New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-08-09
English Smugness and
Arrogance Denounced
by Man at Front.
"GERMANS WINNING
AND WE TALKING"
Daily Chronicle" of London,
Gets Plain Language from
an Indignant Fighter.

London, July ga remarkable let
ter has come to "The Daily Chron-
icle" from the front, presumably writ
ten by an officer in Lancashire regi-
ment, in which the writer says:
81 cannot help but start with abuse,
although you are only one of those in
touch with the vast anti-conscriptionist
mass of British opinion as your lead
er writer puts it. Damn British opin-
ion, sir Damn the vain, self-com-
placent English smugness and English
arrogance! To your vast mass the
idea of defeat is quite inconcevable,
for are they not the boys Of the bull
dog breed, the descendants of count
less heroes, free men in a free coun-
try, who just won't be slaves, the
liberators of Belgium? And SO on ad
nauseam
$50 colossal s British arrogance that
our brains and Imagination are
swamped. We still seem TO think that
the Germans have made war to graf
fly US, so that we may snow them what
fine fellows We really are.
probably you, too, have never en-
tertained the idea that we are losing
this war. Yet the bald truth remains
that the Germans are winning on
points; and we 90 on talking, talking
about the big push'-to be delivered
next spring, according to the Times's'
military correspondent. please OBJ
serve that we have given up the idea
this year-we are still wearing down
the 'baby-killing Hum
Advantage with Defence.
"If you could see trenches hammered
to hell by hundreds of guns, hours of
smoke, dust, blood and noise, and then
go across to take these same battered
lines, only to be met by a hail of bull
lets, to return leaving your friends and
men lying dead outside, it might make
you realize what an enormous advan-
tage lies with the defence.
"The French have battered for five
weeks have heard it day and night
net gain, two miles,
"The bubble of breaking through has
burst, but we are too deaf to hear the
pop
you answer with the German ad-
vance in Russia, and then 90 on to the
financial problem. OF course, Germany
cannot last; of course, she will be
starved in a few months; of course.
she has no cotton, no copper, but she
has got brains and method. and uses
both.
"And we muddle along in our we'll
worn grooves. our party politics. our
newspaper dictatorship. our racing. our
brides in their baths.
81 have been ten months in France
fighting for that-the thought almost
makes me vomit.
Don't talk about the glorious ira
ditions of our race Only fools fight
for traditions; the wise man fights for
realities and the future.
This long-wnded preamble leads ne
on to your GROWING folly-your fear
and hatred of CONSUMPTION.
IL shall be quite frank. Had con-
scription passed twelve months since
l should have left England. Now, if
they don't have it l shall leave the
country-rats have the foresight 20
leave certain ships.
Calls Englishmen Fools.
circumstances alter cases, but
fear that they will never give the Eng
lishman sufficient insight to see what a
fool he really can be.
And you, in touch with your vast
mass, won't have national service in
the nations cause because 'all that is
enthusiastically English dies if Eng
lish freedom pershes.'
Those WORKOUT myths! None of us
are free, end you know il. Smith was
not free to drown his brides. We are
all slaves of the community, and, some
think, of the country in which we live.
will you leave your dear old princi-
ples for moment and look at things
from another point of view?
I'm great national crisis it must
be taken for granted Il assume that
the nation is virile) that every man
and woman is willing to serve the coun-
try. In other words, every man and
woman is a volunteer.
IF you deny this hypothesis you
damn the country and your vast mass
of British opinion
Probably your principles will not
be shocked by this statement. Well,
then. every man and woman is willing
to serve. To take full advantage of
this willingness it must be organized
in word, CONSUMPTION; that awful
boyle word, which gives some little
Liberals and some little Conservatives
and some little Socialists bad dreams.
when you think of the Germans,
their wonderful self-sacriices, their
wonderful courage and fortitude and
unanimity, doesn't it make you blush
for your own country?
Throw away your principles. men;
throw away the timber of the past and
look things in the face.
Don't blather about God upholding
the cause of the just and the bulldog
pluck pulling us through | am tired
of pulpit and music hall sentiments.
Realize that the Germans are a better
and a more virile race than we are, and
try to teach your vast mass of British