The Healing of Nations and the Hidden Sources of Their Strife Part 10

"A rapid peace, one which does not humiliate anybody, a peace without conquests, this is what we must demand. Every effort in this direction must be favourably received. The continuous and simultaneous affirmation of this desire, in all the belligerent countries, can alone put a stop to the b.l.o.o.d.y ma.s.sacre before the complete exhaustion of all the peoples concerned. A peace based upon the international solidarity of the working cla.s.s and on the liberty of all the peoples can alone be a lasting peace. It is in this sense that the proletariats of all countries must furnish, even in the course of this war, a Socialist effort for peace.

"But my protest is against the war, against those who are responsible for it, against those who direct it; it is against the capitalist policy which gave it birth; it is directed against the capitalist objects pursued by it, against the plans of annexation, against the violation of the neutrality of Belgium and Luxemburg, against military dictatorship, against the total oblivion of social and political duties of which the Government and ruling cla.s.ses are still to-day guilty. For this reason, I reject the military credits asked for."--_From the "Daily News,"

December 14, 1914._

"KARL LIEBKNECHT.

"BERLIN, _December 2_."

DANGER OF RUSSIA.

The following is the text of the resolution pa.s.sed by the Central Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Party in reply to M.

Vandervelde's appeal on behalf of the Allied cause:--

"We recognize the anti-democratic character of the Prussian hegemony, but as Russian Social Democrats we cannot forget another enemy of the workers, and no less dangerous--Russian absolutism. In home affairs this enemy remains what it always has been, a merciless oppressor and an unceasing exploiter. Even at the present moment, when we should have thought this despotism would be more cautious, it remains the same and continues the political persecution of the democracy, and of all subject nationalities. To-day all Socialist journals are stopped, all working cla.s.s organizations are disbanded, many hundreds of members are arrested, and our brave comrades are sent to exile just as before.

Should this war end in victory for our present Government, it will become the centre and mainstay of international reaction.... Our immediate objective should be the convocation of a Const.i.tutional a.s.sembly. We demand this in the interests of the same European democracy on whose behalf you appeal. Our party is a very important section of the world's democracies, and by fighting for our interests we are at the same time fighting for the interests of all democracies, enlarging and strengthening them. We hope that our interests are not considered as opposed to those of other European democracies which we esteem as highly as our own. We are persuaded that Russian absolutism is the chief support of reactionary militarism in Europe, and that it has bred in the German hegemony the dangerous enmity towards European democracy."

LETTER ON RUSSIA FROM P. KROPOTKIN.

"'But what about the danger of Russia?' my readers will probably ask.

"To this question, every serious person will probably answer, that when you are menaced by a great, very great danger, the first thing to do is to combat this danger, and then see to the next. Belgium and a good deal of France _are_ conquered by Germany, and the whole civilization of Europe is menaced by its iron fist. Let us cope first with this danger.

"As to the next, Is there anybody who has not thought himself that the present war, in which all parties in Russia have risen unanimously against the common enemy, will render a return to the autocracy of old materially impossible? And then, those who have seriously followed the revolutionary movement of Russia in 1905 surely know what were the ideas which dominated in the First and Second, approximately freely elected Dumas. They surely know that complete Home Rule for all the component parts of the Empire was a fundamental point of all the Liberal and Radical parties. More than that: Finland then actually _accomplished_ her revolution in the form of a democratic autonomy, and the Duma approved it.

"And finally, those who know Russia and her last movement certainly feel that _autocracy will never more be re-established in the forms it had before_ 1905, _and that a Russian Const.i.tution could never take the Imperialist forms and spirit which Parliamentary rule has taken in Germany_. As to us, who know Russia from the inside, we are sure that the Russians never will be capable of becoming the aggressive, warlike nation Germany is. Not only the whole history of the Russians shows it, but with the Federation which Russia is _bound to_ become in the very near future, such a warlike spirit would be absolutely incompatible."--_Quoted in "Freedom," also in the "Manchester Guardian,"

October, 1914_.

THE FUTURE OF EUROPE.

_Portion of a letter written by P. Kropotkin to Mr. R.J. Kelly, K.C., of Dublin, December 15, 1915._

"The same for the South Slavs and for all nationalities oppressed in Europe. When the last Balkan War had shown the inner power of the South Slavs, I greeted in it the disintegration of the Turkish Empire, which would be followed by the disintegration of the three other Empires--Austria, Russia, and Germany--so as to open the way for two, three, or more federations. A South Slavonic federation--the Balkan United State was the dream of Bakunin--would be followed by a free Poland, free Finland, Free Caucasia, free Siberia, federated for peace purposes. Yes, dear Mr. Kelly, you are right, we are on the eve of great events in Europe. Warmest wishes that this should become a reality, or receive a sound beginning of realization, during the coming new year, and my very best wishes to you of health and vigour.--Sincerely yours,

"P. KROPOTKIN."

SERVIA.

"We are therefore justified in declining to accept such evidence. We are witnessing the birththroes of a new nation, the triumph of the idea of national unity among the disunited Southern Slavs, and it is the duty of Britain and France, whose Fleets are now operating on the Adriatic, to insist upon a just and permanent solution, based upon the principle of nationality and the wishes of the Southern Slav race. Only by treating the problem as an organic whole and avoiding patchwork we can hope to remove one of the chief danger centres in Europe."--_Lecture at Ess.e.x Hall, November 13, 1914, by R.W. Seton Watson_.

THE BATTLEFIELD.

"Then the camps of the wounded--O heavens what scene is this?--is this indeed _humanity_--these butchers' shambles? There are several of them.

There they lie, in the largest, in an open s.p.a.ce in the woods, from two hundred to three hundred poor fellows--the groans and screams--the odour of blood, mixed with the fresh scent of the night, the gra.s.s, the trees--that slaughter-house! Oh, well is it their mothers, their sisters cannot see them--cannot conceive and never conceived these things.

"One man is shot by a sh.e.l.l, both in the arm and leg--both are amputated--there lie the rejected members. Some have their legs blown off--some bullets through the breast--some indescribably horrid wounds in the face or head, all mutilated, sickening, torn, gouged out--some in the abdomen--some mere boys--many rebels, badly hurt--they take their regular turns with the rest, just the same as any--the surgeons use them just the same. Such is the camp of the wounded--such a fragment, a reflection afar off of the b.l.o.o.d.y scene--while all over the clear, large moon comes out at times softly, quietly shining.

"Amid the woods, the scene of flitting souls--amid the crack and crash and yelling sounds--the impalpable perfume of the woods--and yet the pungent, stifling smoke--the radiance of the moon, looking from heaven at intervals so placid--the sky so heavenly--the clear-obscure up there, those buoyant upper oceans--a few large, placid stars beyond, coming silently and languidly out, and then disappearing--the melancholy, draperied night above, around. And never one more desperate in any age or land--both parties now in force--ma.s.ses--no fancy battle, no semi-play, but fierce and savage demons fighting there--courage and scorn of death is the rule, exceptions almost none."--_From Walt Whitman_.

CHINESE CHRISTIANS ON THE WAR.

"The most remarkable att.i.tude yet taken in regard to the war by any body of people in the world is that of the native Christian Churches in China. I was told a fortnight ago by a missionary just returned from China that the Chinese Christians are holding daily prayer meetings to pray for peace. They are also praying earnestly that the Christians in Europe may be forgiven for killing each other, and, in particular, that the British and German churches and ministers may be forgiven for the blasphemy of praying to the Common Father for victory over one another, _i.e._ for Divine a.s.sistance in smashing and maiming and murdering more of their fellow Christians. I am also told that these Chinese Christians appreciate perfectly that for the most part the people to be killed are helpless, innocent workmen, who have had nothing to do with the cause of all the trouble.

"That action of the Chinamen is of the essence of real Christianity. It is the real spirit. It has been expressed in Europe only by the Pope, on the one hand, and, on the other, by the Socialists of the neutral countries and by the I.L.P. in England. It is the echo of the angel song of the first Christmas two thousand years ago. It is the true note, the eternal note. It is the note which will bring mankind back to its senses when the hideous pa.s.sions, the false idealisms, and the sordid greeds behind this world tragedy are shown up for what they are."--_By Dr.

Alfred Salter in "The Labour Leader," December_ 31, 1914.

ESSENTIAL FRIENDLINESS OF PEOPLES.

"This essential friendliness, not between nations, but between people of different nations, is one of the biggest facts of civilization. And yet it has counted for so little that half the nations in Europe are fighting one another. Are the causes, then, that have set us fighting stronger still? Yes, when it is a question of national conscience. And one must regretfully say yes, as long as it is possible for those who rule nations and desire war to carry out their will.

"Is that wicked, mediaeval power--in the hands of the few, but still strong enough to overrule the natural tendencies of peoples towards peace and friendship and to turn their likings into hatreds--is it going to continue when this war is over? Who can doubt, if it were possible to take a plebiscite of all the nations who are fighting now as to whether international disputes should be settled by war or arbitration, what the result would be? Is the desire of the many to have its chance when this war shall be ended, or shall we submit ourselves again to be dominated by the desire of the few?"--_From "The Daily News," October_ 5, 1914.

"At one spot where there had been a fierce hand-to-hand fight there were indications that the combatants when wounded had shared their water-bottles. Near them were a Briton and a Frenchman whose cold hands were clasped in death, a touching symbol of the unity of the two nations in this terrible conflict."--_From "The Sheffield Telegraph," November 14, 1914._

RECONCILIATION IN DEATH.

_Letter written by a French cavalry officer as he lay wounded and dying in Flanders._

"There are two other men lying near me, and I do not think there is much hope for them either. One is an officer of a Scottish regiment, and the other a private in the Uhlans. They were struck down after me, and when I came to myself I found them bending over me rendering first aid.

"The Britisher was pouring water down my throat from his flask, while the German was endeavouring to staunch my wound with an antiseptic preparation served out to them by their medical corps. The Highlander had one of his legs shattered, and the German had several pieces of shrapnel buried in his side.

"In spite of their own sufferings they were trying to help me, and when I was fully conscious again the German gave us a morphia injection and took one himself. His medical corps had also provided him with the injection and the needle, together with printed instructions for its use.

"After the injection, feeling wonderfully at ease, we spoke of the lives we had lived before the war. We all spoke English, and we talked of the women we had left at home. Both the German and the Britisher had only been married a year.