VOICES AT GENEVA
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sin,—The Archbishop of York says in his sermon at Geneva that " the War guilt clause must go, struck out by those who framed it." Why ? Because " it was the sin of us all that brought forth its flower and its fruit." What do these words mean ? For fifty years Germany had prepared, as Mr. Lloyd George said, to " poison Europe in her sleep." And nearly succeeded. She broke with her signature to The Hague Treaty, invaded Belgium contrary to another treaty and sent an outrageous ultimatum to Serbia, which forced on war. The English, to the last unprepared as usual, with a tiny force just staved off the march of the barbarians on Paris. Was this a "sin " ? Is -right to be allowed to be wiped out of existence because " Providence is on the side of the big battalions " ? That, Sir, seems to be your own conclusion as you regard this unfortunate sermon as " in its essentials irrefutable " (p. 189). As the Bishop of Gloucester points out, this is in the teeth of the whole New Testament, where " in righteousner s He doth . . . make war" (Rev. xix, am, Sir, &c., A. II. T. CLARKE.
The Rectory, Devizes.
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