THOUGHTS ON WAR

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 141, 11 December 1914, Page 11

THOUGHTS ON WAR

BRITISH CULTURE. (FROM Ot;B OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, 29th October. Mr. Sidney Low, at King's College, on "Civilisation and Culture in the British Empire" :— "Our contact with alien civilisations lias produced few results so far as ourselves, are concerned ; we are largely unresponsive to alien influences, but wo are quite willing to allow any people to assimilate from us. We do not force our ideas or hold them. We give more than we receive. -We have exercised three things in particular, however : Our language, spoken by 170 millions ; our conception o£ law, and doctrine of political justice. We shall always leave behind us a memorial in the shape of the common law of England, and Rome alone creates a similar monument. Tho two systems divide Europe and America and a large part of Asia between them. Those nations coming to our aid i» a miracle which foreign nations cannot explain. They aro femazed that French Canadians, Australians, and Indian Mohammedans should draw the sword for us. It may be part of our cultural mis-~ sion to convey that knowledge to them." OUR INSULARITY Lord Curzon, at King's College : — "I remember a curious illustration o£ this insularity of the Britisher. Maiiy years ago, when I wa-s connected with public work in Egypt, the representatives oE England, Germany, Italy, and Austria, in that country, strange as it may seem, were constantly pulling one end of the rope, while those of France and Russia were constantly pulling at the other end. After my day's work I used to go to my club, where the repre- I sentatives of all the European nations met on terms of perfect good fellowship. There were no politics there, and they did not refer ia any way to the little diplomatic struggles in which they had been engaged with each other only a few hdurs previously. Well, at that club the Englishmen constantly sat at one table 3> and, the Frenchmen, Germans, Austrians, Italians, and Russians at another. There seemed to be some higher law which dernajided that the English should retain their insularity, even under those conditions. What seems to me to be the fact is that the strength of tho British. Imperial system is not its amalgamating power, but its enormous tolerance. It is the characteristic of our race, and the one foundation of its Imperial power, that it i_s the most tolerant and fair-minded race in the world in its dealings with aliens who remain aliens. 1 do not, however, believe that it is absolutely necessary to be so disorganised as we arc in order to preserve the merits — the great merits— of the tolerance and liberality of our Imperial system. The time may come when it will be possible to knit that system firmly together on a federal basis which will allow the greatest freedom of local selfgovernment, and yet ensure effective cooperation for common purposes, and especially for common defence. This, I think, might be done in such a way that We could enjoj all the advantages we have at present in our exceedingly lax, as well as liberal, system, and combine them with a greater effective strength, without which there is a danger, and a very great dahger, that the system may break up, to the enormous loss to the happiness and progress of mankind." WAR AND LAW. Mr. R. A. M'Call, K.C., at University College : "It has been for many years the policy of the British Government to spread through the Dominions of His Majesty the knowledge and practice of the common law of England. That common law is founded upon the tenets of Christianity and the root principle that the rights of all have an appropriate remedy and that contracts are sacred, whether made between individuals by way of agreement or between nations by way of treaty That policy has of recent years received somewhat of a check from the new heresy, which, like so . many other tilings of sinister import, is 'made in Germany' — the infamous policy that the moral faith without which this world can no longer exist, while binding on individuals is not binding on States. It is against that infamous doctrine that "this country is at war. " If Britain and her Allies, witb the sympathy of nine-tenths of the civilised world, insist on the ex* tirpation of tho Prussian heresy the terrible war will bring to Europe the blessings of the reign of law, the maintenance of justice and freedom, and the vindication of our notion of liberty, and Britain and her Allies will not have fought in vain." EMOTIONAL NURSING. Sir J. Crichton Browne, the eminent physician, at Kensington :— ' "We have no partiality for anything I Germanic at the present moment, but the credit of inaugurating the new order of things in nursing must h& given to Kaiserwerth, where Pastor Fliedner established his institute for training deaconesses in 1836. I must say, however, that German nursing, though as scien-' tific to-day as that in England, is less I sympathetic, as skilfull but less considerate, and. any deterioration that has taken place in its quality is due to the same causes which are responsible for the horrible atrocities Germany has committed _in the war now going on. There is a good deal of spurious nursing about at this time^ — merely affedtional and emotional nursing. Under the agitated feelings created by the war, giddy women step in where angels might fe&i' to tread. I heard the other day of a fashionable lady who called on the matron of a provincial hospital, and said : 'I I wish to have a week's training as nurse on ! any terms you like, but I cannot give ■ more than a week to it, as I then want to go to the front.* Now, that sort of thing is highly reprehensible, for in no branch of nursing is consummate skill more necessary than in the management of wounds and the wounded, and for half-baked amateurs to meddle in such matters is to endanger life and limb. Most desirable is it that every woman should have a course of first aid and ambulance work, but they must not on the strength of that pose as nurses. As auxiliaries to nurses they may be invaluable, but genuine nurses they cannot be." , PRUSSIAN ATONEMENT. Dr. T. J. Macnamara. Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty, at Bishopsgate Institute :—.: — . "German politicians, with sublime effrontery, are charging the British people with being the authors of this awful conflict, but it is characteristic of the bully that when he is taken by! the throat he lies. Germany's set purpose was to plunge the British, Empire into this hell-born cauldron, and she will have to paj. A good many tilings in this war cannot be atoned for, but, so far as material recoupment can be made, it will have to be made by Germany to the uttermost farthing. Nothing will shake the British people from their task— they are of one mmd — stubborn, determined, resolute. Hands trained to the pen, the loom, and the spindle in the fruitful toil of peaceful industiy are graeping the 6\vord against perfidy and treachery. The Kaiser need not be deceived. For every man who falls in the trenches _qn our side

I ten will rush to fill the breach. We are going right through with this wa/ in the name of humanity, freedom, and fair play, with a strength and vigour that will grow every succeeding day." . A BRITISH CRUSADE. Father Bernard Vaughan, in a ser* mon : "The President of the Prussian Diet, Count Schwerin, shamelessly declared : 'We have honourably^ striven for peace, and hav.e been forced into war by jealous and envious enemies.' Not satisfied with standing sponsor to that little monster of iniquity, the President presented to the Assembly its twin, saying : 'We are not fighting for a greater sphere of power, the enlargement of our Empire. or base commercial profit, but to defend our homes and families.' It is possible to fight the Krupp gun, but it is impossible to. do anything but lift up our hands in wonder at the Krupp lie. If England had wanted war and Germany only peace, they 'have each adopted ingeniously stupid methods to attain their ends. While England has reduced her insignificant but not 'contemptible' Army by 30.000, Germany has increased hers by leaps and bounds. If that strong but modest Field-Marshal of whom now a whole Empire is so proud had been listened' to in a day g6ne by, there would have been no war. About the final result, I have no more misgivings than t have about the sacred character of the cause in which we are engaged. v There is a. widespread belief among the British forces that our fight is a crusade out of which will come victory,' with lasting peace and blessing to civilisation." . THE GREATEST OF ALL CAUSES. . "Lord Roberts, to the Canadian troops : " Three months ago' we found our- • selves involved in this war, a war hot of our own seeking, but one which those who have studied Germany's literature' and Germany's inspiration ' knew was a, war which we should inevitably- have to deal with sooner or later. There is no> need for me to tell you that you have a stern task befo.re you. We ate fight-, ing a nation which looks upon the Brit- , ish Empire as a barrier to her development, and has, in consequence, long contemplated our overthrow. ,ahd humiliation. To attain that .end she has manufactured a magnificent fighting machine, and is straining every nerve to gain vie* tory. In her determination to be the ruling Power in th© world she lias not scrupled to break faith with the smaller nations, and has shown by her actions that she is prepared by every means in her, power— however unworthy and brutal—to achieve her purpose. It is only by the most determined efforts that we can defeat her. I need not urge you to do your best, for I know you will. For you will be fighting in the greatest of all causes, the cause of right, of justice, and of liberty. May God prosper you in the great struggle."