One note of almost tragic irony stands forth in the
record of the week of crisis. Among the most virulent assailants and slanderers of the Army have been the professional pacifists— the men who have always on their lips such cant phrases as " bloodguiltinese," "the trade of slaughter," "mercenary butchers," and so forth. Yet now these men are calling for blood and denouncing the soldiers for not being willing to fly to arms at the first chance of taking human life. The lazy hounds will not hunt when we show them the game. Strange as it seems, the only people who have shown a determination not to fight their own fellow-citizens are the soldiers. While almost every other class in the nation is ready for battle they remain pacific. The Ulstermen are ready to fight, the Nationalists are calling for coercion by arms, the Radicals abuse the King because they suspect him of trying to play the part of peacemaker, but the Army alone is for not fighting. After all, may not the Army be in the right ?
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