The Irish standard., 1914-12-12

crime that threatens to overwhelm
Europe. Again and again we have had
the assurance of the prime Minister
and Sir Edward Grey that we are free
agents, that our hands are not tied. II
that Is so, why are these mischievous
declarations about our completely al
lowed to pass? Every one of them ia
a new Indictment to Russia, a fresh
match applied to the powder magazine
of Europe. They are reproduced in
Russia to feed the flame of popular
passion and to nerve the Car to the
fatal act.
The Assassinations.
If we are free-and we know that
we are free-what ground is there for
involving ourselves in this unspeak-
able calamity? On the immediate
cause of the quarrel we can have no
sympathy with Servia. The assassina-
ton of the Crown Prince and his wife
was a brutal and cold-blooded crime,
the fruit of a conspiracy laid with in
finite care and deliberation and wholly
inspired by Servia. 1t was a plot SO
complete, SO official, as it were, that
there was no possibility Of the vic
Tins escaping. They were literally en-
veloped by death from the moment
they entered Serajevo. The crime
was only the elimination of a long
train of events all of which aimed at
raising rebellion among the Slavs of
Austria-H Hungary and its immediate
purpose was to destroy the one life
which seemed necessary to save Aus:
tria from disruption on the old en-
peror's death. We need not attempt
to justify the terms of the ultimatum;
but no one denies the provocation, no
one suggests that if the two countries
could be isolated Austria would not be
justified in exacting severe terms from
the criminal.
The War Press.
Why is European war threatened
to save Servia from punishment?
Because Servia is the instrument of
Russia. 1t was in Belgrade that that
most mischievous of Russian diplomat
lists. M. Hartwig, carried on his mach
nations throughout the Balkan war.
1t is through Belgrade that Russia
hopes to establish her domination of
the Balkan peninsula. Have we any
interest in helping her? Will it please
the miners Of Northumberland and the
cotton operatives of Lancashire to
know that Europe was waded through
blood in order to give Russia the hege-
mony Of the Slav world? Is her rule
SO beneficent that we can go to war
to help her to extend it? I am old
enough to remember-it does not seem
very long ago-when the music. halls
of London were ringing with
1--WE don't want to fight
But by lingo If we do
We've got the ships
We've got the men
We've got the money, too.
We've fought the Bear before
And while we're Britons true
The Russians shall not have
Con-stanti-no-ple
l hated the jingle then as hate it
now, because it was detestable appeal
to ignorance and passion. But behind
that appeal to make war on Russia
were all the same vicious influences
that are today working to achieve for
Russia that very supremacy in the
Balkans, that path to Constantinople
which they denied her in 1873. Let us
recall that fact when we hear the pa
triotic gramophones-as Lord North
cliffe shouting for war-as they al
ways shout for war; Let the public
remember that with all it's affectation
Of gravity, the voice of The Times is
the same voice as that which speaks
in the Daily Mail, the Evening News
and all the rest of the rabble of lingo
journalism. 1t is only the accent
which is little more polite. We saw
how the system works yesterday. In
The Times in the morning, Lord North
cliffe published an article carefully de.
signed to encourage Russia to believe
that she may rely on US to back her.
In the evening, he reproduced it in his
Evening News for the mob as the voice
of the august Times. 1t is thus that
he gives the air of public clamor when
he alone is speaking through his myr.
lad gramophones.
Germany or Russia.
If. then we have neither sympathy
with Servia in the quarrel, nor tradi
tional interest in the aims of her mas
ter in the Balkans, why should we 80
to war? Is 1t because we wish the
Russian civilization to overwhelm the
German civilization? There is not a
thinking being in this land who, com
petent to form judgment, would not
repudiate such a monstrous thought
II we crush Germany in the dust and
make Russia the dictator of Europe
and Asia 1t will be the greatest dis.
aster that has ever befallen western
culture and civilization. It will be a