OUR " IDEALISTS."
[To TM EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SM.—There is at the moment much talk about " ideals," but the term is bandied a-bout in a way.suggestive rather of its usefulness a, 4 weapon of controversy than of any deep corn-prehension of all that is involved in its- application. I am a fairly regular readee of the Radical papers, and I seldom open one without seeing some Balsam-like demand that we should " restate our aims " or asser- tion that we have " abandoned our ideals." Cannot we get down to- realities ? What, e.g;, is to be said for the sincerity of mind that treats the left bank of the Rhine as sacrosanct, yet would see Alsace-Lorraine still irredenta " in the interests of peace "; that cries "Hands off" the macedoine of nations that calls itself Austria-Hungary, yet babbles of "Home Rule for Mesopotamia "; that avers the- honour of the Allies would be smirched were Eng- land to acquire a protectorate over German East Africa or France be allowed to administer Syria; that sees- no incongruity in the arch-criminal sitting at the same table with her judges and hag- gling over the terms- she will " accept "; that virtually says: " Only stop fighting, and we will abolish war "; above all, that„ while making its- central theme the removal of everything that might menace the future peace of the world, systematically resents any weakening of the Power that has broken it P For though the talk is all of ideals, the real upshot is always the same—to spare Germany's feelings, to safeguard her interests, to ensure above all that she starts on a footing of absolute material equality after the war; in short, to make as far as may be an act of oblivion of everything she has done. As to " punishing " her, it needs nearly as much courage to pronounce the word now, as in pre-war days to hint at the possibility of German aggression—those days when, as has- been well said, war was looked on as something " almost too indecent to mention "; now as then the bare suggestion is the sign of a low mind. [Yet impunity is a word of some significance.] One wonders if these " idealists " have ever themselves felt a gust of genuine moral indignation where Germany is concerned. Applying Bishop Gore's test—that toleration begins only when the thing to be tolerated is felt to be intolerable—one can but record that the apostles of peace and goodwill to Germany give no appearance, at any rate, of doing violence to their feelings, or of anything more painful than " damning the sins they have no mind
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