QUA TIERIShf AND THIS WAR.
[To TNN EDITOP OP TON .8PPOPPIVIel
Snt,—The letter signed "X. X. X." in your last issue is so good that one feels sorry that the writer did not let us know who it was who could write so wisely and kindly. I have, as a Friend, to thank him for describing our attitude so truth- fully, and for his quite too indulgent estimate of us.
All this makes his criticism out deeper. It amounts to this that we Friends are, without giving warlike assistance our- selves, allowing our homes and our liberties to be protected by the lives of others, and that this cannot be a comfortable position for us. It is not; and we are endeavouring to meet the claims of the State in ways specified below, and in many others, and so to do our part. The nation at war has dis- covered that it has need of many others besides fighting men, and here there is room for our service. May I plead also that most Friends did not become patriots suddenly last August ? National service has been the abiding enthusiasm of their whole lives ; and if in war time our principles unavoid- ably lessen for us, compared with others, the danger and the sacrifice of the moment, which I am obliged to admit, I trust that our future will continue the record of the past, and that in dull and quiet years of peace we may be found not nn- profitable servants. I further believe that in the midst of an attack of the mental disease of war, the nation would do badly without a quiet corner of its brain where still rules the mind of peace. If we cannot make war, it will be ours to help to make peace, and if we only accelerate it by a single day we shall have saved our country three millions of money and a few thousand lives. If our influence tells at all towards a stable settlement of Europe, we may help to save the next generation a war or a series of wars. Our position is certainly difficult, for our ideals are out of joint with some pressing immediate facts; but it is not so difficult as that of those numerous Christians, of whom "X. X. X." is one, who try to harmonize all this with Christ That subject is too long for this letter, though very tempting, and I can only say that Friends rely for their guidance on their experience of the Christ within, whose living voice, essentially akin to the Spirit of the historic Jesus, they habitually try to follow. Texts are only confirmatory of this.
" X. X. X." asks us what would happen if our numbers were so great as to exercise a decisive influence. My reply is plain. If our numbers had been so great as that there would hare been no war. The diplomatic jealousies, the rival Alliances, the broken Treaty of Algeciras, our support of France in the plunder of Morocco, our acquiescence in Russia's destruction of a small nation in Persia, all the maxims of our foreign policy, would have been different. The number of young Friends who have enlisted in the forces was reported to the Yearly Meeting as one hundred and seventy-three (with forty-two more in the R.A.M.0.)—not two hundred and fifty as given by H. M. Wallis. Nor does he make any reference to the War Victims' Service, which brings up the total to three hundred and fifty, nor to the extensive work among aliens in the internment camps, and among their (mostly English) wives left behind. These agencies are wholly unable to cope with the stream of offers of service, and a larger official organization is in the air. No one has ever described these young men, or those who have enlisted, as "giddy youths carried away by a desire for publicity and martial glory"; all I said was that they were
too young to be disowned for enlisting. By way of contrast with F. Ransom's account of the views held at the small meeting at Hitchin, in Manchester and the neighbourhood, where there are five hundred and eighty-four Friends, I only know of three members who have enlisted 'in the forces, and two others in the R.A.M.O. Altogether, over the whole country ten per cent, of the number who would have enlisted on the average of the general population have enlisted. This may fairly represent the proportion of Friend's who believe in joining in this war, and make it an exception among wars. This is of course guesswork, but it is based on the only avail- able datum. The letter alluded to by IL M. Wallis is not relevant ; I could have signed it myself, with some demur as to one phrase; but I shared the responsibility of sending another from the Society's Peace Committee. Is the Peace Committee therefore "unsound" on peace ? I hope I have endeavoured to write, not for victory in argument, but in a spirit of co-operation with other Christian men who, like myself, need more light in these dark times.—I am, Sir, &a,
[To what Mr. Graham says as to the Friends we take no exception whatever. From his standpoint it Is sound and reasonable. We must, however, make the strongest possible protest against his arrogant and ignorant arraignment of our foreign policy. There was no broken Treaty of Algeciras. What he calls supporting France in the plunder of Morocco is an unworthy insinuation against our ally. France was perfectly justified in putting down native misrule in Morocco. Our policy in Persia was wholly justifiable. Mr. Graham is apparently one of those men who think that it is always safe to slander their own country. Any acrid gossip on foreign affairs picked up from the illinfortned grumblings of Mr. Ramsay MacDonald or the egoistical patter of Mr. Bernard Shaw is regarded as Gospel-truth. Any story which reflects on the honour or good faith of Britain carries a pass- port which commands for it the immediate confidence and belief of a certain section of our pietists. Thank Heaven, there are still some young Friends who will answer all this sophistry with a plain" Give me a rifle," and some old Friends who can dare to applaud them.—En. Spectator.]
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