The Washington herald., 1914-09-13
Noted English Novelist De-
clares Pacific Ideals
Cloak Other Motives.
QUOTES GERMANS BOOK.
Sorry for Teutons If 1t Is
True they are "A Too
Peace-loving Race.
politics AIM OF THE HAGUE. /"
Ironically Agrees with Military Writer
Who Asserts War Is Necessary
for Civilization,

CAnthOny Hope, the Famous English
Novelist. Wrote the Following Review
Especially for The Washington Her
add
CHAPTER l.
Special Cable to The Washington Herald
London, Sept. Rive have all been on
the wrong tack. We, the nations, great
and small. who have counted ourselves
civilized and Christians, the great and
populous nations who have worked for
peace and often imposed il By diplomacy
upon the numerically weak nations who
have accepted such peace as a perma-
nent and honorable condition Of their
independent life.
Lamentably wrong have our states
men been, with their efforts after peace,
their Hague conference. arbitration
treaties, mediationN commissions, pro-
hibition OF armamehts on the Great
Lakes Of North America and so forth.
Lamentably wrong our churches with
they ministers preaching peace and
praying for il, with their congregations
OF millions breathing the same prayers
to the throne OF God-and how pitiable!
Cannot Purchase Peace.
|, To think we have deluded even our
little children into lisping prayers for
peace and into conceiving of the august
their religion as the Prince OF Peace.
We have, indeed. recognized that peace
is not to be purchased at any and every
price: that men must tight in the cause
of national independence or vital inter
est or dear honor going. indeed. so far
as sometimes TO fight merely because we
promised TO. a Quixotic proceedinE. in
the sincerity OF which II is well nigh i'm
possible to believe. But We have been
at the wrong angle OF vision all the
time.
We thought We were accepting the
mighty ever to escape from the mightier.
We have tried to escape these mightier
evils by other means. We have dared TO
dream of the time when the sense of
right. justice. and human comradeship
would be our shield and buckler. and
that the last remedy OF war would be no
more needed.
In this dream VIC may have accused
ourselves in Respondent hours of being
visionary and UtopIan. We were. in
fact. something much worse than that,
as will speedily appear.
Germany knows better about all this.
At least Prussia does, or. al all events,
Prussian generals do.
Witness Gen. Won Bernhardt, whose
book, Germany and the Next War"
now enjoying a prominence which must
be counted well deserved: a book written
some three years ago.
Germans Book Quoted.
1t is primarily an exhortation to the
German nation, but other nations may
naturally take an interest in II at the
present time Unless his translator. on
whom my ignorance Of German compels
me to rely, wrongs him, the general
though not vivaCious writer. is admir-
ably lucid. and can say what he means
as well as anybody.
Germans" he says in his introduc-
ton. have today become a peace-lovinG,
almost too peace-loving. a nation"
l do not know how far this reproach
is just II ii is. one may he allowed to
be sorry for them just now.
I'VE are accustomed" he remarks, re-
gretfuIly. ito regrad war as a curse and
refuse 10 recognize II as the greatest
factor i'm the fUrtherance OF culture and
power.
Again. must first examine the as
pirations for peace which seem to domi-
nate our age and to threaten the person
and soul Of the German people. accord
ing to their true moral significance.
Person Is a strong word. We begin
to see how wrong we have been in our
notions of Installing this poison OF love
and of peace into the veins even OF our
| must try to prove that war
life. factor of culture in which true
civilized nations find their highest ex-
preston of strength and vitality.
America shown Up."
That we took altogether too low a
view sof war is obvious. We have done
nothing like justice TO it. II is not a
desperate remedy. II is an uncommonly
good thing in itself. In fact, it is so
good a thing that people who profess to !
abhor it are mostly just humbugging.
Pacific ideals, to be sure. are seldom !
the real motive of their action. They !
usually employ the need of peace as a !
cloak under which to promote their own |
political aims. This was the real posi- |
lion of affairs at The Hague conference !
and this is also the meaning of the ac- !
ton of the United States of America, !
who in recent times has earnestly tried |
10 conclude treaties for the establishment |
1f arbitration courts first and foremost |
with England, but also with Japan, !
France. and Germany
America thus is pretty well shown up" |
With her talk about peace and brother
hood and blood being thicker than water. I
The general continues:
War is a biological necessity OF the |
irst Importance, regulative element in /
he life OF mankind which can not be ,
dispensed with. Hence, without it an
development will follow which
excludes every advancement Of the race,
therefore, all real civilization"
And we dreamed of abOlishinG II, at
Ill events at restricting IL to the mar
'owest limits and the most inevitable
occasions.
Chapter II will he published to-