it is quite plain [OOR]| that as soon as Germany built a navy to protect [OOR]| her colonies and her commerce from the fate that [OOR]| befell those of Denmark and of Holland in the [OOR]| past, our Jingoes and our greedy traders, who are [OOR]| too mean and too stupid to fight German [OOR]| competition by efficiency, bought the press, and [OOR]| bullied or bribed the Government into persuading [OOR]| the people that the Germans desired world-conquest, [OOR]| when she was merely jeopardising our [OOR]| supremacy. It is the oldest of all political [OOR]| dodges, but it seems to be smart enough for Mr [OOR]| Bernard Shaw.