THE ANTI-GERMANISTS AND THE BISHOPSGATE STREET MEETINGS.
(To THE EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR:1 SIR,—Will you allow me to give the facts in regard to the protests made at the Devonshire House pacificist meetings by members of the Anti-German Union and others ? Our position, which I believe Is also that of the Spectator, is that the right of free speech at a public meeting—the Devonshire House meetings are not religious services at all, but open propagandist meetings which the public are invited to attend—has a correlative in the right of the public to protest against views wholly objectionable to themselves. This right of protest has been exercised over and over again during the great Reform and Free Trade agitations with the complete approval of many who are now posing as the special guardians of the right of free speech. I do not say that every single person, whether a member of the Anti-German Union or not, who has taken part in these protests, has always conducted himself with that perfect dignity, self-restraint, and equanimity which are ideally desirable. A pacificist, as the cases before the tribunals have clearly shown, is always a pacifieist, even when he might reasonably be expected to be a human being or even a Christian ; but the protestors at Devon- shire House and elsewhere are simply warm-hearted men who love their country, and are resolved that what our soldiers and sailors arc giving their lives to preserve shall not be betrayed by a, group of pacificists and politicians at home who in their country's agony will neither fight for her nor work for her, but only strive to weaken and divide her. The view that the Anti-German Union takes about the pacificist activities of this section of the Society of Friends is, as a matter of fact, shared by a large number of the Friends them- selves, as the fine protest which appeared in the Times of the 3rd inst. clearly shows, signed as it was by many prominent members of the Society, who, though they are Friends, have not forgotten that they are Englishmen, and arc proud to stand by their country in her hour
The Anti-German Union, 346 Strand, W.C.
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