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8 THE FATHERLAND
H. G. WELLS AND THE WAR
An Open Letter From One Englishman to Another.
“The enclosed” writes the author in submitting this letter to us, “expresses the true feeling and opinion of
at least one Englishman not yet blind to the real issues of this ghastly war. You will see that it is a direct appeal
to the justice of one of our clearest, yet not wholly unbiased intellccts.”
Sir, even worse than the hideous features of this inglorious
war, is the spectacle of a mind like yours steeping itself in
the foam of faction, a vision like yours regarding the world
between the narrow bars of the Union Jack.
Your desire to remain reasonable and just is as obvious as
is the strain. You are able to perceive beyond the mirk of
journalistic patriotism certain aspects of the right even upon
the enemy's side. You have to a large extent remained
untainted by the rabies of the iingoes and imperialists. You
are conscious of the colossal menace of Russia for all
Europe, but you are blind or silent as to the immortal shame
-of our pact with her.
Your attitude may be due to faulty orientation, to inherited
British prejudices or traditions, to the mental angle made
necessary by an insular life. In your utterance echo the
cries of French Chauvinists and the many mouthed mis-
conceptions and political platitudes of our uneducated mobs.
We might have expected you to save yourself from at
least one gross and crude misconception-the sickening de-
lusion that this is a humanitarian war we English are waging.
We will allow H. G. Wells his robes as a prophet, but to
see him don the spotted robes of the patriotic Pharisee is a
spectacle to blast our belief in the finer mind and the higher
man. Are you un-English in all things save in the impos-
sibility of ridding yourself of the taint of cam and hypocrisy?
Let us, as honest Englishmen, or, better still, as good cos-
mopolitans, face the facts of this war.
Let us put ourselves first in Austria's position. What
would the national temper have been if some petty state of
swineherds and assassins and hot bed of rebelihad assassin-
ated our King and Queen, or, allowing for age and con-
dition, our heir to the throne and his wife? Would we have
tolerated compromise, palliation, interference? Not we! Yet
we proposed it to wounded, outraged and harassed Austria.
Or let us put ourselves in the perilous position of Germany,
a land locked in on all sides and sandwiched between two
hostile and formidable powers. Her pledge to Austria, her
regard for her own destiny, required instant assurance of the
pacific intentions of Russia and France and failing these,
instant action. Russia, that mass of fanatic mediaevalism,
her embecile Czar in the‘ clutch of a bigoted Pan-Slavic
clique, began to muster for war is what Austria had declared
was to be purely a localized conflict, and upon Russia must
rest the curse as the great stumbling-block in the path to
peace. .
Followed Germany’s parleying with Belgium-succeeded
by her invasion. This step, rendered absolutely necessary
by the stern strictures of war, ‘our statesmen and news-
mongers describe as infamous and in nothing is their phari-
saiical cant more conspicuous. Germany basing. her over-
turesgupon undeniable information she had received regard-
ing the entrance of French troops into Belgian territory long
before her own-offered terms to that country. it was a
purely technical matter, involving no questions of indepen-
dence, but merely of thoroughfare and guaranteeing all pos.
sible damages. Belgium already in the wrong through her
conspiracy with France, might have uttered a formal protest.
But supported by France and England, she resolved on war,
The presence of French troops in Belgian uniforms accounts
for the unexpected resistance of the Belgians. Germany’s
action is not to be defended on purely ethical grounds, but
let us not forget the many treaties we ourselves have violated
when it suited our convenience. It is a question whether a
great state in Germany’s position could afford to have its
hands tied by a treaty made in 1832-when she was but a
congerie of small and separate kingdoms.
The “bargain” Germany sought to make with England is
something which gives the moralistic strain in our ministers
and people a convenient peg on which to air itself, and
assuming the role of the virtuous champion. England. 35
both Sir Edward Grey and Asquith announced, bore not thc
slightest obligation towards France, England’s chief concern
was the integrity of the northern French coast so close to
her own. To this Germany frankly agreed and with the
acceptance of these terms i:'ngland’s duty to herself and her
sentimental “entente” with France would have been amply
fulfilled. Not in iustice to herself could Germany at-3"’-9 “’
England's unwarranted demand that the French colonies be
given immunity. She could not afford to fetter her hands at
the very beginning. Colonies are pawns in the game of W'-
This fact was proved by England herself when she imme'
diately seized the defenceless German colony of T0g0l3“d-
If YOU, Sir, saw things in their absolute essence, free from
the popular prejudices or interests, you would with the
Drevision of posterity, be able to regard England's calcu-
lated declaration of war in its true light and significance’
a disgraceful stroke that is nothing less than treachery
against her own race. At the first sign of Continental ho-‘Z’
tilities the yellow rags began to yelp for war. All the D91’
son of hate instilled into the ignorant people by 3la’““5t
scribes and the mongral war-mongcrs of the gutter-generab
issimo Harmsworth was set to boil. And at last even the
liberal government yielded-yielded to the scrofulous P3‘
triotism of the yellow press, to the pressure of line‘) Wu’
ticians and the iealous dolts of our merchants and mamllac’
turers, and declared war upon a power with which we had
never had a quarrel, which in no wise threatened nor al-
tacked us (save commercially where her efficiency “'33
greater than ours)-a nation already at a terrible disad-
vantage and beset on all sides. All Englishmen who were
once proud of our national ‘boast of fair-play must now 35k
themselves whether that fine quality is not struck from 0”’
hearts forever.
Not for humanity not for the protection of a Sm-an“
country on a technical point of neutrality, not out of “"9
for France has England gone to war. This vile and hideous
cant may serve for the unthinking mob. it may 567“ “’
disguise the real issue and the real motive (already aPf"’-3"".
ing in the cries of ‘Seize Germany’s trade") and allow '15
to Pose, for a time, as a highly virtuous power. B111 W“
YOU, too, should be infected by this insufferable Pecksnimsm
amounts to a dethronement of iustice and iudgmenf “' 3
mind one might have deemed above it.
We have gone to war because the hour had come Wile“
we might best iniure our suggested and artificial enemy
with least danger and most profit to ourselves. We War
against her because we feared her, because her $C1‘3“"e
and cleverness had beaten our own stupid manufacturers ii‘
the markets of the world. For years we have allowed 0""
selves to be influenced by an oblique French provocation.