The Irish standard., 1915-12-18

to the war with Japan, and the French
at an earlier period; they are the enc
mics of England, and her rivals, and
consequently can be inspired only
from the lower regions. No crime is
too black to impute to them; they are
not men, but demons; and this is driv-
en- into the minds of the people, by
the most powerful propaganda that
any government could command. The
newspaper press in England and Ire
land has been filling the minds of the,
people with detailed accounts of the,
most revolving crimes, which they al.
lege have been committed by the Ger
man armies without rhyme or reason,
but in the wantonness of diabolicai
and bestial wickedness. Tales are told
of crimes in Belgium that wiring the
souls of all decent men, and are es-
pecially horrifying to Catholics.
The result is a burning hate in the
minds Of the people. That is the pur-
pose of the propaganda. To me it
seems cruel and unjust. have been
receiving letters through the post, CIV
ing in detail descriptions of abomin-
able crimes said to have been commit
ted by German soldiers and officers in
Belgium, but which I am convinced
have no existence except in the dis
orders of very foul and corrupt imagi-
nations. !
There is no attempt at reason, no
weighing of evidence; the worse and
filthier the story, the less it seems to-
require sitting.
| have read the report of the Bryce
Commission, and attach very little i'm,
portance to it. Every member Of the
Commission is an Englishman. It's
whole purpose was to make out case
against the Germans popular case,,
that would harrow the minds of the
public, but which would be recon-
mended by the appearance and form
of judicial inquiry. What value
would be set in England on a CORE
spending report made out by Ger
mans? It is all fraud upon simple
people. The judges were not impair
tial, and the whole evidence was gath
cred from poor Belgians whose minds
were warped and disordered by their
cruel sufferings in the war.
But the result is a national hatred,
such as l believe was never felt by
one Christian nation for another. That
is the great difficulty now in the way
of peace. It prevents the Pope's most
blessed appeal from getting a fair
hearing; and leading English news
papers have not hesitated to suggest
that it was made, not for peace, for its
own sake, but for the interest of Ger
many and Australia!
That makes 1t higher duty of Cath
olics everywhere, and particularly in
neutral countries, to rally to the side
of the Pope, and to draw to him the
weight OF impartial opinion.
It is only in these countries that
anything toward peace can now be
done. The belligerents are blinded by
passion, and selfinterest, and cannot
form reasonable judgment on the
war or its issues. If feeling in Ger
many is like what it is in England,
then they are as hopeless as if two
wild beasts were engaged in a death
struggle, and there is little use in ap.
pealing to their sense of right and re-
ligion.
But the impartial opinion of neutral
nations is great force on the side of
God and humanity, and is one of the
imponderables that tell in great crises
Of the world. The United States of
America, if they maintain strict neu-
trality, can throw an immense weight
on the side of peace, and they owe it
to themselves and to the world to use
their power to stop this mad carnage.
II the belligerents will not listen to
one who appeals to them in the name
of the God and Saviour whom they all
profess to worship and follow, they
may show more Difference to a power.
full nation that represents the material
interests of the world that are being
Continued on page 81