UNDERLYING REASONS FOR CONFLICT

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 276, 26 December 1914, Page 3

UNDERLYING REASONS FOR CONFLICT

By Richard G. Conover.

JirPOSE it be admitted that the Hague Peace Tri-. Jnmal is a grim burlesque and* that nations are bound to wage war, how shall we distinguish., between a righteous reason and a prearranged pretext for the taking up of arms? Germany "a n d Austria cry deepwotcd danger, to the Fatherland as their "causa belli. England, France, Russia* Belgium and. the cry. Germany and Austria declare the battle motive of their foes a rank subterfuge. Knglnnd, Frangf, Russia; Belgium and Servia declare ditto. Which is the real and which,is the false war: cry is left to the sword to decide. Unbiased study of past world conflict hi total reveals a modicum of real provocation to balance a mags of pretence, humbug, falsehood, duplicity, eoyetoiisnesis and reprehensible ambition, all responsible for -wholesale, inexcusable human slaughter. War statisticians; set down in varying estimates that since the dawn of recorded liistory, fifty centuries ago, between 200,000,000 and 400.000,000 men have fallen on the battlefield or have perished as a consequence of fighting there. This is an average of from 40,000 to 80,000 war-killed a year. At first it seems an impossible figure. Comnience to compute and donbt disappears. And most of those killed died for no righteous reafibu. ' ' v' ■ ' In .'considering causes for war these classifications may be made•:—First—The deep, remote racia 1 ; or; nations 1 differ-, ftuces. ••: Second-r-The immediate . differences, the outcome of sudden happenings. Third—The pretexts or pretended differ-

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enees. ■ . _ The first two differences may possibly yield an honest reason for war, if war must-'be. But if th.ey do not, they have often been played up and fanned into a war flame by the diplomatists so as to seem to carry good reasons. When there is no good reason at all of course No. 8

difference is used outright. Out of this grows very naturally :—A—the reason for the war as the man who fights it sees it. 'B—The reason for the war-as"the diplowho may have, made it sees it. And out of this again comes for public :—C—The given reason for the war—in some cases it may be the real reason. D—The given reason that is a pretext. E—The. specific reason showing material injury in detail; All of these reasons for a time jare merely written ones. The striking of the first blow makes a solid visible reason for the nation so struck. Japan has a way of shifting quickly from in-tangible to tangible reasons for warfare. Cato a Grouch. About the year B. C. 150 bad you been sitting in the gallery of the Roman Senate you would have been compelled to take notice of the champion grouch of his day, a rough, stern, red haired man with protruding teeth, known through all these centuries as Marcus Porcius Cato, the Censor. He spoke often and always with a "slam" at those who liked to take things easier than he. And always when he finished what he had to say in criticism of your shortcomings he wound up with these' immortal words:—"Delenda est Carthago." This sentiment:—"J vote .-that Carthago no longer be," or "Also, Carthage, methinks, ought utterly Co be destroyed"—was expressed in season and out of season, no matter whether old Cato was talking on the Panama Canal treaty of that day or speaking agaiu.st an eight "hour law for the chariot drivers. He pounded it home all the time that Carthage, the rival of Rome, should be destroyed. It made no particular difference that Carthage hadn't done a thing against Rome, she ought to be annihilated. And so the grim old grouch has taken his niche in history as the unrivalled advocate of a PRETEXT FOR WAR. Since his time there have been many Catos, but none of them so daringly iu the open.

There is an oft repeated story that by the advice of her great Minister, Kaunitz, the famous Maria Theresa. Empress of Austria, put aside her- pride of rank and wrote a personal letter to Mine, de Pompadour, the favorite of Louis XV. of Franco, seeking her aid in the establishment of a war alliance. The letter was addressed "My Cousin" and written on the plane of one equal asking a favor of another. The scheme worked perfectly. Pompadour was delighted to be deemed so powerful by the daughter of mighty monarchs and lost no time in wheedling theVKing to war. May 1, 1750, a treaty was signed between Austria and France pledging the conquest and partition of Prussia. France had nothing to fight Prussia for, hut an appeal to a king's favorit soon found a pretext. While not exactly a pretext for war, the initial reason for the conflict between England. France and Turkey oh the one hand against Russia on the other, in the Crimea, 1554, was so inconsequentially odd that it approximated a pretence. Hundreds of thousands of lives were lost

and hundreds of millions of money sacrificed because of a dispute between a few Greek and Latin monks as to which had the right to repair the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre or carry the keys of the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem. This caused the clash. The deeper causes, remote or immediate, were the political ; greed of Russia, the chronic revolutionary condition of the Danubian States or provinces, the rival schemes of England and Russia, a general state jjf military jingoism and, lastly, doubt as to the legal classification and status ; of Latin and Greek Christians in Turkey. But the church roof squabble started the war blaze. ..'.-.. ' Pretext for 1870 War. The pretext for the late Franco-Prus-sian War, IS7O and IS7I, was the objection of France to the placing of a,Hohenzollern prince on the throne of Spain. The prince was Leopold of Hohenzol-lern-Sigmaringen, and he was related through the families Of Murat and Beauharnais to Napoleon 111., Emperor of the French himself. Queen Isabella of Spain had been banished, and the king job was offered Leopold by General Prim, the leader of the Spanish revolt. Some say that Bisniark had engineered the making ,of the offer, well'knowing that Napoleon would seize the occasion to call the affair a reason for war—or, rather, he would use it as a pretext for war. The came of Leopold was withdrawn, but France demanded assurances that Prussia would discountenance a repetition of an attempt of a similar kind. This Prussia refused, and war came. It is pointed out that France didn't care a rap whether or not Leopold became King of Spain and that the real reasons for the war were..:—l. The wonderful growth in power and consequence of Prussia. 2. The easy triumph of Prussia over Austria four years previously. 3. The bound-to-win feeling of the French army. 4. Napoleon's jealousy of Bismarck. 5, Bismarck. I

As a pretext for war that of the native soldier of India, which brought on the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, was centainly novel. The mutineers claimed that the

cartridges.they were compelled to use in a new rifle adopted were greased with tallow. These cartridges had to bt torn with the teeth. As Hindoos were forbidden to use cow's fat, making them handle the greased cartridges was declared a deliberate scheme to insult and degrade them. As a matter of fact, when the English government heard of the anticartridge murmurings it was arranged that the Sepoy should not have to use a weapon that would be repugnant to him. But as the real cause for the mutiny was deeper than this, having to do with the spread of discontent by native princes against the English conquerors, the withdrawal of the cartridge cause was of no avail. The Sepoy rose and the mutiny spread. \ Another famous pretext for war is said to have followed the visit of the Duke of Buckingham to France in the year 1626. lie met the French Queen," Anne of Austria, and was deeply smitten with her grace and beauty. He contrived a private audience at which he declared his devotion. As the Queen was at bitter enmity with the political master of France, Richelieu, she only half refused Buckingham's offer of service. He sprang to the chance and upon the promise of another meeting when he should prove his love in some manner emiuently agreeable to the Queen he hastened back to England, lie induced King Charles I. to fit out a fleet, place him at the head of it and give aid to the Huguenots being besieged at La Roehelle by Richelieu for the French King. The pretext for the war was the righteousness of one Protestant nation giving aid and succor to the Protestant portion oil another nation. But this aid and succor would not have been given—so the close chroniclers say -—had not the Duke fallen in love with the Queen.

In the Spanish-American War of 1898 there was a substantial sort of pretext for the declaration of hostilities against Spain by the United States, in the sinking of the battle ship Maine in Havana harbor. But while it was a, fact that there was a tragic reason for wanting satisfaction or reparation, it was also a fact that the catastrophe could not be indisputably laid at the door of Spain. Nevertheless it served. Spanish barbari-

Prince t)«o von Bismarck, "The "Iron Chancellor" nf Germany. Who Edited the "Ems" Teleflram.^

ties in Cuba had fired the sympathies of the United States, and when the Maine blew up the country blew up, too. It was a sombre pretext, but still a pretext. The antithesis of the pretext causing a

war is the waging of a war for a good reason and then making no mention of the good reason when the treaty of peace is signed. That is, in the case of the War of ISI2, when the United States fought England because the latter country insisted on searching American ships, we have an instance of peace delegates signing a peace document in which there is not a single word relative to guaranteeing the vessels of the United States from search. Territory captured duriug the war was listed for restoration by both nations, and some minor matters« of boundary between the United States and Canada settled. But not a word about firing a shot across the how of an American ship and conducting a forcible search. You may say this is as it should be. Why bother about unpleasant matters in making a peace? Just so, and similarly when you want to make war don't bother about the unpleasant real causes. The pleasanter pretexts will do. The Mithridatic Wars, B. C. 88 to B. C. 68, were brought by Rome against Mithridaies the Great, King of Pontus, a man of remarkable energy and genius. The cause of the first war was the charge made by Rome that Mithridates had encroached upon client cities of hers in Asia Minor. The second war was 'because land specified for evacuation in the first peace treaty had not been abandoned. The cause of the third war was simply strained relations and a chip on the shoulder of each. Rome won as usual.

The Crusades, or wars for Christianity, extended from A. D. 1096 to A. D. 1270. The Crusades were eight in. number and the causes for them were:—The pilgrimages of the Christians to the Holy Sepulr chre, where St. Helena, mother of Constanline the Great, had built a: vault for the sepulchre of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, were interrupted after the Fatimites, aud yet more the Seljuks, came to power. Many were ill treated and, receiving no redress, appealed to Christian Europe. The Kingdom of Jerusalem was established as a result of the

mi of Austria, wire or Louis XIII. o franofe, to Win Whose Love the Duke of Buckingham Forced England to Fit a Fleet to fkHeve La Rochelle. Prom "frkrly Ctourt Lift' in Frunc*." | By Fiances Billot. O. 1' I'utnamV Son*.

first Crusade. After that the immediate causes for the subsequent crusades varied according as the defenders of the newly established kingdom attacked or were attacked by the Mohammedan- enemy.

Until James I. ascended the throne of England the integral parts of the kingdom—England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales—had not been firmly blended in Great Britain. There had been many a battle' between the welding nations. Sometimes war was waged on the ground of revenge for an alleged previous attack, sometimes on the plea of seizin? lands inherited or owned by right of con quest and sometimes by out aud out intent to forcibly annex. Several noteworthy battles were fought between the Scotch and the English for these reasons, but the events connected with them could not he designated as a regularly declared and waged war. The Hundred Years' War. The Hundred Years' War began A. D. 1328 and had for its cause the claim of Edward 111. of England to the throne of France. Ths old Salic law of the Franks declared the kingdom could not fall to the distaff. Edward was the son of the daughter of Philip IV. and insisted that he inherit despite the Salic law. Sheer exhaustion of the fighters brought peace interval?, but during the century or more of struggle the great battles of Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt were fought, with England the winner of all. But by the end of the war in 1453 the English title to anything French was reduced to the city of Calais.

The Wars of the Roses, fought in England, lasted from 1455 to 1485. The conflict was between the House of York and the House of Laucaster over the succession to the throne. York based its claim on descent from the third son of Edward 111. and Lancaster from (he fourth son of the same monarch. York wore a white rose as its emblem and Lancaster a red. Twelve pitched battles were fought aud York seated three kings on the throne during the wars. Lancaster finally won on the field of Bosworth when Richard 111. was slain. Henry VIII. of England and Francis I. of France met on the "Field of the Cloth cf Gold," a specially prepared spot near Calais for the entertainment of the

English monarch, dunug the year 1520. They skylarked in great shape, feasting and playing together like schoolboys. When they parted each swore never to cut his beard until he had visited his "good brother." Hardly had Henry got back, to" England when he joined a league consisting of the Pope ant the German Emperor, wjio was also tho King of Spain, Charles V, There was no good reason for it except the pretext that Francis was getting so powerful he should be trimmed down a trifle. The underlying reason was that Cardinal Wolsey, Henry's powerful minister, had jccii assured of succession to the papacy. Later on Francis I. was captured at the battle of Pavia and imprisoned at Madrid. He signed his name to everything that could be put on paper to gain his release, but immediately. repudiated his oaths on the ground that anything obtained by threat was void. The Forty Years War lasted from 1568 to 1609 and was the occasion of the rise of the Dutch Republic. It was brought about by Spanish persecution in the Netherlands, during which the Inquisition was established on the usual religious linos of the time by the Duke of Alva. William of Orange was the hero of the troublous period.

The Thirty Years' War, lasting from IGIB to 1645, was remotely caused by the smoldering religious hatred of half a century, principally throughout Bohemian territory. The more immediate cause was the Protestant seizure of church lands which the Catholic princes sought to reclaim, and the Emperor Ferdinand's determination, backed by Spain, to subjugate Germany to his house and faith. And the immediate cause was the pitching out of a window in the Prague palace of two of Ferdinand's royal councillors by exasperated Bohemians. As the war proceeded it took on the conquest tinge and land annexation intention.

Four great wars were waged by Louis •XIV. of France solely to gratify his pride and ambition to extend the power of his realm. The war of Flanders, 1667 to 1668, was waged in the name of his wife, daughter of Philip IV. of Spain, which was considered some kind of reason along inheritance lines for forcing the conflict. The War with

Madame de Pompadour, the Famous Favorite of touis XV. of France, Who Helped Along, a War of Conquest Because She Was Flatteredby Maria Theresa of Austria. • /

This led to the Prussian-Austrian War of 1866 in a way, although the conflict was part of a deliberate policy of Bismarck to shut Austria out of German affairs in Europe for once and all. The immediate cause was the refusal of Aus-

tria to disarm to the extent t&at Prussia

Holland, 1672 to 1679, was for-revenge on the little republic • because it sided with Spain now instead of with France as of old. , The War of the Palatinate, 1688 to 1697, was just a continuance of the previous war because those who were beaten by France were not willing to stay beaten when they saw Louis reaching out for more. Finally came the War of the Spanish Succession, 1701 to 1714. Charles 11. of Spain, on dying, willed his crown to the grandson of Louis XIV. of France. Archduke Charles of Austria also was a claimant. The naval powers of Englaud and Holland refused to permit the crown of the great Spanish monarchy to be united with the French or to be w"orn by the ruler of Austrian territory. This is the period.of the great Marlborough victories. Louis' grandson was made Spanish king. England's Civil War.

The civil war of England through which Charles I. lost his head and Oliver Cromwell's name became world known lasted from 1642 to 1648. It was caused by the exalted ideas, of the King as in .his prerogatives; and the refusal of Parliament to be considered a lackey ia government. ' Between 1700 and 1721 was fought the Northern war. It was caused by the t determination of Peter the Great to make Russia a naval power aiid to get possession of the harbors of the Baltic. More immediate cause was the. attempt to unite Livonia and Poland and the quarrel-between Frederick IV., King of Denmark, and the Duke of Holstein, as well as the plot to dismember Sweden. The war of the Polish succession, 1783 to 1735, was caused by a division of the Polish nobles, the majority of whom offered the crown to Stanislaus Lescainski and the minority to August lIL, Elector of Saxony. The war of the Austrian succession, 1740 to 1748, was because Charles Albert, Elector of Bavaria; Philip 11. of Spain, and„ August 111. of Saxony would not recognize the pragmatic sanction secured by the late Emperor Charles VI. of Austria by which his crown passed to his daughter, the great Maria Theresa of history. This is the time that Frederick the Great of Prussia considered the psychic moment for him to steal the Austrian province of Silesia. As soon as Maria Theresa had secured

herself on her throne she started after Silesia. This brought on the Seven Years' War arid -made Frederick of Prussia immortal. It lasted from 1756 to 1763 and Frederick kept Silesia. The French revolutionary and the Napoleonic wars, extending from 1789 to 1815, had for cause many complex things. One was the defence of France against all of Europe in the early days. The rescue of the French royal family was the cause of the allies. Later the am'bition of Napoleon to become lord of all Europe—if not the world —continued the various constant campaigns. On the return of Napoleon from Elba, the cause of the Hundred Days was, of course, the effort to regain his throne. Is there any need to tell the cause of the American Revolutionary War? The general cause was taxation without representation in the English Parliament. The remote cause was the British attitude in America that the Englishman was a better man than the American. The throwing over of the tea in Boston harbor rather than receive it and pay tax had something to do with it. And finally Lexington. No doubt 1775 to 1753 is well marked down. The war of Denmark against Schles-wig-llolstein, IS4B to ISSI, was caused by an open tetter of Charles XIII. of Denmark arbitrarily decreeing the continuance of the duchies with Denmark despite different laws of inheritance in the two States. The Prussian-Denmark war of 1864 was brought by Bismarck for the sole purpose of wresting the provinces of, Schleswig-Holstein from Denmark. Austria helped and when it came to divide the spoils there was, of course, trouble.

demanded if mutual disarmament wer» to be carried out. The civil war of the United States, 1861 to 1865, has liad 'many far- ' reaching causes assigned to it. There is no douht that slavery wa3 both a remote and an immediate cause, although the "last straw" seemed to have been the election of Abraham Lincoln. The principle of secession "was not at all settled by the war. The constitution of the United States does not specify Jn. , letter or word that a State may not secede. "At the close, the constitution, was not altered in this respect, it being taken for granted that the result of the *• war was an object lesson. The firing upon Fort Sumter may be said to have forced hostilities, although the sending of supplies to the fort was an act, in parloua times, warranted to cause trouble. The Boer War extended from 1876 to

1903 in an intermittent wayv At bna time the Transvaal -was annexed to Great Britain and then relinquished-r* ISSI. Finally in 1899 a life and death' struggle began and Oom Paul and his heroic burghers were defeated, the conf liet ending 1902. The cause was - the continual clash between the Dutch and the English; living as neighbors and yet feeling jealousy and contempt for each other.

The Russian-Japanese War of 1904 came about through the seizure of Manchuria by Russia with a covetous casting of eyes on Gorea. The previous Chinese-Japanese War of 1894-5, occasioned by a Corean revolt and a calling upon China for assistance; had" brought Japan "to the front as a force and national power to be reckoned with and Russia determined she might "as well settle a few things first as last.. Numberless minor wars have not been brought up for cause comment here. Itthey were, the tussles between the Hittites, and the Amamekites and the Philistines and the South, American republics, ~ and sq on, by. the score, would have -to be t listed. All wars for independence have not been, dwelt upon—the cause is selfevident, as, in the case .of the-long struggle of Cuba against Spain. There have been many flippant causes assigned for serious wars that are plainly romances. General Balkan trouble started the Russo-Turk-ish War of 1877-1878 and a tale connected vyith it is that a tax collector insulted'; a -'blacksmith's daughter and was killed! with the smith's hammer. An Afghanistan war is said to have been started be*: cause of failure to return, a tobacco pipe, and a Spanish war by the stealing of « lady's lace petticoat by a Moor. No Pretext Needed. In the ancient days whenever it wai desired to wage war it was nof necessary to hunt for a pretext. There was always the Delphic Oracle to; consult and blame it on. It is even recorded that in B. C. 510 :Le oracle was bribed into pro? nquneing war against Athens! The clan of Megacles were the guilty ones, passing the money to the temple keeper at ' Delphi to be passed in turn to th« , priestess. When the .Lacedaemonians her for a tip she earned her bribe - by declaring, "Athens must be freed," which was enough leeway for the fighters straining at the leash. England once went after Afghanistan

because it would not receive a Britisk embassy. Several years ago the London Board of Trade Committee on the proposed Channel scheme had a report made concerning war end war possibilities. It showed between 1700 and 1870 altogether 117 cases of hostility. Of , these ten were preceded by actual war declarations; 107 without any warning. - Of forty-one cases the reason for giving ■ no warning was to gain time to take the enemy unawares. Twelve cases of out- ' break were due to opposition to governmental plans to postpone hostilities and throw the responsibility for breaking the peace on the enemy. Nine cases of, motive were to anticipate the designs oC other powers. Sixteen cases were suiden raids and acts of reprisal; Four cases were the outcome of the progress of war with one state leading to violation of other countries' rights. Five cases showed that help had been given te states already in hostility. This baa been said of war by an eminent puV licist:— * """i**^ "In no country can the statement by % *"— the responsible Minister of the cause of war be taken in a spirit of faith. It is necessary he should deceive the public. He must secure the solid support of the country, and this he cannot do if he tells the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Being human, he must .do all he can to save himself from blame in the event of disaster, and for this purpose he has to convince people that the war is justly expedient, and even inevitable. He has also to conciliate the public opinion of_ nations—-at least of those nations powerful enough to thwart him; and this he does not hesitate to do at the expense of his veracity. Thus he tries to make still more obscure the state of affairs which is already too obscure for the ordinary understanding. He shoves prominently forward whatever factor in the cause best serves his purpose and calls it the whole cause of the war." " Cicero's famous aphorism was "The natural state of man is war." 1 ' It use4 £ to be thought the Roman system was solely responsible for the truism. But can it not be applied now?