THE FOLLY OF BARBAROUS WARFARE.
• [Colistuivackren.] , MODERN German policy, is no longer guided by • intelligence, by the pursuit of the national interests, but by the momentary impulses of the ruler, by passion, hatred, covetousness, and similar feelings. In its desire to win the war at any dOSt, the German Government has • not shrunk from reverting to the barbarous warfare of . past ages, but its criminal methods are likely to damage • far more severely Germany and the Germans than they will its opponents. Germany's action reminds one of Talleyrand's condemnation of. a political crime in the words "It was worse than a crime. It was a blunder." By her barbarous methods Germany is inflicting the most serious injury upon herself, not upon her opponents, whom she is aetually benefiting thereby. It is obviously in Germany's interest to destroy the unity of the Entente Powers. She is most anxious to conclude a separate peace with Russia, or with France, or with Great Britain, and even with Belgium or Serbia. If Germany had fought a clean fight, the statesnien of one of the Entente Powers might conceivably be prepared to receive Germany's advances favourably. Many leading Germans formerly believed that Russia might be found ready to end the war. They thought that the Russian autocrat would not care to see the German and Austrian absolutism weakened by the French and British demo- cracies. If Germany had fought a clean war, her . calculation might have proved correct. By attacking the 'Russian Ambassador :in Berlin and the ladies of the 'Embassy, and by pursuing deliberately the most barbarous -methods in Russian Poland and on the shoresof the Baltic, Germany has outraged the Russian nation. The Russian people, not the Russian Government, are at war with Germany.. German • barbarism has made Russia an irreconcilable enemy. German barbarity has made the French, British, Belgian, and Serbian peoples equally irreconcilable. By her methods of barbarism Germany has welded the opponent States into a firm and indissoluble alliance, animated by a single will.
Germany has begun a criminal war, and has conducted it with criminal methods. By the , action of her own Government Germany has become a criininal and an out- cast among nations, and she has filled all the neutral States with fear and loathing. Had Germany fought a clean fight she might have found sympathizers throughout the world. Her protests that she was the innocent victim of a world conspiracy might have been believed. limo- cence and crime do not go together. The deliberateness of her criminal methods have convinced all neutral observers of Germany's blood-guiltiness. With truth has an eminent German recently stated that Germany has not a single friend among the neutrals. Had Germany fought a clean fight she might have found among the neutrals not only sympathy but support. The United States might conceivably have laid. an embargo upon the export of arms to the Allies. By her unspeakable barbarities Germany has not only welded her opponents together into au unbreakable alliance, but has ranged against herself an indignant world. • The outrageous conduct of the German armies, and especially the deliberate ill-treatment of British and other prisoners in German hands, has been as hurtful to Germany from the military as from the diplomatic standpoint. Modern nations treat prisoners of war kindly and generously, not merely for sentimental but for very practical military reasons. Soldiers who know that' they will receive con- siderate and generous treatment if made prisoners will readily surrender, especially when they have become tired of the war, while men who know that they are liable to be starved and ill-treated will fight with the utmost deter- mination. The ill-treatment of prisoners will not weaken but strengthen the moral and the determination of the opposing army. It is therefore the highest military wisdom to treat prisoners well, and thus to put a premium upon surrender. That was done by the Japanese in their war against Russia. By employing barbarous methods of warfare, by allowing British sailors to drown and by ill.treating and starving British prisoners, Germany has strengthened the moral fibre of the British forces, and the spirit which she has wantonly aroused will not only produce deeds of the greatest valour, but is bringing hundreds of thousands of British men through- out the Empire into the Army. German cruelty and German crime have , been the most powerful stimulus to recruiting. • Hence every fresh outrage inflicted upon English towns and English soldiers and sailors is bound to recoil with greatly increased force upon the Germans themselves.
By her barbarous methods Germany has not merely inflicted the most serious damage upon herself, but she is causing the most serious harm to present and future genera- tions of the German nation. By her unspeakable and deliberate crimes, crimes which have been perpetrated not in the heat of battle, but which have been ordered from above and have been methodically executed by the officers and the rank and file of the Army, Germany has disgraced herself for all time. It is vain now for Germans to speak of German culture, of German science, music, and art. By the barbarities perpetrated during the war, Germany has wiped out the achievement of centuries.
The folly of reverting to barbarous methols of warfare will become apparent at the Peace Congress. If Germany had fought a civilized fight, if she had observed the laws of war and laws . of humanity, she would have found sympathizers among her opponents. Nations may rashly go to war owing to an aberration of mind, prompted by a sudden impulse, but deliberate and cruel inhumanity unceasingly practised is inexcusable and calls for vengeance and punishment. Great Britain might have been lenient to Germany had that country observed the Most elementary rules of conduct in diplomacy. and warfare. Germany's inhuthanity Will make the terms of peace most onerous to her, for all her opponents are determined that never again shall Germany be able to desolate the world by a carnival of crime.
Democracy is guided rather by impulse than by intelli- gence. It was perhaps natural that English men and women should have called for retaliation against Germany's methods of barbarism. Germany has destroyed her character as a high-minded cultured nation by her recent conduct. Britain would only damage her reputation and her own interests by following in Germany's footsteps, by lowering herself, by a policy of retaliation. Let future historians dwell on the criminal methods of the German Army and Navy and contrast it with the high-minded and generous conduct of Britain. That conduct will not only redound to the lasting credit of this country, but it will promote its future interests. England has at present the reputation of being the most humane among nations. That is a precious asset. It is worth preserving.
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