Above the Battle Part 9

My enemies have not failed to make use of this pa.s.sage to attribute to me sentiments of contempt with regard to the peoples of Asia and Africa.

This charge is all the less justified in that I have precious friendships amongst the intellectuals of Asia, with whom I have remained in correspondence during this war. These friends have been so little misled as to my real thought that one of them, a leading Hindu writer, Ananda Coomaraswamy, has dedicated to me an admirable essay which appeared in the _New Age_ (December 1914), ent.i.tled "A World Policy for India," but--

1. Asiatic troops, recruited amongst races of professional warriors, in no way represent the thought of Asia, as Coomaraswamy agrees.

2. The heroism of the troops of Africa and Asia is not under discussion.

There was no need for the hecatombs, which have been made during the past year, to evoke admiration for their splendid devotion.

3. As regards barbarism, I am glad to confess that now the "white-skins"

can no longer reproach "skins, black, red, or yellow" in this respect.

4. It is not the latter but the former whom I blame. I denounce today once more with as much vigor as fourteen months ago, the short-sighted policy which has introduced Africa and Asia[53] into the quarrels of Europe. The future will justify my indictment.

R. R.

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

INDEX

Abattoir of Ypres and Dixmude, the, 103.

Absurdity, a ferocious, 47.

Academicians and Professoren, the voice of, 153.

Academy of moral science, the, 44.

Address to the Civilized Nations, 60.

Ador, M. Gustave, 83.

Adversary, A Frenchman does not judge his, unheard, 17, 31.

_Agence internationale des prisonniers de guerre_, 83.

Ajax, the madness of, 78.

Albert, King, 93.

Allies, the, 73, 98.

Allophyles, 44.

Angell, Norman, 137.

Apostles, rival, 45.

Architecture like Rheims, a piece of, 24.

Archbishop of Canterbury, 12, 145.

Arguments, furious, 119.

Armies of the Marne and Meuse, 40.

Art, 16.

Aryan race, 44.

Asia and Africa, forces of, 99; ethnological signification of the terms of, 194.

Atrocities committed in Flanders, 25; in Russia, 70.

Attila, 21.

_Auskunfts- und Hilfsstelle fur Deutsche im Ausland und Auslander in Deutschland_, 146.

Austerlitz, 45.

Austria, 50.

Authors of these wars, criminal, 42.

Babut, C. E., 76.

Bach, 44, 163.

Baker, M. P., J. Allen-, 145.

Banking and war, the justification of, 110.

Baptism of blood, 152.

Barbarians from the poles and those from the equator, 41, 44.

Barres, 44.

Baumgarten, D., 146.

Bebel, 189.

Bees of Holy Writ, the, 91.