[OOS]|
Possibly the Germans [OOS]| are Right.
Germany presumed to question the [OOS]| right of France and Britain to decide the fate of [OOS]| Morocco, and the right of Britain and Russia to [OOS]| decide the fate of Persia and China. Does it not [OOS]| occur to some of us at least that possibly the [OOS]| Germans are right, after all? We cannot wipe out [OOS]| the memory of the Boer war, nor our Egyptian [OOS]| campaign, only twelve years ago, nor dispose of [OOS]| the very serious doubt as to whether China would [OOS]| not have become a second India but for Czardom and [OOS]| Potsdam, which have acted as a check on our [OOS]| acquisitiveness.
Our Inevitable [OOS]| Intervention.
Mr Bernard Shaw tells us that [OOS]| our intervention in the war was inevitable because [OOS]| Germany attacked France, that even pacifists [OOS]| believe in police duty, and that the International [OOS]| Socialist Bureau would have done the same. But [OOS]| previously he has carefully explained that it was [OOS]| OUR Government that created the situation, and [OOS]| that it was WE who chose the moment for attack, [OOS]| and not Germany at all. Besides, we have public [OOS]| records of the fact that France refused to remain [OOS]| neutral.
British Victory Assumed, Yet [OOS]| ~~
Of course, Mr Bernard Shaw assumes we
[OOS]| are going to be victorious. It would be difficult
[OOS]| to imagine the boys of the bulldog breed admitting
[OOS]| defeat. If the Uhlans were cavorting and
[OOS]| caracoling up the Mall, and the German infantry
[OOS]| practising the goose-step in that historic
[OOS]| thoroughfare, our Press would interpret it as a
[OOS]| moral victory for us. Yet there is a possibility
[OOS]| that, instead of our smashing Potsdamnation,
[OOS]| Potsdam may smash Rule Britannia-ism, which is
[OOS]| quite as bad, and has done much more mischief,
[OOS]| being of older date. That is not to say that I
[OOS]| admire the Prussian drill sergeant any more than I
[OOS]| do the red-capped savages of the French
[OOS]| Revolution, who tortured children and violated
[OOS]| women by way of expressing their love of
[OOS]|
I must
[OOS]| recognise, however, the work they accomplished,
[OOS]| and Mr Shaw would be the first to overlook their
[OOS]| faults.
Some Virtues in Unpleasant People, [OOS]| if ~~
It is the Germans' own business to [OOS]| reform their strutting militarists, but I am [OOS]| prepared to see some virtues even in such [OOS]| unpleasant people if they curb the slave-owning [OOS]| propensities of Imperial (and Republican) France [OOS]| and Imperial (and Democratic) Britain, as well as [OOS]| those of autocratic Russia. If Potsdam can shake [OOS]| the military power of the Allies to the extent of [OOS]| saving the Chinese Republic and Persia from the [OOS]| fate of India, Egypt and Morocco, much of the [OOS]| ugliness of that unpleasant, institution may be [OOS]| forgiven to it.
A Possibility and a [OOS]| Certainty.
It is possible that it is we and
[OOS]| our Allies who have let loose the
[OOS]| and that Germany is chaining it. One thing is
[OOS]| absolutely certain ~~ namely, that Germany has
[OOS]| challenged, willingly or unwillingly, a
[OOS]| combination of physical force in the Anglo-Franco-
[OOS]| Russian alliance which was a serious menace to the
[OOS]| liberty of the world. Before that menacing power
[OOS]| Morocco and Persia had already fallen, and China
[OOS]| was doomed.
What Germany Has Done.
[OOS]|If we and our Allies beat Germany in the end, [OOS]| it will not affect the ultimate issue. She has [OOS]| struck her blow bravely against our dominion over [OOS]| the sea, and the intolerable control we exercise [OOS]| over the progress of other nations.
She has [OOS]| taught France and Russia that they must confine [OOS]| their territorial slave-raiding within reasonable [OOS]| bounds or look out for squalls.
She has [OOS]| unmasked the French and British colonial policies [OOS]| which we now see are not mere philanthropic [OOS]| movements to introduce inferior races to the [OOS]| blessings of civilisaton and the salvation of the [OOS]| Christian Faith, but deliberate efforts to secure [OOS]| military slaves to counterbalance their own [OOS]| weakness in men.
Curious!
It is
[OOS]| curious that Mr Shaw, having so lucidly explained
[OOS]| on page 4 that British Democracy is non-existent,
[OOS]| that Sir Edward Grey is more autocratic than the
[OOS]| Kaiser, that the Junker and Militarist in Britain
[OOS]| are
should, on page 27,
[OOS]| be telling us that
[OOS]|
It appears to me that one weakness in Mr Shaw's [OOS]| logical chain is that, while he will not [OOS]| distinguish between the German official fools and [OOS]| the German Democracy, he continually does so in [OOS]| the case of France and Britain.
It is our [OOS]| official fools who let loose the Turcos and [OOS]| Ghoorkas on the Kaiser (unfortunately NOT upon the [OOS]| Kaiser, but upon the German Social-Democrats), not [OOS]| the democratic Thomas Atkins, Patrick Murphy, [OOS]| Sandy McAlister, and Pitou Dupont. Yet in Germany [OOS]| it is not merely a few cranks and people of no [OOS]| importance who work for peace, but a strong and [OOS]| influential political party, as well as trades [OOS]| unions, professors, and even students at the [OOS]| Universities.
St. George and the Dragon: [OOS]| Who is One and What is t'Other?
St. George
[OOS]| must slay the dragon, says Mr Bernard Shaw, or the
[OOS]| world will be
But
[OOS]| the main difficulty is that Mr Shaw and hundreds
[OOS]| of thousands of people like me differ as to who is
[OOS]| St. George and who (or what, shall I say?) is the
[OOS]| dragon.
Is the dragon the force which [OOS]| invaded Belgium, or the force which squeezed the [OOS]| Egyptian peasants to satisfy the bondholders, [OOS]| despoiled the Dutch republics, robber Morocco, and [OOS]| fastened the yoke of the tyrant on Persia?
[OOS]|Is civilisation as opposed to militarism to be [OOS]| upheld by the nation which insists upon command of [OOS]| the seas, and has almost 400,000 souls under an [OOS]| absolute military rule?
What Constitutes [OOS]| Militarism?
Nobody as clever as Mr Bernard
[OOS]| Shaw will say that the conscriptionist system of
[OOS]| Germany constitutes her militarism, for we must
[OOS]| know that in France the term of conscription is
[OOS]| longer and its enforcement much more complete than
[OOS]| in Germany. Beside, for two pins the British
[OOS]| Government would enforce conscription upon the
[OOS]| nation if the men would not come forward quickly
[OOS]| enough. In fact, we've got it already in all its
[OOS]| essentials, for the young men of the British
[OOS]| Empire have just the freedom which is extended to
[OOS]| the child whose nurse says,
[OOS]|
I think Mr Shaw puts too [OOS]| much faith in the sort of Democracy which has been [OOS]| reared on
Some Questions and [OOS]| Answers
If you question the diplomats and
[OOS]| army men thus:
[OOS]|
I am quite
[OOS]| sure the answer would be,
in substance
[OOS]| if not in actual form.
If you ask the [OOS]| British capitalists and merchants whether they [OOS]| consider that foreign markets and concessions [OOS]| could be secured for the advantage of British [OOS]| enterprise, the answer will be in the affirmative [OOS]| without a doubt.
If you ask the man in the [OOS]| street whether he, as a British citizen, would be [OOS]| willing to stand level with Germany as a naval and [OOS]| colonial Power, the answer would take the form of [OOS]| a negative expressed in brickbats.
A [OOS]| Premature Shavian Assumption
I should like [OOS]| to suggest to Mr Shaw that his assumption that [OOS]| Germany will join France and England in a hegemony [OOS]| of peace is a little premature. It will be [OOS]| necessary to convince her Democracy that we and [OOS]| our French Allies were not out to smash her [OOS]| commerce, of which we have been so greenly [OOS]| jealous. The war on German trade at present being [OOS]| prosecuted will not make it any easier to make the [OOS]| terms of peace.
Reassurances to Germany
[OOS]|We shall have to reassure her against the [OOS]| growing and well-founded believe that, having [OOS]| acquired such excellent territories as Canada, [OOS]| South Africa and Australia, we do not mean to use [OOS]| the military systems which have been built up [OOS]| there, largely from sturdy German material, to [OOS]| smash their Fatherland.
Before we can [OOS]| reassure Germany, we must first make up our own [OOS]| minds about it. Whether it be by our conscious [OOS]| will or not it has happened that thousands of the [OOS]| descendants of Germans are fighting and paying for [OOS]| the destruction of Germany today.
Presently [OOS]| the compulsory principle in Australia and Canada [OOS]| will be extended to compulsion to serve abroad, [OOS]| and the situation will be more serious still.
[OOS]|The Neutral Nations of Europe: Their [OOS]| Aspirations and Prospects.
It will depend [OOS]| largely upon the commercial settlement after the [OOS]| war whether or not such smaller States as Holland, [OOS]| Denmark, and the Scandinavian Powers do not [OOS]| incline towards a league with Germany against the [OOS]| overblown militarism of the Entente. The nations [OOS]| mentioned have commercial aspirations, and if they [OOS]| leave Europe and establish themselves and their [OOS]| businesses in other portions of the globe, they [OOS]| must almost necessarily do so under our flag, or [OOS]| that of France or Russia, and therefore live as [OOS]| aliens, running the serious risks which we now see [OOS]| aliens do run, or become British, French or [OOS]| Russian citizens. The neutral nations are [OOS]| discovering that, to obtain advantage over our [OOS]| enemies, we are not scrupling to damage their [OOS]| trading interests; and it is not to be supposed [OOS]| that when Germany is defeated we shall spare HER [OOS]| anything we can take away.
Our Stupidity [OOS]| will Prove our Undoing.
Long ago Bright, [OOS]| Cobden, Gladstone, and many others saw that the [OOS]| downfall of the British Empire would be brought [OOS]| about through the Imperialists themselves. It [OOS]| seems likely that we shall live to see it. In our [OOS]| fatuous self-satisfaction we shall blame the [OOS]| foreigners, but in reality our own stupidity and [OOS]| selfishness will prove our undoing.
[OOS]|