AMERICA AND THE WAS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16121, 8 January 1916, Page 4

AMERICA AND THE WAS.

"PEACE AT ANY PRICE." MB. ROOSEVELT'S SCORN. STRONGLY-WORDED LETTER.

A remarkable letter was recently written bv Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, ex-President of the United States, in regard to America attitude in respect to the outrages committed bv the Germans during the war. In the* course of the letter, which was addressed to Mr. Samuel T. Duttou, secretary of the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief. Mr. Roose I velt says: — "Until we put honour and duty first j and are willing to risk something in order I to achieve righteousness, both for our- J selves and for others, we shall accomplish, nothing; and we shall earn and deserve j the contempt of the strong nations of man- ; I kind. ■ j j " One reason why Ido not wish to take I part in a mass meeting only for the de- I I nunciation of the atrocities committed on j I the Armenians is because there are ignoble j ! souls who have preached professional pad- ! ,' ficism as a creed or who have refused to ; i attend similar meetings on behalf of the y Belgians, who yet do not fear to take such j j action on behalf of the Armenians—for | ' j the simple reason that there is in America i J no Turkish vote and because Turkey is j . I not our neighbour as Mexico is, and n«"-t a ', ' formidable aggressive Power like Ger- \! many, and so" it is safe, both materially . , j and "politically, to denounce her. ; | " Professional Pacificists." " i lie American professional pacificists, I 'the American m L and women of the peace 1 i at any price, who join ill meetings to i ' '"denounce war" or with empty words j "protest" on behalf of the Armenians or " other tortured and ruined peoples, carry precisely the weight that an equ-I number of Chinese pacificists would carry if at a similar meeting they went through similar antics. They do harm instead of good ; and they deeply discredit the nation to ; which they belong. ' "It was announced the other dav by 1 certain politicians interested in securing > votes that at the end of the war this - Government would " insist'' on Russia and ; "i Koumania doing justice to all Jews. '1 he . ' I conduct of this Government during the : ' present war and its utter refusal to back I words with deeds has made it utterly unr able to *' insist"' on anything of the kind, J • whether as regards Russia or Roumania' " or any other Power.

Protest Useless from the Timid. " A nation too timid to protect its own [ men. 'women, and children from murder and outrage and too timid even to speak on behalf of Belgium will not carry much weight by " protest" or '" insistence" on behalf of the suffering Jew? and Armenians. Foreign Powers will attribute such "' protest" or "insistence," coupled with our failure to act in cases of other nationalities, merely to the fact that there is in this country neither a Russian nor a , Turkish vote—and will in consequence, despise our action. " All the terrible iniquities of the past year and a-balf, including this crowning iniquity of the wholsale slaughter of the Armenians, car be traced directly to the initial wrong committed on Belgium by her invasion and subjugation, and the criminal responsibility of Germany must be shared by the neutral Powers, headed by the United States, for their failure to protest when the initial ■'wrong was committed. "The failure to do our duty in Mexico created the contempt which made Germany rightfully think it safe to go into the wholesale murder that accompanied the sinking of the Lusitania; and the failure to do our duty in the case of the Lusitania made Germany, acting through Austria, rightfully think it safe to go into the wholesale murder that marked the sinking of tho Ancona. " The invasion of Belgium was followed by a policy of terrorism toward the Belgian population, the shooting of men. women, and children, tho destruction of Dinant and Tjouvain and many other places; the bombardment of unfortified places, not only by ships and by land forces, but by aircraft, resulting m the killing of many hundreds of civilians— men, women, and children—in England, France, Belgium, and Italy; in the destruction of mighty temples and great monuments of art in Rheims, in Venice, in Verona. " Awful Beyond Description." "The devastation of Poland and of Servia has been awful beyond description, and has been associated with infamies surpassing those of the dreadful religious and racial wars of seventeenth cen- i tury Europe. Such deeds as have been done by the nominally Christian Powers in Europe, from the invasion of Belgium by Germany to the killing of Miss Cavell by the German Government, things done wholesale, things done retail, have been such as we had hoped would never occur in civilised warfare. "They are far worse .than any tiling that has occurred in such warfare since the close of the Napoleonic contests a century ago. Such a deed as the execution of Miss Cavel!, for instance, would have been utterly impossible in the days of the worst J excitement during our Civil war. For all , of this, the pacificists who dare not speak | of righteousness and who possess such an unpleasant and evil prominence in the United States, must share the responsibility with the most brutal type of militarists. In the Footsteps of China. "Because of the cult of pacificism, the Chinese, like tho Coreans and utterly unlike tho Japanese, became absolutely powerless to defend themselves or to win or retain the respect of other nations, They are also, of course, utterly helpless to work for the good of others. "The professional pacificists of the United States are seeking to make the United States follow in the footsteps of China. They represent what lias been, on the whole, the most evil influence at work in the United States for the last fifty years and for five years they have, in international affairs, "shaped our governmental policy. These men, whether politicians, publicists, college presidents, capitalists, labour leaders, or self-styled \ philanthropists, have done everything they could to relax the fibre of the American character and weaken the strength of the American will. ...

• • • We have refused to do our duty by Belgium; we refused to Jo our dutv by Armenia, because we have deified peace at any price, because we have preached and prayed that evil pacificism which is the compliment to and the en-

I couragement of anti-militarism. Such a pacificism puts peace above rghteousness: ! safety in the present above dutv in the present and safety in the future."... Unspeakably Foolish Treaties. " I trust thai Americans realise that unless America prepares to defend itself she can perform no duty to others; and under such circumstances she- earns only derision if she prattles about forming a. league for world peace, or about arbitration treaties and disarmament proposals and commissioninvestigation treaties, such as the unspeakably foolish ones negotiated a year or two ago at Washington and promptly disregarded by the very" administration that negotiated"them. Wrong-doing will only be stopped bv men who are brave as well as just, who put honour above safety, who are true to a lofty idea] of duty] who prepare in advance to make their strength effect-he. and who shrink from no hazard, not even the final hazard of war, if necessary, in order to serve the great cause of righteousness. "When our people take this stand we will also be able effectively to take a stand in international matters which shall prevent such cataclysms of wrong as have been witnessed in Belgium and on an even greater scale is Armenia' i