MILITARISM RUN MAD.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 242, 16 November 1914, Page 6

MILITARISM RUN MAD.

GERMANY'S BREACH OF FAITH.

STATEMENTS BY VISCOUNT BRYCE. LONDON, October 3. In an article contributed to the "Daily Chronicle," Viscount James Bryce, former British Ambassador to the United States, says:-* . '' The present war has some unexpected consequences. It has called the attention of the world outside of Germany to some amazing doctrines proclaimed there which strike at the root of all international morality as well as of all international law, and ; which threaten a return to primitive savagery; when .qvery tribe was wont to plunder and massacre its neighbours.

"These doctrines may be found set forth in the widely circulated book of General von Bernhardt entitled 'Germany and the Next War,' published in 1911, and professing to be mainly based on the teachings of the famous professor of history, Heinrich von Treitschke,

Sees Militarism Run Ma«U "To readers in other countries, and, I trust, to most readers in Germany also, they will appear to be an outburst of militarism run niad—the product of a brain intoxicated by love of war and by, superheated national self-conscious-ness. '.' ' "They would have deserved little notice, "much less refutation, but for one deplorable .fact—namely; that action recently has been taken by the Government of a' great nation (though, as we hope and trust, without the approval of that nation) 'which'is consonant with them and seems to imply a belief in their soundness. - ■ ~

"This fact is the cdndixctof the German Imperial Government in violating the neutrality of Belgium, which Prussia, as well as Great Britain and France, had solemnly guaranteed by .a treaty made in 1839 and renewed in 1870; by invading Belgium when: Bhe, refused to allow :the Germaft armies to pass, although France, the other belligerent, had explicitly promised not to enter Belgium, and'in treating Belgian cities • and people, against whom she had ,»o cause of quarrel, with a harshness un?. precedented in the history- of modern European warfare. . . ~. .

BeUeves, JGtermans Desire ..iPeace. ; ,j : "Whoever held these doctrines, I do •not for a moment to the learned class in Germany, fpr-whom; I-. have a profound respect, their immense services to science and .learning, nor to the bulk" pf the civil; administration, a body wh6s.e capacity, aid uprightness are ■■ known '"to., all the. world, and, least of all, to the German,' people generally.; , > •: . " That the no such views appears from Bernhardt's own words, for • he repeatedly complains of deplores the pacific .tendencies of ', Ms; fellow cpuntrymeii. (See page's 10 to Hof .the "English' translation, and note the, phrase, that .'■the .aspirations for peace ; seem, to poison the soul of the* German, people.') "Nevertheless, the fact that the action referred to, which these doctrines, seem .to have prompted, and wdiich .cans hot; be defended except by (them, has 'been actually taken, . and lias..' .thus .brought- into this war Great Britain, Whose interests •*" and : feelings made ; her desire- peace,, renders ij prbpe>r to call j attention to them and to all that they involve. \ Britain Forced into War. "I certainly Jaave.no prejudice in the matter j for I have been of those who. for many years . laboured to promote good relationsrbetween: the German and English, people, tljat ,ought to be friendly and,that never before, had been enemies, and I"had hoped and believed;till tlie beginning of August last that be-, tween. them at least there would be no. war, because Belgian neutrality would be respected; ..'.-■■"-. ; 1 ' Nor Was it only -for -the sake of Bri-. tain and., Germany that v the -English friends of peace sought;to maintain the good feeling. We had hoped, as, some leading German statesmen ;have hoped,, that a friendliness with Germany might enable Britain,,with the- co : 'operatidn of the United States, our closest friends, to mitigate the long antagonism of Germany and with 'whom we were already on good.terms, and- so to. improve their relations as to secure the: general peace of Europe. Denies Commercial Rivalry Charge.

"Into the caiises which frustrated these efforts and' so suddenly brought on this war I will'not enter. Many others have dealt with them. Moreover, the factsj at least as we in England &ee and believe them, and as documents seem to prove them to be, appear not to be known to the German people, and the motives of the chief actors are not yet fully ascertained; . ; ".One thing, however, I can confidently declare. It was neither commercial rivalry nor jealousy of German .power, that, brought Britain into the field.; Nor was there any hatred among the. Britr ish people for the German; people, nor any wish to break their'power.. ,•

"Leading political thinkers and historians of England have given hearty sympathy to'the efforts made by the German-people from 1815 to 1866 and 1870 to attain political unity, and they have sympathised with the parallel efforts of the Italians. The two nations, German and British, were of kindred race' and linked by many ties to the German people. Even now we feel no sort of enmity against them. "In both countries there were doubtless some persons who desired war and whose writings, apparently designed to provoke it, did much to misrepresent the General national sentiment. But these persons were, as I believe, a small minority in both countries. So far as Britain was concerned, it was the invasion of Bolginm that arrested all efforts to avert war and made the friends of peace themselves join in holding that the duty of fulfilling their treaty obligations towards a weak State was paramount to every other consideration.

'■' The small States whose absorption is now threatened have been potent and useful, perhaps the most potent and useful factors in the advance of civilisation. It is in them and by them that most of what is most..precious iii religion, in philosophy, in literature, in science, and in art has been produced. Debt to Small Nations. r< The . first great thoughts that broiight man into a true relation with God came from the tiny people inhabiting a country smaller than Denmark. The religions of mighty Babylon and populous Egypt have vanished. The religion of Israel remains, in its earlier as well as in that later form which has overspread the world. - ' ■ '' The Greeks were a small people, not united in one great State, but scattered over coasts and among hills, in petty city communities, each with its own life, slender in numbers, but eager, versatile, intense, they gave us the richest, moßt

varied, and most stimulating of all literature.

"When poetry and art reappeared after the long night of the dark ages their most splendid blossoms flowered in the small republics of Italy. Switzerland Fostered Liberty.

"In modern Europe whb do we not owe to little Switzerland, lighting the torch of freedom 600 years ago, and keeping it alight through all the centuries when despotic monarchies held the rest of the European continent? And what to free Holland, with her great men of learning and her painters, surpassing those of all other countries save Italy t "So.small-Scandinavian nations have given to the world famous men of science from Linnaeus downward, poets like Tegner and Bjornson, scholars like Madvig, dauntless explorers like Frithiof and Nansen. .

"England had in the age of Shakespeare, Bacon,' and .Milton, a. population, little larger than that of Bulgaria today. The United-States: in the. days of Washington,, and "Franklin, and Jefferson, and Hamilton, and Marshall counted few"6r inhabitants than Denmark or Greece Cites Ebb in Literature.

"In the most brilliant generations of German literature ami thought, the age. of Kent, and Lessing, and Goethe, of Hegel, and Schiller, and Fichte, there was no real German State at all, but a eorigerie of principalities and free cities, independent centres of intellectual life, in which letters and science: produced a richer crop than the two succeeding generations, have. raised. Jus,t' .as. Britain also, with eight times the, population of the year 1600, has had no more Shakespeares or Miitons. "No action is more: palpably contradicted by history than, that jelied on by the school to which; von-Bernhardi belongs,, that culture,/literary- scientific, and artistic, flourishes best i n great mili•tary states. The decay of art andliterature in the; Roman world i began just when Rome *smilitary power -ha"d r made that world one great and ordered State.

Britain Not Seeking Power. "We of the Anglo-Saxon race, do. not claim for ourselves any more than'we admit in others, any right to dominate 1 by force or to impose our own type o£ civilisation on less powerful raees. Perhaps we have not that assured' eonvietion of its superiority which the school of von Bernhardi expresses for tlie Teutons, of North Germany. "We know how much we owe, even within our own islands, to th<3" Celtic race,, and, though we must admit' that, peoples of Anglo-Saxon stock ha-ye, like Qthers, made some mistakes, and sometimes abused their strength, let it be remembered what have- been the latest they have done.

, '' Abroad the United States has twice withdrawn its troops from Cuba, which it could easily have retained- It has resisted all temptations to annex' any part of the teiritoiies of Mexico, in which the lives and property of its citizens were for three years in constant danger. < South Africa Self-Governed.

"So Britain also six years* ago restored the amplest self-government to the two' South African republics, having already agreed to the maintenance on equal terms of the Dutch language, and the citizens of those republics whieh were in arms against her thirteen'years ago have now spontaneously come forward to supper t,;hcr r by" arms under the gallant leader whojthen commanded the Boers. *

"And I may add that;one reason"why the princes of India have rallied so promptly and heartily to -Great Britain hi this war is because for many years past we have avoided annexing the territories of those princes, allowing them to adopt heirs when successors of their' Own- fami-lies-failed and-leaving to them as much as possible of the ordinary functions of government.

"'•' It is -only "vulgar minds ;that mistake, bigness for greatness, for greatness iB of the soul,-not of the body... Analyses National Greatness. • In the judgment which'history hereafter will, pass upon the forty centuries of 'the recorded jprogl-ess, toward civilisartioti that now lie behind,us what are the -tests it will apply to determine the true greatness of" a people? Not population,, not territory, not wealth, not miliary power. * - ''Rather will history ask: What:examples of lofty'chafacter* and unselfish devotion to honour . and" "duty has a people given? What has it done to increase the volume" of knowledge? What .thoughts and what ideals of permanent value and unexhausted fertility has 'it ■bequeathed ; to mankind ? What works has it produced in poetry; music, and other arts to be unfailing sources of enjoyment to posterity ? The small peoples need not fear the application of such tests:

Condemns von Bernhardi's Views. "What \re the teachings of history, the history to which Gen. von Bernhardi is fond of appealing? They are that war has been the constant handmaid of tyranny and the source of more than half the-miseries of man; that, although spme wars have been necessary and have given occasion for the display of .splendid heroism, such'as wars of defence against aggression or to succour the oppressed, most wars have been needless or,unjust; that the mark of an advancing civilisation has been the substitution of friendship for hatred and of peaceful for warlike ideals; that small peoples have done and can do as much for the common good of humanity as large peoples; : that treaties must be observed, for what are ithey but the records of national faith, solemnly pledged ? - ''And what could bring mankind more surely and swiftly baek to that: reign of violence and terror from which*, it has been slowly rising for the last ten centuries than the destruction of trust in the plighted faith of nations?. -War Lesson for Whole World. '' No event has brought out that essential unity which now exists in the world so forcibly as this war, has; done, for no event ever has so affected every part .of the world. Four continents are involved —r-the whole of the old world. r -. "And the new world suffers grievously in its trade, industry, and finance. Thus the whole world is interested in. preventing a recurrence of such a calamity, and there is a general feeling,throughout the world that causes which have brought it upon us must be removed. ; '' We are told that armaments must be reduced; that the baleful spirit of militarism must be quenched; that peoples must everywhere be admitted to a fuller share in control of foreign pojiey; that efforts must be made to establish a sort of league of concord —some system of international relations and reciprocal, peace alliances, by which weaker nations may be protected and under which differences between nations may be adjusted by courts of arbitration and conciliation of wider scope than those that now exist; •

Demands Nations Keep Faith. "All these things are desirable;- but no scheme for preventing future wars will have any chance of success unless it rests upon assurances that States which enter into it will loyally and steadfastly abide by it, and that each and all of them will

join in coercing by their overwhelming united strength any State which may diSr regard obligations it has undertaken. "The faith of treaties is the only solid foundation on which a temple of'peace can be built up."