PIERROT ABROAD.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 205, 28 August 1909, Page 14

PIERROT ABROAD.

AIN INDELIBLE PKEJUDICOD. Those who think that Continental memories of the Boer war have grown faint are mightily mistaken. I thought it too, till bitter experience in Switzerland taught ine that the same odious calumnies are being daily repeated against the fair name of our army now as iv the days of the war itself. Our soldiers now, as then, are accused of acts of dinbolieal cruelty— apologetk-ally, politely, sincerely, but -with horrible, wounding force. I know not how many Englishwomen forced to live abroad have shed tears of impotent rage at these hideous lies; I know not how many Englishmen have ground their teeth and sworn deep-souled oaths as they 'have sat in a crowded room and been compelled to give passive support to the detraction of their national honour.

Many are the wordy battles I havf fought for England in this little country of Central Europe. 'Many are the battles, since I realised the depth of this misconception, that I have forced on with otherwise perfectly friendly persons, in the hope that they at least would be ready to put in a word of defence against these aspersions. Let mc try, by means of what we will call a composite interview, to show the nature of those arguments, and the. invincibility oi the prejudice -which we have to surmount. My interview shall be -with Monsieur Suisse Allcmand, a generic name for the German Swiss. T set the ball rolling thus: Pierrot: "I hope that you, at least, are not among those who believe that our British soldiers ruthlessly butchered women and threw babies in the fire?" Suisse Allemand: "That is a plain question, and you must not blame mc for the answer. I fear the evidence, ns -placed before ns, was overwhelming." Pierrot: "Evidence! The concoctions of L'Agence, , . . the most unscrupulously political Press agency in all Europe! , , ,"

iS.A.j "But the motive for such concoctions? I know you will say German hostility to England; but is it reasonable to make such an allegation?"

Pierrot: "Infinitely more reasonable than to accept stories of butchering women and burning children. Look here, sir. These calumnies strike not nlone at the honour of England, but at the honour of all Europe, of the white races of the world. Heaven knows we English are not perfect; Heaven knows that we Rend coarse creatures (who do not represent the real heart, of England) to rough-ride over every Continental susceptibility and to make yoii prejudiced against us; but at least there is that mucfi generosity in us that would mako us hesitate to accept such stories of barbarism ourselves if told against any nation of Western Europe. Let mc rather pay, we would deny them indignantly if told of German or Frenchman or Italian; we would hesitate to accept them if alleged against the Cossnck. But you swallow these lies greedily; you gulp them down with gusto, although they are told of a nation that emancipated the slaves and that originated every measure to combat cruelty to children and even to animals: ■•-Tho cruelty is with you, for -unfounded calumny is the cruellest of all things."

S.A.: "Sir, I solemnly assure you that I would give much to believe that it was unfounded. I assure you that till tho outbreak of the South African war I hhared your views of British humanity. With so mnny others, I came to think that I had been disillusioned."

Pierrot: "Perhaps with you the change of opinion wa3 indeed reluctant; but waa it so with others? Was it not with so mnny that long resentment of our insular o.xclusiveness, our (foolish assumption of a universal superiority whioh no nation really possesses over other nations, encouraged the search for a weak point, a point where they could wound the superb pride of the British race?"

S.A.: "Again I cay I wish I could believe it. In point of fact it has been an etnrnal problem to mc how Englishmen should have had to answer charges like these. Possibly one might say 'that the condition of the soldier in war is pathological—the nervous system undergoes great changes. , . ."

Pierrot: "You will pardon mc, sir, it I venture to remark 'that if you thus change your ground, your charges will no longer be levelled against the British Array in particular, but against every army in general that happens to be tngaged in war. But in either ease 1 cannot except your view. My theory is rather 'in bello' a-s well as 'in vino'— veritas.' "

S.A.: "In that case the Japanese, on the showing of the war in Manchuria, are the humanest nation that ever took up a rifle."

Pierrot: "You know as well as I do that to read 'the Japanese is to solve tho riddle of 'the Sphinx. Let us ba serious. Besides, your implication is wholly opposed to the other 'pathological , theory that you have advanced. It is hardly likely that the 'pathological' effects of war would be cruel barbarism in the case <>f the Briton and a cunning simulation of humanity in the case of the Japanese. Xo, these false etories Were palatable and they were welcomed. Had tihey not been palatable their gross improbability would have been immediately evident. Either 'that, or it ia just possible that certain Continental nations, in accepting these accusations, attach less importance to them than do we, as you may perceive in our resentment. 'Perhaps 'they havo pictured a war of their own in which, shall we say, the women and childr<fi are not butchered or thrown in the ilire, but only tortured. Otherwise their attitude is incomprehensible. I am not vain onough as an Englishman to hold that English humanity is unique; the Continental Internation, on the other hand, appears to imagine that across the few miles of the English Channel appears a civilisation not merely a little lower than theirs, but infinitely and deepicably more cruel and barbarous. I think it is this view alone that is barbarous and cruel."

S.A.: "I hav-e said already that on general grounds I was as much surprised by the alleged cruelties as anyone— but is it not a question of evidence?"

Pierrot: "You would like tne to prove a universal negative—knowing, as a more than avemgely logical man, how beautifully simple such a task would be! But let mc toll you that on the ship from New Zealand I met a round score of Boers who absolutely denied all these allegations of cruelty on 'the part of the British. I have left this point till last, because, please to remember that before a civilised Europe bhe strongest argument against belief in a humane nation's cruelty should be the very humanity of its principles."

And Monsieur Suisse Allemand shakes your hand politely, pretends that tho lost point in your argument is indeed -Coriylncinjf, (but does not fe.il to repeat I these calumnies at the first'opportunity.