The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1917-10-19
BRITISH LIBERALS AND THE WAR:
THOUGHTFUL PAPER BY MURRAY

hoI ehio AhSiS PiSociie IShS iahu ioi
which in our hearts we fight; it i:
the England that ought to be, that
can be, that shall be.
What Liberals Fight For.
The war, and the causes fol-
which we entered the war, give
the clue to the whole problem
When we entered the war we took
upon us a heavy sacrifice for the
sake of some principle or set OF
principles, which at the time we real
lied very imperfectly. In such
moments the average man does not
exactly analyze his feelings, or sue
ceed in weighing truly all the points
at issue. He is faced by some
thing-a prospect, threat, an evil
thing coming towards him; and in
stinctively he says: "No not that!
l would rather die" That is the
spirit in which we English Liberals
entered the war. We were faced
by something which we would never,
while we lived, accept; we possessed
something which we would never,
while we lived, consent to lose.
What exactly were these things?
Partly, no doubt, we fought, and
are still fighting, in mere self-de-
fence, to defend our country and our
freedom from mortal danger. But
we hardly realized that at the be-
ginning; at least, not most of US.
We entered the war not in fear,
but in anger, to prevent the accom-
plishment of crime. 1t was the
crime against Public Right, the
sheer bottomless wickedness of the
invasion of Belgium, that first reused
us to the fighting pitch; and we
soon saw that the invasion of Bel
gium was only one in a whole Sc
ries of crime need not dwell on
them. They amounted in the gross
to complete denial of the exist
ence of law between nations, and the
effect has been to commit us whole
heartedly to the practical assertion
of that law. We were always, as
count honesty an hon-
est Power, but our honesty must be
now reinterpreted. We stand en-
phatically and irrevocably for the
rule of Public Right.
Small NatiOnalities and Ireland
Next, we fought for the freedom
IF small nationalities. We found
The enemy crushing Belgium, de-
Serbia, terrorising Den
mark and Holland, maintaining a
bloody despotism in the Turkish en-
oire. We realized that Europe could !
lever find peace till the small ma
ions were freed from the oppres-
zion of the great. Against was a
enforcement of our old principles.
IF all the. great Empires known to
history, ours has certainly been the
most liberal, the least intolerant.
But the war has made us more SEN
tive than before to the few rusty
pots on our large shield, and given
keener edge to our old pride in
he freedom of our wide Common
wealth. How can the champion of
mall nationalities be contented while
reland is permanently discontented
reland, of course, stands apart. The
rish are ourselves, a race practical
Y indistinguishable from Scotch or
Welsh or English. The problem in
he East is quite different; different,
gain, the problem in Africa and the
outh Seas. We cannot have free
,stitutions everywhere. But the
ar has made us determined that in
very corner of the Empire, however,
npossible freedom and self-govern-
tent may be at the moment, we
lust at least keep them in mind as
oals. We must be always toler- '
Mt, and never cruel. We must move {
wards freedom, and not away from =
. We must govern like English /
len, and not like Germans.
The Shadow of the Sword c
Last of all we discovered, some of
) quickly and some slowly, the 4
nth of what Mr.. Asquith stated in
le first fortnight of the war, that
} future peace, no freedom, no
CHER life for the masses of man f
nd, is possible while Germany still l
mains an armed camp, and the o
erman government military des- n
'tism. Europe cannot be half slave n
I'd half free. If the rest of us il
e to continue free, the Germans il
emselves must attain freedom, and e
cape from the eternal shadow of Fl
e sword. S,
No household can sleep in peace Il
nile the house next door belongs k