Atrocities
Thelecturer, with true German casuistry, minimises the rhinoceros and magnifies the fly, so that there is “very little difference” between them, as far as his arguments are concerned. Fortunately for the cause of the Allies, casuistry is not a military asset; had it been one, Germany would long since have won the war, and that not only on this count, for the saying that “the wish is father to the thought” is nowhere more true than in Germany.
There, the people are now firmly convinced that the war was forced on them, thanks to the casuistry of their leaders; they honestly believe, if professorial writings have any sincerity in them, that the invasion of Belgium was justified by their need, and that scraps of paper are only scraps of paper where they, the chosen nation for the spread of culture, are concerned; they believe that Britain’s blockade is barbarous and unjust, that France is an effete nation, that Russia is peopled by a horde of savages, that the starvation of their civilian prisoners instead of exchanging them is a just measure on their part—and many other things which sane reasoning shows to be false. They have, apparently, an endless credulity.
If one would question the cause for this, the answer lies in one word—“Pan-Germanism,” that disease which has sapped away the moral fibre of a nation and implanted colossal conceit in its place. No statement is more true than that Germany is devoid of a sense of humour, for this sense is in its essence that of proportion, and not only in her methods of war and her dealings with the rest of the world has Germany lost all sense of proportion, but also in her estimate of herself and her place in the scheme of things. A proper sense of proportion is incompatible with Pan-Germanism.
E. CHARLES VIVIAN
ATROCITIESThe Lecturer: “From a comparison of the two subjects, gentlemen, you will perceive that there is very little difference between Germany and the Allies.”
ATROCITIESThe Lecturer: “From a comparison of the two subjects, gentlemen, you will perceive that there is very little difference between Germany and the Allies.”
ATROCITIES
The Lecturer: “From a comparison of the two subjects, gentlemen, you will perceive that there is very little difference between Germany and the Allies.”