Never Again! | Page 7

certainly
we must blame those in power, who over such a long period
deliberately prepared this war, and at the last so suddenly launched it
upon Europe.
However we may blame the German High Command, we cannot refuse
to acknowledge the really great qualities of their general Army: its

extraordinary courage and devotion, its versatility and resource.
As to its goodheartedness, that is proved by the endless stories of
spontaneous friendliness shown by the German troops even to their
enemies, the individual rapprochements on occasions, the succour to
the wounded, the Christmas songs and celebrations, and by the fact of
advances of this kind so often coming first from the German side.
As to its good sense, that element certainly has not been wanting.
Among the stories' above-mentioned as coming from the Front is one
which I have every reason to believe is true. The Saxons one day, in
their trenches thirty or forty yards away, put up a blackboard on which
was written: "The English are fools!" The board was of course
peppered with bullets, and went drown. Presently it reappeared with
"The French are fools!" written on it. Being duly peppered again it
went down, and came up with "The Russians are fools!" Same
treatment. But when it, or a similar board, appeared for the fourth time,
lo! the inscription was "The Austrians are fools!"; and when it appeared
for the fifth time, "The Germans are fools!"; and the sixth time, "We
are all fools!"
I don't think there could be much better sense than that.
And to think that the insane policy of a Government or Governments
should bring about the wholesale slaughter of such mien as all these
that I have described.
To think that the longer such a war goes on, the less heroic and
generous it becomes, and the more dominated by hatred and revenge --
by the wish to score a military victory or the desire to secure mere
political and commercial advantages.
To think that nations who consider themselves civilized should be thus
acting: so contrary to the natural laws and instincts of humanity that
often in order for a bayonet charge men must be primed with liquor to
the verge of intoxication .
We need not go further.
Of the three great nations primarily involved those indeed of which we
can speak most confidently, knowing them best -- it is intolerable to
think they should thus mutilate and destroy each other.
All we can say is: Never again must this thing happen!
When one thinks of the whole dread Coil and Entanglement, and, what
it is for, the mind reels in despair.

When one thinks of the marvellous scientific ingenuity and skill,
directed in a kind of diabolic concentration on the one purpose of
slaughter.
Of the huge guns, the 12.5's, weighing 40 tons apiece, and boxed and
rifled to the nicety of the thousandth part of an inch (I have watched
them being made at Sheffield).
Of the larger 15 in. guns, with range of 13 or 14 miles, so accurate that
the shells thrown at that distance will deviate hardly a couple of yards
to the right hand or the left of their line of fire (and in the Jutland battle
the firing opened at nearly 11 miles).
Of the still larger guns even now being constructed.
Of the shells themselves varying from a few pounds to nearly, a ton in
weight, and so delicately fashioned that the moment of their explosion
can be positively timed to the tenth part of a second:
When one thinks of the ingenuity put into aeroplanes and airships, and
almost entirely with a view to the destruction of life;
Of the automatic steering of submarine torpedoes by means of
gyroscopes, so that when deviated by any obstacle or accident from
their set course they will actually return of themselves to that course
again;
Of the everlasting duel going on in any one country between armour
plates and projectiles but of course always between the armour plates of
one firm and the projectiles of another (since obviously for any one
firm to prove its own inferiority in either line would be bad business)!
Of the competition even now in progress between the Russian
universities for the invention of a new explosive or a new gas more
devastating than any hitherto produced;
Of the weighty Advisory Committee of scientific Experts sitting
permanently in Britain for the discussion and handling of the technical
problems of the War;
When one thinks of what a Paradise all this ingenuity, all this
expenditure of labour and treasure, might make of our mortal Earth -- if
it were only decently employed;
That Great Britain alone has already spent on the War enough to
provide every family in the whole kingdom with a