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diff --git a/old/wrftr10.txt b/old/wrftr10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1582cd5 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/wrftr10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6813 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of War and the Future by H. G. Wells +#18 in our series by H. G. Wells + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. We need your donations. + + +War and the Future + +by H. G. 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Behind the Front +The Western War (September, 1916) + I. Ruins + II. The Grades of War +III. The War Landscape + IV. New Arms for Old Ones + V. Tanks +How People Think About the War + I. Do they Really Think at all? + II. The Yielding Pacifist and the Conscientious Objector +III. The Religious Revival + IV. The Riddle of the British + V. The Social Changes in Progress + VI. The Ending of the War + + + + +THE PASSING OF THE EFFIGY + + +1 + +One of the minor peculiarities of this unprecedented war is the +Tour of the Front. After some months of suppressed information-- +in which even the war correspondent was discouraged to the point +of elimination--it was discovered on both sides that this was a +struggle in which Opinion was playing a larger and more important +part than it had ever done before. This wild spreading weed was +perhaps of decisive importance; the Germans at any rate were +attempting to make it a cultivated flower. There was Opinion +flowering away at home, feeding rankly on rumour; Opinion in +neutral countries; Opinion getting into great tangles of +misunderstanding and incorrect valuation between the Allies. The +confidence and courage of the enemy; the amiability and +assistance of the neutral; the zeal, sacrifice, and serenity of +the home population; all were affected. The German cultivation +of opinion began long before the war; it is still the most +systematic and, because of the psychological ineptitude of the +Germans, it is probably the clumsiest. The French /Maison de +la Presse/ is certainly the best organisation in existence for +making things clear, counteracting hostile suggestion, the +British official organisations are comparatively ineffective; but +what is lacking officially is very largely made up for by the +good will and generous efforts of the English and American press. +An interesting monograph might be written upon these various +attempts of the belligerents to get themselves and their +proceedings explained. + +Because there is perceptible in these developments, quite over +and above the desire to influence opinion, a very real effort to +get things explained. It is the most interesting and curious-- +one might almost write touching--feature of these organisations +that they do not constitute a positive and defined propaganda +such as the Germans maintain. The German propaganda is simple, +because its ends are simple; assertions of the moral elevation +and loveliness of Germany; of the insuperable excellences of +German Kultur, the Kaiser, and Crown Prince, and so forth; abuse +of the "treacherous" English who allied themselves with the +"degenerate" French and the "barbaric" Russians; nonsense about +"the freedom of the seas"--the emptiest phrase in history-- +childish attempts to sow suspicion between the Allies, and still +more childish attempts to induce neutrals and simple-minded +pacifists of allied nationality to save the face of Germany by +initiating peace negotiations. But apart from their steady +record and reminder of German brutalities and German aggression, +the press organisations of the Allies have none of this +definiteness in their task. The aim of the national intelligence +in each of the allied countries is not to exalt one's own nation +and confuse and divide the enemy, but to get a real understanding +with the peoples and spirits of a number of different nations, an +understanding that will increase and become a fruitful and +permanent understanding between the allied peoples. Neither the +English, the Russians, the Italians, nor the French, to name only +the bigger European allies, are concerned in setting up a legend, +as the Germans are concerned in setting up a legend of themselves +to impose upon mankind. They are reality dealers in this war, +and the Germans are effigy mongers. Practically the Allies are +saying each to one another, "Pray come to me and see for yourself +that I am very much the human stuff that you are. Come and see +that I am doing my best--and I think that is not so very bad a +best...." And with that is something else still more subtle, +something rather in the form of, "And please tell me what you +think of me--and all this." + +So we have this curious byplay of the war, and one day I find Mr. +Nabokoff, the editor of the /Retch/, and Count Alexy +Tolstoy, that writer of delicate short stories, and Mr. +Chukovsky, the subtle critic, calling in upon me after braving +the wintry seas to see the British fleet; M. Joseph Reinach +follows them presently upon the same errand; and then appear +photographs of Mr. Arnold Bennett wading in the trenches of +Flanders, Mr. Noyes becomes discreetly indiscreet about what he +has seen among the submarines, and Mr. Hugh Walpole catches +things from Mr. Stephen Graham in the Dark Forest of Russia. All +this is quite over and above such writing of facts at first hand +as Mr. Patrick McGill and a dozen other real experiencing +soldiers--not to mention the soldiers' letters Mr. James Milne +has collected, or the unforgettable and immortal /Prisoner of +War/ of Mr. Arthur Green--or such admirable war +correspondents' work as Mr. Philip Gibbs or Mr. Washburne has +done. Some of us writers--I can answer for one--have made our +Tour of the Fronts with a very understandable diffidence. For my +own part I did not want to go. I evaded a suggestion that I +should go in 1915. I travel badly, I speak French and Italian +with incredible atrocity, and am an extreme Pacifist. I hate +soldiering. And also I did not want to write anything "under +instruction". It is largely owing to a certain stiffness in the +composition of General Delme-Radcliffe is resolved that +Italy shall not feel neglected by the refusal of the invitation +from the Comando Supremo by anyone who from the perspective of +Italy may seem to be a representative of British opinion. If +Herbert Spencer had been alive General Radcliffe would have +certainly made him come, travelling-hammock, ear clips and all-- +and I am not above confessing that I wish that Herbert Spencer +was alive--for this purpose. I found Udine warm and gay with +memories of Mr. Belloc, Lord Northcliffe, Mr. Sidney Low, Colonel +Repington and Dr. Conan Doyle, and anticipating the arrival of +Mr. Harold Cox. So we pass, mostly in automobiles that bump +tremendously over war roads, a cloud of witnesses each testifying +after his manner. Whatever else has happened, we have all been +photographed with invincible patience and resolution under the +direction of Colonel Barberich in a sunny little court in Udine. + +My own manner of testifying must be to tell what I have seen and +what I have thought during this extraordinary experience. It has +been my natural disposition to see this war as something +purposeful and epic, as it is great, as an epoch, as "the War +that will end War"--but of that last, more anon. I do not think +I am alone in this inclination to a dramatic and logical +interpretation. The caricatures in the French shops show +civilisation (and particularly Marianne) in conflict with a huge +and hugely wicked Hindenburg Ogre. Well, I come back from this +tour with something not so simple as that. If I were to be tied +down to one word for my impression of this war, I should say that +this war is /Queer./ It is not like anything in a really +waking world, but like something in a dream. It hasn't exactly +that clearness of light against darkness or of good against ill. +But it has the quality of wholesome instinct struggling under a +nightmare. The world is not really awake. This vague appeal for +explanations to all sorts of people, this desire to exhibit the +business, to get something in the way of elucidation at present +missing, is extraordinarily suggestive of the efforts of the mind +to wake up that will sometimes occur at a deep crisis. My memory +of this tour I have just made is full of puzzled-looking men. I +have seen thousands of /poilus/ sitting about in +cafes, by the roadside, in tents, in trenches, thoughtful. +I have seen Alpini sitting restfully and staring with speculative +eyes across the mountain gulfs towards unseen and unaccountable +enemies. I have seen trainloads of wounded staring out of the +ambulance train windows as we passed. I have seen these dim +intimations of questioning reflection in the strangest +juxtapositions; in Malagasy soldiers resting for a spell among +the big shells they were hoisting into trucks for the front, in a +couple of khaki-clad Maoris sitting upon the step of a horse-van +in Amiens station. It is always the same expression one catches, +rather weary, rather sullen, inturned. The shoulders droop. The +very outline is a note of interrogation. They look up as the +privileged tourist of the front, in the big automobile or the +reserved compartment, with his officer or so in charge, passes-- +importantly. One meets a pair of eyes that seems to say: +"Perhaps /you/ understand.... + +"In which case---...?" + +It is a part, I think, of this disposition to investigate what +makes everyone collect "specimens" of the war. Everywhere the +souvenir forces itself upon the attention. The homecoming +permissionaire brings with him invariably a considerable weight +of broken objects, bits of shell, cartridge clips, helmets; it is +a peripatetic museum. It is as if he hoped for a clue. It is +almost impossible, I have found, to escape these pieces in +evidence. I am the least collecting of men, but I have brought +home Italian cartridges, Austrian cartridges, the fuse of an +Austrian shell, a broken Italian bayonet, and a note that is +worth half a franc within the confines of Amiens. But a large +heavy piece of exploded shell that had been thrust very urgently +upon my attention upon the Carso I contrived to lose during the +temporary confusion of our party by the arrival and explosion of +another prospective souvenir in our close proximity. And two +really very large and almost complete specimens of some species +of /Ammonites/ unknown to me, from the hills to the east of +the Adige, partially wrapped in a back number of the /Corriere +della Sera/, that were pressed upon me by a friendly officer, +were unfortunately lost on the line between Verona and Milan +through the gross negligence of a railway porter. But I doubt if +they would have thrown any very conclusive light upon the war. + + +2 + +I avow myself an extreme Pacifist. I am against the man who +first takes up the weapon. I carry my pacifism far beyond the +ambiguous little group of British and foreign sentimentalists who +pretend so amusingly to be socialists in the /Labour +Leader/, whose conception of foreign policy is to give Germany +now a peace that would be no more than a breathing time for a +fresh outrage upon civilisation, and who would even make heroes +of the crazy young assassins of the Dublin crime. I do not +understand those people. I do not merely want to stop this war. +I want to nail down war in its coffin. Modern war is an +intolerable thing. It is not a thing to trifle with in this +Urban District Council way, it is a thing to end forever. I have +always hated it, so far that is as my imagination enabled me to +realise it; and now that I have been seeing it, sometimes quite +closely for a full month, I hate it more than ever. I never +imagined a quarter of its waste, its boredom, its futility, its +desolation. It is merely a destructive and dispersive instead of +a constructive and accumulative industrialism. It is a gigantic, +dusty, muddy, weedy, bloodstained silliness. It is the plain +duty of every man to give his life and all that he has if by so +doing he may help to end it. I hate Germany, which has thrust +this experience upon mankind, as I hate some horrible infectious +disease. The new war, the war on the modern level, is her +invention and her crime. I perceive that on our side and in its +broad outlines, this war is nothing more than a gigantic and +heroic effort in sanitary engineering; an effort to remove German +militarism from the life and regions it has invaded, and to bank +it in and discredit and enfeeble it so that never more will it +repeat its present preposterous and horrible efforts. All human +affairs and all great affairs have their reservations and their +complications, but that is the broad outline of the business as +it has impressed itself on my mind and as I find it conceived in +the mind of the average man of the reading class among the allied +peoples, and as I find it understood in the judgement of honest +and intelligent neutral observers. + +It is my unshakeable belief that essentially the Allies fight for +a permanent world peace, that primarily they do not make war but +resist war, that has reconciled me to this not very congenial +experience of touring as a spectator all agog to see, through the +war zones. At any rate there was never any risk of my playing +Balaam and blessing the enemy. This war is tragedy and sacrifice +for most of the world, for the Germans it is simply the +catastrophic outcome of fifty years of elaborate intellectual +foolery. Militarism, Welt Politik, and here we are! What else +/could/ have happened, with Michael and his infernal War +Machine in the very centre of Europe, but this tremendous +disaster? + +It is a disaster. It may be a necessary disaster; it may teach a +lesson that could be learnt in no other way; but for all that, I +insist, it remains waste, disorder, disaster. + +There is a disposition, I know, in myself as well as in others, +to wriggle away from this verity, to find so much good in the +collapse that has come to the mad direction of Europe for the +past half-century as to make it on the whole almost a beneficial +thing. But at most I can find it in no greater good than the +good of a nightmare that awakens the sleeper in a dangerous place +to a realisation of the extreme danger of his sleep. Better had +he been awake--or never there. In Venetia Captain Pirelli, whose +task it was to keep me out of mischief in the war zone, was +insistent upon the way in which all Venetia was being opened up +by the new military roads; there has been scarcely a new road +made in Venetia since Napoleon drove his straight, poplar- +bordered highways through the land. M. Joseph Reinach, who was +my companion upon the French front, was equally impressed by the +stirring up and exchange of ideas in the villages due to the +movement of the war. Charles Lamb's story of the discovery of +roast pork comes into one's head with an effect of repartee. +More than ideas are exchanged in the war zone, and it is doubtful +how far the sanitary precautions of the military authorities +avails against a considerable propaganda of disease. A more +serious argument for the good of war is that it evokes heroic +qualities that it has brought out almost incredible quantities of +courage, devotion, and individual romance that did not show in +the suffocating peace time that preceded the war. The reckless +and beautiful zeal of the women in the British and French +munition factories, for example, the gaiety and fearlessness of +the common soldiers everywhere; these things have always been +there--like champagne sleeping in bottles in a cellar. But was +there any need to throw a bomb into the cellar? + +I am reminded of a story, or rather of the idea for a story that +I think I must have read in that curious collection of fantasies +and observations, Hawthorne's /Note Book./ It was to be the +story of a man who found life dull and his circumstances +altogether mediocre. He had loved his wife, but now after all +she seemed to be a very ordinary human being. He had begun life +with high hopes--and life was commonplace. He was to grow +fretful and restless. His discontent was to lead to some action, +some irrevocable action; but upon the nature of that action I do +not think the /Note Book/ was very clear. It was to carry +him in such a manner that he was to forget his wife. Then, when +it was too late, he was to see her at an upper window, stripped +and firelit, a glorious thing of light and loveliness and tragic +intensity.... + +The elementary tales of the world are very few, and Hawthorne's +story and Lamb's story are, after all, only variations upon the +same theme. But can we poor human beings never realise our +quality without destruction? + + +3 + +One of the larger singularities of the great war is its failure +to produce great and imposing personalities, mighty leaders, +Napoleons, Caesars. I would indeed make that the essential +thing in my reckoning of the war. It is a drama without a hero; +without countless incidental heroes no doubt, but no star part. +Even the Germans, with a national predisposition for hero-cults +and living still in an atmosphere of Victorian humbug, can +produce nothing better than that timber image, Hindenburg. + +It is not that the war has failed to produce heroes so much as +that it has produced heroism in a torrent. The great man of this +war is the common man. It becomes ridiculous to pick out +particular names. There are too many true stories of splendid +acts in the past two years ever to be properly set down. The +V.C.'s and the palms do but indicate samples. One would need an +encyclopaedia, a row of volumes, of the gloriousness of +human impulses. The acts of the small men in this war dwarf all +the pretensions of the Great Man. Imperatively these +multitudinous heroes forbid the setting up of effigies. When I +was a young man I imitated Swift and posed for cynicism; I will +confess that now at fifty and greatly helped by this war, I have +fallen in love with mankind. + +But if I had to pick out a single figure to stand for the finest +quality of the Allies' war, I should I think choose the figure of +General Joffre. He is something new in history. He is +leadership without vulgar ambition. He is the extreme antithesis +to the Imperial boomster of Berlin. He is as it were the +ordinary common sense of men, incarnate. He is the antithesis of +the effigy. + +By great good luck I was able to see him. I was delayed in Paris +on my way to Italy, and my friend Captain Millet arranged for a +visit to the French front at Soissons and put me in charge of +Lieutenant de Tessin, whom I had met in England studying British +social questions long before this war. Afterwards Lieutenant de +Tessin took me to the great hotel--it still proclaims +"/Restaurant/" in big black letters on the garden wall-- +which shelters the General Headquarters of France, and here I was +able to see and talk to Generals Pelle and Castelnau as +well as to General Joffre. They are three very remarkable and +very different men. They have at least one thing in common; it +is clear that not one of them has spent ten minutes in all his +life in thinking of himself as a Personage or Great Man. They +all have the effect of being active and able men doing an +extremely complicated and difficult but extremely interesting job +to the very best of their ability. With me they had all one +quality in common. They thought I was interested in what they +were doing, and they were quite prepared to treat me as an +intelligent man of a different sort, and to show me as much as I +could understand.... + +Let me confess that de Tessin had had to persuade me to go to +Headquarters. Partly that was because I didn't want to use up +even ten minutes of the time of the French commanders, but much +more was it because I have a dread of Personages. + +There is something about these encounters with personages--as if +one was dealing with an effigy, with something tremendous put up +to be seen. As one approaches they become remoter; great +unsuspected crevasses are discovered. Across these gulfs one +makes ineffective gestures. They do not meet you, they pose at +you enormously. Sometimes there is something more terrible than +dignity; there is condescension. They are affable. I had but +recently had an encounter with an imported Colonial statesman, +who was being advertised like a soap as the coming saviour of +England. I was curious to meet him. I wanted to talk to him +about all sorts of things that would have been profoundly +interesting, as for example his impressions of the Anglican +bishops. But I met a hoarding. I met a thing like a mask, +something surrounded by touts, that was dully trying--as we say +in London--to "come it" over me. He said he had heard of me. He +had read /Kipps./ I intimated that though I had written +/Kipps/ I had continued to exist--but he did not see the +point of that. I said certain things to him about the difference +in complexity between political life in Great Britain and the +colonies, that he was manifestly totally capable of +understanding. But one could as soon have talked with one of the +statesmen at Madame Tussaud's. An antiquated figure. + +The effect of these French commanders upon me was quite different +from my encounter with that last belated adventurer in the effigy +line. I felt indeed that I was a rather idle and flimsy person +coming into the presence of a tremendously compact and busy +person, but I had none of that unpleasant sensation of a +conventional role, of being expected to play the minute +worshipper in the presence of the Great Image. I was so moved by +the common humanity of them all that in each case I broke away +from the discreet interpretations of de Tessin and talked to them +directly in the strange dialect which I have inadvertently made +for myself out of French, a disemvowelled speech of epicene +substantives and verbs of incalculable moods and temperaments, +"/Entente Cordiale./" The talked back as if we had met in a +club. General Pelle pulled my leg very gaily with some +quotations from an article I had written upon the conclusion of +the war. I think he found my accent and my idioms very +refreshing. I had committed myself to a statement that Bloch has +been justified in his theory that under modern conditions the +defensive wins. There were excellent reasons, and General +Pelle pointed them out, for doubting the applicability of +this to the present war. + +Both he and General Castelnau were anxious that I should see a +French offensive sector as well as Soissons. Then I should +understand. And since then I have returned from Italy and I have +seen and I do understand. The Allied offensive was winning; that +is to say, it was inflicting far greater losses than it +experienced; it was steadily beating the spirit out of the German +army and shoving it back towards Germany. Only peace can, I +believe, prevent the western war ending in Germany. And it is +the Frenchmen mainly who have worked out how to do it. + +But of that I will write later. My present concern is with +General Joffre as the antithesis of the Effigy. The effigy, + +"Thou Prince of Peace, +Thou God of War," + +as Mr. Sylvester Viereck called him, prances on a great horse, +wears a Wagnerian cloak, sits on thrones and talks of shining +armour and "unser Gott." All Germany gloats over his Jovian +domesticities; when I was last in Berlin the postcard shops were +full of photographs of a sort of procession of himself and his +sons, all with long straight noses and sidelong eyes. It is all +dreadfully old-fashioned. General Joffre sits in a pleasant +little sitting-room in a very ordinary little villa conveniently +close to Headquarters. He sits among furniture that has no +quality of pose at all, that is neither magnificent nor +ostentatiously simple and hardy. He has dark, rather sleepy eyes +under light eyelashes, eyes that glance shyly and a little +askance at his interlocutor and then, as he talks, away--as if he +did not want to be preoccupied by your attention. He has a +broad, rather broadly modelled face, a soft voice, the sort of +persuasive reasoning voice that many Scotchmen have. I had a +feeling that if he were to talk English he would do so with a +Scotch accent. Perhaps somewhere I have met a Scotchman of his +type. He sat sideways to his table as a man might sit for a +gossip in a cafe. + +He is physically a big man, and in my memory he grows bigger and +bigger. He sits now in my memory in a room like the rooms that +any decent people might occupy, like that vague room that is the +background of so many good portraits, a great blue-coated figure +with a soft voice and rather tired eyes, explaining very simply +and clearly the difficulties that this vulgar imperialism of +Germany, seizing upon modern science and modern appliances, has +created for France and the spirit of mankind. + +He talked chiefly of the strangeness of this confounded war. It +was exactly like a sanitary engineer speaking of the unexpected +difficulties of some particularly nasty inundation. He made +little stiff horizontal gestures with his hands. First one had +to build a dam and stop the rush of it, so; then one had to +organise the push that would send it back. He explained the +organisation of the push. They had got an organisation now that +was working out most satisfactorily. Had I seen a sector? I had +seen the sector of Soissons. Yes, but that was not now an +offensive sector. I must see an offensive sector; see the whole +method. Lieutenant de Tessin must see that that was arranged.... + +Neither he nor his two colleagues spoke of the Germans with +either hostility or humanity. Germany for them is manifestly +merely an objectionable Thing. It is not a nation, not a people, +but a nuisance. One has to build up this great counter-thrust +bigger and stronger until they go back. The war must end in +Germany. The French generals have no such delusions about German +science or foresight or capacity as dominates the smart dinner +chatter of England. One knows so well that detestable type of +English folly, and its voice of despair: "They /plan/ +everything. They foresee everything." This paralysing +Germanophobia is not common among the French. The war, the +French generals said, might take--well, it certainly looked like +taking longer than the winter. Next summer perhaps. Probably, +if nothing unforeseen occurred, before a full year has passed the +job might be done. Were any surprises in store? They didn't +seem to think it was probable that the Germans had any surprises +in store.... The Germans are not an inventive people; they are +merely a thorough people. One never knew for certain. + +Is any greater contrast possible than between so implacable, +patient, reasonable--and above all things /capable/--a being +as General Joffre and the rhetorician of Potsdam, with his talk +of German Might, of Hammer Blows and Hacking Through? Can there +be any doubt of the ultimate issue between them? + +There are stories that sound pleasantly true to me about General +Joffre's ambitions after the war. He is tired; then he will be +very tired. He will, he declares, spend his first free summer in +making a tour of the waterways of France in a barge. So I hope +it may be. One imagines him as sitting quietly on the crumpled +remains of the last and tawdriest of Imperial traditions, with a +fishing line in the placid water and a large buff umbrella +overhead, the good ordinary man who does whatever is given to him +to do--as well as he can. The power that has taken the great +effigy of German imperialism by the throat is something very +composite and complex, but if we personify it at all it is +something more like General Joffre than any other single human +figure I can think of or imagine. + +If I were to set a frontispiece to a book about this War I would +make General Joffre the frontispiece. + + +4 + +As we swung back along the dusty road to Paris at a pace of fifty +miles an hour and upwards, driven by a helmeted driver with an +aquiline profile fit to go upon a coin, whose merits were a +little flawed by a childish and dangerous ambition to run over +every cat he saw upon the road, I talked to de Tessin about this +big blue-coated figure of Joffre, which is not so much a figure +as a great generalisation of certain hitherto rather obscured +French qualities, and of the impression he had made upon me. And +from that I went on to talk about the Super Man, for this +encounter had suddenly crystallised out a set of realisations +that had been for some time latent in my mind. + +How much of what follows I said to de Tessin at the time I do not +clearly remember, but this is what I had in mind. + +The idea of the superman is an idea that has been developed by +various people ignorant of biology and unaccustomed to biological +ways of thinking. It is an obvious idea that follows in the +course of half an hour or so upon one's realisation of the +significance of Darwinism. If man has evolved from something +different, he must now be evolving onward into something sur- +human. The species in the future will be different from the +species of the past. So far at least our Nietzsches and Shaws +and so on went right. + +But being ignorant of the elementary biological proposition that +modification of a species means really a secular change in its +average, they jumped to a conclusion--to which the late Lord +Salisbury also jumped years ago at a very memorable British +Association meeting--that a species is modified by the sudden +appearance of eccentric individuals here and there in the general +mass who interbreed--preferentially. Helped by a streak of antic +egotism in themselves, they conceived of the superman as a +posturing personage, misunderstood by the vulgar, fantastic, +wonderful. But the antic Personage, the thing I have called the +Effigy, is not new but old, the oldest thing in history, the +departing thing. It depends not upon the advance of the species +but upon the uncritical hero-worship of the crowd. You may see +the monster drawn twenty times the size of common men upon the +oldest monuments of Egypt and Assyria. The true superman comes +not as the tremendous personal entry of a star, but in the less +dramatic form of a general increase of goodwill and skill and +common sense. A species rises not by thrusting up peaks but by +the brimming up as a flood does. The coming of the superman +means not an epidemic of personages but the disappearance of the +Personage in the universal ascent. That is the point overlooked +by the megalomaniac school of Nietzsche and Shaw. + +And it is the peculiarity of this war, it is the most reassuring +evidence that a great increase in general ability and critical +ability has been going on throughout the last century, that no +isolated great personages have emerged. Never has there been so +much ability, invention, inspiration, leadership; but the very +abundance of good qualities has prevented our focusing upon those +of any one individual. We all play our part in the realisation +of God's sanity in the world, but, as the strange, dramatic end +of Lord Kitchener has served to remind us, there is no single +individual of all the allied nations whose death can materially +affect the great destinies of this war. + +In the last few years I have developed a religious belief that +has become now to me as real as any commonplace fact. I think +that mankind is still as it were collectively dreaming and hardly +more awakened to reality than a very young child. It has these +dreams that we express by the flags of nationalities and by +strange loyalties and by irrational creeds and ceremonies, and +its dreams at times become such nightmares as this war. But the +time draws near when mankind will awake and the dreams will fade +away, and then there will be no nationality in all the world but +humanity, and no kind, no emperor, nor leader but the one God of +mankind. This is my faith. I am as certain of this as I was in +1900 that men would presently fly. To me it is as if it must be +so. + +So that to me this extraordinary refusal of the allied nations +under conditions that have always hitherto produced a Great Man +to produce anything of the sort, anything that can be used as an +effigy and carried about for the crowd to follow, is a fact of +extreme significance and encouragement. It seems to me that the +twilight of the half gods must have come, that we have reached +the end of the age when men needed a Personal Figure about which +they could rally. The Kaiser is perhaps the last of that long +series of crowned and cloaked and semi-divine personages which +has included Caesar and Alexander and Napoleon the First-- +and Third. In the light of the new time we see the emperor-god +for the guy he is. In the August of 1914 he set himself up to be +the paramount Lord of the World, and it will seem to the +historian to come, who will know our dates so well and our +feelings, our fatigues and efforts so little, it will seem a +short period from that day to this, when the great figure already +sways and staggers towards the bonfire. + + +5 + +I had the experience of meeting a contemporary king upon this +journey. He was the first king I had ever met. The Potsdam +figure--with perhaps some local exceptions behind the Gold Coast-- +is, with its collection of uniforms and its pomps and splendours, +the purest survival of the old tradition of divine monarchy now +that the Emperor at Pekin has followed the Shogun into the +shadows. The modern type of king shows a disposition to intimate +at the outset that he cannot help it, and to justify or at any +rate utilise his exceptional position by sound hard work. It is +an age of working kings, with the manners of private gentlemen. +The King of Italy for example is far more accessible than was the +late Pierpont Morgan or the late Cecil Rhodes, and he seems to +keep a smaller court. + +I went to see him from Udine. He occupied a moderate-sized +country villa about half an hour by automobile from headquarters. +I went over with General Radcliffe; we drove through the gates of +the villa past a single sentinel in an ordinary infantry uniform, +up to the door of the house, and the number of guards, servants, +attendants, officials, secretaries, ministers and the like that I +saw in that house were--I counted very carefully--four. +Downstairs were three people, a tall soldier of the bodyguard in +grey; an A.D.C., Captain Moreno, and Col. Matteoli, the minister +of the household. I went upstairs to a drawing-room of much the +same easy and generalised character as the one in which I had met +General Joffre a few days before. I gave my hat to a second +bodyguard, and as I did so a pleasantly smiling man appeared at +the door of the study whom I thought at first must be some +minister in attendance. I did not recognise him instantly +because on the stamps and coins he is always in profile. He +began to talk in excellent English about my journey, and I +replied, and so talking we went into the study from which he had +emerged. Then I realised I was talking to the king. + +Addicted as I am to the cinematograph, in which the standard of +study furniture is particularly rich and high, I found something +very cooling and simple and refreshing in the sight of the king's +study furniture. He sat down with me at a little useful writing +table, and after asking me what I had seen in Italy and hearing +what I had seen and what I was to see, he went on talking, very +good talk indeed. + +I suppose I did a little exceed the established tradition of +courts by asking several questions and trying to get him to talk +upon certain points as to which I was curious, but I perceived +that he had had to carry on at least so much of the regal +tradition as to control the conversation. He was, however, +entirely un-posed. His talk reminded me somehow of Maurice +Baring's books; it had just the same quick, positive +understanding. And he had just the same detachment from the war +as the French generals. He spoke of it--as one might speak of an +inundation. And of its difficulties and perplexities. + +Here on the Adriatic side there were political entanglements that +by comparison made our western after-the-war problems plain +sailing. He talked of the game of spellicans among the Balkan +nationalities. How was that difficulty to be met? In Macedonia +there were Turkish villages that were Christian and Bulgarians +that were Moslem. There were families that changed the +termination of their names from /ski/ to /off/ as +Serbian or Bulgarian prevailed. I remarked that that showed a +certain passion for peace, and that much of the mischief might be +due to the propaganda of the great Powers. I have a prejudice +against that blessed Whig "principle of nationality," but the +King of Italy was not to be drawn into any statement about that. +He left the question with his admission of its extreme complexity. + +He went on to talk of the strange contrasts of war, of such +things as the indifference of the birds to gunfire and +desolation. One day on the Carso he had been near the newly +captured Austrian trenches, and suddenly from amidst a scattered +mass of Austrian bodies a quail had risen. that had struck him +as odd, and so too had the sight of a pack of cards and a wine +flask on some newly-made graves. The ordinary life was a very +/obstinate/ thing.... + +He talked of the courage of modern men. He was astonished at the +quickness with which they came to disregard shrapnel. And they +were so quietly enduring when they were wounded. He had seen a +lot of the wounded, and he had expected much groaning and crying +out. But unless a man is hit in the head and goes mad he does +not groan or scream! They are just brave. If you ask them how +they feel it is always one of two things: either they say quietly +that they are very bad or else they say there is nothing the +matter.... + +He spoke as if these were mere chance observations, but everyone +tells me that nearly every day the king is at the front and often +under fire. He has taken more risks in a week than the Potsdam +War Lord has taken since the war began. He keeps himself acutely +informed upon every aspect of the war. He was a little inclined +to fatalism, he confessed. There were two stories current of two +families of four sons, in each three had been killed and in each +there was an attempt to put the fourth in a place of comparative +safety. In one case a general took the fourth son in as an +attendant and embarked upon a ship that was immediately +torpedoed; in the other the fourth son was killed by accident +while he was helping to carry dinner in a rest camp. From those +stories we came to the question whether the uneducated Italians +were more superstitious than the uneducated English; the king +thought they were much less so. That struck me as a novel idea. +But then he thought that English rural people believe in witches +and fairies. + +I have given enough of this talk to show the quality of this king +of the new dispensation. It was, you see, the sort of easy talk +one might hear from fine-minded people anywhere. When we had +done talking he came to the door of the study with me and shook +hands and went back to his desk--with that gesture of return to +work which is very familiar and sympathetic to a writer, and with +no gesture of regality at all. + +Just to complete this impression let me repeat a pleasant story +about this king and our Prince of Wales, who recently visited the +Italian front. The Prince is a source of anxiety on these +visits; he has a very strong and very creditable desire to share +the ordinary risks of war. He is keenly interested, and +unobtrusively bent upon getting as near the fighting as line as +possible. But the King of Italy was firm upon keeping him out of +anything more than the most incidental danger. "We don't want +any historical incidents here," he said. I think that might well +become an historical phrase. For the life of the Effigy is a +series of historical incidents. + + +6 + +Manifestly one might continue to multiply portraits of fine +people working upon this great task of breaking and ending the +German aggression, the German legend, the German effigy, and the +effigy business generally; the thesis being that the Allies have +no effigy. One might fill a thick volume with pictures of men up +the scale and down working loyally and devotedly upon the war, to +make this point clear that the essential king and the essential +loyalty of our side is the commonsense of mankind. + +There comes into my head as a picture at the other extreme of +this series, a memory of certain trenches I visited on my last +day in France. They were trenches on an offensive front; they +were not those architectural triumphs, those homes from home, +that grow to perfection upon the less active sections of the +great line. They had been first made by men who had run rapidly +forward with spade and rifle, stooping as they ran, who had +dropped into the craters of big shells, who had organised these +chiefly at night and dug the steep ditches sideways to join up +into continuous trenches. Now they were pushing forward saps +into No Man's Land, linking them across, and so continually +creeping nearer to the enemy and a practicable jumping-off place +for an attack. (It has been made since; the village at which I +peeped was in our hands a week later.) These trenches were dug +into a sort of yellowish sandy clay; the dug-outs were mere holes +in the earth that fell in upon the clumsy; hardly any timber had +been got up the line; a storm might flood them at any time a +couple of feet deep and begin to wash the sides. Overnight they +had been "strafed" and there had been a number of casualties; +there were smashed rifles about and a smashed-up machine gun +emplacement, and the men were dog-tired and many of them sleeping +like logs, half buried in -clay. Some slept on the firing steps. +As one went along one became aware ever and again of two or three +pairs of clay-yellow feet sticking out of a clay hole, and +peering down one saw the shapes of men like rudely modelled +earthen images of soldiers, motionless in the cave. + +I came round the corner upon a youngster with an intelligent face +and steady eyes sitting up on the firing step, awake and +thinking. We looked at one another. There are moments when mind +leaps to mind. It is natural for the man in the trenches +suddenly confronted by so rare a beast as a middle-aged civilian +with an enquiring expression, to feel oneself something of a +spectacle and something generalised. It is natural for the +civilian to look rather in the vein of saying, "Well, how do you +take it?" As I pushed past him we nodded slightly with an effect +of mutual understanding. And we said with our nods just exactly +what General Joffre had said with his horizontal gestures of the +hand and what the King of Italy conveyed by his friendly manner; +we said to each other that here was the trouble those Germans had +brought upon us and here was the task that had to be done. + +Our guide to these trenches was a short, stocky young man, a cob; +with a rifle and a tight belt and projecting skirts and a helmet, +a queer little figure that, had you seen it in a picture a year +or so before the war, you would most certainly have pronounced +Chinese. He belonged to a Northumbrian battalion; it does not +matter exactly which. As we returned from this front line, +trudging along the winding path through the barbed wire tangles +before the smashed and captured German trench that had been taken +a fortnight before, I fell behind my guardian captain and had a +brief conversation wit this individual. He was a lad in the +early twenties, weather-bit and with bloodshot eyes. He was, he +told me, a miner. I asked my stock question in such cases, +whether he would go back to the old work after the war. He said +he would, and then added--with the events of overnight on his +mind: "If A'hm looky." + +Followed a little silence. Then I tried my second stock remark +for such cases. One does not talk to soldiers at the front in +this war of Glory or the "Empire on which the sun never sets" or +"the meteor flag of England" or of King and Country or any of +those fine old headline things. On the desolate path that winds +about amidst the shell craters and the fragments and the red- +rusted wire, with the silken shiver of passing shells in the air +and the blue of the lower sky continually breaking out into +eddying white puffs, it is wonderful how tawdry such panoplies of +the effigy appear. We knew that we and our allies are upon a +greater, graver, more fundamental business than that sort of +thing now. We are very near the waking point. + +"Well," I said, "it's got to be done." + +"Aye," he said, easing the strap of his rifle a little; "it's got +to be done." + + + +THE WAR IN ITALY (AUGUST, 1916) + + +I. THE ISONZO FRONT + + +1 + +My first impressions of the Italian war centre upon Udine. So +far I had had only a visit to Soissons on an exceptionally quiet +day and the sound of a Zeppelin one night in Essex for all my +experience of actual warfare. But my bedroom at the British +mission in Udine roused perhaps extravagant expectations. There +were holes in the plaster ceiling and wall, betraying splintered +laths, holes, that had been caused by a bomb that had burst and +killed several people in the little square outside. Such +excitements seem to be things of the past now in Udine. Udine +keeps itself dark nowadays, and the Austrian sea-planes, which +come raiding the Italian coast country at night very much in the +same aimless, casually malignant way in which the Zeppelins raid +England, apparently because there is nothing else for them to do, +find it easier to locate Venice. + +My earlier rides in Venetia began always with the level roads of +the plain, roads frequently edged by watercourses, with plentiful +willows beside the road, vines and fields of Indian corn and +suchlike lush crops. Always quite soon one came to some old +Austrian boundary posts; almost everywhere the Italians are +fighting upon what is technically enemy territory, but nowhere +does it seem a whit less Italian than the plain of Lombardy. +When at last I motored away from Udine to the northern mountain +front I passed through Campo-Formio and saw the white-faced inn +at which Napoleon dismembered the ancient republic of Venice and +bartered away this essential part of Italy into foreign control. +It just gravitates back now--as though there had been no +Napoleon. + +And upon the roads and beside them was the enormous equipment of +a modern army advancing. Everywhere I saw new roads being made, +railways pushed up, vast store dumps, hospitals; everywhere the +villages swarmed with grey soldiers; everywhere our automobile +was threading its way and taking astonishing risks among +interminable processions of motor lorries, strings of ambulances +or of mule carts, waggons with timber, waggons with wire, waggons +with men's gear, waggons with casks, waggons discreetly veiled, +columns of infantry, cavalry, batteries /en route./ Every +waggon that goes up full comes back empty, and many wounded were +coming down and prisoners and troops returning to rest. Goritzia +had been taken a week or so before my arrival; the Isonzo had +been crossed and the Austrians driven back across the Carso for +several miles; all the resources of Italy seemed to be crowding +up to make good these gains and gather strength for the next +thrust. The roads under all this traffic remained wonderful; +gangs of men were everywhere repairing the first onset of wear, +and Italy is the most fortunate land in the world for road metal; +her mountains are solid road metal, and in this Venetian plain +you need but to scrape through a yard of soil to find gravel. + +One travelled through a choking dust under the blue sky, and +above the steady incessant dusty succession of lorry, lorry, +lorry, lorry that passed one by, one saw, looking up, the tree +tops, house roofs, or the solid Venetian campanile of this or +that wayside village. Once as we were coming out of the great +grey portals of that beautiful old relic of a former school of +fortification, Palmanova, the traffic became suddenly bright +yellow, and for a kilometre or so we were passing nothing but +Sicilian mule carts loaded with hay. These carts seem as strange +among the grey shapes of modern war transport as a Chinese +mandarin in painted silk would be. They are the most individual +of things, all two-wheeled, all bright yellow and the same size +it is true, but upon each there are they gayest of little +paintings, such paintings as one sees in England at times upon an +ice-cream barrow. Sometimes the picture will present a +scriptural subject, sometimes a scene of opera, sometimes a dream +landscape or a trophy of fruits or flowers, and the harness--now +much out of repair--is studded with brass. Again and again I +have passed strings of these gay carts; all Sicily must be swept +of them. + +Through the dust I came to Aquileia, which is now an old +cathedral, built upon the remains of a very early basilica, +standing in a space in a scattered village. But across this +dusty space there was carried the head of the upstart Maximinus +who murdered Alexander Severus, and later Aquileia brought Attila +near to despair. Our party alighted; we inspected a very old +mosaic floor which has been uncovered since the Austrian retreat. +The Austrian priests have gone too, and their Italian successors +are already tracing out a score of Roman traces that it was the +Austrian custom to minimise. Captain Pirelli refreshed my +historical memories; it was rather like leaving a card on Gibbon +/en route/ for contemporary history. + +By devious routes I went on to certain batteries of big guns +which had played their part in hammering the Austrian left above +Monfalcone across an arm of the Adriatic, and which were now +under orders to shift and move up closer. The battery was the +most unobtrusive of batteries; its one desire seemed to be to +appear a simple piece of woodland in the eye of God and the +aeroplane. I went about the network of railways and paths under +the trees that a modern battery requires, and came presently upon +a great gun that even at the first glance seemed a little less +carefully hidden than its fellows. Then I saw that it was a most +ingenious dummy made of a tree and logs and so forth. It was in +the emplacement of a real gun that had been located; it had its +painted sandbags about it just the same, and it felt itself so +entirely a part of the battery that whenever its companions fired +t burnt a flash and kicked up a dust. It was an excellent +example of the great art of camouflage which this war has +developed. + +I went on through the wood to a shady observation post high in a +tree, into which I clambered with my guide. I was able from this +position to get a very good idea of the lie of the Italian +eastern front. I was in the delta of the Isonzo. Directly in +front of me were some marshes and the extreme tip of the Adriatic +Sea, at the head of which was Monfalcone, now in Italian hands. +Behind Monfalcone ran the red ridge of the Carso, of which the +Italians had just captured the eastern half. Behind this again +rose the mountains to the east of the Isonzo which the Austrians +still held. The Isonzo came towards me from out of the +mountains, in a great westward curve. Fifteen or sixteen miles +away where it emerged from the mountains lay the pleasant and +prosperous town of Goritzia, and at the westward point of the +great curve was Sagrado with its broken bridge. The battle of +Goritzia was really not fought at Goritzia at all. What happened +was the brilliant and bloody storming of Mounts Podgora and +Sabotino on the western side of the river above Goritzia, and +simultaneously a crossing at Sagrado below Goritzia and a +magnificent rush up the plateau and across the plateau of the +Carso. Goritzia itself was not organised for defence, and the +Austrians were so surprised by the rapid storm of the mountains +to the north-west of it and of the Carso to the south-east, that +they made no fight in the town itself. + +As a consequence when I visited it I found it very little injured-- +compared, that is, with such other towns as have been fought +through. Here and there the front of a house has been knocked in +by an Austrian shell, or a lamp-post prostrated. But the road +bridge had suffered a good deal; its iron parapet was twisted +about by shell bursts and interwoven with young trees and big +boughs designed to screen the passer-by from the observation of +the Austrian gunners upon Monte Santo. Here and there were huge +holes through which one could look down upon the blue trickles of +water in the stony river bed far below. The driver of our +automobile displayed what seemed to me an extreme confidence in +the margins of these gaps, but his confidence was justified. At +Sagrado the bridge had been much more completely demolished; no +effort had been made to restore the horizontal roadway, but one +crossed by a sort of timber switchback that followed the ups and +downs of the ruins. + +It is not in these places that one must look for the real +destruction of modern war. The real fight on the left of +Goritzia went through the village of Lucinico up the hill of +Podgora. Lucinico is nothing more than a heap of grey stones; +except for a bit of the church wall and the gable end of a house +one cannot even speak of it as ruins. But in one place among the +rubble I saw the splintered top and a leg of a grand piano. +Podgora hill, which was no doubt once neatly terraced and +cultivated, is like a scrap of landscape from some airless, +treeless planet. Still more desolate was the scene upon the +Carso to the right (south) of Goritzia. Both San Martino and +Doberdo are destroyed beyond the limits of ruination. The Carso +itself is a waterless upland with but a few bushy trees; it must +always have been a desolate region, but now it is an +indescribable wilderness of shell craters, smashed-up Austrian +trenches, splintered timber, old iron, rags, and that rusty +thorny vileness of man's invention, worse than all the thorns and +thickets of nature, barbed wire. There are no dead visible; the +wounded have been cleared away; but about the trenches and +particularly near some of the dug-outs there was a faint +repulsive smell.... + +Yet into this wilderness the Italians are now thrusting a sort of +order. The German is a wonderful worker, they say on the Anglo- +French front that he makes his trenches by way of resting, but I +doubt if he can touch the Italian at certain forms of toil. All +the way up to San Martino and beyond, swarms of workmen were +making one of those carefully graded roads that the Italians make +better than any other people. Other swarms were laying water- +pipes. For upon the Carso there are neither roads nor water, and +before the Italians can thrust farther both must be brought up to +the front. + +As we approached San Martino an Austrian aeroplane made its +presence felt overhead by dropping a bomb among the tents of some +workmen, in a little scrubby wood on the hillside near at hand. +One heard the report and turned to see the fragments flying and +the dust. Probably they got someone. And then, after a little +pause, the encampment began to spew out men; here, there and +everywhere they appeared among the tents, running like rabbits at +evening-time, down the hill. Soon after and probably in +connection with this signal, Austrian shells began to come over. +They do not use shrapnel because the rocky soil of Italy makes +that unnecessary. They fire a sort of shell that goes bang and +releases a cloud of smoke overhead, and then drops a parcel of +high explosive that bursts on the ground. The ground leaps into +red dust and smoke. But these things are now to be seen on the +cinema. Forthwith the men working on the road about us begin to +down tools and make for the shelter trenches, a long procession +going at a steady but resolute walk. Then like a blow in the +chest came the bang of a big Italian gun somewhere close at +hand.... + +Along about four thousand miles of the various fronts this sort +of thing was going on that morning.... + + +2 + +This Carso front is the practicable offensive front of Italy. +From the left wing on the Isonzo along the Alpine boundary round +to the Swiss boundary there is mountain warfare like nothing else +in the world; it is warfare that pushes the boundary backward, +but it is mountain warfare that will not, for so long a period +that the war will be over first, hold out any hopeful prospects +of offensive movements on a large scale against Austria or +Germany. It is a short distance as the crow flies from Rovereto +to Munich, but not as the big gun travels. The Italians, +therefore, as their contribution to the common effort, are +thrusting rather eastwardly towards the line of the Julian Alps +through Carinthia and Carniola. From my observation post in the +tree near Monfalcone I saw Trieste away along the coast to my +right. It looked scarcely as distant as Folkestone from +Dungeness. The Italian advanced line is indeed scarcely ten +miles from Trieste. But the Italians are not, I think, going to +Trieste just yet. That is not the real game now. They are +playing loyally with the Allies for the complete defeat of the +Central Powers, and that is to be achieved striking home into +Austria. Meanwhile there is no sense in knocking Trieste to +pieces, or using Italians instead of Austrian soldiers to +garrison it. + + +II. THE MOUNTAIN WAR + + +1 + +The mountain warfare of Italy is extraordinarily unlike that upon +any other front. From the Isonzo to the Swiss frontier we are +dealing with high mountains, cut by deep valleys between which +there is usually no practicable lateral communication. Each +advance must have the nature of an unsupported shove along a +narrow channel, until the whole mountain system, that is, is won, +and the attack can begin to deploy in front of the passes. +Geographically Austria has the advantage. She had the gentler +slope of the mountain chains while Italy has the steep side, and +the foresight of old treaties has given her deep bites into what +is naturally Italian territory; she is far nearer the Italian +plain than Italy is near any practicable fighting ground for +large forces; particularly is this the case in the region of the +Adige valley and Lake Garda. + +The legitimate war, so to speak, in this region is a +mountaineering war. The typical position is roughly as follows. +The Austrians occupy valley A which opens northward; the Italians +occupy valley B which opens southward. The fight is for the +crest between A and B. The side that wins that crest gains the +power of looking down into, firing into and outflanking the +positions of the enemy valley. In most cases it is the Italians +now who are pressing, and if the reader will examine a map of the +front and compare it with the official reports he will soon +realise that almost everywhere the Italians are up to the head of +the southward valleys and working over the crests so as to press +down upon the Austrian valleys. But in the Trentino the +Austrians are still well over the crest on the southward slopes. +When I was in Italy they still held Rovereto. + +Now it cannot be said that under modern conditions mountains +favour either the offensive or the defensive. But they certainly +make operations far more deliberate than upon a level. An +engineered road or railway in an Alpine valley is the most +vulnerable of things; its curves and viaducts may be practically +demolished by shell fire or swept by shrapnel, although you hold +the entire valley except for one vantage point. All the +mountains round about a valley must be won before that valley is +safe for the transport of an advance. But on the other hand a +surprise capture of some single mountain crest and the hoisting +of one gun into position there may block the retreat of guns and +material from a great series of positions. Mountain surfaces are +extraordinarily various and subtle. You may understand Picardy +on a map, but mountain warfare is three-dimensional. A struggle +may go on for weeks or months consisting of apparently separate +and incidental skirmishes, and then suddenly a whole valley +organisation may crumble away in retreat or disaster. Italy is +gnawing into the Trentino day by day, and particularly around by +her right wing. At no time I shall be surprised to see a sudden +lunge forward on that front, and hear a tale of guns and +prisoners. This will not mean that she has made a sudden attack, +but that some system of Austrian positions has collapsed under +her continual pressure. + +Such briefly is the /idea/ of mountain struggle. Its +realities, I should imagine, are among the strangest and most +picturesque in all this tremendous world conflict. I know +nothing of the war in the east, of course, but there are things +here that must be hard to beat. Happily they will soon get +justice done to them by an abler pen than mine. I hear that +Kipling is to follow me upon this ground; nothing can be imagined +more congenial to his extraordinary power of vivid rendering than +this struggle against cliffs, avalanches, frost and the +Austrian. + +To go the Italian round needs, among other things, a good head. +Everywhere it has been necessary to make roads where hitherto +there have been only mule tracks or no tracks at all; the roads +are often still in the making, and the automobile of the war +tourist skirts precipices and takes hairpin bends upon tracks of +loose metal not an inch too broad for the operation, or it floats +for a moment over the dizzy edge while a train of mule transport +blunders by. The unruly imagination of man's heart (which is +"only evil continually") speculates upon what would be the +consequences of one good bump from the wheel of a mule cart. +Down below, the trees that one sees through a wisp of cloud look +far too small and spiky and scattered to hold out much hope for a +fallen man of letters. And at the high positions they are too +used to the vertical life to understand the secret feelings of +the visitor from the horizontal. General Bompiani, whose +writings are well known to all English students of military +matters, showed me the Gibraltar he is making of a great mountain +system east of the Adige. + +"Let me show you," he said, and flung himself on to the edge of +the precipice into exactly the position of a lady riding side- +saddle. "You will find it more comfortable to sit down." + +But anxious as I am abroad not to discredit my country by +unseemly exhibitions I felt unequal to such gymnastics without a +proper rehearsal at a lower level. I seated myself carefully at +a yard (perhaps it was a couple of yards) from the edge, advanced +on my trousers without dignity to the verge, and so with an +effort thrust my legs over to dangle in the crystalline +air. + +"That," proceeded General Bompiani, pointing with a giddy +flourish of his riding whip, "is Monte Tomba." + +I swayed and half-extended my hand towards him. But he was still +there--sitting, so to speak, on the half of himself.... I was +astonished that he did not disappear abruptly during his +exposition.... + + +2 + +The fighting man in the Dolomites has been perhaps the most +wonderful of all these separate campaigns. I went up by +automobile as far as the clambering new road goes up the flanks +of Tofana No. 2; thence for a time by mule along the flank of +Tofana No. 1, and thence on foot to the vestiges of the famous +Castelletto. + +The aspect of these mountains is particularly grim and wicked; +they are worn old mountains, they tower overhead in enormous +vertical cliffs of sallow grey, with the square jointings and +occasional clefts and gullies, their summits are toothed and +jagged; the path ascends and passes round the side of the +mountain upon loose screes, which descend steeply to a lower wall +of precipices. In the distance rise other harsh and desolate- +looking mountain masses, with shining occasional scars of old +snow. Far below is a bleak valley of stunted pine trees through +which passes the road of the Dolomites. + +As I ascended the upper track two bandages men were coming down +on led mules. It was mid-August, and they were suffering from +frostbite. Across the great gap between the summits a minute +traveller with some provisions was going up by wire to some post +upon the crest. For everywhere upon the icy pinnacles are +observation posts directing the fire of the big guns on the +slopes below, or machine-gun stations, or little garrisons that +sit and wait through the bleak days. Often they have no link +with the world below but a precipitous climb or a "teleferic" +wire. Snow and frost may cut them off absolutely for weeks from +the rest of mankind. The sick and wounded must begin their +journey down to help and comfort in a giddy basket that swings +down to the head of the mule track below. + +Originally all these crests were in Austrian hands; they were +stormed by the Alpini under almost incredible conditions. For +fifteen days, for example, they fought their way up these screes +on the flanks of Tofana No. 2 to the ultimate crags, making +perhaps a hundred metres of ascent each day, hiding under rocks +and in holes in the daylight and receiving fresh provisions and +ammunition and advancing by night. They were subjected to rifle +fire, machine-gun fire and bombs of a peculiar sort, big iron +balls of the size of a football filled with explosive that were +just flung down the steep. They dodged flares and star shells. +At one place they went up a chimney that would be far beyond the +climbing powers of any but a very active man. It must have been +like storming the skies. The dead and wounded rolled away often +into inaccessible ravines. Stray skeletons, rags of uniform, +fragments of weapons, will add to the climbing interest of these +gaunt masses for many years to come. In this manner it was that +Tofana No. 2 was taken. + +Now the Italians are organising this prize, and I saw winding up +far above me on the steep grey slope a multitudinous string of +little things that looked like black ants, each carrying a small +bright yellow egg. They were mules bringing back balks of +timber.... + +But one position held out invincibly; this was the Castelletto, a +great natural fortress of rock standing out at an angle of the +mountain in such a position that it commanded the Italian +communications (the Dolomite road) in the valley below, and +rendered all their positions uncomfortable and insecure. This +obnoxious post was practically inaccessible either from above or +below, and it barred the Italians even from looking into the Val +Travenanzes which it defended. It was, in fact, an impregnable +position, and against it was pitted the invincible 5th Group of +the Alpini. It was the old problem of the irresistible force in +conflict with the immovable object. And the outcome has been the +biggest military mine in all history. + +The business began in January, 1916, with surveys of the rock in +question. The work of surveying for excavations, never a very +simple one, becomes much more difficult when the site is occupied +by hostile persons with machine guns. In March, as the winter's +snows abated, the boring machinery began to arrive, by mule as +far as possible and then by hand. Altogether about half a +kilometre of gallery had to be made to the mine chamber, and +meanwhile the explosive was coming up load by load and resting +first here, then there, in discreetly chosen positions. There +were at the last thirty-five tons of it in the inner chamber. +And while the boring machines bored and the work went on, +Lieutenant Malvezzi was carefully working out the problem of "il +[Our Webmaster, who is Italian, says, "il massimo effetto dirompente"] +massimo effetto dirompimento" and deciding exactly how to pack +and explode his little hoard. On the eleventh of July, at 3.30, +as he rejoices to state in his official report, "the mine +responded perfectly both in respect of the calculations made and +of the practical effects," that is to say, the Austrians were +largely missing and the Italians were in possession of the crater +of the Castelletto and looking down the Val Travenanzes from +which they had been barred for so long. Within a month things +had been so tidied up, and secured by further excavations and +sandbags against hostile fire, that even a middle-aged English +writer, extremely fagged and hot and breathless, could enjoy the +same privilege. All this, you must understand, had gone on at a +level to which the ordinary tourist rarely climbs, in a rarefied, +chest-tightening atmosphere, with wisps of clouds floating in the +clear air below and club-huts close at hand.... + +Among these mountains avalanches are frequent; and they come down +regardless of human strategy. In many cases the trenches cross +avalanche tracks; they and the men in them are periodically swept +away and periodically replaced. They are positions that must be +held; if the Italians will not face such sacrifices, the +Austrians will. Avalanches and frostbite have slain and disabled +their thousands; they have accounted perhaps for as many Italians +in this austere and giddy campaign as the Austrians.... + + +3 + +It seems to be part of the stern resolve of Fate that this, the +greatest of wars, shall be the least glorious; it is manifestly +being decided not by victories but by blunders. It is indeed a +history of colossal stupidities. Among the most decisive of +these blunders, second only perhaps of the blunder of the Verdun +attack and far outshining the wild raid of the British towards +Bagdad, was the blunder of the Trentino offensive. It does not +need the equipment of a military expert, it demands only quite +ordinary knowledge and average intelligence, to realise the folly +of that Austrian adventure. There is some justification for a +claim that the decisive battle of the war was fought upon the +soil of Italy. There is still more justification for saying that +it might have been. + +There was only one good point about the Austrian thrust. No one +could have foretold it. And it did so completely surprise the +Italians as to catch them without any prepared line of positions +in the rear. On the very eve of the big Russian offensive, the +Austrians thrust eighteen divisions hard at the Trentino +frontier. The Italian posts were then in Austrian territory; +they held on the left wing and the right, but they were driven by +the sheer weight of men and guns in the centre; they lost guns +and prisoners because of the difficulty of mountain retreats to +which I have alluded, and the Austrians pouring through reached +not indeed the plain of Venetia, but to the upland valleys +immediately above it, to Asiago and Arsiero. They probably saw +the Venetian plain through gaps in the hills, but they were still +separated from it even at Arsiero by what are mountains to an +English eye, mountains as high as Snowdon. But the Italians of +such beautiful old places and Vicenza, Marostica, and Bassano +could watch the Austrian shells bursting on the last line of +hills above the plain, and I have no doubt they felt extremely +uneasy. + +As one motors through these ripe and beautiful towns and through +the rich valleys that link them--it is a smiling land abounding +in old castles and villas, Vicenza is a rich museum of Palladio's +architecture and Bassano is full of irreplaceable painted +buildings--one feels that the things was a narrow escape, but +from the military point of view it was merely an insane escapade. +The Austrians had behind them--and some way behind them--one +little strangulated railway and no good pass road; their right +was held at Pasubio, their left was similarly bent back. In +front of them was between twice and three times their number of +first class troops, with an unlimited equipment. If they had +surmounted that last mountain crest they would have come down to +almost certain destruction in the plain. They could never have +got back. For a time it was said that General Cadorna considered +that possibility. From the point of view of purely military +considerations, the Trentino offensive should perhaps have ended +in the capitulation of Vicenza. + +I will confess I am glad it did not do so. This tour of the +fronts has made me very sad and weary with a succession of ruins. +I can bear no more ruins unless they are the ruins of Dusseldorf, +Cologne, Berlin, or suchlike modern German city. Anxious as I am +to be a systematic Philistine, to express my preference for +Marinetti over the Florentine British and generally to antagonise +aesthetic prigs, I rejoiced over that sunlit land as one +might rejoice over a child saved from beasts. + +On the hills beyond Schio I walked out through the embrasure of a +big gun in a rock gallery, and saw the highest points upon the +hillside to which the Austrian infantry clambered in their futile +last attacks. Below me were the ruins of Arsiero and Velo +d'Astico recovered, and across the broad valley rose Monte Cimone +with the Italian trenches upon its crest and the Austrians a +little below to the north. A very considerable bombardment was +going on and it reverberated finely. (It is only among mountains +that one hears anything that one can call the thunder of guns. +The heaviest bombardments I heard in France sounded merely like +Brock's benefit on a much large scale, and disappointed me +extremely.) As I sat and listened to the uproar and watched the +shells burst on Cimone and far away up the valley over +Castelletto above Pedescala, Captain Pirelli pointed out the +position of the Austrian frontier. I doubt if the English people +realise that the utmost depth to which this great Trentino +offensive, which exhausted Austria, wasted the flower of the +Hungarian army and led directly to the Galician disasters and the +intervention of Rumania, penetrated into Italian territory was +about six miles. + + +III. BEHIND THE FRONT + + +1 + +I have a peculiar affection for Verona and certain things in +Verona. Italians must forgive us English this little streak of +impertinent proprietorship in the beautiful things of their +abundant land. It is quite open to them to revenge themselves by +professing a tenderness for Liverpool or Leeds. It was, for +instance, with a peculiar and personal indignation that I saw +where an Austrian air bomb had killed five-and-thirty people in +the Piazza Erbe. Somehow in that jolly old place, a place that +have very much of the quality of a very pretty and cheerful old +woman, it seemed exceptionally an outrage. And I made a special +pilgrimage to see how it was with that monument of Can Grande, +the equestrian Scaliger with the sidelong grin, for whom I +confess a ridiculous admiration. Can Grande, I rejoice to say, +has retired into a case of brickwork, surmounted by a steep roof +of thick iron plates; no aeroplane exists to carry bombs enough +to smash that covering; there he will smile securely in the +darkness until peace comes again. + +All over Venetia the Austrian seaplanes are making the same sort +of idiot raid on lighted places that the Zeppelins have been +making over England. These raids do no effective military work. +What conceivable military advantage can there be in dropping +bombs into a marketing crowd? It is a sort of anti-Teutonic +propaganda by the Central Powers to which they seem to have been +incited by their own evil genius. It is as if they could +convince us that there is an essential malignity in Germans, that +until the German powers are stamped down into the mud they will +continue to do evil things. All of the Allies have borne the +thrusting and boasting of Germany with exemplary patience for +half a century; England gave her Heligoland and stood out of the +way of her colonial expansion, Italy was a happy hunting ground +for her business enterprise, France had come near resignation on +the score of Alsace-Lorraine. And then over and above the great +outrage of the war come these incessant mean-spirited atrocities. +A great and simple wickedness it is possible to forgive; the war +itself, had it been fought greatly by Austria and Germany, would +have made no such deep and enduring breach as these silly, futile +assassinations have down between the Austro-Germans and the rest +of the civilised world. One great misdeed is a thing +understandable and forgivable; what grows upon the consciousness +of the world is the persuasion that here we fight not a national +sin but a national insanity; that we dare not leave the German +the power to attack other nations any more for ever.... + +Venice has suffered particularly from this ape-like impulse to +hurt and terrorise enemy non-combatants. Venice has indeed +suffered from this war far more than any other town in Italy. +Her trade has largely ceased; she has no visitors. I woke up on +my way to Udine and found my train at Venice with an hour to +spare; after much examining and stamping of my passport I was +allowed outside the station wicket to get coffee in the +refreshment room and a glimpse of a very sad and silent Grand +Canal. There was nothing doing; a black despondent remnant of +the old crowd of gondolas browsed dreamily among against the quay +to stare at me the better. The empty palaces seemed to be +sleeping in the morning sunshine because it was not worth while +to wake up.... + + +2 + +Except in the case of Venice, the war does not seem as yet to +have made nearly such a mark upon life in Italy as it has in +England or provincial France. People speak of Italy as a poor +country, but that is from a banker's point of view. In some +respects she is the richest country on earth, and in the matter +of staying power I should think she is better off than any other +belligerent. She produces food in abundance everywhere; her +women are agricultural workers, so that the interruption of food +production by the war has been less serious in Italy than in any +other part of Europe. In peace time, she has constantly exported +labour; the Italian worker has been a seasonal emigrant to +America, north and south, to Switzerland, Germany and the south +of France. The cessation of this emigration has given her great +reserves of man power, so that she has carried on her admirable +campaign with less interference with her normal economic life +than any other power. The first person I spoke to upon the +platform at Modane was a British officer engaged in forwarding +Italian potatoes to the British front in France. Afterwards, on +my return, when a little passport irregularity kept me for half a +day in Modane, I went for a walk with him along the winding pass +road that goes down into France. "You see hundreds and hundreds +of new Fiat cars," he remarked, "along here--going up to the +French front." + +But there is a return trade. Near Paris I saw scores of +thousands of shells piled high to go to Italy.... + +I doubt if English people fully realise either the economic +sturdiness or the political courage of their Italian ally. Italy +is not merely fighting a first-class war in first-class fashion +but she is doing a big, dangerous, generous and far-sighted thing +in fighting at all. France and England were obliged to fight; +the necessity was as plain as daylight. The participation of +Italy demanded a remoter wisdom. In the long run she would have +been swallowed up economically and politically by Germany if she +had not fought; but that was not a thing staring her plainly in +the face as the danger, insult and challenge stared France and +England in the face. What did stare her in the face was not +merely a considerable military and political risk, but the +rupture of very close financial and commercial ties. I found +thoughtful men talking everywhere I have been in Italy of two +things, of the Jugo-Slav riddle and of the question of post war +finance. So far as the former matter goes, I think the Italians +are set upon the righteous solution of all such riddles, they are +possessed by an intelligent generosity. They are clearly set +upon deserving Jugo-Slav friendship; they understand the plain +necessity of open and friendly routes towards Roumania. It was +an Italian who set out to explain to me that Fiume must be at +least a free port; it would be wrong and foolish to cut the trade +of Hungary off from the Mediterranean. But the banking puzzle is +a more intricate and puzzling matter altogether than the +possibility of trouble between Italian and Jugo-Slav. + +I write of these things with the simplicity of an angel, but +without an angelic detachment. Here are questions into which one +does not so much rush as get reluctantly pushed. Currency and +banking are dry distasteful questions, but it is clear that they +are too much in the hands of mystery-mongers; it is as much the +duty of anyone who talks and writes of affairs, it is as much the +duty of every sane adult, to bring his possibly poor and +unsuitable wits to bear upon these things, as it is for him to +vote or enlist or pay his taxes. Behind the simple ostensible +spectacle of Italy recovering the unredeemed Italy of the +Trentino and East Venetia, goes on another drama. Has Italy been +sinking into something rather hard to define called "economic +slavery"? Is she or is she not escaping from that magical +servitude? Before this question has been under discussion for a +minute comes a name--for a time I was really quite unable to +decide whether it is the name of the villain in the piece or of +the maligned heroine, or a secret society or a gold mine, or a +pestilence or a delusion--the name of the /Banca Commerciale +Italiana./ + +Banking in a country undergoing so rapid and vigorous an economic +development as Italy is very different from the banking we simple +English know of at home. Banking in England, like land-owning, +has hitherto been a sort of hold up. There were always +borrowers, there were always tenants, and all that had to be done +was to refuse, obstruct, delay and worry the helpless borrower or +would-be tenant until the maximum of security and profit was +obtained. I have never borrowed but I have built, and I know +something of the extreme hauteur of property of England towards a +man who wants to do anything with land, and with money I gather +the case is just the same. But in Italy, which already possessed +a sunny prosperity of its own upon mediaeval lines, the +banker has had to be suggestive and persuasive, sympathetic and +helpful. These are unaccustomed attitudes for British capital. +The field has been far more attractive to the German banker, who +is less of a proudly impassive usurer and more of a partner, who +demands less than absolute security because he investigates more +industriously and intelligently. This great bank, the Banca +Commerciale Italiana, is a bank of the German type: to begin +with, it was certainly dominated by German directors; it was a +bank of stimulation, and its activities interweave now into the +whole fabric of Italian commercial life. But it has already +liberated itself from German influence, and the bulk of its +capital is Italian. Nevertheless I found discussion ranging +about firstly what the Banca Commerciale essentially /was/, +secondly what it might /become/, thirdly what it might +/do/, and fourthly what, if anything, had to be done to it. + +It is a novelty to an English mind to find banking thus mixed up +with politics, but it is not a novelty in Italy. All over +Venetia there are agricultural banks which are said to be +"clerical." I grappled with this mystery. "How are they +clerical?" I asked Captain Pirelli. "Do they lend money on bad +security to clerical voters, and on no terms whatever to anti- +clericals?" He was quite of my way of thinking. "/Pecunia non +olet/," he said; "I have never yet smelt a clerical fifty lira +note."... But on the other hand Italy is very close to Germany; +she wants easy money for development, cheap coal, a market for +various products. The case against the Germans--this case in +which the Banca Commerciale Italiana appears, I am convinced +unjustly, as a suspect--is that they have turned this natural and +proper interchange with Italy into the acquisition of German +power. That they have not been merely easy traders, but +patriotic agents. It is alleged that they used their early +"pull" in Italian banking to favour German enterprises and German +political influence against the development of native Italian +business; that their merchants are not bona-fide individuals, but +members of a nationalist conspiracy to gain economic controls. +The German is a patriotic monomaniac. He is not a man but a +limb, the worshipper of a national effigy, the digit of an +insanely proud and greedy Germania, and here are the natural +consequences. + +The case of the individual Italian compactly is this: "We do not +like the Austrians and Germans. These Imperialisms look always +over the Alps. Whatever increases German influence here +threatens Italian life. The German is a German first and a human +being afterwards.... But on the other hand England seems +commercially indifferent to us and France has been economically +hostile..." + +"After all," I said presently, after reflection, "in that matter +of /Pecunia non olet/; there used to be fusses about +European loans in China. And one of the favourite themes of +British fiction and drama before the war was the unfortunate +position of the girl who accepted a loan from the wicked man to +pay her debts at bridge." + +"Italy," said Captain Pirelli, "isn't a girl. And she hasn't +been playing bridge." + +I incline on the whole to his point of view. Money is facile +cosmopolitan stuff. I think that any bank that settles down in +Italy is going to be slowly and steadily naturalised Italian, it +will become more and more Italian until it is wholly Italian. I +would trust Italy to make and keep the Banca Commerciale Italiana +Italian. I believe the Italian brain is a better brain than the +German article. But still I heard people talking of the +implicated organisation as if it were engaged in the most +insidious duplicities. "Wait for only a year or so after the +war," said one English authority to me, "and the mask will be off +and it will be frankly a 'Deutsche Bank' once more." They assure +me that then German enterprises will be favoured again, Italian +and Allied enterprises blockaded and embarrassed, the good +understanding of Italians and English poisoned, entirely through +this organisation.... + +The reasonable uncommercial man would like to reject all this +last sort of talk as "suspicion mania." So far as the Banca +Commerciale Italiana goes, I at least find that easy enough; I +quote that instance simply because it is a case where suspicion +has been dispelled, but in regard to a score of other business +veins it is not so easy to dispel suspicion. This war has been a +shock to reasonable men the whole world over. They have been +forced to realise that after all a great number of Germans have +been engaged in a crack-brained conspiracy against the non-German +world; that in a great number of cases when one does business +with a German the business does not end with the individual +German. We hated to believe that a business could be tainted by +German partners or German associations. If now we err on the +side of over-suspicion, it is the German's little weakness for +patriotic disingenuousness that is most to blame.... + +But anyhow I do not think there is much good in a kind of witch- +smelling among Italian enterprises to find the hidden German. +Certain things are necessary for Italian prosperity and Italy +must get them. The Italians want intelligent and helpful +capital. They want a helpful France. They want bituminous coal +for metallurgical purposes. They want cheap shipping. The +French too want metallurgical coal. It is more important for +civilisation, for the general goodwill of the Allies and for +Great Britain that these needs should be supplied than that +individual British money-owners or ship-owners should remain +sluggishly rich by insisting upon high security or high freights. +The control of British coal-mining and shipping is in the +national interests--for international interests--rather than for +the creation of that particularly passive, obstructive, and +wasteful type of wealth, the wealth of the mere profiteer, is as +urgent a necessity for the commercial welfare of France and Italy +and the endurance of the Great Alliance as it is for the well- +being of the common man in Britain. + + +3 + +I left my military guide at Verona on Saturday afternoon and +reached Milan in time to dine outside Salvini's in the Galleria +Vittorio Emanuele, with an Italian fellow story-writer. The +place was as full as ever; we had to wait for a table. It is +notable that there were still great numbers of young men not in +uniform in Milan and Turin and Vicenza and Verona; there was no +effect anywhere of a depletion of men. The whole crowded place +was smouldering with excitement. The diners looked about them as +they talked, some talked loudly and seemed to be expressing +sentiments. Newspaper vendors appeared at the intersection of +the arcades, uttering ambiguous cries, and did a brisk business +of flitting white sheets among the little tables. + +"To-night," said my companion, "I think we shall declare war upon +Germany. The decision is being made." + +I asked intelligently why this had not been done before. I +forget the precise explanation he gave. A young soldier in +uniform, who had been dining at an adjacent table and whom I had +not recognised before as a writer I had met some years previously +in London, suddenly joined in our conversation, with a slightly +different explanation. I had been carrying on a conversation in +slightly ungainly French, but now I relapsed into English. + +But indeed the matter of that declaration of war is as plain as +daylight; the Italian national consciousness has not at first +that direct sense of the German danger that exists in the minds +of the three northern Allies. To the Italian the traditional +enemy is Austria, and this war is not primarily a war for any +other end than the emancipation of Italy. Moreover we have to +remember that for years there has been serious commercial +friction between France and Italy, and considerable mutual +elbowing in North Africa. Both Frenchmen and Italians are +resolute to remedy this now, but the restoration of really +friendly and trustful relations is not to be done in a day. It +has been an extraordinary misfortune for Great Britain that +instead of boldly taking over her shipping from its private +owners and using it all, regardless of their profit, in the +interests of herself and her allies, her government has permitted +so much of it as military and naval needs have not requisitioned +to continue to ply for gain, which the government itself has +shared by a tax on war profits. The Anglophobe elements in +Italian public life have made the utmost of this folly or laxity +in relation more particularly to the consequent dearness of coal +in Italy. They have carried on an amazingly effective campaign +in which this British slackness with the individual profiteer, is +represented as if it were the deliberate greed of the British +state. This certainly contributed very much to fortify Italy's +disinclination to slam the door on the German connection. + +I did my best to make it clear to my two friends that so far from +England exploiting Italy, I myself suffered in exactly the same +way as any Italian, through the extraordinary liberties of our +shipping interest. "I pay as well as you do," I said; "the +shippers' blockade of Great Britain is more effective than the +submarines'. My food, my coal, my petrol are all restricted in +the sacred name of private property. You see, capital in England +has hitherto been not an exploitation but a hold-up. We are +learning differently now.... And anyhow, Mr. Runciman has been +here and given Italy assurances...." + +In the train to Modane this old story recurred again. It is +imperative that English readers should understand clearly how +thoroughly these little matters have been /worked/ by the +enemy. + +Some slight civilities led to a conversation that revealed the +Italian lady in the corner as an Irishwoman married to an +Italian, and also brought out the latent English of a very +charming elderly lady opposite to her. She had heard a speech, a +wonderful speech from a railway train, by "the Lord Runciman." He +had said the most beautiful things about Italy. + +I did my best to echo these beautiful things. + +Then the Irishwoman remarked that Mr. Runciman had not satisfied +everybody. She and her husband had met a minister--I found +afterwards he was one of the members of the late Giolotti +government--who had been talking very loudly and scornfully of +the bargain Italy was making with England. I assured her that +the desire of England was simply to give Italy all that she +needed. + +"But," said the husband casually, "Mr. Runciman is a shipowner." + +I explained that he was nothing of the sort. It was true that he +came of a shipowning family--and perhaps inherited a slight +tendency to see things from a shipowning point of view--but in +England we did not suspect a man on such a score as that. + +"In Italy I think we should," said the husband of the Irish +lady. + + +4 + +This incidental discussion is a necessary part of my impression +of Italy at war. The two western allies and Great Britain in +particular have to remember Italy's economic needs, and to +prepare to rescue them from the blind exploitation of private +profit. They have to remember these needs too, because, if they +are left out of the picture, then it becomes impossible to +understand the full measure of the risk Italy has faced in +undertaking this war for an idea. With a Latin lucidity she has +counted every risk, and with a Latin idealism she has taken her +place by the side of those who fight for a liberal civilisation +against a Byzantine imperialism. + +As I came out of the brightly lit Galleria Vittorio Emanuele into +the darkened Piazza del Duomo I stopped under the arcade and +stood looking up at the shadowy darkness of that great pinnacled +barn, that marble bride-cake, which is, I suppose, the last +southward fortress of the Franco-English Gothic. + +"It was here," said my host, "that we burnt the German stuff." + +"What German stuff?" + +"Pianos and all sorts of things. From the shops. It is +possible, you know, to buy things too cheaply--and to give too +much for the cheapness." + + + +THE WESTERN WAR (SEPTEMBER, 1916) + + +I. RUINS + + +1 + +If I had to present some particular scene as typical of the +peculiar vileness and mischief wrought by this modern warfare +that Germany has elaborated and thrust upon the world, I do not +think I should choose as my instance any of those great +architectural wrecks that seem most to impress contemporary +writers. I have seen the injuries and ruins of the cathedrals at +Arras and Soissons and the wreckage of the great church at Saint +Eloi, I have visited the Hotel de Ville at Arras and seen +photographs of the present state of the Cloth Hall at Ypres--a +building I knew very well indeed in its days of pride--and I have +not been very deeply moved. I suppose that one is a little +accustomed to Gothic ruins, and that there is always something +monumental about old buildings; it is only a question of degree +whether they are more or less tumble-down. I was far more +desolated by the obliteration of such villages as Fricourt and +Dompierre, and by the horrible state of the fields and gardens +round about them, and my visit to Arras railway station gave me +all the sensations of coming suddenly on a newly murdered body. + +Before I visited the recaptured villages in the zone of the +actual fighting, I had an idea that their evacuation was only +temporary, that as soon as the war line moved towards Germany the +people of the devastated villages would return to build their +houses and till their fields again. But I see now that not only +are homes and villages destroyed almost beyond recognition, but +the very fields are destroyed. They are wildernesses of shell +craters; the old worked soil is buried and great slabs of crude +earth have been flung up over it. No ordinary plough will travel +over this frozen sea, let along that everywhere chunks of timber, +horrible tangles of rusting wire, jagged fragments of big shells, +and a great number of unexploded shells are entangled in the +mess. Often this chaos is stained bright yellow by high +explosives, and across it run the twisting trenches and +communication trenches eight, ten, or twelve feet deep. These +will become water pits and mud pits into which beasts will fall. +It is incredible that there should be crops from any of this +region of the push for many years to come. There is no shade +left; the roadside trees are splintered stumps with scarcely the +spirit to put forth a leaf; a few stunted thistles and weeds are +the sole proofs that life may still go on. + +The villages of this wide battle region are not ruined; they are +obliterated. It is just possible to trace the roads in them, +because the roads have been cleared and repaired for the passing +of the guns and ammunition. Fricourt is a tangle of German dug- +outs. One dug-out in particular there promises to become a show +place. It must be the masterpiece of some genius for dug-outs; +it is made as if its makers enjoyed the job; it is like the work +of some horrible badger among the vestiges of what were pleasant +human homes. You are taken down a timbered staircase into its +warren of rooms and passages; you are shown the places under the +craters of the great British shells, where the wood splintered +but did not come in. (But the arrival of those shells must have +been a stunning moment.) There are a series of ingenious bolting +shafts set with iron climbing bars. In this place German +officers and soldiers have lived continually for nearly two +years. This war is, indeed, a troglodytic propaganda. You come +up at last at the far end into what was once a cellar of a decent +Frechman's home. + +But there are stranger subterranean refuges than that at +Fricourt. At Dompierre the German trenches skirted the cemetery, +and they turned the dead out of their vaults and made lurking +places of the tombs. I walked with M. Joseph Reinach about this +place, picking our way carefully amidst the mud holes and the +wire, and watched the shells bursting away over the receding +battle line to the west. The wreckage of the graves was +Durereqsue. And here would be a fragment of marble angle and +here a split stone with an inscription. Splinters of coffins, +rusty iron crosses and the petals of tin flowers were trampled +into the mud, amidst the universal barbed wire. A little +distance down the slope is a brand new cemetery, with new metal +wreaths and even a few flowers; it is a disciplined array of +uniform wooden crosses, each with its list of soldiers' names. +Unless I am wholly mistaken in France no Germans will ever get a +chance for ever more to desecrate that second cemetery as they +have done its predecessor. + +We walked over the mud heaps and litter that had once been houses +towards the centre of Dompierre village, and tried to picture to +ourselves what the place had been. Many things are recognisable +in Dompierre that have altogether vanished at Fricourt; for +instance, there are quire large triangular pieces of the church +wall upstanding at Dompierre. And a mile away perhaps down the +hill on the road towards Amiens, the ruins of the sugar refinery +are very distinct. A sugar refinery is an affair of big iron +receptacles and great flues and pipes and so forth, and iron does +not go down under gun fire as stone or brick does. The whole +fabric wars rust, bent and twisted, gaping with shell holes, that +raggedest display of old iron, but it still kept its general +shape, as a smashed, battered, and sunken ironclad might do at +the bottom of the sea. + +There wasn't a dog left of the former life of Dompierre. There +was not even much war traffic that morning on the worn and muddy +road. The guns muttered some miles away to the west, and a lark +sang. But a little way farther on up the road was an +intermediate dressing station, rigged up with wood and +tarpaulins, and orderlies were packing two wounded men into an +ambulance. The men on the stretchers were grey faced, as though +they had been trodden on by some gigantic dirty boot. + +As we came back towards where our car waited by the cemetery I +heard the jingle of a horseman coming across the space behind us. +I turned and beheld one of the odd contrasts that seem always to +be happening in this incredible war. This man was, I suppose, a +native officer of some cavalry force from French north Africa. +He was a handsome dark brown Arab, wearing a long yellow-white +robe and a tall cap about which ran a band of sheepskin. He was +riding one of those little fine lean horses with long tails that +I think are Barbary horses, his archaic saddle rose fore and aft +of him, and the turned-up toes of his soft leather boots were +stuck into great silver stirrups. He might have ridden straight +out of the Arabian nights. He passed thoughtfully, picking his +way delicately among the wire and the shell craters, and coming +into the road, broke into a canter and vanished in the direction +of the smashed-up refinery. + + +2 + +About such towns as Rheims or Arras or Soissons there is an +effect of waiting stillness like nothing else I have ever +experienced. At Arras the situation is almost incredible to the +civilian mind. The British hold the town, the Germans hold a +northern suburb; at one point near the river the trenches are +just four metres apart. This state of tension has lasted for +long months. + +Unless a very big attack is contemplated, I suppose there is no +advantage in an assault; across that narrow interval we should +only get into trenches that might be costly or impossible to +hold, and so it would be for the Germans on our side. But there +is a kind of etiquette observed; loud vulgar talking on either +side of the four-metre gap leads at once to bomb throwing. And +meanwhile on both sides guns of various calibre keep up an +intermittent fire, the German guns register--I think that is the +right term--on the cross of Arras cathedral, the British guns +search lovingly for the German batteries. As one walks about the +silent streets one hears, "/Bang/---Pheeee---woooo" and then far +away "/dump./" One of ours. Then presently back comes +"Pheeee---woooo---/Bang!/" One of theirs. + +Amidst these pleasantries, the life of the town goes on. /Le +Lion d'Arras/, an excellent illustrated paper, produces its +valiant sheets, and has done so since the siege began. + +The current number of /Le Lion d'Arras/ had to report a +local German success. Overnight they had killed a gendarme. +There is to be a public funeral and much ceremony. It is rare +for anyone now to get killed; everything is so systematised. + +You may buy postcards with views of the destruction at various +angles, and send them off with the Arras postmark. The town is +not without a certain business activity. There is, I am told, a +considerable influx of visitors of a special sort; they wear +khaki and lead the troglodytic life. They play cards and gossip +and sleep in the shadows, and may not walk the streets. I had +one glimpse of a dark crowded cellar. Now and then one sees a +British soldier on some special errand; he keeps to the pavement, +mindful of the spying German sausage balloon in the air. The +streets are strangely quite and grass grows between the stones. + +The Hotel de Ville and the cathedral are now mostly heaps of +litter, but many streets of the town have suffered very little. +Here and there a house has been crushed and one or two have been +bisected, the front reduced to a heap of splinters and the back +halves of the rooms left so that one sees the bed, the hanging +end of the carpet, the clothes cupboard yawning open, the +pictures still on the wall. In one place a lamp stands on a +chest of drawers, on a shelf of floor cut off completely from the +world below.... Pheeee---woooo---/Bang!/ One would be +irresistibly reminded of a Sunday afternoon in the city of +London, if it were not for those unmeaning explosions. + +I went to the station, a dead railway station. A notice-board +requested us to walk around the silent square on the outside +pavement and not across it. The German sausage balloon had not +been up for days; it had probably gone off to the Somme; the +Somme was a terrible vortex just then which was sucking away the +resources of the whole German line; but still discipline is +discipline. The sausage might come peeping up at any moment over +the station roof, and so we skirted the square. Arras was fought +for in the early stages of the war; two lines of sand-bagged +breastworks still run obliquely through the station; one is where +the porters used to put luggage upon cabs and one runs the length +of the platform. The station was a fine one of the modern type, +with a glass roof whose framework still remains, though the glass +powders the floor and is like a fine angular gravel underfoot. +The rails are rails of rust, and cornflowers and mustard and tall +grasses grow amidst the ballast. The waiting-rooms have suffered +from a shell or so, but there are still the sofas of green plush, +askew, a little advertisement hung from the wall, the glass +smashed. The ticket bureau is as if a giant had scattered a +great number of tickets, mostly still done up in bundles, to +Douai, to Valenciennes, to Lens and so on. These tickets are +souvenirs too portable to resist. I gave way to that common +weakness. + +I went out and looked up and down the line; two deserted goods +trucks stood as if they sheltered under a footbridge. The grass +poked out through their wheels. The railway signals seemed +uncertain in their intimations; some were up and some were down. +And it was as still and empty as a summer afternoon in Pompeii. +No train has come into Arras for two long years now. + +We lunched in a sunny garden with various men who love Arras but +are weary of it, and we disputed about Irish politics. We +discussed the political future of Sir F. E. Smith. We also +disputed whether there was an equivalent in English for +/embusque./ Every now and then a shell came over--an +aimless shell. + +A certain liveliness marked our departure from the town. +Possibly the Germans also listen for the rare infrequent +automobile. At any rate, as we were just starting our way back-- +it is improper to mention the exact point from which we started-- +came "Pheeee---woooo." Quite close. But there was no /Bang!/ +One's mind hung expectant and disappointed. It was a dud shell. + +And then suddenly I became acutely aware of the personality of +our chauffeur. It was not his business to talk to us, but he +turned his head, showed a sharp profile, wry lips and a bright +excited eye, and remarked, "/That/ was a near one--anyhow." +He then cut a corner over the pavement and very nearly cut it +through a house. He bumped us over a shell hole and began to +toot his horn. At every gateway, alley, and cross road on this +silent and empty streets of Arras and frequently in between, he +tooted punctiliously. (It is not proper to sound motor horns in +Arras.) I cannot imagine what the listening Germans made of it. +We passed the old gates of that city of fear, still tooting +vehemently, and then with shoulders eloquent of his feelings, our +chauffeur abandoned the horn altogether and put his whole soul +into the accelerator.... + + +3 + +Soissons was in very much the same case as Arras. There was the +same pregnant silence in her streets, the same effect of waiting +for the moment which draws nearer and nearer, when the brooding +German lines away there will be full of the covert activities of +retreat, when the streets of the old town will stir with the +joyous excitement of the conclusive advance. + +The organisation of Soissons for defence is perfect. I may not +describe it, but think of whatever would stop and destroy an +attacking party or foil the hostile shell. It is there. Men +have had nothing else to do and nothing else to think of for two +years. I crossed the bridge the English made in the pursuit +after the Marne, and went into the first line trenches and peeped +towards the invisible enemy. To show me exactly where to look a +seventy-five obliged with a shell. In the crypt of the Abbey of +St. Medard near by it--it must provoke the Germans bitterly to +think that all the rest of the building vanished ages ago--the +French boys sleep beside the bones of King Childebert the Second. +They shelter safely in the prison of Louis the Pious. An +ineffective shell from a German seventy-seven burst in the walled +garden close at hand as I came out from those thousand-year-old +memories again. + +The cathedral at Soissons had not been nearly so completely +smashed up as the one at Arras; I doubt if it has been very +greatly fired into. There is a peculiar beauty in the one long +vertical strip of blue sky between the broken arches in the chief +gap where the wall has tumbled in. And the people are holding on +in many cases exactly as they are doing in Arras; I do not know +whether it is habit or courage that is most apparent in this +persistence. About the chief place of the town there are ruined +houses, but some invisible hand still keeps the grass of the +little garden within bounds and has put out a bed of begonias. +In Paris I met a charming American writer, the wife of a French +artist, the lady who wrote /My House on the Field of +Honour./ She gave me a queer little anecdote. On account of +some hospital work she had been allowed to visit Soissons--a rare +privilege for a woman--and she stayed the night in a lodging. +The room into which she was shown was like any other French +provincial bedroom, and after her Anglo-Saxon habit she walked +straight to the windows to open them. + +They looked exactly like any other French bedroom windows, with +neat, clean white lace curtains across them. The curtains had +been put there, because they were the proper things to put +there. + +"Madame," said the hostess, "need not trouble to open the glass. +There is no more glass in Soissons." + +But there were curtains nevertheless. There was all the precise +delicacy of the neatly curtained home life of France. + +And she told me too of the people at dinner, and how as the +little serving-maid passed about a proud erection of cake and +conserve and cream, came the familiar "Pheeee---woooo--- +/Bang!/" + +"That must have been the Seminaire," said someone. + +As one speaks of the weather or a passing cart. + +"It was in the Rue de la Bueire, M'sieur," the little maid +asserted with quiet conviction, poising the trophy of +confectionery for Madame Huard with an unshaking hand. + +So stoutly do the roots of French life hold beneath the +tramplings of war. + + +II. THE GRADES OF WAR + + +1 +Soissons and Arras when I visited them were samples of the +deadlock war; they were like Bloch come true. The living fact +about war so far is that Bloch has not come true--/yet./ I +think in the end he will come true, but not so far as this war is +concerned, and to make that clear it is necessary to trouble the +reader with a little disquisition upon war--omitting as far as +humanly possible all mention of Napoleon's campaigns. + +The development of war has depended largely upon two factors. +One of these is invention. New weapons and new methods have +become available, and have modified tactics, strategy, the +relative advantage of offensive and defensive. The other chief +factor in the evolution of the war has been social organisation. +As Machiavelli points out in his /Art of War/, there was +insufficient social stability in Europe to keep a properly +trained and disciplined infantry in the field from the passing of +the Roman legions to the appearance of the Swiss footmen. he +makes it very clear that he considers the fighting of the Middle +Ages, though frequent and bloody, to be a confused, mobbing sort +of affair, and politically and technically unsatisfactory. The +knight was an egotist in armour. Machiavelli does small justice +to the English bowmen. It is interesting to note that +Switzerland, that present island of peace, was regarded by him as +the mother of modern war. Swiss aggression was the curse of the +Milanese. That is a remark by the way; our interest here is to +note that modern war emerges upon history as the sixteenth +century unfolds, as an affair in which the essential factor is +the drilled and trained infantryman. The artillery is developing +as a means of breaking the infantry; cavalry for charging them +when broken, for pursuit and scouting. To this day this triple +division of forces dominates soldiers' minds. The mechanical +development of warfare has consisted largely in the development +of facilities for enabling or hindering the infantry to get to +close quarters. As that has been made easy or difficult the +offensive or the defensive has predominated. + +A history of military method for the last few centuries would be +a record of successive alternate steps in which offensive and +defensive contrivances pull ahead, first one and then the other. +Their relative fluctuations are marked by the varying length of +campaigns. From the very outset we have the ditch and the wall; +the fortified place upon a pass or main road, as a check to the +advance. Artillery improves, then fortification improves. The +defensive holds its own for a long period, wars are mainly siege +wars, and for a century before the advent of Napoleon there are +no big successful sweeping invasions, no marches upon the enemy +capital and so on. There were wars of reduction, wars of +annoyance. Napoleon developed the offensive by seizing upon the +enthusiastic infantry of the republic, improving transport and +mobile artillery, using road-making as an aggressive method. In +spite of the successful experiment of Torres Vedras and the +warning of Plevna the offensive remained dominant throughout the +nineteenth century. + +But three things were working quietly towards the rehabilitation +of the defensive; firstly the increased range, accuracy and +rapidity of rifle fire, with which we may include the development +of the machine gun; secondly the increasing use of the spade, and +thirdly the invention of barbed wire. By the end of the century +these things had come so far into military theory as to produce +the great essay of Bloch, and to surprise the British military +people, who are not accustomed to read books or talk shop, in the +Boer war. In the thinly populated war region of South Africa the +difficulties of forcing entrenched positions were largely met by +outflanking, the Boers had only a limited amount of barbed wire +and could be held down in their trenches by shrapnel, and even at +the beginning of the present war there can be little doubt that +we and our Allies were still largely unprepared for the full +possibilities of trench warfare, we attempted a war of +manoeuvres, war at about the grade to which war had been +brought in 1898, and it was the Germans who first brought the war +up to date by entrenching upon the Aisne. We had, of course, a +few aeroplanes at that time, but they were used chiefly as a sort +of accessory cavalry for scouting; our artillery was light and +our shell almost wholly shrapnel. + +Now the grades of warfare that have been developed since the +present war began, may be regarded as a series of elaborations +and counter elaborations of the problem which begins as a line of +trenches behind wire, containing infantry with rifles and machine +guns. Against this an infantry attack with bayonet, after +shrapnel fails. This we will call Grade A. To this the +offensive replies with improved artillery, and particularly with +high explosive shell instead of shrapnel. By this the wire is +blown away, the trench wrecked and the defender held down as the +attack charges up. This is Grade B. But now appear the dug-out +elaborating the trench and the defensive battery behind the +trench. The defenders, under the preliminary bombardment, get +into the dug-outs with their rifles and machine guns, and emerge +as fresh as paint as the attack comes up. Obviously there is +much scope for invention and contrivance in the dug-out as the +reservoir of counter attacks. Its possibilities have been very +ably exploited by the Germans. Also the defensive batteries +behind, which have of course the exact range of the captured +trench, concentrate on it and destroy the attack at the moment of +victory. The trench falls back to its former holders under this +fire and a counter attack. Check again for the offensive. Even +if it can take, it cannot hold a position under these conditions. +This we will call Grade A2; a revised and improved A. What is +the retort from the opposite side? Obviously to enhance and +extend the range of the preliminary bombardment behind the actual +trench line, to destroy or block, if it can, the dug-outs and +destroy or silence the counter offensive artillery. If it can do +that, it can go on; otherwise Bloch wins. + +If fighting went on only at ground level Bloch would win at this +stage, but here it is that the aeroplane comes in. From the +ground it would be practically impossible to locate the enemies' +dug-outs, secondary defences, and batteries. But the aeroplane +takes us immediately into a new grade of warfare, in which the +location of the defender's secondary trenches, guns, and even +machine-gun positions becomes a matter of extreme precision-- +provided only that the offensive has secured command of the air +and can send his aeroplanes freely over the defender lines. Then +the preliminary bombardment becomes of a much more extensive +character; the defender's batteries are tackled by the +overpowering fire of guns they are unable to locate and answer; +the secondary dug-outs and strong places are plastered down, a +barrage fire shuts off support from the doomed trenches, the men +in these trenches are held down by a concentrated artillery fire +and the attack goes up at last to hunt them out of the dug-outs +and collect the survivors. Until the attack is comfortably +established in the captured trench, the fire upon the old counter +attack position goes on. This is the grade, Grade B2, to which +modern warfare has attained upon the Somme front. The appearance +of the Tank has only increased the offensive advantage. There at +present warfare rests. + +There is, I believe, only one grade higher possible. The success +of B2 depends upon the completeness of the aerial observation. +The invention of an anti-aircraft gun which would be practically +sure of hitting and bringing down an aeroplane at any height +whatever up to 20,000 feet, would restore the defensive and +establish what I should think must be the final grade of war, A3. +But at present nothing of the sort exists and nothing of the sort +is likely to exist for a very long time; at present hitting an +aeroplane by any sort of gun at all is a rare and uncertain +achievement. Such a gun is not impossible and therefore we must +suppose such a gun will some day be constructed, but it will be +of a novel type and character, unlike anything at present in +existence. The grade of fighting that I was privileged to +witness on the Somme, the grade at which a steady successful +offensive is possible, is therefore, I conclude, the grade at +which the present war will end. + + +2 + +But now having thus spread out the broad theory of the business, +let me go on to tell some of the actualities of the Somme +offensive. They key fact upon both British and French fronts was +the complete ascendancy of the Allies aeroplanes. It is the +necessary preliminary condition for the method upon which the +great generals of the French army rely in this sanitary task of +shoving the German Thing off the soil of Belgium and France back +into its own land. A man who is frequently throwing out +prophecies is bound to score a few successes, and one that I may +legitimately claim is my early insistence upon that fact that the +equality of the German aviator was likely to be inferior to that +of his French or British rival. The ordinary German has neither +the flexible quality of body, the quickness of nerve, the +temperament, nor the mental habits that make a successful +aviator. This idea was first put into my head by considering the +way in which Germans walk and carry themselves, and by nothing +the difference in nimbleness between the cyclists in the streets +of German and French towns. It was confirmed by a conversation I +had with a German aviator who was also a dramatist, and who came +to see me upon some copyright matter in 1912. He broached the +view that aviation would destroy democracy, because he said only +aristocrats make aviators. (He was a man of good family.) With a +duke or so in my mind I asked him why. Because, he explained, a +man without aristocratic quality in tradition, cannot possibly +endure the "high loneliness" of the air. That sounded rather +like nonsense at the time, and then I reflected that for a +Prussian that might be true. There may be something in the +German composition that does demand association and the support +of pride and training before dangers can be faced. The Germans +are social and methodical, the French and English are by +comparison chaotic and instinctive; perhaps the very readiness +for a conscious orderliness that makes the German so formidable +upon the ground, so thorough and fore-seeking, makes him slow and +unsure in the air. At any rate the experiences of this war have +seemed to carry out this hypothesis. The German aviators will +not as a class stand up to those of the Allies. They are not +nimble in the air. Such champions as they have produced have +been men of one trick; one of their great men, Immelmann--he was +put down by an English boy a month or so ago--had a sort of +hawk's swoop. He would go very high and then come down at his +utmost pace at his antagonist, firing his machine gun at him as +he came. If he missed in this hysterical lunge, he went on +down.... This does not strike the Allied aviator as very +brilliant. A gentleman of that sort can sooner or later be +caught on the rise by going for him over the German +lines. + +The first phase, then, of the highest grade offensive, the +ultimate development of war regardless of expense, is the +clearance of the air. Such German machines as are up are put +down by fighting aviators. These last fly high; in the clear +blue of the early morning they look exactly like gnats; some +trail a little smoke in the sunshine; they take their machine +guns in pursuit over the German lines, and the German anti- +aircraft guns, the Archibalds, begin to pattern the sky about +them with little balls of black smoke. From below one does not +see men nor feel that men are there; it is as if it were an +affair of midges. Close after the fighting machines come the +photographic aeroplanes, with cameras as long as a man is high, +flying low--at four or five thousand feet that is--over the enemy +trenches. The Archibald leaves these latter alone; it cannot +fire a shell to explode safely so soon after firing; but they are +shot at with rifles and machine guns. They do not mind being +shot at; only the petrol tank and the head and thorax of the +pilot are to be considered vital. They will come back with forty +or fifty bullet holes in the fabric. They will go under this +fire along the length of the German positions exposing plate +after plate; one machine will get a continuous panorama of many +miles and then come back straight to the aerodrome to develop its +plates. + +There is no waste of time about the business, the photographs are +developed as rapidly as possible. Within an hour and a half +after the photographs were taken the first prints are going back +into the bureau for the examination of the photographs. Both +British and French air photographs are thoroughly scrutinised and +marked. + +An air photograph to an inexperienced eye is not a very +illuminating thing; one makes our roads, blurs of wood, and +rather vague buildings. But the examiner has an eye that has +been in training; he is a picked man; he has at hand yesterday's +photographs and last week's photographs, marked maps and all +sorts of aids and records. If he is a Frenchman he is only too +happy to explain his ideas and methods. Here, he will point out, +is a little difference between the German trench beyond the wood +since yesterday. For a number of reasons he thinks that will be +a new machine gun emplacement; here at the centre of the farm +wall they have been making another. This battery here--isn't it +plain? Well, it's a dummy. The grass in front of it hasn't been +scorched, and there's been no serious wear on the road here for a +week. Presently the Germans will send one or two waggons up and +down that road and instruct them to make figures of eight to +imitate scorching on the grass in front of the gun. We know all +about that. The real wear on the road, compare this and this and +this, ends here at this spot. It turns off into the wood. +There's a sort of track in the trees. Now look where the trees +are just a little displaced! (This lens is rather better for +that.) /That's/ one gun. You see? Here, I will show you +another.... + +That process goes on two or three miles behind the front line. +Very clean young men in white overalls do it as if it were a +labour of love. And the Germans in the trenches, the German +gunners, /know it is going on./ They know that in the +quickest possible way these observations of the aeroplane that +was over them just now will go to the gunners. The careful +gunner, firing by the map and marking by aeroplane, kite balloon +or direct observation, will be getting onto the located guns and +machine guns in another couple of hours. The French claim that +they have located new batteries, got their /tir de +demolition/ upon them in and destroyed them within five +hours. The British I told of that found it incredible. Every +day the French print special maps showing the guns, sham guns, +trenches, everything of significance behind the German lines, +showing everything that has happened in the last four-and-twenty +hours. It is pitiless. It is indecent. The map-making and +printing goes on in the room next and most convenient to the +examination of the photographs. And, as I say, the German army +knows of this, and knows that it cannot prevent it because of its +aerial weakness. That knowledge is not the last among the forces +that is crumpling up the German resistance upon the Somme. + +I visited some French guns during the /tir de +demolition/ phase. I counted nine aeroplanes and +twenty-six kite balloons in the air at the same time. There was +nothing German visible in the air at all. + +It is a case of eyes and no eyes. + +The French attack resolves itself into a triple system of gun- +fire. First for a day or so, or two or three days, there is +demolition fire to smash up all the exactly located batteries, +organisation, supports, behind the front line enemy trenches; +then comes barrage fire to cut off supplies and reinforcements; +then, before the advance, the hammering down fire, "heads down," +upon the trenches. When at last this stops and the infantry goes +forward to rout out the trenches and the dug-outs, they go +forward with a minimum of inconvenience. The first wave of +attack fights, destroys, or disarms the surviving Germans and +sends them back across the open to the French trenches. They run +as fast as they can, hands up, and are shepherded farther back. +The French set to work to turn over the captured trenches and +organise themselves against any counter attack that may face the +barrage fire. + +That is the formula of the present fighting, which the French +have developed. After an advance there is a pause, while the +guns move up nearer the Germans and fresh aeroplane +reconnaissance goes on. Nowhere on this present offensive has a +German counter attack had more than the most incidental success; +and commonly they have had frightful losses. Then after a few +days of refreshment and accumulation, the Allied attack resumes. + +That is the perfected method of the French offensive. I had the +pleasure of learning its broad outlines in good company, in the +company of M. Joseph Reinach and Colonel Carence, the military +writer. Their talk together and with me in the various messes at +which we lunched was for the most part a keen discussion of every +detail and every possibility of the offensive machine; every +French officer's mess seems a little council upon the one supreme +question in France, /how to do it best./ M. Reinach has +made certain suggestions about the co-operation of the French and +British that I will discuss elsewhere, but one great theme was +the constitution of "the ideal battery." For years French +military thought has been acutely attentive to the best number of +guns for effective common action, and has tended rather to the +small battery theory. My two companies were playing with the +idea that the ideal battery was a battery of one big gun, with +its own aeroplane and kite balloon marking for it. + +The British seem to be associated with the adventurous self- +reliance needed in the air. The British aeroplanes do not simply +fight the Germans out of the sky; they also make themselves an +abominable nuisance by bombing the enemy trenches. For every +German bomb that is dropped by aeroplane on or behind the British +lines, about twenty go down on the heads of the Germans. British +air bombs upon guns, stores and communications do some of the +work that the French effect by their systematic demolition fire. + +And the British aviator has discovered and is rapidly developing +an altogether fresh branch of air activity in the machine-gun +attack at a very low altitude. Originally I believe this was +tried in western Egypt, but now it is being increasingly used +upon the British front in France. An aeroplane which comes down +suddenly, travelling very rapidly, to a few hundred feet, is +quite hard to hit, even if it is not squirting bullets from a +machine gun as it advances. Against infantry in the open this +sort of thing is extremely demoralising. It is a method of +attack still in its infancy, but there are great possibilities +for it in the future, when the bending and cracking German line +gives, as ultimately it must give if this offensive does not +relax. If the Allies persist in their pressure upon the western +front, if there is no relaxation in the supply of munitions from +Britain and no lapse into tactical stupidity, a German retreat +eastward is inevitable. + +Now a cavalry pursuit alone may easily come upon disaster, +cavalry can be so easily held up by wire and a few machine guns. +I think the Germans have reckoned on that and on automobiles, +probably only the decay of their /morale/ prevents their +opening their lines now on the chance of the British attempting +some such folly as a big cavalry advance, but I do not think the +Germans have reckoned on the use of machine guns in aeroplanes, +supported by and supporting cavalry or automobiles. At the +present time I should imagine there is no more perplexing +consideration amidst the many perplexities of the German military +intelligence than the new complexion put upon pursuit by these +low level air developments. It may mean that in all sorts of +positions where they had counted confidently on getting away, +they may not be able to get away--from the face of a scientific +advance properly commanding and using modern material in a +dexterous and intelligent manner. + + +III. THE WAR LANDSCAPE + + +1 + +I saw rather more of the British than of the French aviators +because of the vileness of the weather when I visited the latter. +It is quite impossible for me to institute comparisons between +these two services. I should think that the British organisation +I saw would be hard to beat, and that none but the French could +hope to beat it. On the Western front the aviation has been +screwed up to a very much higher level than on the Italian line. +In Italy it has not become, as it has in France, the decisive +factor. The war on the Carso front in Italy--I say nothing of +the mountain warfare, which is a thing in itself--is in fact +still in the stage that I have called B. It is good warfare well +waged, but not such an intensity of warfare. It has not, as one +says of pianos and voices, the same compass. + +This is true in spite of the fact that the Italians along of all +the western powers have adopted a type of aeroplane larger and +much more powerful than anything except the big Russian machines. +They are not at all suitable for any present purpose upon the +Italian front, but at a later stage, when the German is retiring +and Archibald no longer searches the air, they would be +invaluable on the western front because of their enormous bomb or +machine gun carrying capacity. "But sufficient for the day is +the swat thereof," as the British public schoolboy says, and no +doubt we shall get them when we have sufficiently felt the need +for them. The big Caproni machines which the Italians possess +are of 300 h.p. and will presently be of 500h.p. One gets up a +gangway into them was one gets into a yacht; they wave a main +deck, a forward machine gun deck and an aft machine gun; one may +walk about in them; in addition to guns and men they carry a very +considerable weight of bombs beneath. They cannot of course +beget up with the speed nor soar to the height of our smaller +aeroplanes; it is as carriers in raids behind a force of fighting +machines that they should find their use. + +The British establishment I visited was a very refreshing and +reassuring piece of practical organisation. The air force of +Great Britain has had the good fortune to develop with +considerable freedom from old army tradition; many of its +officers are ex-civil engineers and so forth; Headquarters is a +little shy of technical direction; and all this in a service that +is still necessarily experimental and plastic is to the good. +There is little doubt that, given a release from prejudice, bad +associations and the equestrian tradition, British technical +intelligence and energy can do just as well as the French. Our +problem with our army is not to create intelligence, there is an +abundance of it, but to release it from a dreary social and +official pressure. The air service ransacks the army for men +with technical training and sees that it gets them, there is a +real keenness upon the work, and the men in these great mobile +hangars talk shop readily and clearly. + +I have already mentioned and the newspapers have told abundantly +of the pluck, daring, and admirable work of our aviators; what is +still untellable in any detail is the energy and ability of the +constructive and repairing branch upon whose efficiency their +feats depend. Perhaps the most interesting thing I saw in +connection with the air work was the hospital for damaged +machines and the dump to which those hopelessly injured are +taken, in order that they may be disarticulated and all that is +sound in them used for reconstruction. How excellently this work +is being done may be judged from the fact that our offensive in +July started with a certain number of aeroplanes, a number that +would have seemed fantastic in a story a year before the war +began. These aeroplanes were in constant action; they fought, +they were shot down, they had their share of accidents. Not only +did the repair department make good every loss, but after three +weeks of the offensive the army was fighting with fifty more +machines than at the outset. One goes through a vast +Rembrandtesque shed opening upon a great sunny field, in whose +cool shadows rest a number of interesting patients; captured and +slightly damaged German machines, machines of our own with scars +of battle upon them, one or two cases of bad landing. The star +case came over from Peronne. It had come in two days ago. + +I examined this machine and I will tell the state it was in, but +I perceive that what I have to tell will read not like a sober +statement of truth but like strained and silly lying. The +machine had had a direct hit from an Archibald shell. The +propeller had been clean blown away; so had the machine gun and +all its fittings. The engines had been stripped naked and a good +deal bent about. The timber stay over the aviator had been +broken, so that it is marvellous the wings of the machine did not +just up at once like the wings of a butterfly. The solitary +aviator had been wounded in the face. He had then come down in a +long glide into the British lines, and made a tolerable +landing.... + + +2 + +One consequence of the growing importance of the aeroplane in +warfare is the development of a new military art, the art of +camouflage. Camouflage is humbugging disguise, it is making +things--and especially in this connection, military things--seem +not what they are, but something peaceful and rural, something +harmless and quite uninteresting to aeroplane observers. It is +the art of making big guns look like haystacks and tents like +level patches of field. + +Also it includes the art of making attractive models of guns, +camps, trenches and the like that are not bona-fide guns, camps, +or trenches at all, so that the aeroplane bomb-dropper and the +aeroplane observer may waste his time and energies and the enemy +gunfire be misdirected. In Italy I saw dummy guns so made as to +deceive the very elect at a distance of a few thousand feet. The +camouflage of concealment aims either at invisibility or +imitation; I have seen a supply train look like a row of +cottages, its smoke-stack a chimney, with the tops of sham +palings running along the back of the engine and creepers painted +up its sides. But that was a flight of the imagination; the +commonest camouflage is merely to conceal. Trees are brought up +and planted near the object to be hidden, it is painted in the +same tones as its background, it is covered with an awning +painted to look like grass or earth. I suppose it is only a +matter of development before a dummy cow or so is put up to chew +the cud on the awning. + +But camouflage or no camouflage, the bulk of both the French and +British forces in the new won ground of the great offensive lay +necessarily in the open. Only the big guns and the advanced Red +Cross stations had got into pits and subterranean hiding places. +The advance has been too rapid and continuous for the armies to +make much of a toilette as they halted, and the destruction and +the desolation of the country won afforded few facilities for +easy concealment. Tents, transport, munitions, these all +indicated an army on the march--at the rate of half a mile in a +week or so, to Germany. If the wet and mud of November and +December have for a time delayed that advance, the force behind +has but accumulated for the resumption of the thrust. + + +3 + +A journey up from the base to the front trenches shows an +interesting series of phases. One leaves Amiens, in which the +normal life threads its way through crowds of resting men in +khaki and horizon blue, in which staff officers in automobiles +whisk hither and thither, in which there are nurses and even a +few inexplicable ladies in worldly costume, in which restaurants +and cafes are congested and busy, through which there is a +perpetual coming and going of processions of heavy vans to the +railway sidings. One dodges past a monstrous blue-black gun +going up to the British front behind two resolute traction +engines--the three sun-blistered young men in the cart that +trails behind lounge in attitudes of haughty pride that would +shame the ceiling gods of Hampton Court. One passes through +arcades of waiting motor vans, through arcades of waiting motor +vans, through suburbs still more intensely khaki or horizon blue, +and so out upon the great straight poplar-edged road--to the +front. Sometimes one laces through spates of heavy traffic, +sometimes the dusty road is clear ahead, now we pass a vast +aviation camp, now a park of waiting field guns, now an +encampment of cavalry. One turns aside, and abruptly one is in +France--France as one knew it before the war, on a shady +secondary road, past a delightful chateau behind its iron gates, +past a beautiful church, and then suddenly we are in a village +street full of stately Indian soldiers. + +It betrays no military secret to say that commonly the rare +tourist to the British offensive passes through Albert, with its +great modern red cathedral smashed to pieces and the great gilt +Madonna and Child that once surmounted the tower now, as everyone +knows, hanging out horizontally in an attitude that irresistibly +suggests an imminent dive upon the passing traveller. One looks +right up under it. + +Presently we begin to see German prisoners. The whole lot look +entirely contented, and are guarded by perhaps a couple of men in +khaki. These German prisoners do not attempt to escape, they +have not the slightest desire for any more fighting, they have +done their bit, they say, honour is satisfied; they give +remarkably little trouble. A little way further on perhaps we +pass their cage, a double barbed-wire enclosure with a few tents +and huts within. + +A string of covered waggons passes by. I turn and see a number +of men sitting inside and looking almost as cheerful as a +beanfeast in Epping Forest. the make facetious gestures. They +have a subdued sing-song going on. But one of them looks a +little sick, and then I notice not very obtrusive bandages. +"Sitting-up cases," my guide explains. + +These are part of the casualties of last night's fight. + +The fields on either side are now more evidently in the war zone. +The array of carts, the patches of tents, the coming and going of +men increases. But here are three women harvesting, and +presently in a cornfield are German prisoners working under one +old Frenchman. Then the fields become trampled again. Here is a +village, not so very much knocked about, and passing through it +we go slowly beside a long column of men going up to the front. +We scan their collars for signs of some familiar regiment. These +are new men going up for the first time; there is a sort of +solemn elation in many of their faces. + +The men coming down are usually smothered in mud or dust, and +unless there has been a fight they look pretty well done up. +They stoop under their equipment, and some of the youngsters +drag. One pleasant thing about this coming down is the welcome +of the regimental band, which is usually at work as soon as the +men turn off from the high road. I hear several bands on the +British front; they do much to enhance the general cheerfulness. +On one of these days of my tour I had the pleasure of seeing the +---th Blankshires coming down after a fight. As we drew near I +saw that they combined an extreme muddiness with an unusual +elasticity. They all seemed to be looking us in the face instead +of being too fagged to bother. Then I noticed a nice grey helmet +dangling from one youngster's bayonet, in fact his eye directed +me to it. A man behind him had a black German helmet of the type +best known in English illustrations; then two more grey appeared. +The catch of helmets was indeed quite considerable. Then I +perceived on the road bank above and marching parallel with this +column, a double file of still muddier Germans. Either they wore +caps or went bare-headed. There were no helmets among them. We +do not rob our prisoners but--a helmet is a weapon. Anyhow, it +is an irresistible souvenir. + +Now and then one sees afar off an ammunition dump, many hundreds +of stacks of shells--without their detonators as yet--being +unloaded from railway trucks, transferred from the broad gauge to +the narrow gauge line, or loaded onto motor trolleys. Now and +then one crosses a railway line. The railway lines run +everywhere behind the British front, the construction follows the +advance day by day. They go up as fast as the guns. One's guide +remarks as the car bumps over the level crossing, "That is one of +Haig's railways." It is an aspect of the Commander-in-Chief that +has much impressed and pleased the men. And at last we begin to +enter the region of the former Allied trenches, we pass the old +German front line, we pass ruined houses, ruined fields, and +thick patches of clustering wooden crosses and boards where the +dead of the opening assaults lie. There are no more reapers now, +there is no more green upon the fields, there is no green +anywhere, scarcely a tree survives by the roadside, but only +overthrown trunks and splintered stumps; the fields are +wildernesses of shell craters and coarse weeds, the very woods +are collections of blasted stems and stripped branches. This +absolutely ravaged and ruined battlefield country extends now +along the front of the Somme offensive for a depth of many miles; +across it the French and British camps and batteries creep +forward, the stores, the dumps, the railways creep forward, in +their untiring, victorious thrust against the German lines. +Overhead hum and roar the aeroplanes, away towards the enemy the +humped, blue sausage-shaped kite balloons brood thoughtfully, and +from this point and that, guns, curiously invisible until they +speak, flash suddenly and strike their one short hammer-blow of +sound. + +Then one sees an enemy shell drop among the little patch of trees +on the crest to the right, and kick up a great red-black mass of +smoke and dust. We see it, and then we hear the whine of its +arrival and at last the bang. The Germans are blind now, they +have lost the air, they are firing by guesswork and their +knowledge of the abandoned territory. + +"They think they have got divisional headquarters there," someone +remarks.... "They haven't. But they keep on." + +In this zone where shells burst the wise automobile stops and +tucks itself away as inconspicuously as possible close up to a +heap of ruins. There is very little traffic on the road now +except for a van or so that hurries up, unloads, and gets back as +soon as possible. Mules and men are taking the stuff the rest of +the journey. We are in a flattened village, all undermined by +dug-outs that were in the original German second line. We report +ourselves to a young troglodyte in one of these, and are given a +guide, and so set out on the last part of the journey to the +ultimate point, across the land of shell craters and barbed wire +litter and old and new trenches. We have all put on British +steel helmets, hard but heavy and inelegant head coverings. I +can write little that is printable about these aesthetic crimes. +The French and German helmets are noble and beautiful things. +These lumpish /pans./.. + +They ought to be called by the name of the man who designed +them. + +Presently we are advised to get into a communication trench. It +is not a very attractive communication trench, and we stick to +our track across the open. Three or four shells shiver overhead, +but we decide they are British shells, going out. We reach a +supporting trench in which men are waiting in a state of nearly +insupportable boredom for the midday stew, the one event of +interest in a day-long vigil. Here we are told imperatively to +come right in at once, and we do. + +All communication trenches are tortuous and practically endless. +On an offensive front they have vertical sides of unsupported +earth and occasional soakaways for rain, covered by wooden +gratings, and they go on and on and on. At rare intervals they +branch, and a notice board says "To Regent Street," or "To Oxford +Street," or some such lie. It is all just trench. For a time +you talk, but talking in single file soon palls. You cease to +talk, and trudge. A great number of telephone wires come into +the trench and cross and recross it. You cannot keep clear of +them. Your helmet pings against them and they try to remove it. +Sometimes you have to stop and crawl under wires. Then you +wonder what the trench is like in really wet weather. You hear a +shell burst at no great distance. You pass two pages of /The +Strand Magazine./ Perhaps thirty yards on you pass a +cigarette end. After these sensational incidents the trench +quiets down again and continues to wind endlessly--just a sandy, +extremely narrow vertical walled trench. A giant crack. + +At last you reach the front line trench. On an offensive sector +it has none of the architectural interest of first line trenches +at such places as Soissons or Arras. It was made a week or so +ago by joining up shell craters, and if all goes well we move +into the German trench along by the line of scraggy trees, at +which we peep discreetly, to-morrow night. We can peep +discreetly because just at present our guns are putting shrapnel +over the enemy at the rate of about three shells a minute, the +puffs follow each other up and down the line, and no Germans are +staring out to see us. + +The Germans "strafed" this trench overnight, and the men are +tired and sleepy. Our guns away behind us are doing their best +now to give them a rest by strafing the Germans. One or two men +are in each forward sap keeping a look out; the rest sleep, a +motionless sleep, in the earthy shelter pits that have been +scooped out. One officer sits by a telephone under an earth- +covered tarpaulin, and a weary man is doing the toilet of a +machine gun. We go on to a shallow trench in which we must +stoop, and which has been badly knocked about.... Here we have +to stop. The road to Berlin is not opened up beyond this point. + +My companion on this excursion is a man I have admired for years +and never met until I came out to see the war, a fellow writer. +He is a journalist let loose. Two-thirds of the junior British +officers I met on this journey were really not "army men" at all. +One finds that the apparent subaltern is really a musician, or a +musical critic, or an Egyptologist, or a solicitor, or a cloth +manufacturer, or a writer. At the outbreak of the war my guide +dyed his hair to conceal its tell-tale silver, and having been +laughed to scorn by the ordinary recruiting people, enlisted in +the sportsmen's battalion. He was wounded, and then the +authorities discovered that he was likely to be of more use with +a commission and drew him, in spite of considerable resistance, +out of the firing line. To which he always returns whenever he +can get a visitor to take with him as an excuse. He now stood +up, fairly high and clear, explaining casually that the Germans +were no longer firing, and showed me the points of interest. + +I had come right up to No Man's Land at last. It was under my +chin. The skyline, the last skyline before the British could +look down on Bapaume, showed a mangy wood and a ruined village, +crouching under repeated gobbings of British shrapnel. "They've +got a battery just there, and we're making it uncomfortable." No +Man's Land itself is a weedy space broken up by shell craters, +with very little barbed wire in front of us and very little in +front of the Germans. "They've got snipers in most of the +craters, and you see them at twilight hopping about from one to +the other." We have very little wire because we don't mean to +stay for very long in this trench, but the Germans have very +little wire because they have not been able to get it up yet. +They never will get it up now.... + +I had been led to believe that No Man's Land was littered with +the unburied dead, but I saw nothing of the sort at this place. +There had been no German counter attack since our men came up +here. But at one point as we went along the trench there was a +dull stench. "Germans, I think," said my guide, though I did not +see how he could tell. + +He looked at his watch and remarked reluctantly, "If you start at +once, you may just do it." + +I wanted to catch the Boulogne boat. It was then just past one +in the afternoon. We met the stew as we returned along the +communication trench, and it smelt very good indeed.... We +hurried across the great spaces of rusty desolation upon which +every now and again a German shell was bursting.... + +That night I was in my flat in London. I had finished reading +the accumulated letters of some weeks, and I was just going +comfortably to bed. + + +IV. NEW ARMS FOR OLD ONES + + +1 + +Such are the landscapes and method of modern war. It is more +difficult in its nature from war as it was waged in the +nineteenth century than that was from the nature of the phalanx +or the legion. The nucleus fact--when I talked to General Joffre +he was very insistent upon this point--is still as ever the +ordinary fighting man, but all the accessories and conditions of +his personal encounter with the fighting man of the other side +have been revolutionised in a quarter of a century. The fighting +together in a close disciplined order, shoulder to shoulder, +which has held good for thousands of years as the best and most +successful fighting, has been destroyed; the idea of +/breaking/ infantry formation as the chief offensive +operation has disappeared, the cavalry charge and the cavalry +pursuit are as obsolete as the cross-bow. The modern fighting +man is as individualised as a half back or a centre forward in a +football team. Personal fighting has become "scrapping" again, +an individual adventure with knife, club, bomb, revolver or +bayonet. In this war we are working out things instead of +thinking them out, and these enormous changes are still but +imperfectly apprehended. The trained and specialised military +man probably apprehends them as feebly as anyone. + +This is a thing that I want to state as emphatically as possible. +It is the pith of the lesson I have learnt at the front. The +whole method of war has been so altered in the past five and +twenty years as to make it a new and different process +altogether. Much the larger part of this alteration has only +become effective in the last two years. Everyone is a beginner +at this new game; everyone is experimenting and learning. + +The idea has been put admirably by /Punch./ That excellent +picture of the old-fashioned sergeant who complains to his +officer of the new recruit; "'E's all right in the trenches, Sir; +'e's all right at a scrap; but 'e won't never make a soldier," is +the quintessence of everything I am saying here. And were there +not the very gravest doubts about General Smuts in British +military circles because he had "had no military training"? A +Canadian expressed the new view very neatly on being asked, in +consequence of a deficient salute, whether he wanted to be a +soldier, by saying, "Not I! I want to be a fighter!" + +The professional officer of the old dispensation was a man +specialised in relation to one of the established "arms." He was +an infantryman, a cavalryman, a gunner or an engineer. It will +be interesting to trace the changes that have happened to all +these arms. + +Before this war began speculative writers had argued that +infantry drill in close formation had now no fighting value +whatever, that it was no doubt extremely necessary for the +handling, packing, forwarding and distribution of men, but that +the ideal infantry fighter was now a highly individualised and +self-reliant man put into a pit with a machine gun, and supported +by a string of other men bringing him up supplies and ready to +assist him in any forward rush that might be necessary. + +The opening phases of the war seemed to contradict this. It did +not at first suit the German game to fight on this most modern +theory, and isolated individual action is uncongenial to the +ordinary German temperament and opposed to the organised social +tendencies of German life. To this day the Germans attack only +in close order; they are unable to produce a real modern infantry +for aggressive purposes, and it is a matter of astonishment to +military minds on the English side that our hastily trained new +armies should turn out to be just as good at the new fighting as +the most "seasoned troops." But there is no reason whatever why +they should not be. "Leading," in the sense of going ahead of +the men and making them move about mechanically at the word of +command, has ceased. On the British side our magnificent new +subalterns and our equally magnificent new non-commissioned +officers play the part of captains of football teams; they talk +their men individually into an understanding of the job before +them; they criticise style and performance. On the French side +things have gone even farther. Every man in certain attacks has +been given a large scale map of the ground over which he has to +go, and has had his own individual job clearly marked and +explained to him. All the Allied infantrymen tend to become +specialised, as bombers, as machine-gun men, and so on. The +unspecialised common soldier, the infantryman who has stood and +marched and moved in ranks and ranks, the "serried lines of men," +who are the main substance of every battle story for the last +three thousand years, are as obsolete as the dodo. The rifle and +bayonet very probably are becoming obsolete too. Knives and +clubs and revolvers serve better in the trenches. The krees and +the Roman sword would be as useful. The fine flourish of the +bayonet is only possible in the rare infrequent open. Even the +Zulu assegai would serve as well. + +The two operations of the infantry attack now are the rush and +the "scrap." These come after the artillery preparation. Against +the rush, the machine gun is pitted. The machine gun becomes +lighter and more and more controllable by one man; as it does so +the days of the rifle draw to a close. Against the machine gun +we are now directing the "Tank," which goes ahead and puts out +the machine gun as soon as it begins to sting the infantry rush. +We are also using the swooping aeroplane with a machine gun. +Both these devices are of British origin, and they promise very +well. + +After the rush and the scrap comes the organisation of the +captured trench. "Digging in" completes the cycle of modern +infantry fighting. You may consider this the first or the last +phase of an infantry operation. It is probably at present the +least worked-out part of the entire cycle. Here lies the sole +German superiority; they bunch and crowd in the rush, they are +inferior at the scrap, but they do dig like moles. The weakness +of the British is their failure to settle down. they like the +rush and the scrap; they press on too far, they get outflanked +and lost "in the blue"; they are not naturally clever at the +excavating part of the work, and they are not as yet well trained +in making dug-outs and shelter-pits rapidly and intelligently. +they display most of the faults that were supposed to be most +distinctively French before this war came to revolutionise all +our conceptions of French character. + + +2 + +Now the operations of this modern infantry, which unlike any +preceding infantry in the history of war does not fight in +disciplined formations but as highly individualised specialists, +are determined almost completely by the artillery preparation. +Artillery is now the most essential instrument of war. You may +still get along with rather bad infantry; you may still hold out +even after the loss of the aerial ascendancy, but so soon as your +guns fail you approach defeat. The backbone process of the whole +art of war is the manufacture in overwhelming quantities, the +carriage and delivery of shell upon the vulnerable points of the +enemy's positions. That is, so to speak, the essential blow. +Even the infantryman is now hardly more than the residuary +legatee after the guns have taken their toll. + +I have now followed nearly every phase in the life history of a +shell from the moment when it is a segment of steel bar just cut +off, to the moment when it is no more than a few dispersed and +rusting rags and fragments of steel--pressed upon the stray +visitor to the battlefield as souvenirs. All good factories are +intensely interesting places to visit, but a good munition +factory is romantically satisfactory. It is as nearly free from +the antagonism of employer and employed as any factory can be. +The busy sheds I visited near Paris struck me as being the most +living and active things in the entire war machine. Everywhere +else I saw fitful activity, or men waiting. I have seen more men +sitting about and standing about, more bored inactivity, during +my tour than I have ever seen before in my life. Even the front +line trenches seem to slumber; the Angel of Death drowses over +them, and moves in his sleep to crush out men's lives. The +gunfire has an indolent intermittence. But the munition +factories grind on night and day, grinding against the factories +in Central Europe, grinding out the slow and costly and necessary +victory that should end aggressive warfare in the world for ever. + +It would be very interesting if one could arrange a meeting +between any typical Allied munition maker on the one hand, and +the Kaiser and Hindenburg, those two dominant effigies of the +German nationalists' dream of "world might." Or failing that, Mr. +Dyson might draw the encounter. You imagine these two heroic +figures got up for the interview, very magnificent in shining +helms and flowing cloaks, decorations, splendid swords, spurs. +"Here," one would say, "is the power that has held you. You were +bolstered up very loyally by the Krupp firm and so forth, you +piled up shell, guns, war material, you hoped to snatch your +victory before the industrialisation and invention of the world +could turn upon you. But you failed. You were not rapid enough. +The battle of the Marne was your misfortune. And Ypres. You +lost some chances at Ypres. Two can play at destructive +industrialism, and now we out-gun you. We are piling up +munitions now faster than you. The essentials of this Game of +the War Lord are idiotically simple, but it was not of our +choosing. It is now merely a question of months before you make +your inevitable admission. This is no war to any great +commander's glory. This gentleman in the bowler hat is the +victor, Sire; not you. Assisted, Sire, by these disrespectful- +looking factory girls in overalls." + +For example, there is M. Citroen. Before the war I understand he +made automobiles; after the war he wants to turn to and make +automobiles again. For the duration of the war he makes shell. +He has been temporarily diverted from constructive to destructive +industrialism. He did me the honours of his factory. He is a +compact, active man in dark clothes and a bowler hat, with a +pencil and notebook conveniently at hand. He talked to me in +carefully easy French, and watched my face with an intelligent +eye through his pince-nez for the signs of comprehension. Then +he went on to the next point. + +He took me through every stage of his process. In his office he +showed me the general story. Here were photographs of certain +vacant fields and old sheds--"this place"--he indicated the +altered prospect from the window--"at the outbreak of the war." +He showed me a plan of the first undertaking. "Now we have +rather over nine thousand workpeople." + +He showed me a little row of specimens. "These we make for +Italy. These go to Russia. These are the Rumanian pattern." + +Thence to the first stage, the chopping up of the iron bars, the +furnace, the punching out of the first shape of the shell; all +this is men's work. I had seen this sort of thing before in +peace ironworks, but I saw it again with the same astonishment, +the absolute precision of movement on the part of the half-naked +sweating men, the calculated efficiency of each worker, the +apparent heedlessness, the real certitude, with which the blazing +hot cylinder is put here, dropped there, rolls to its next +appointed spot, is chopped up and handed on, the swift passage to +the cooling crude, pinkish-purple shell shape. Down a long line +one sees in perspective a practical symmetry, of furnace and +machine group and the shells marching on from this first series +of phases to undergo the long succession of operations, machine +after machine, across the great width of the shed in which eighty +per cent of the workers are women. There is a thick dust of +sounds in the air, a rumble of shafting, sudden thuddings, +clankings, and M. Citroen has to raise his voice. He points out +where he has made little changes in procedures, cut out some +wasteful movement.... He has an idea and makes a note in the +ever-ready notebook. + +There is a beauty about all these women, there is extraordinary +grace in their finely adjusted movements. I have come from an +after-lunch coffee upon the boulevards and from watching the ugly +fashion of our time; it is a relief to be reminded that most +women can after all be beautiful--if only they would not "dress." +these women wear simple overalls and caps. In the cap is a +rosette. Each shed has its own colour of rosette. + +"There is much esprit de corps here," says M. Citroen. + +"And also," he adds, showing obverse as well as reverse of the +world's problem of employment and discipline, "we can see at once +if a woman is not in her proper shed." + +Across the great sheds under the shafting--how fine it must look +at night!--the shells march, are shaped, cut, fitted with copper +bands, calibrated, polished, varnished.... + +Then we go on to another system of machines in which lead is +reduced to plastic ribbons and cut into shrapnel bullets as the +sweetstuff makers pull out and cut up sweetstuff. And thence +into a warren of hot underground passages in which run the power +cables. There is not a cable in the place that is not +immediately accessible to the electricians. We visit the dynamos +and a vast organisation of switchboards.... + +These things are more familiar to M. Citroen than they are to me. +He wants me to understand, but he does not realise that I would +like a little leisure to wonder. What is interesting him just +now, because it is the newest thing, is his method of paying his +workers. He lifts a hand gravely: "I said, what we must do is +abolish altogether the counting of change." + +At a certain hour, he explained, came pay-time. The people had +done; it was to his interest and their that they should get out +of the works as quickly as possible and rest and amuse +themselves. He watched them standing in queues at the wickets +while inside someone counted; so many francs, so many centimes. +It bored him to see this useless, tiresome waiting. It is +abolished. Now at the end of each week the worker goes to a +window under the initial of his name, and is handed a card on +which these items have been entered: + +Balance from last week. +So many hours at so much. +Premiums. + +The total is so many francs, so many centimes. This is divided +into the nearest round number, 100, 120, 80 francs as the case +may be, and a balance of the odd francs and centimes. The latter +is carried forward to the next week's account. At the bottom of +the card is a tear-off coupon with a stamp, coloured to indicate +the round sum, green, let us say, for 100, blue for 130 francs. +This is taken to a wicket marked 100 or 130 as the case may be, +and there stands a cashier with his money in piles of 100 or 130 +francs counted ready to hand; he sweeps in the coupon, sweeps out +the cash. "/Next!/" + +I became interested in the worker's side of this organisation. I +insist on seeing the entrances, the clothes-changing places, the +lavatories, and so forth of the organisation. As we go about we +pass a string of electric trolleys steered by important-looking +girls, and loaded with shell, finished as far as these works are +concerned and on their way to the railway siding. We visit the +hospital, for these works demand a medical staff. It is not only +that men and women faint or fall ill, but there are accidents, +burns, crushings, and the like. The war casualties begin already +here, and they fall chiefly among the women. I saw a wounded +woman with a bandaged face sitting very quietly in the corner. + +The women here face danger, perhaps not quite such obvious danger +as the women who, at the next stage in the shell's career, make +and pack the explosives in their silk casing, but quite +considerable risk. And they work with a real enthusiasm. They +know they are fighting the Bloches as well as any men. Certain +of them wear Russian decorations. The women of this particular +factory have been thanked by the Tsar, and a number of +decorations were sent by him for distribution among them. + + +3 + +The shell factory and the explosives shed stand level with the +drill yard as the real first stage in one of the two essential +/punches/ in modern war. When one meets the shell again it +is being unloaded from the railway truck into an ammunition dump. +And here the work of control is much more the work of a good +traffic manager than of the old-fashioned soldier. + +The dump I best remember I visited on a wet and windy day. Over +a great space of ground the sidings of the rail-head spread, the +normal gauge rail-head spread out like a fan and interdigitated +with the narrow gauge lines that go up practically to the guns. +And also at the sides camions were loading, and an officer from +the Midi in charge of one of these was being dramatically +indignant at five minutes' delay. Between these two sets of +lines, shells were piled of all sizes, I should think some +hundreds of thousands of shells altogether, wet and shining in +the rain. French reservists, soldiers from Madagascar, and some +Senegalese were busy at different points loading and unloading +the precious freights. A little way from me were despondent- +looking German prisoners handling timber. All this dump was no +more than an eddy as it were in the path of the shell from its +birth from the steel bars near Paris to the accomplishment of its +destiny in the destruction or capture of more Germans. + +And next the visitor meets the shell coming up upon a little +trolley to the gun. He sees the gunners, as drilled and precise +as the men he saw at the forges, swing out the breech block and +run the shell, which has met and combined with its detonators and +various other industrial products since it left the main dump, +into the gun. The breech closes like a safe door, and hides the +shell from the visitor. It is "good-bye." He receives +exaggerated warning of the danger to his ears, stuffs his fingers +into them, and opens his mouth as instructed, hears a loud but by +no means deafening report, and sees a spit of flame near the +breech. Regulations of a severe character prevent his watching +from an aeroplane the delivery of the goods upon the customers +opposite. + +I have already described the method of locating enemy guns and so +forth by photography. Many of the men at this work are like +dentists rather than soldiers; they are busy in carefully lit +rooms, they wear white overalls, they have clean hands and +laboratory manners. The only really romantic figure in the whole +of this process, the only figure that has anything of the old +soldierly swagger about him still, is the aviator. And, as one +friend remarked to me when I visited the work of the British +flying corps, "The real essential strength of this arm is the +organisation of its repairs. Here is one of the repair vans +through which our machine guns go. It is a motor workshop on +wheels. But at any time all this park, everything, can pack up +and move forward like Barnum and Bailey's Circus. The machine +guns come through this shop in rotation; they go out again, +cleaned, repaired, made new again. Since we got all that working +we have heard nothing of a machine gun jamming in any air fight +at all."... + +The rest of the career of the shell after it has left the gun one +must imagine chiefly from the incoming shell from the enemy. You +see suddenly a flying up of earth and stones and anything else +that is movable in the neighbourhood of the shell-burst, the +instantaneous unfolding of a dark cloud of dust and reddish +smoke, which comes very quickly to a certain size and then begins +slowly to fray out and blow away. Then, after seeing the cloud +of the burst you hear the hiss of the shell's approach, and +finally you are hit by the sound of the explosion. This is the +climax and end of the life history of any shell that is not a dud +shell. Afterwards the battered fuse may serve as some +journalist's paper-weight. The rest is scrap iron. + +Such is, so to speak, the primary process of modern warfare. I +will not draw the obvious pacifist moral of the intense folly of +human concentration upon such a process. The Germans willed it. +We Allies have but obeyed the German will for warfare because we +could not do otherwise, we have taken up this simple game of +shell delivery, and we are teaching them that we can play it +better, in the hope that so we and the world may be freed from +the German will-to-power and all its humiliating and disgusting +consequences henceforth for ever. Europe now is no more than a +household engaged in holding up and if possible overpowering a +monomaniac member. + + +4 + +Now the whole of this process of the making and delivery of a +shell, which is the main process of modern warfare, is one that +can be far better conducted by a man accustomed to industrial +organisation or transit work than by the old type of soldier. +This is a thing that cannot be too plainly stated or too often +repeated. Germany nearly won this way because of her +tremendously modern industrial resources; but she blundered into +it and she is losing it because she has too many men in military +uniform and because their tradition and interests were to +powerful with her. All the state and glories of soldiering, the +bright uniforms, the feathers and spurs, the flags, the march- +past, the disciplined massed advance, the charge; all these are +as needless and obsolete now in war as the masks and shields of +an old-time Chinese brave. Liberal-minded people talk of the +coming dangers of militarism in the face of events that prove +conclusively that professional militarism is already as dead as +Julius Caesar. What is coming is not so much the conversion +of men into soldiers as the socialisation of the economic +organisation of the country with a view to both national and +international necessities. We do not want to turn a chemist or a +photographer into a little figure like a lead soldier, moving +mechanically at the word of command, but we do want to make his +chemistry or photography swiftly available if the national +organisation is called upon to fight. + +We have discovered that the modern economic organisation is in +itself a fighting machine. It is so much so that it is capable +of taking on and defeating quite easily any merely warrior people +that is so rash as to pit itself against it. Within the last +sixteen years methods of fighting have been elaborated that have +made war an absolutely hopeless adventure for any barbaric or non- +industrialised people. In the rush of larger events few people +have realised the significance of the rapid squashing of the +Senussi in western Egypt, and the collapse of De Wet's rebellion +in South Africa. Both these struggles would have been long, +tedious and uncertain even in A.D. 1900. This time they have +been, so to speak, child's play. + +Occasionally into the writer's study there come to hand drifting +fragments of the American literature upon the question of +"preparedness," and American papers discussing the Mexican +situation. In none of these is there evident any clear +realisation of the fundamental revolution that has occurred in +military methods during the last two years. It looks as if a +Mexican war, for example, was thought of as an affair of rather +imperfectly trained young men with rifles and horses and old- +fashioned things like that. A Mexican war on that level might be +as tedious as the South African war. But if the United States +preferred to go into Mexican affairs with what I may perhaps call +a 1916 autumn outfit instead of the small 1900 outfit she seems +to possess at present, there is no reason why America should not +clear up any and every Mexican guerilla force she wanted to in a +few weeks. + +To do that she would need a plant of a few hundred aeroplanes, +for the most part armed with machine guns, and the motor repair +vans and so forth needed to go with the aeroplanes; she would +need a comparatively small army of infantry armed with machine +guns, with motor transport, and a few small land ironclads. Such +a force could locate, overtake, destroy and disperse any possible +force that a country in the present industrial condition of +Mexico could put into the field. No sort of entrenchment or +fortification possible in Mexico could stand against it. It +could go from one end of the country to the other without serious +loss, and hunt down and capture anyone it wished.... + +The practical political consequence of the present development of +warfare, of the complete revolution in the conditions of warfare +since this century began, is to make war absolutely hopeless for +any peoples not able either to manufacture or procure the very +complicated appliances and munitions now needed for its +prosecution. Countries like Mexico, Bulgaria, Serbia, +Afghanistan or Abyssinia are no more capable of going to war +without the connivance and help of manufacturing states than +horses are capable of flying. And this makes possible such a +complete control of war by the few great states which are at the +necessary level of industrial development as not the most Utopian +of us have hitherto dared to imagine. + + +5 + +Infantrymen with automobile transport, plentiful machine guns, +Tanks and such-like accessories; that is the first Arm in modern +war. The factory hand and all the material of the shell route +from the factory to the gun constitute the second Arm. Thirdly +comes the artillery, the guns and the photographic aeroplanes +working with the guns. Next I suppose we must count sappers and +miners as a fourth Arm of greatly increased importance. The +fifth and last combatant Arm is the modern substitute for +cavalry; and that also is essentially a force of aeroplanes +supported by automobiles. Several of the French leaders with +whom I talked seemed to be convinced that the horse is absolutely +done with in modern warfare. There is nothing, they declared, +that cavalry ever did that cannot now be done better by +aeroplane. + +This is something to break the hearts of the Prussian junkers and +of old-fashioned British army people. The hunt across the +English countryside, the preservation of the fox as a sacred +animal, the race meeting, the stimulation of betting in all +classes of the public; all these things depend ultimately upon +the proposition that the "breed of horses" is of vital importance +to the military strength of Great Britain. But if the arguments +of these able French soldiers are sound, the cult of the horse +ceases to be of any more value to England than the elegant +activities of the Toxophilite Society. Moreover, there has been +a colossal buying of horses for the British army, a tremendous +organisation for the purchase and supply of fodder, then +employment of tens of thousands of men as grooms, minders and the +like, who would otherwise have been in the munition factories or +the trenches. + +To what possible use can cavalry be put? Can it be used in +attack? Not against trenches; that is better done by infantrymen +following up gunfire. Can it be used against broken infantry in +the open? Not if the enemy has one or two machine guns covering +their retreat. Against expose infantry the swooping aeroplane +with a machine gun is far more deadly and more difficult to hit. +Behind it your infantry can follow to receive surrenders; in most +circumstances they can come up on cycles if it is a case of +getting up quickly across a wide space. Similarly for pursuit +the use of wire and use of the machine gun have abolished the +possibility of a pouring cavalry charge. The swooping aeroplane +does everything that cavalry can do in the way of disorganising +the enemy, and far more than it can do in the way of silencing +machine guns. It can capture guns in retreat much more easily by +bombing traction engines and coming down low and shooting horses +and men. An ideal modern pursuit would be an advance of guns, +automobiles full of infantry, motor cyclists and cyclists, behind +a high screen of observation aeroplanes and a low screen of +bombing and fighting aeroplanes. Cavalry /might/ advance +across fields and so forth, but only as a very accessory part of +the general advance.... + +And what else is there for the cavalry to do? + +It may be argued that horses can go over country that is +impossible for automobiles. That is to ignore altogether what +has been done in this war by such devices as caterpillar wheels. +So far from cavalry being able to negotiate country where +machines would stick and fail, mechanism can now ride over places +where any horse would flounder. + +I submit these considerations to the horse-lover. They are not +my original observations; they have been put to me and they have +convinced me. Except perhaps as a parent of transport mules I +see no further part henceforth for the horse to play in war. + + +6 + +The form and texture of the coming warfare--if there is still +warfare to come--are not yet to be seen in their completeness +upon the modern battlefield. One swallow does not make a summer, +nor a handful of aeroplanes, a "Tank" or so, a few acres of shell +craters, and a village here and there, pounded out of +recognition, do more than foreshadow the spectacle of modernised +war on land. War by these developments has become the monopoly +of the five great industrial powers; it is their alternative to +end or evolve it, and if they continue to disagree, then it must +needs become a spectacle of majestic horror such as no man can +yet conceive. It has been wise of Mr. Pennell therefore, who has +recently been drawing his impressions of the war upon stone, to +make his pictures not upon the battlefield, but among the huge +industrial apparatus that is thrusting behind and thrusting up +through the war of the gentlemen in spurs. He gives us the +splendours and immensities of forge and gun pit, furnace and mine +shaft. He shows you how great they are and how terrible. Among +them go the little figures of men, robbed of all dominance, +robbed of all individual quality. He leaves it for you to draw +the obvious conclusion that presently, if we cannot contrive to +put an end to war, blacknessess like these, enormities and flares +and towering threats, will follow in the track of the Tanks and +come trampling over the bickering confusion of mankind. + +There is something very striking in these insignificant and +incidental men that Mr. Pennell shows us. Nowhere does a man +dominate in all these wonderful pictures. You may argue perhaps +that that is untrue to the essential realities; all this array of +machine and workshop, all this marshalled power and purpose, has +been the creation of inventor and business organiser. But are we +not a little too free with that word "/creation/"? Falstaff +was a "creation" perhaps, or the Sistine sibyls; there we have +indubitably an end conceived and sought and achieved; but did +these inventors and business organisers do more than heed certain +unavoidable imperatives? Seeking coal they were obliged to mine +in a certain way; seeking steel they had to do this and this and +not that and that; seeking profit they had to obey the imperative +of the economy. So little did they plan their ends that most of +these manufacturers speak with a kind of astonishment of the +deadly use to which their works are put. They find themselves +making the new war as a man might wake out of some drugged +condition to find himself strangling his mother. + +So that Mr. Pennell's sketchy and transient human figures seem +altogether right to me. He sees these forges, workshops, cranes +and the like, as inhuman and as wonderful as cliffs or great +caves or icebergs or the stars. They are a new aspect of the +logic of physical necessity that made all these older things, and +he seizes upon the majesty and beauty of their dimensions with an +entire impartiality. And they are as impartial. Through all +these lithographs runs one present motif, the motif of the +supreme effort of western civilisation to save itself and the +world from the dominance of the reactionary German Imperialism of +modern science. The pictures are arranged to shape out the life +of a shell, from the mine to the great gun; nothing remains of +their history to show except the ammunition dump, the gun in +action and the shell-burst. Upon this theme all these great +appearances are strung to-day. But to-morrow they may be strung +upon some other and nobler purpose. These gigantic beings of +which the engineer is the master and slave, are neither +benevolent nor malignant. To-day they produce destruction, they +are the slaves of the spur; to-morrow we hope they will bridge +and carry and house and help again. + +For that peace we struggle against the dull inflexibility of the +German Will-to-Power. + + +V. TANKS + + +1 + +It is the British who have produced the "land ironclad" since I +returned from France, and used it apparently with very good +effect. I felt no little chagrin at not seeing them there, +because I have a peculiar interest in these contrivances. It +would be more than human not to claim a little in this matter. I +described one in a story in /The Strand Magazine/ in 1903, +and my story could stand in parallel columns beside the first +account of these monsters in action given by Mr. Beach Thomas or +Mr. Philip Gibbs. My friend M. Joseph Reinach has successfully +passed off long extracts from my story as descriptions of the +Tanks upon British officers who had just seen them. The +filiation was indeed quite traceable. They were my grandchildren-- +I felt a little like King Lear when first I read about them. Yet +let me state at once that I was certainly not their prime +originator. I took up an idea, manipulated it slightly, and +handed it on. The idea was suggested to me by the contrivances +of a certain Mr. Diplock, whose "ped-rail" notion, the notion of +a wheel that was something more than a wheel, a wheel that would +take locomotives up hill-sides and over ploughed fields, was +public property nearly twenty years ago. Possibly there were +others before Diplock. To the Ped-rail also Commander Murray +Sueter, one of the many experimentalists upon the early tanks, +admits his indebtedness, and it would seem that Mr. Diplock was +actually concerned in the earlier stage of the tanks. + +Since my return I have been able to see the Tank at home, through +the courtesy of the Ministry of Munitions. They have progressed +far beyond any recognisable resemblance to the initiatives of Mr. +Diplock; they have approximated rather to the American +caterpillar. As I suspected when first I heard of these devices, +the War Office and the old army people had practically nothing to +do with their development. They took to it very reluctantly--as +they have taken to every novelty in this war. One brilliant +general scrawled over an early proposal the entirely +characteristic comment that it was a pity the inventor could not +use his imagination to better purpose. (That foolish British +trick of sneering at "imagination" has cost us hundreds of +thousands of useless casualties and may yet lose us the war.) +Tanks were first mooted at the front about a year and a half ago; +Mr. Winston Churchill was then asking questions about their +practicability; he filled many simple souls with terror; they +thought him a most dangerous lunatic. The actual making of the +Tanks arose as an irregular side development of the armoured-car +branch of the Royal Naval Air Service work. The names most +closely associated with the work are (I quote a reply of Dr. +Macnamara's in the House of Commons) Mr. d'Eyncourt, the Director +of Naval Construction, Mr. W. O. Tritton, Lieut. Wilson, +R.N.A.S., Mr. Bussell, Lieut. Stern, R.N.A.S., who is now Colonel +Stern, Captain Symes, and Mr. F. Skeens. There are many other +claims too numerous to mention in detail. + +But however much the Tanks may disconcert the gallant Colonel +Newcomes who throw an air of restraint over our victorious front, +there can be no doubt that they are an important as well as a +novel development of the modern offensive. Of course neither the +Tanks nor their very obvious next developments going to wrest the +decisive pre-eminence from the aeroplane. The aeroplane remains +now more than ever the instrument of victory upon the western +front. Aerial ascendancy, properly utilised, is victory. But +the mobile armoured big gun and the Tank as a machine-gun +silencer must enormously facilitate an advance against the +blinded enemy. Neither of them can advance against properly +aimed big gun fire. That has to be disposed of before they make +their entrance. It remains the function of the aeroplane to +locate the hostile big guns and to direct the /tir de +demolition/ upon them before the advance begins-- +possibly even to bomb them out. But hitherto, after the +destruction of driving back of the defender's big guns has been +effected, the dug-out and the machine gun have still inflicted +heavy losses upon the advancing infantry until the fight is won. +So soon as the big guns are out, the tanks will advance, +destroying machine guns, completing the destruction of the wire, +and holding prisoners immobile. Then the infantry will follow to +gather in the sheaves. Multitudinously produced and--I write it +with a defiant eye on Colonel Newcome--/properly handled/, +these land ironclads are going to do very great things in +shortening the war, in pursuit, in breaking up the retreating +enemy. Given the air ascendancy, and I am utterly unable to +imagine any way of conclusively stopping or even greatly delaying +an offensive thus equipped. + + +2 + +The young of even the most horrible beasts have something piquant +and engaging about them, and so I suppose it is in the way of +things that the land ironclad which opens a new and more dreadful +and destructive phase in the human folly of warfare, should +appear first as if it were a joke. Never has any such thing so +completely masked its wickedness under an appearance of genial +silliness. The Tank is a creature to which one naturally flings +a pet name; the five or six I was shown wandering, rooting and +climbing over obstacles, round a large field near X, were as +amusing and disarming as a little of lively young pigs. + +At first the War Office prevented the publication of any pictures +or descriptions of these contrivances except abroad; then +abruptly the embargo was relaxed, and the press was flooded with +photographs. The reader will be familiar now with their +appearance. They resemble large slugs with an underside a little +like the flattened rockers of a rocking-horse, slugs between 20 +and 40 feet long. They are like flat-sided slugs, slugs of +spirit, who raise an enquiring snout, like the snout of a +dogfish, into the air. They crawl upon their bellies in a way +that would be tedious to describe to the general reader and +unnecessary to describe to the enquiring specialists. They go +over the ground with the sliding speed of active snails. Behind +them trail two wheels, supporting a flimsy tail, wheels that +strike one as incongruous as if a monster began kangaroo and +ended doll's perambulator. (These wheels annoy me.) They are not +steely monsters; they are painted with drab and unassuming +colours that are fashionable in modern warfare, so that the +armour seems rather like the integument of a rhinoceros. At the +sides of the head project armoured checks, and from above these +stick out guns that look like stalked eyes. That is the general +appearance of the contemporary tank. + +It slides on the ground; the silly little wheels that so detract +from the genial bestiality of its appearance dandle and bump +behind it. It swings about its axis. It comes to an obstacle, a +low wall let us say, or a heap of bricks, and sets to work to +climb it with its snout. It rears over the obstacle, it raises +its straining belly, it overhangs more and more, and at last +topples forward; it sways upon the heap and then goes plunging +downwards, sticking out the weak counterpoise of its wheeled +tail. If it comes to a house or a tree or a wall or such-like +obstruction it rams against it so as to bring all its weight to +bear upon it--it weighs /some/ tons--and then climbs over +the debris. I saw it, and incredulous soldiers of experience +watched it at the same time, cross trenches and wallow amazingly +through muddy exaggerations of small holes. Then I repeated the +tour inside. + +Again the Tank is like a slug. The slug, as every biological +student knows, is unexpectedly complicated inside. The Tank is +as crowded with inward parts as a battleship. It is filled with +engines, guns and ammunition, and in the interstices men. + +"You will smash your hat," said Colonel Stern. "No; keep it on, +or else you will smash your head." + +Only Mr. C. R. W. Nevinson could do justice to the interior of a +Tank. You see a hand gripping something; you see the eyes and +forehead of an engineer's face; you perceive that an overall +bluishness beyond the engine is the back of another man. "Don't +hold that," says someone; "it is too hot. Hold on to that." The +engines roar, so loudly that I doubt whether one could hear guns +without; the floor begins to slope and slopes until one seems to +be at forty-five degrees or thereabouts; then the whole concern +swings up and sways and slants the other way. You have crossed a +bank. You heel sideways. Through the door which has been left +open you see the little group of engineers, staff officers and +naval men receding and falling away behind you. You straighten +up and go up hill. You halt and begin to rotate. Through the +open door, the green field, with its red walls, rows of worksheds +and forests of chimneys in the background, begins a steady +processional movement. The group of engineers and officers and +naval men appears at the other side of the door and farther off. +Then comes a sprint down hill. You descend and stretch your +legs. + +About the field other Tanks are doing their stunts. One is +struggling in an apoplectic way in the mud pit with a cheek half +buried. It noses its way out and on with an air of animal +relief. + +They are like jokes by Heath Robinson. One forgets that these +things have already saved the lives of many hundreds of our +soldiers and smashed and defeated thousands of Germans. + +Said one soldier to me: "In the old attacks you used to see the +British dead lying outside the machine-gun emplacements like +birds outside a butt with a good shot inside. /Now/, these +things walk through." + + +3 + +I saw other things that day at X. The Tank is only a beginning +in a new phase of warfare. Of these other things I may only +write in the most general terms. + +But though Tanks and their collaterals are being made upon a very +considerable scale in X, already I realised as I walked through +gigantic forges as high and marvellous as cathedrals, and from +workshed to workshed where gun carriages, ammunition carts and a +hundred such things were flowing into existence with the swelling +abundance of a river that flows out of a gorge, that as the +demand for the new developments grows clear and strong, the +resources of Britain are capable still of a tremendous response. +/If only we do not rob these great factories and works of their +men./ + +Upon this question certain things need to be said very plainly. +The decisive factor in the sort of war we are now waging is +production and right use of mechanical material; victory in this +war depends now upon three things: the aeroplane, the gun, and +the Tank developments. These--and not crowds of men--are the +prime necessity for a successful offensive. Every man we draw +from munition making to the ranks brings our western condition +nearer to the military condition of Russia. In these things we +may be easily misled by military "experts" We have to remember +that the military "expert" is a man who learnt his business +before 1914, and that the business of war has been absolutely +revolutionised since 1914; the military expert is a man trained +to think of war as essentially an affair of cavalry, infantry in +formation, and field guns, whereas cavalry is entirely obsolete, +infantry no longer fights in formation, and the methods of +gunnery have been entirely changed. The military man I observe +still runs about the world in spurs, he travels in trains in +spurs, he walks in spurs, he thinks in terms of spurs. He has +still to discover that it is about as ridiculous as if he were to +carry a crossbow. I take it these spurs are only the outward and +visible sign of an inward obsolescence. The disposition of the +military "expert" is still to think too little of machinery and +to demand too much of the men. Behind our front at the time of +my visit there were, for example, many thousands of cavalry, men +tending horses, men engaged in transporting bulky fodder for +horses and the like. These men were doing about as much in this +war as if they had been at Timbuctoo. Every man who is taken +from munition making at X to spur-worshipping in khaki, is a dead +loss to the military efficiency of the country. Every man that +is needed or is likely to be needed for the actual operations of +modern warfare can be got by combing out the cavalry, the brewing +and distilling industries, the theatres and music halls, and the +like unproductive occupations. The under-staffing of munition +works, the diminution of their efficiency by the use of aged and +female labour, is the straight course to failure in this war. + +In X, in the forges and machine shops, I saw already too large a +proportion of boys and grey heads. + +War is a thing that changes very rapidly, and we have in the +Tanks only the first of a great series of offensive developments. +They are bound to be improved, at a great pace. The method of +using them will change very rapidly. Any added invention will +necessitate the scrapping of old types and the production of the +new patterns in quantity. It is of supreme necessity to the +Allies if they are to win this war outright that the lead in +inventions and enterprise which the British have won over the +Germans in this matter should be retained. It is our game now to +press the advantage for all it is worth. We have to keep ahead +to win. We cannot do so unless we have unstinted men and +unstinted material to produce each new development as its use is +realised. + +Given that much, the Tank will enormously enhance the advantage +of the new offensive method on the French front; the method that +is of gun demolition after aerial photography, followed by an +advance; it is a huge addition to our prospect of decisive +victory. What does it do? It solves two problems. The existing +Tank affords a means of advancing against machine-gun fire and of +destroying wire and machine guns without much risk of loss, so +soon as the big guns have done their duty by the enemy guns. And +also behind the Tank itself, it is useless to conceal, lies the +possibility of bringing up big guns and big gun ammunition, +across nearly any sort of country, as fast as the advance can +press forward. Hitherto every advance has paid a heavy toll to +the machine gun, and every advance has had to halt after a couple +of miles or so while the big guns (taking five or six days for +the job) toiled up to the new positions. + + +4 + +It is impossible to restrain a note of sharp urgency from what +one has to say about these developments. The Tanks remove the +last technical difficulties in our way to decisive victory and a +permanent peace; they also afford a reason for straining every +nerve to bring about a decision and peace soon. At the risk of +seeming an imaginative alarmist I would like to point out the +reasons these things disclose for hurrying this war to a decision +and doing our utmost to arrange the world's affairs so as to make +another war improbable. Already these serio-comic Tanks, +weighing something over twenty tons or so, have gone slithering +around and sliding over dead and wounded men. That is not an +incident for sensitive minds to dwell upon, but it is a mere +little child's play anticipation of what the big land ironclads +/that are bound to come if there is no world pacification/, +are going to do. + +What lies behind the Tank depends upon this fact; there is no +definable upward limit of mass. Upon that I would lay all the +stress possible, because everything turns upon that. + +You cannot make a land ironclad so big and heavy but that you +cannot make a caterpillar track wide enough and strong enough to +carry it forward. Tanks are quite possible that will carry +twenty-inch or twenty-five inch guns, besides minor armament. +Such Tanks may be undesirable; the production may exceed the +industrial resources of any empire to produce; but there is no +inherent impossibility in such things. There are not even the +same limitations as to draught and docking accommodation that +sets bounds to the size of battleships. It follows, therefore, +as a necessary deduction that if the world's affairs are so left +at the end of the war that the race of armaments continues, that +Tank will develop steadily into a tremendous instrument of +warfare, driven by engines of scores of thousands of horse-power, +tracking on a track scores of hundreds of yards wide and weighing +hundreds or thousands of tons. Nothing but a world agreement not +to do so can prevent this logical development of the land +ironclad. Such a structure will make wheel-ruts scores of feet +deep; it will plough up, devastate and destroy the country it +passes over altogether. + +For my own part I never imagined the land ironclad idea would get +loose into war. I thought that the military intelligence was +essentially unimaginative and that such an aggressive military +power as Germany, dominated by military people, would never +produce anything of the sort. I thought that this war would be +fought out without Tanks and that then war would come to an end. +For of course it is mere stupidity that makes people doubt the +ultimate ending of war. I have been so far justified in these +expectations of mine, that it is not from military sources that +these things have come. They have been thrust upon the soldiers +from without. But now that they are loose, now that they are in +war, we have to face their full possibilities, to use our +advantage in them and press on to the end of the war. In support +of a photo-aero directed artillery, even our present Tanks can be +used to complete an invisible offensive. We shall not so much +push as ram. It is doubtful if the Germans can get anything of +the sort into action before six months are out. We ought to get +the war on to German soil before the Tanks have grown to more +than three or four times their present size. Then it will not +matter so much how much bigger they grow. It will be the German +landscape that will suffer. + +After one has seen the actual Tanks it is not very difficult to +close one's eyes and figure the sort of Tank that may be arguing +with Germany in a few months' time about the restoration of +Belgium and Serbia and France, the restoration of the sunken +tonnage, the penalties of the various Zeppelin and submarine +murders, the freedom of seas and land alike from piracy, the +evacuation of all Poland including Posen and Cracow, and the +guarantees for the future peace of Europe. The machine will be +perhaps as big as a destroyer and more heavily armed and +equipped. It will swim over and through the soil at a pace of +ten or twelve miles an hour. In front of it will be corn, land, +neat woods, orchards, pasture, gardens, villages and towns. It +will advance upon its belly with a swaying motion, devouring the +ground beneath it. Behind it masses of soil and rock, lumps of +turf, splintered wood, bits of houses, occasional streaks of red, +will drop from its track, and it will leave a wake, six or seven +times as wide as a high road, from which all soil, all +cultivation, all semblance to cultivated or cultivatable land +will have disappeared. It will not even be a track of soil. It +will be a track of subsoil laid bare. It will be a flayed strip +of nature. In the course of its fighting the monster may have to +turnabout. It will then halt and spin slowly round, grinding out +an arena of desolation with a diameter equal to its length. If +it has to retreat and advance again these streaks and holes of +destruction will increase and multiply. Behind the fighting line +these monsters will manoeuvre to and fro, destroying the +land for all ordinary agricultural purposes for ages to come. +The first imaginative account of the land ironclad that was ever +written concluded with the words, "They are the /reductio ad +absurdum/ of war." They are, and it is to the engineers, the +ironmasters, the workers and the inventive talent of Great +Britain and France that we must look to ensure that it is in +Germany, the great teacher of war, that this demonstration of +war's ultimate absurdity is completed. + +For forty years Frankenstein Germany invoked war, turned every +development of material and social science to aggressive ends, +and at last when she felt the time was ripe she let loose the new +monster that she had made of war to cow the spirit of mankind. +She set the thing trampling through Belgium. She cannot grumble +if at last it comes home, stranger and more dreadful even than +she made it, trampling the German towns and fields with German +blood upon it and its eyes towards Berlin. + +This logical development of the Tank idea may seem a gloomy +prospect for mankind. But it is open to question whether the +tremendous development of warfare that has gone on in the last +two years does after all open a prospect of unmitigated gloom. +There has been a good deal of cheap and despondent sneering +recently at the phrase, "The war that will end war." It is still +possible to maintain that that may be a correct description of +this war. It has to be remembered that war, as the aeroplane and +the Tank have made it, has already become an impossible luxury +for any barbaric or uncivilised people. War on the grade that +has been achieved on the Somme predicates an immense +industrialism behind it. Of all the States in the world only +four can certainly be said to be fully capable of sustaining war +at the level to which it has now been brought upon the western +front. These are Britain, France, Germany, and the United States +of America. Less certainly equal to the effort are Italy, Japan, +Russia, and Austria. These eight powers are the only powers +/capable of warfare under modern conditions./ Five are +already Allies and one is incurably pacific. There is no other +power or people in the world that can go to war now without the +consent and connivance of these great powers. If we consider +their alliances, we may count it that the matter rests now +between two groups of Allies and one neutral power. So that +while on the one hand the development of modern warfare of which +the Tank is the present symbol opens a prospect of limitless +senseless destruction, it opens on the other hand a prospect of +organised world control. This Tank development must ultimately +bring the need of a real permanent settlement within the compass +of the meanest of diplomatic intelligences. A peace that will +restore competitive armaments has now become a less desirable +prospect for everyone than a continuation of the war. Things +were bad enough before, when the land forces were still in a +primitive phase of infantry, cavalry and artillery, and when the +only real race to develop monsters and destructors was for sea +power. But the race for sea power before 1914 was mere child's +play to the breeding of engineering monstrosities for land +warfare that must now follow any indeterminate peace settlement. +I am no blind believer in the wisdom of mankind, but I cannot +believe that men are so insensate and headstrong as to miss the +plain omens of the present situation. + +So that after all the cheerful amusement the sight of a Tank +causes may not be so very unreasonable. These things may be no +more than one of those penetrating flashes of wit that will +sometimes light up and dispel the contentions of an angry man. +If they are not that, then they are the grimmest jest that ever +set men grinning. Wait and see, if you do not believe me. + + +HOW PEOPLE THINK ABOUT THE WAR + + +I. DO THEY REALLY THINK AT ALL? +All human affairs are mental affairs; the bright ideas of to-day +are the realities of to-morrow. The real history of mankind is +the history of how ideas have arisen, how they have taken +possession of men's minds, how they have struggled, altered, +proliferated, decayed. There is nothing in this war at all but a +conflict of ideas, traditions, and mental habits. The German +Will clothed in conceptions of aggression and fortified by +cynical falsehood, struggles against the fundamental sanity of +the German mind and the confused protest of mankind. So that the +most permanently important thing in the tragic process of this +war is the change of opinion that is going on. What are people +making of it? Is it producing any great common understandings, +any fruitful unanimities? + +No doubt it is producing enormous quantities of cerebration, but +is it anything more than chaotic and futile cerebration? We are +told all sorts of things in answer to that, things without a +scrap of evidence or probability to support them. It is, we are +assured, turning people to religion, making them moral and +thoughtful. It is also, we are assured with equal confidence, +turning them to despair and moral disaster. It will be followed +by (1) a period of moral renascence, and (2) a debauch. It is +going to make the workers (1) more and (2) less obedient and +industrious. It is (1) inuring men to war and (2) filling them +with a passionate resolve never to suffer war again. And so on. +I propose now to ask what is really happening in this matter? How +is human opinion changing? I have opinions of my own and they are +bound to colour my discussion. The reader must allow for that, +and as far as possible I will remind him where necessary to make +his allowance. + +Now first I would ask, is any really continuous and thorough +mental process going on at all about this war? I mean, is there +any considerable number of people who are seeing it as a whole, +taking it in as a whole, trying to get a general idea of it from +which they can form directing conclusions for the future? Is +there any considerable number of people even trying to do that? +At any rate let me point out first that there is quite an +enormous mass of people who--in spite of the fact that their +minds are concentrated on aspects of this war, who are at present +hearing, talking, experiencing little else than the war--are +nevertheless neither doing nor trying to do anything that +deserves to be called thinking about it at all. They may even be +suffering quite terribly by it. But they are no more mastering +its causes, reasons, conditions, and the possibility of its +future prevention than a monkey that has been rescued in a +scorching condition from the burning of a house will have +mastered the problem of a fire. It is just happening to and +about them. It may, for anything they have learnt about it, +happen to them again. + +A vast majority of people are being swamped by the spectacular +side of the business. It was very largely my fear of being so +swamped myself that made me reluctant to go as a spectator to the +front. I knew that my chances of being hit by a bullet were +infinitesimal, but I was extremely afraid of being hit by some +too vivid impression. I was afraid that I might see some +horribly wounded man or some decayed dead body that would so scar +my memory and stamp such horror into me as to reduce me to a mere +useless, gibbering, stop-the-war-at-any-price pacifist. Years +ago my mind was once darkened very badly for some weeks with a +kind of fear and distrust of life through a sudden unexpected +encounter one tranquil evening with a drowned body. But in this +journey in Italy and France, although I have had glimpses of much +death and seen many wounded men, I have had no really horrible +impressions at all. That side of the business has, I think, been +overwritten. The thing that haunts me most is the impression of +a prevalent relapse into extreme untidiness, of a universal +discomfort, of fields, and of ruined houses treated +disregardfully.... But that is not what concerns us now in this +discussion. What concerns us now is the fact that this war is +producing spectacular effects so tremendous and incidents so +strange, so remarkable, so vivid, that the mind forgets both +causes and consequences and simply sits down to stare. + +For example, there is this business of the Zeppelin raids in +England. It is a supremely silly business; it is the most +conclusive demonstration of the intellectual inferiority of the +German to the Western European that is should ever have happened. +There was the clearest /a priori/ case against the gas-bag. +I remember the discussions ten or twelve years ago in which it +was established to the satisfaction of every reasonable man that +ultimately the "heavier than air" machine (as we called it then) +must fly better than the gas-bag, and still more conclusively +that no gas-bag was conceivable that could hope to fight and +defeat aeroplanes. Nevertheless the German, with that dull faith +of his in mere "Will," persisted along his line. He knew +instinctively that he could not produce aviators to meet the +Western European; all his social instincts made him cling to the +idea of a great motherly, almost sow-like bag of wind above him. +At an enormous waste of resources Germany has produced these +futile monsters, that drift in the darkness over England +promiscuously dropping bombs on fields and houses. They are now +meeting the fate that was demonstrably certain ten years ago. If +they found us unready for them it is merely that we were unable +to imagine so idiotic an enterprise would ever be seriously +sustained and persisted in. We did not believe in the +probability of Zeppelin raids any more than we believed that +Germany would force the world into war. It was a thing too silly +to be believed. But they came--to their certain fate. In the +month after I returned from France and Italy, no less than four +of these fatuities were exploded and destroyed within thirty +miles of my Essex home.... There in chosen phrases you have the +truth about these things. But now mark the perversion of thought +due to spectacular effect. + +I find over the Essex countryside, which has been for more than a +year and a half a highway for Zeppelins, a new and curious +admiration for them that has arisen out of these very disasters. +Previously they were regarded with dislike and a sort of +distrust, as one might regard a sneaking neighbour who left his +footsteps in one's garden at night. But the Zeppelins of +Billericay and Potter's Bar are--heroic things. (The Cuffley one +came down too quickly, and the fourth one which came down for its +crew to surrender is despised.) I have heard people describe the +two former with eyes shining with enthusiasm. + +"First," they say, "you saw a little round red glow that spread. +Then you saw the whole Zeppelin glowing. Oh, it was +/beautiful!/ Then it began to turn over and come down, and +it flames and pieces began to break away. And then down it came, +leaving flaming pieces all up the sky. At last it was a pillar +of fire eight thousand feet high.... Everyone said, 'Ooooo!' And +then someone pointed out the little aeroplane lit up by the flare-- +such a leetle thing up there in the night! It is the greatest +thing I have ever seen. Oh! the most wonderful--most wonderful!" + +There is a feeling that the Germans really must after all be a +splendid people to provide such magnificent pyrotechnics. + +Some people in London the other day were pretending to be shocked +by an American who boasted that he had been in "two /bully/ +bombardments," but he was only saying what everyone feels more or +less. We are at a spectacle that--as a spectacle--our +grandchildren will envy. I understand now better the story of +the man who stared at the sparks raining up from his own house as +it burnt in the night and whispered "/Lovely! Lovely!/" + +The spectacular side of the war is really an enormous distraction +from thought. And against thought there also fights the native +indolence of the human mind. The human mind, it seems, was +originally developed to think about the individual; it thinks +reluctantly about the species. It takes refuge from that sort of +thing if it possibly can. And so the second great preventive of +clear thinking is the tranquillising platitude. + +The human mind is an instrument very easily fatigued. Only a few +exceptions go on thinking restlessly--to the extreme exasperation +of their neighbours. The normal mind craves for decisions, even +wrong or false decisions rather than none. It clutches at +comforting falsehoods. It loves to be told, "/There/, don't +you worry. That'll be all right. That's /settled./" This +war has come as an almost overwhelming challenge to mankind. To +some of us it seems as it if were the Sphynx proffering the +alternative of its riddle or death. Yet the very urgency of this +challenge to think seems to paralyse the critical intelligence of +very many people altogether. They will say, "This war is going +to produce enormous changes in everything." They will then +subside mentally with a feeling of having covered the whole +ground in a thoroughly safe manner. Or they will adopt an air of +critical aloofness. They will say, "How is it possible to +foretell what may happen in this tremendous sea of change?" And +then, with an air of superior modesty, they will go on doing-- +whatever they feel inclined to do. Many others, a degree less +simple in their methods, will take some entirely partial aspect, +arrive at some guesswork decision upon that, and then behave as +though that met every question we have to face. Or they will +make a sort of admonitory forecast that is conditional upon the +good behaviour of other people. "Unless the Trade Unions are +more reasonable," they will say. Or, "Unless the shipping +interest is grappled with and controlled." Or, "Unless England +wakes up." And with that they seem to wash their hands of further +responsibility for the future. + +One delightful form of put-off is the sage remark, "Let us finish +the war first, and then let us ask what is going to happen after +it." One likes to think of the beautiful blank day after the +signing of the peace when these wise minds swing round to pick up +their deferred problems.... + +I submit that a man has not done his duty by himself as a +rational creature unless he has formed an idea of what is going +on, as one complicated process, until he has formed an idea +sufficiently definite for him to make it the basis of a further +idea, which is his own relationship to that process. He must +have some notion of what the process is going to do to him, and +some notion of what he means to do, if he can, to the process. +That is to say, he must not only have an idea how the process is +going, but also an idea of how he wants it to go. It seems so +natural and necessary for a human brain to do this that it is +hard to suppose that everyone has not more or less attempted it. +But few people, in Great Britain at any rate, have the habit of +frank expression, and when people do not seem to have made out +any of these things for themselves there is a considerable +element of secretiveness and inexpressiveness to be allowed for +before we decide that they have not in some sort of fashion done +so. Still, after all allowances have been made, there remains a +vast amount of jerry-built and ready-made borrowed stuff in most +of people's philosophies of the war. The systems of authentic +opinion in this world of thought about the war are like +comparatively rare thin veins of living mentality in a vast world +of dead repetitions and echoed suggestions. And that being the +case, it is quite possible that history after the war, like +history before the war, will not be so much a display of human +will and purpose as a resultant of human vacillations, +obstructions, and inadvertences. We shall still be in a drama of +blind forces following the line of least resistance. + +One of the people who is often spoken of as if he were doing an +enormous amount of concentrated thinking is "the man in the +trenches." We are told--by gentlemen writing for the most part at +home--of the most extraordinary things that are going on in those +devoted brains, how they are getting new views about the duties +of labour, religion, morality, monarchy, and any other notions +that the gentleman at home happens to fancy and wished to push. +Now that is not at all the impression of the khaki mentality I +have reluctantly accepted as correct. For the most part the man +in khaki is up against a round of tedious immediate duties that +forbid consecutive thought; he is usually rather crowded and not +very comfortable. He is bored. + +The real horror of modern war, when all is said and done, is the +boredom. To get killed our wounded may be unpleasant, but it is +at any rate interesting; the real tragedy is in the desolated +fields, the desolated houses, the desolated hours and days, the +bored and desolated minds that hang behind the melee +and just outside the melee. The peculiar +beastliness of the German crime is the way the German war cant +and its consequences have seized upon and paralysed the mental +movement of Western Europe. Before 1914 war was theoretically +unpopular in every European country; we thought of it as +something tragic and dreadful. Now everyone knows by experience +that it is something utterly dirty and detestable. We thought it +was the Nemean lion, and we have found it is the Augean stable. +But being bored by war and hating war is quite unproductive +/unless you are thinking about its nature and causes so +thoroughly that you will presently be able to take hold of it and +control it and end it./ It is no good for everyone to say +unanimously, "We will have no more war," unless you have thought +out how to avoid it, and mean to bring that end about. It is as +if everyone said, "We will have no more catarrh," or "no more +flies," or "no more east wind." And my point is that the immense +sorrows at home in every European country and the vast boredom of +the combatants are probably not really producing any effective +remedial mental action at all, and will not do so unless we get +much more thoroughly to work upon the thinking-out process. + +In such talks as I could get with men close up to the front I +found beyond this great boredom and attempts at distraction only +very specialised talk about changes in the future. Men were keen +upon questions of army promotion, of the future of conscription, +of the future of the temporary officer, upon the education of +boys in relation to army needs. But the war itself was bearing +them all upon its way, as unquestioned and uncontrolled as if it +were the planet on which they lived. + + +II. THE YIELDING PACIFIST AND THE CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR + + +1 +Among the minor topics that people are talking about behind the +western fronts is the psychology of the Yielding Pacifist and the +Conscientious Objector. Of course, we are all pacifists +nowadays; I know of no one who does not want not only to end this +war but to put an end to war altogether, except those blood-red +terrors Count Reventlow, Mr. Leo Maxse--how he does it on a +vegetarian dietary I cannot imagine!--and our wild-eyed +desperados of /The Morning Post./ But most of the people I +meet, and most of the people I met on my journey, are pacifists +like myself who want to /make/ peace by beating the armed +man until he gives in and admits the error of his ways, disarming +him and reorganising the world for the forcible suppression of +military adventures in the future. They want belligerency put +into the same category as burglary, as a matter of forcible +suppression. The Yielding Pacifist who will accept any sort of +peace, and the Conscientious Objector who will not fight at all, +are not of that opinion. + +Both Italy and France produce parallel types to those latter, but +it would seem that in each case England displays the finer +developments. The Latin mind is directer than the English, and +its standards--shall I say?--more primitive; it gets more +directly to the fact that here are men who will not fight. And +it is less charitable. I was asked quite a number of times for +the English equivalent of an /embusque./ "We don't +generalise," I said, "we treat each case on its merits!" + +One interlocutor near Udine was exercised by our Italian Red +Cross work. + +"Here," he said, "are sixty or seventy young Englishmen, all fit +for military service.... Of course they go under fire, but it is +not like being junior officers in the trenches. Not one of them +has been killed or wounded." + +He reflected. "One, I think, has been decorated," he said.... + +My French and Italian are only for very rough common jobs; when +it came to explaining the Conscientious Objector sympathetically +they broke down badly. I had to construct long parenthetical +explanations of our antiquated legislative methods to show how it +was that the "conscientious objector" had been so badly defined. +The foreigner does not understand the importance of vague +definition in British life. "Practically, of course, we offered +to exempt anyone who conscientiously objected to fight or serve. +Then the Pacifist and German people started a campaign to enrol +objectors. Of course every shirker, every coward and slacker in +the country decided at once to be a conscientious objector. +Anyone but a British legislator could have foreseen that. Then +we started Tribunals to wrangle with the objectors about their +/bona fides./ Then the Pacifists and the Pro-Germans issued +little leaflets and started correspondence courses to teach +people exactly how to lie to the Tribunals. Trouble about +freedom of the pamphleteer followed. I had to admit--it has been +rather a sloppy business. "The people who made the law knew +their own minds, but we English are not an expressive people." + +These are not easy things to say in Elementary (and slightly +Decayed) French or in Elementary and Corrupt Italian. + +"But why do people support the sham conscientious objector and +issue leaflets to help him--when there is so much big work +clamouring to be done?" + +"That," I said, "is the Whig tradition." + +When they pressed me further, I said: "I am really the +questioner. I am visiting /your/ country, and you have to +tell /me/ things. It is not right that I should do all the +telling. Tell me all about Romain Rolland." + +And so I pressed them about the official socialists in Italy and +the Socialist minority in France until I got the question out of +the net of national comparisons and upon a broader footing. In +several conversations we began to work out in general terms the +psychology of those people who were against the war. But usually +we could not get to that; my interlocutors would insist upon +telling me just what they would like to do or just what they +would like to see done to stop-the-war pacifists and +conscientious objectors; pleasant rather than fruitful +imaginative exercises from which I could effect no more than +platitudinous uplifts. + +But the general drift of such talks as did seem to penetrate the +question was this, that among these stop-the-war people there are +really three types. First there is a type of person who hates +violence and the infliction of pain under any circumstances, and +who have a mystical belief in the rightness (and usually the +efficacy) of non-resistance. These are generally Christians, and +then their cardinal text is the instruction to "turn the other +cheek." Often they are Quakers. If they are consistent they are +vegetarians and wear /Lederlos/ boots. They do not desire +police protection for their goods. They stand aloof from all the +force and conflict of life. They have always done so. This is +an understandable and respectable type. It has numerous Hindu +equivalents. It is a type that finds little difficulty about +exemptions--provided the individual has not been too recently +converted to his present habits. But it is not the prevalent +type in stop-the-war circles. Such genuine ascetics do not +number more than a thousand or so, all three of our western +allied countries. The mass of the stop-the-war people is made up +quite other elements. + + +2 + +In the complex structure of the modern community there are two +groups or strata or pockets in which the impulse of social +obligation, the gregarious sense of a common welfare, is at its +lowest; one of these is the class of the Resentful Employee, the +class of people who, without explanation, adequate preparation or +any chance, have been shoved at an early age into uncongenial +work and never given a chance to escape, and the other is the +class of people with small fixed incomes or with small salaries +earnt by routine work, or half independent people practising some +minor artistic or literary craft, who have led uneventful, +irresponsible lives from their youth up, and never came at any +point into relations of service to the state. This latter class +was more difficult to define than the former--because it is more +various within itself. My French friends wanted to talk of the +"Psychology of the Rentier." I was for such untranslatable +phrases as the "Genteel Whig," or the "Donnish Liberal." But I +lit up an Italian--he is a Milanese manufacturer--with "these +Florentine English who would keep Italy in a glass case." "I +know," he said. Before I go on to expand this congenial theme, +let me deal first with the Resentful Employee, who is a much more +considerable, and to me a much more sympathetic, figure in +European affairs. I began life myself as a Resentful Employee. +By the extremest good luck I have got my mind and spirit out of +the distortions of that cramping beginning, but I can still +recall even the anger of those old days. + +He becomes an employee between thirteen and fifteen; he is made +to do work he does not like for no other purpose that he can see +except the profit and glory of a fortunate person called his +employer, behind whom stand church and state blessing and +upholding the relationship. He is not allowed to feel that he +has any share whatever in the employer's business, or that any +end is served but the employer's profit. He cannot see that the +employer acknowledges any duty to the state. Neither church nor +state seems to insist that the employer has any public function. +At no point does the employee come into a clear relationship of +mutual obligation with the state. There does not seem to be any +way out for the employee from a life spent in this subordinate, +toilsome relationship. He feels put upon and cheated out of +life. He is without honour. If he is a person of ability or +stubborn temper he struggles out of his position; if he is a +kindly and generous person he blames his "luck" and does his work +and lives his life as cheerfully as possible--and so live the +bulk of our amazing European workers; if he is a being of great +magnanimity he is content to serve for the ultimate good of the +race; if he has imagination, he says, "Things will not always be +like this," and becomes a socialist or a guild socialist, and +tries to educate the employer to a sense of reciprocal duty; but +if he is too human for any of these things, then he begins to +despise and hate the employer and the system that made him. He +wants to hurt them. Upon that hate it is easy to trade. + +A certain section of what is called the Socialist press and the +Socialist literature in Europe is no doubt great-minded; it seeks +to carve a better world out of the present. But much of it is +socialist only in name. Its spirit is Anarchistic. Its real +burthen is not construction but grievance; it tells the bitter +tale of the employee, it feeds and organises his malice, it +schemes annoyance and injury for the hated employer. The state +and the order of the world is confounded with the capitalist. +Before the war the popular so-called socialist press reeked with +the cant of rebellion, the cant of any sort of rebellion. "I'm a +rebel," was the silly boast of the young disciple. "Spoil +something, set fire to something," was held to be the proper text +for any girl or lad of spirit. And this blind discontent carried +on into the war. While on the one hand a great rush of men +poured into the army saying, "Thank God! we can serve our +country at last instead of some beastly profiteer," a sourer +remnant, blind to the greater issues of the war, clung to the +reasonless proposition, "the state is only for the Capitalist. +This war is got up by Capitalists. Whatever has to be done-- +/we are rebels./" + +Such a typical paper as the British /Labour Leader/, for +example, may be read in vain, number after number, for any sound +and sincere constructive proposal. It is a prolonged scream of +extreme individualism, a monotonous repetition of incoherent +discontent with authority, with direction, with union, with the +European effort. It wants to do nothing. It just wants effort +to stop--even at the price of German victory. If the whole +fabric of society in western Europe were to be handed over to +those pseudo-socialists to-morrow, to be administered for the +common good, they would fly the task in terror. They would make +excuses and refuse the undertaking. They do not want the world +to go right. The very idea of the world going right does not +exist in their minds. They are embodied discontent and hatred, +making trouble, and that is all they are. They want to be +"rebels"--to be admired as "rebels". + +That is the true psychology of the Resentful Employee. He is a +de-socialised man. His sense of the State has been destroyed. + +The Resentful Employees are the outcome of our social injustices. +They are the failures of our social ad educational systems. We +may regret their pitiful degradation, we may exonerate them from +blame; none the less they are a pitiful crew. I have seen the +hardship of the trenches, the gay and gallant wounded. I do a +little understand what our soldiers, officers and men alike, have +endured and done. And though I know I ought to allow for all +that I have stated, I cannot regard these conscientious objectors +with anything but contempt. Into my house there pours a dismal +literature rehearsing the hardships of these men who set +themselves up to be martyrs for liberty; So and So, brave hero, +has been sworn at--positively sworn at by a corporal; a nasty +rough man came into the cell of So and So and dropped several +h's; So and So, refusing to undress and wash, has been undressed +and washed, and soap was rubbed into his eyes--perhaps purposely; +the food and accommodation are not of the best class; the doctors +in attendance seem hasty; So and So was put into a damp bed and +has got a nasty cold. Then I recall a jolly vanload of wounded +men I saw out there.... + +But after all, we must be just. A church and state that +permitted these people to be thrust into dreary employment in +their early 'teens, without hope or pride, deserves such citizens +as these. The marvel is that there are so few. There are a poor +thousand or so of these hopeless, resentment-poisoned creatures +in Great Britain. Against five willing millions. The Allied +countries, I submit, have not got nearly all the conscientious +objectors they deserve. + + +3 + +If the Resentful Employee provides the emotional impulse of the +resisting pacifist, whose horizon is bounded by his one +passionate desire that the particular social system that has +treated him so ill should collapse and give in, and its leaders +and rulers be humiliated and destroyed, the intellectual +direction of a mischievous pacifism comes from an entirely +different class. + +The Genteel Whig, though he differs very widely in almost every +other respect from the Resentful Employee, has this much in +common, that he has never been drawn into the whirl of collective +life in any real and assimilative fashion. This is what is the +matter with both of them. He is a little loose, shy, independent +person. Except for eating and drinking--in moderation, he has +never done anything real from the day he was born. He has +frequently not even faced the common challenge of matrimony. +Still more frequently is he childless, or the daring parent of +one particular child. He has never traded nor manufactured. He +has drawn his dividends or his salary with an entire +unconsciousness of any obligations to policemen or navy for these +punctual payments. Probably he has never ventured even to +reinvest his little legacy. He is acutely aware of possessing an +exceptionally fine intelligence, but he is entirely unconscious +of a fundamental unreality. Nothing has ever occurred to him to +make him ask why the mass of men were either not possessed of his +security or discontented with it. The impulses that took his +school friends out upon all sorts of odd feats and adventures +struck him as needless. As he grew up he turned with an equal +distrust from passion or ambition. His friends went out after +love, after adventure, after power, after knowledge, after this +or that desire, and became men. But he noted merely that they +became fleshly, that effort strained them, that they were +sometimes angry or violent or heated. He could not but feel that +theirs were vulgar experiences, and he sought some finer exercise +for his exceptional quality. He pursued art or philosophy or +literature upon their more esoteric levels, and realised more and +more the general vulgarity and coarseness of the world about him, +and his own detachment. The vulgarity and crudity of the things +nearest him impressed him most; the dreadful insincerity of the +Press, the meretriciousness of success, the loudness of the rich, +the baseness of common people in his own land. The world +overseas had by comparison a certain glamour. Except that when +you said "United States" to him he would draw the air sharply +between his teeth and beg you not to... + +Nobody took him by the collar and shook him. + +If our world had considered the advice of William James and +insisted upon national service from everyone, national service in +the drains or the nationalised mines or the nationalised deep-sea +fisheries if not in the army or navy, we should not have had any +such men. If it had insisted that wealth and property are no +more than a trust for the public benefit, we should have had no +genteel indispensables. These discords in our national unanimity +are the direct consequence of our bad social organisation. We +permit the profiteer and the usurer; they evoke the response of +the Reluctant Employee, and the inheritor of their wealth becomes +the Genteel Whig. + +But that is by the way. It was of course natural and inevitable +that the German onslaught upon Belgium and civilisation generally +should strike these recluse minds not as a monstrous ugly +wickedness to be resisted and overcome at any cost, but merely as +a nerve-racking experience. Guns were going off on both sides. +The Genteel Whig was chiefly conscious of a repulsive vast +excitement all about him, in which many people did inelegant and +irrational things. They waved flags--nasty little flags. This +child of the ages, this last fruit of the gigantic and tragic +tree of life, could no more than stick its fingers in its ears as +say, "Oh, please, do /all/ stop!" and then as the strain +grew intenser and intenser set itself with feeble pawings now to +clamber "Au-dessus de la Melee," and now to--in some +weak way--stop the conflict. ("Au-dessus de la +Melee"--as the man said when they asked him where he +was when the bull gored his sister.) The efforts to stop the +conflict at any price, even at the price of entire submission to +the German Will, grew more urgent as the necessity that everyone +should help against the German Thing grew more manifest. + +Of all the strange freaks of distressed thinking that this war +has produced, the freaks of the Genteel Whig have been among the +most remarkable. With an air of profound wisdom he returns +perpetually to his proposition that there are faults on both +sides. To say that is his conception of impartiality. I suppose +that if a bull gored his sister he would say that there were +faults on both sides; his sister ought not to have strayed into +the field, she was wearing a red hat of a highly provocative +type; she ought to have been a cow and then everything would have +been different. In the face of the history of the last forty +years, the Genteel Whig struggles persistently to minimise the +German outrage upon civilisation and to find excuses for Germany. +He does this, not because he has any real passion for falsehood, +but because by training, circumstance, and disposition he is +passionately averse from action with the vulgar majority and from +self-sacrifice in a common cause, and because he finds in the +justification of Germany and, failing that, in the blackening of +the Allies to an equal blackness, one line of defence against the +wave of impulse that threatens to submerge his private self. But +when at last that line is forced he is driven back upon others +equally extraordinary. You can often find simultaneously in the +same Pacifist paper, and sometimes even in the utterances of the +same writer, two entirely incompatible statements. The first is +that Germany is so invincible that it is useless to prolong the +war since no effort of the Allies is likely to produce any +material improvement in their position, and the second is that +Germany is so thoroughly beaten that she is now ready to abandon +militarism and make terms and compensations entirely acceptable +to the countries she has forced into war. And when finally facts +are produced to establish the truth that Germany, though still +largely wicked and impenitent, is being slowly and conclusively +beaten by the sanity, courage and persistence of the Allied +common men, then the Genteel Whig retorts with his last defensive +absurdity. He invents a national psychology for Germany. +Germany, he invents, loves us and wants to be our dearest friend. +Germany has always loved us. The Germans are a loving, unenvious +people. They have been a little mislead--but nice people do not +insist upon that fact. But beware of beating Germany, beware of +humiliating Germany; then indeed trouble will come. Germany will +begin to dislike us. She will plan a revenge. Turning aside +from her erstwhile innocent career, she may even think of hate. +What are our obligations to France, Italy, Serbia and Russia, +what is the happiness of a few thousands of the Herero, a few +millions of the Belgians--whose numbers moreover are constantly +diminishing--when we might weigh them against the danger, the +most terrible danger, of incurring /permanent German +hostility?.../ + +A Frenchman I talked to knew better than that. "What will happen +to Germany," I asked, "if we are able to do so to her and so; +would she take to dreams of a /Revanche?/" + +"She will take to Anglomania," he said, and added after a flash +of reflection, "In the long run it will be the worse for you." + + +III. THE RELIGIOUS REVIVAL + + +1 + +One of the indisputable things about the war, so far as Britain +and France go--and I have reason to believe that on a lesser +scale things are similar in Italy--is that it has produced a very +great volume of religious thought and feeling. About Russia in +these matters we hear but little at the present time, but one +guesses at parallelism. People habitually religious have been +stirred to new depths of reality and sincerity, and people are +thinking of religion who never thought of religion before. But +as I have already pointed out, thinking and feeling about a +matter is of no permanent value unless something is /thought +out/, unless there is a change of boundary or relationship, +and it an altogether different question to ask whether any +definite change is resulting from this universal ferment. If it +is not doing so, then the sleeper merely dreams a dream that he +will forget again.... + +Now in no sort of general popular mental activity is there so +much froth and waste as in religious excitements. This has been +the case in all periods of religious revival. The number who are +rather impressed, who for a few days or weeks take to reading +their Bibles or going to a new place of worship or praying or +fasting or being kind and unselfish, is always enormous in +relation to the people whose lives are permanently changed. The +effort needed if a contemporary is to blow off the froth, is +always very considerable. + +Among the froth that I would blow off is I think most of the +tremendous efforts being made in England by the Anglican church +to attract favourable attention to itself /apropos/ +of the war. I came back from my visit to the Somme battlefields +to find the sylvan peace of Essex invaded by a number of ladies +in blue dresses adorned with large white crosses, who, regardless +of the present shortage of nurses, were visiting every home in +the place on some mission of invitation whose details remained +obscure. So far as I was able to elucidate this project, it was +in the nature of a magic incantation; a satisfactory end of the +war was to be brought about by convergent prayer and religious +assiduities. The mission was shy of dealing with me personally, +although as a lapsed communicant I should have thought myself a +particularly hopeful field for Anglican effort, and it came to my +wife and myself merely for our permission and countenance in an +appeal to our domestic servants. My wife consulted the +household; it seemed very anxious to escape from that appeal, and +as I respect Christianity sufficiently to detest the +identification of its services with magic processes, the mission +retired--civilly repulsed. But the incident aroused an uneasy +curiosity in my mind with regard to the general trend of Anglican +teaching and Anglican activities at the present time. The trend +of my enquiries is to discover the church much more incoherent +and much less religious--in any decent sense of the word--than I +had supposed it to be. + +Organisation is the life of material and the death of mental and +spiritual processes. There could be no more melancholy +exemplification of this than the spectacle of the Anglican and +Catholic churches at the present time, one using the tragic +stresses of war mainly for pew-rent touting, and the other +paralysed by its Austrian and South German political connections +from any clear utterance upon the moral issues of the war. +Through the opening phases of the war the Established Church of +England was inconspicuous; this is no longer the case, but it may +be doubted whether the change is altogether to its advantage. To +me this is a very great disappointment. I have always had a very +high opinion of the intellectual values of the leading divines of +both the Anglican and Catholic communions. The self-styled +Intelligentsia of Great Britain is all too prone to sneer at +their equipment; but I do not see how any impartial person can +deny that Father Bernard Vaughn is in mental energy, vigour of +expression, richness of thought and variety of information fully +the equal of such an influential lay publicist as Mr. Horatio +Bottomley. One might search for a long time among prominent +laymen to find the equal of the Bishop of London. Nevertheless +it is impossible to conceal the impression of tawdriness that +this latter gentleman's work as head of the National Mission has +left upon my mind. Attired in khaki he has recently been +preaching in the open air to the people of London upon Tower +Hill, Piccadilly, and other conspicuous places. Obsessed as I am +by the humanities, and impressed as I have always been by the +inferiority of material to moral facts, I would willingly have +exchanged the sight of two burning Zeppelins for this spectacle +of ecclesiastical fervour. But as it is, I am obliged to trust +to newspaper reports and the descriptions of hearers and eye- +witnesses. They leave to me but little doubt of the regrettable +superficiality of the bishop's utterances. + +We have a multitude of people chastened by losses, ennobled by a +common effort, needing support in that effort, perplexed by the +reality of evil and cruelty, questioning and seeking after God. +What does the National Mission offer? On Tower Hill the bishop +seems to have been chiefly busy with a wrangling demonstration +that ten thousand a year is none too big a salary for a man +subject to such demands and expenses as his see involves. So far +from making anything out of his see he was, he declared, two +thousand a year to the bad. Some day, when the church has +studied efficiency, I suppose that bishops will have the leisure +to learn something about the general state of opinion and +education in their dioceses. The Bishop of London was evidently +unaware of the almost automatic response of the sharp socialists +among his hearers. Their first enquiry would be to learn how he +came by that mysterious extra two thousand a year with which he +supplemented his stipend. How did he earn /that?/ And if he +didn't earn it---! And secondly, they would probably have +pointed out to him that his standard of housing, clothing, diet +and entertaining was probably a little higher than theirs. It is +really no proof of virtuous purity that a man's expenditure +exceeds his income. And finally some other of his hearers were +left unsatisfied by his silence with regard to the current +proposal to pool all clerical stipends for the common purposes of +the church. It is a reasonable proposal, and if bishops must +dispute about stipends instead of preaching the kingdom of God, +then they are bound to face it. The sooner they do so, the more +graceful will the act be. From these personal apologetics the +bishop took up the question of the exemption, at the request of +the bishops, of the clergy from military service. It is one of +our contrasts with French conditions--and it is all to the +disadvantage of the British churches. + +In his Piccadilly contribution to the National Mission of +Repentance and Hope the bishop did not talk politics but sex. He +gave his hearers the sort of stuff that is handed out so freely +by the Cinema Theatres, White Slave Traffic talk, denunciations +of "Night Hawks"--whatever "Night Hawks" may be--and so on. One +this or another occasion the bishop--he boasts that he himself is +a healthy bachelor--lavished his eloquence upon the Fall in the +Birth Rate, and the duty of all married people, from paupers +upward, to have children persistently. Now sex, like diet, is a +department of conduct and a very important department, but /it +isn't religion!/ The world is distressed by international +disorder, by the monstrous tragedy of war; these little hot talks +about indulgence and begetting have about as much to do with the +vast issues that concern us as, let us say, a discussion of the +wickedness of eating very new and indigestible bread. It is +talking round and about the essential issue. It is fogging the +essential issue, which is the forgotten and neglected kingship of +God. The sin that is stirring the souls of men is the sin of +this war. It is the sin of national egotism and the devotion of +men to loyalties, ambitions, sects, churches, feuds, aggressions, +and divisions that are an outrage upon God's universal +kingdom. + + +2 + +The common clergy of France, sharing the military obligations and +the food and privations of their fellow parishioners, contrast +very vividly with the home-staying types of the ministries of the +various British churches. I met and talked to several. Near +Frise there were some barge gunboats--they have since taken their +place in the fighting, but then they were a surprise--and the men +had been very anxious to have their craft visited and seen. The +priest who came after our party to see if he could still arrange +that, had been decorated for gallantry. Of course the English +too have their gallant chaplains, but they are men of the officer +caste, they are just young officers with peculiar collars; not +men among men, as are the French priests. + +There can be no doubt that the behaviour of the French priests in +this war has enormously diminished anti-clerical bitterness in +France. There can be no doubt that France is far more a +religious country than it was before the war. But if you ask +whether that means any return to the church, any reinstatement of +the church, the answer is a doubtful one. Religion and the +simple priest are stronger in France to-day; the church, I think, +is weaker. + +I trench on no theological discussion when I record the +unfavourable impression made upon all western Europe by the +failure of the Holy Father to pronounce definitely upon the +rights and wrongs of the war. The church has abrogated its right +of moral judgement. Such at least seemed to be the opinion of +the Frenchmen with whom I discussed a remarkable interview with +Cardinal Gasparri that I found one morning in /Le Journal./ + +It was not the sort of interview to win the hearts of men who +were ready to give their lives to set right what they believe to +be the greatest outrage that has ever been inflicted upon +Christendom, that is to say the forty-three years of military +preparation and of diplomacy by threats that culminated in the +ultimatum to Serbia, the invasion of Belgium and the murder of +the Vise villagers. It was adorned with a large portrait +of "Benoit XV.," looking grave and discouraging over his +spectacles, and the headlines insisted it was "/La +Pensee du Pape./" Cross-heads sufficiently indicated +the general tone. One read: + +/"Le Saint Siege impartial... +Au-dessus de la bataille...."/ +The good Cardinal would have made a good lawyer. He had as +little to say about God and the general righteousness of things +as the Bishop of London. But he got in some smug reminders of +the severance of diplomatic relations with the Vatican. Perhaps +now France will be wiser. He pointed out that the Holy See in +its Consistorial Allocution of January 22nd, 1915, invited the +belligerents to observe the rules of war. Could anything more be +done than that? Oh!--in the general issue of the war, if you +want a judgement on the war as a whole, how is it possible that +the Vatican to decide? Surely the French know that excellent +principle of justice, /Audiatur et altera pars/, and how +under existing circumstances can the Vatican do that...? The +Vatican is cut off from communication with Austria and Germany. +The Vatican has been deprived of its temporal power and local +independence (another neat point).... + +So France is bowed out. When peace is restored, the Vatican will +perhaps be able to enquire if there was a big German army in +1914, if German diplomacy was aggressive from 1875 onward, if +Belgium was invaded unrighteously, if (Catholic) Austria forced +the pace upon (non-Catholic) Russia. But now--now the Holy See +must remain as impartial as an unbought mascot in a shop +window.... + +The next column of /Le Journal/ contained an account of the +Armenian massacres; the blood of the Armenian cries out past the +Holy Father to heaven; but then Armenians are after all heretics, +and here again the principle of /Audiatur et altera pars/ +comes in. Communications are not open with the Turks. Moreover, +Armenians, like Serbs, are worse than infidels; they are +heretics. Perhaps God is punishing them.... + +/Audiatur et altera pars/, and the Vatican has not forgotten +the infidelity and disrespect of both France and Italy in the +past. These are the things, it seems, that really matter to the +Vatican. Cardinal Gasparri's portrait, in the same issue of +/Le Journal/, displays a countenance of serene contentment, +a sort of incarnate "Told-you-so." + +So the Vatican lifts its pontifical skirts and shakes the dust of +western Europe off its feet. + +It is the most astounding renunciation in history. + +Indubitably the Christian church took a wide stride from the +kingship of God when it placed a golden throne for the unbaptised +Constantine in the midst of its most sacred deliberations at +Nicaea. But it seems to me that this abandonment of moral +judgements in the present case by the Holy See is an almost wider +step from the church's allegiance to God.... + + +3 + +Thought about the great questions of life, thought and reasoned +direction, this is what the multitude demands mutely and weakly, +and what the organised churches are failing to give. They have +not the courage of their creeds. Either their creeds are +intellectual flummery or they are the solution to the riddles +with which the world is struggling. But the churches make no +mention of their creeds. They chatter about sex and the magic +effect of church attendance and simple faith. If simple faith is +enough, the churches and their differences are an imposture. Men +are stirred to the deepest questions about life and God, and the +Anglican church, for example, obliges--as I have described. + +It is necessary to struggle against the unfavourable impression +made by these things. They must not blind us to the deeper +movement that is in progress in a quite considerable number of +minds in England and France alike towards the realisation of the +kingdom of God. + +What I conceive to be the reality of the religious revival is to +be found in quarters remote from the religious professionals. +Let me give but one instance of several that occur to me. I met +soon after my return from France a man who has stirred my +curiosity for years, Mr. David Lubin, the prime mover in the +organisation of the International Institute of Agriculture in +Rome. It is a movement that has always appealed to my +imagination. The idea is to establish and keep up to date a +record of the food supplies in the world with a view to the +ultimate world control of food supply and distribution. When its +machinery has developed sufficiently to a control in the +interests of civilisation of many other staples besides +foodstuffs. It is in fact the suggestion and beginning of the +economic world peace and the economic world state, just as the +Hague Tribunal is the first faint sketch of a legal world state. +The King of Italy has met Mr. Lubin's idea with open hands. (It +was because of this profoundly interesting experiment that in a +not very widely known book of mine, /The World Set Free/ +(May, 1914), in which I represented a world state as arising out +of Armageddon, I made the first world conference meet at Brissago +in Italian Switzerland under the presidency of the King of +Italy.) So that when I found I could meet Mr. Lubin I did so very +gladly. We lunched together in a pretty little room high over +Knightsbridge, and talked through an afternoon. + +He is a man rather after the type of Gladstone; he could be made +to look like Gladstone in a caricature, and he has that +compelling quality of intense intellectual excitement which was +one of the great factors in the personal effectiveness of +Gladstone. He is a Jew, but until I had talked to him for some +time that fact did not occur to me. He is in very ill health, he +has some weakness of the heart that grips him and holds him at +times white and silent. + +At first we talked of his Institute and its work. Then we came +to shipping and transport. Whenever one talks now of human +affairs one comes presently to shipping and transport generally. +In Paris, in Italy, when I returned to England, everywhere I +found "cost of carriage" was being discovered to be a question of +fundamental importance. Yet transport, railroads and shipping, +these vitally important services in the world's affairs, are +nearly everywhere in private hands and run for profit. In the +case of shipping they are run for profit on such antiquated lines +that freights vary from day to day and from hour to hour. It +makes the business of food supply a gamble. And it need not be a +gamble. + +But that is by the way in the present discussion. As we talked, +the prospect broadened out from a prospect of the growing and +distribution of food to a general view of the world becoming one +economic community. + +I talked of various people I had been meeting in the previous few +weeks. "So many of us," I said, "seem to be drifting away from +the ideas of nationalism and faction and policy, towards +something else which is larger. It is an idea of a right way of +doing things for human purposes, independently of these limited +and localised references. Take such things as international +hygiene for example, take /this/ movement. We are feeling +our way towards a bigger rule." + +"The rule of Righteousness," said Mr. Lubin. + +I told him that I had been coming more and more to the idea--not +as a sentimentality or a metaphor, but as the ruling and +directing idea, the structural idea, of all one's political and +social activities--of the whole world as one state and community +and of God as the King of that state. + +"But /I/ say that," cried Mr. Lubin, "I have put my name to that. And--it is /here!/" + +He struggled up, seized an Old Testament that lay upon a side +table. He stood over it and rapped its cover. "It is +/here/," he said, looking more like Gladstone than ever, "in +the Prophets." + + +4 + +That is all I mean to tell at present of that conversation. + +We talked of religion for two hours. Mr. Lubin sees things in +terms of Israel and I do not. For all that we see things very +much after the same fashion. That talk was only one of a number +of talks about religion that I have had with hard and practical +men who want to get the world straighter than it is, and who +perceive that they must have a leadership and reference outside +themselves. That is why I assert so confidently that there is a +real deep religious movement afoot in the world. But not one of +those conversations could have gone on, it would have ceased +instantly, if anyone bearing the uniform and brand of any +organised religious body, any clergyman, priest, mollah, of +suchlike advocate of the ten thousand patented religions in the +world, had come in. He would have brought in his sectarian +spites, his propaganda of church-going, his persecution of the +heretic and the illegitimate, his ecclesiastical politics, his +taboos, and his doctrinal touchiness.... That is why, though I +perceive there is a great wave of religious revival in the world +to-day, I doubt whether it bodes well for the professional +religions.... + +The other day I was talking to an eminent Anglican among various +other people and someone with an eye to him propounded this +remarkable view. + +"There are four stages between belief and utter unbelief. There +are those who believe in God, those who doubt like Huxley the +Agnostic, those who deny him like the Atheists but who do at +least keep his place vacant, and lastly those who have set up a +Church in his place. That is the last outrage of unbelief." + + +IV. THE RIDDLE OF THE BRITISH +All the French people I met in France seemed to be thinking and +talking about the English. The English bring their own +atmosphere with them; to begin with they are not so talkative, +and I did not find among them anything like the same vigour of +examination, the same resolve to understand the Anglo-French +reaction, that I found among the French. In intellectual +processes I will confess that my sympathies are undisguisedly +with the French; the English will never think nor talk clearly +until the get clerical "Greek" and sham "humanities" out of their +public schools and sincere study and genuine humanities in; our +disingenuous Anglican compromise is like a cold in the English +head, and the higher education in England is a training in +evasion. This is an always lamentable state of affairs, but just +now it is particularly lamentable because quite tremendous +opportunities for the good of mankind turn on the possibility of +a thorough and entirely frank mutual understanding between +French, Italians, and English. For years there has been a +considerable amount of systematic study in France of English +thought and English developments. Upon almost any question of +current English opinion and upon most current English social +questions, the best studies are in French. But there has been +little or no reciprocal activity. The English in France seem to +confine their French studies to /La Vie Parisienne./ It is +what they have been led to expect of French literature. + +There can be no doubt in any reasonable mind that this war is +binding France and England very closely together. They dare not +quarrel for the next fifty years. They are bound to play a +central part in the World League for the Preservation of Peace +that must follow this struggle. There is no question of their +practical union. It is a thing that must be. But it is +remarkable that while the French mind is agog to apprehend every +fact and detail it can about the British, to make the wisest and +fullest use of our binding necessities, that strange English +"incuria"--to use the new slang--attains to its most monumental +in this matter. + +So there is not much to say about how the British think about the +French. They do not think. They feel. At the outbreak of the +war, when the performance of France seemed doubtful, there was an +enormous feeling for France in Great Britain; it was like the +formless feeling one has for a brother. It was as if Britain had +discovered a new instinct. If France had crumpled up like paper, +the English would have fought on passionately to restore her. +That is ancient history now. Now the English still feel +fraternal and fraternally proud; but in a mute way they are +dazzled. Since the German attack on Verdun began, the French +have achieved a crescendo. None of us could have imagined it. +It did not seem possible to very many of us at the end of 1915 +that either France or Germany could hold on for another year. +There was much secret anxiety for France. It has given place now +to unstinted confidence and admiration. In their astonishment +the British are apt to forget the impressive magnitude of their +own effort, the millions of soldiers, the innumerable guns, the +endless torrent of supplies that pour into France to avenge the +little army of Mons. It seems natural to us that we should so +exert ourselves under the circumstances. I suppose it is +wonderful, but, as a sample Englishman, I do not feel that it is +at all wonderful. I did not feel it wonderful even when I saw +the British aeroplanes lording it in the air over Martinpuich, +and not a German to be seen. Since Michael would have it so, +there, at last, they were. + +There was a good deal of doubt in France about the vigour of the +British effort, until the Somme offensive. All that had been +dispelled in August when I reached Paris. There was not the +shadow of a doubt remaining anywhere of the power and loyalty of +the British. These preliminary assurances have to be made, +because it is in the nature of the French mind to criticise, and +it must not be supposed that criticisms of detail and method +affect the fraternity and complete mutual confidence which is the +stuff of the Anglo-French relationship. + + +2 + +Now first the French have been enormously astonished by the +quality of the ordinary British soldiers in our new armies. One +Colonial colonel said something almost incredible to me--almost +incredible as coming as from a Frenchman; it was a matter to +solemn for any compliments or polite exaggerations; he said in +tones of wonder and conviction, "/They are as good as +ours./" It was his acme of all possible praise. + +That means any sort of British soldier. Unless he is assisted by +a kilt the ordinary Frenchman is unable to distinguish between +one sort of British soldier and another. He cannot tell--let the +ardent nationalist mark the fact!--a Cockney from an Irishman or +the Cardiff from the Essex note. He finds them all extravagantly +and unquenchably cheerful and with a generosity--"like good +children." There his praise is a little tinged by doubt. The +British are reckless--recklessness in battle a Frenchman can +understand, but they are also reckless about to-morrow's bread +and whether the tent is safe against a hurricane in the night. +He is struck too by the fact that they are much more vocal than +the French troops, and that they seem to have a passion for bad +lugubrious songs. There he smiles and shrugs his shoulders, and +indeed what else can any of us do in the presence of that +mystery? At any rate the legend of the "phlegmatic" Englishman +has been scattered to the four winds of heaven by the guns of the +western front. The men are cool in action, it is true; but for +the rest they are, by the French standards, quicksilver. + +But I will not expand further upon the general impression made by +the English in France. Philippe Millet's /En Liaison avec les +Anglais/ gives in a series of delightful pictures portraits of +British types from the French angle. There can be little doubt +that the British quality, genial naive, plucky and generous, has +won for itself a real affection in France wherever it has had a +chance to display itself.... + +But when it comes to British methods then the polite Frenchman's +difficulties begin. Translating hints into statements and +guessing at reservations, I would say that the French fall very +short of admiration of the way in which our higher officers set +about their work, they are disagreeably impressed by a general +want of sedulousness and close method in our leading. They think +we economise brains and waste blood. They are shocked at the way +in which obviously incompetent or inefficient men of the old army +class are retained in their positions even after serious +failures, and they were profoundly moved by the bad staff work +and needlessly heavy losses of our opening attacks in July. They +were ready to condone the blunderings and flounderings of the +1915 offensive as the necessary penalties of an "amateur" army, +they had had to learn their own lesson in Champagne, but they +were surprised to find how much the British had still to learn in +July, 1916. The British officers excuse themselves because, they +plead, they are still amateurs. "That is no reason," says the +Frenchman, "why they should be amateurish." + +No Frenchman said as much as this to me, but their meaning was as +plain as daylight. I tackled one of my guides on this matter; I +said that it was the plain duty of the French military people to +criticise British military methods sharply if they thought they +were wrong. "It is not easy," he said. "Many British officers +do not think they have anything to learn. And English people do +not like being told things. What could we do? We could hardly +send a French officer or so to your headquarters in a tutorial +capacity. You have to do things in your own way." When I tried +to draw General Castelnau into this dangerous question by +suggesting that we might borrow a French general or so, he would +say only, "There is only one way to learn war, and that is to +make war." When it was too late, in the lift, I thought of the +answer to that. There is only one way to make war, and that is +by the sacrifice of incapables and the rapid promotion of able +men. If old and tried types fail now, new types must be sought. +But to do that we want a standard of efficiency. We want a +conception of intellectual quality in performance that is still +lacking.... + +M. Joseph Reinach, in whose company I visited the French part of +the Somme front, was full of a scheme, which he has since +published, for the breaking up and recomposition of the French +and British armies into a series of composite armies which would +blend the magnificent British manhood and material with French +science and military experience. He pointed out the endless +advantages of such an arrangement; the stimulus of emulation, the +promotion of intimate fraternal feeling between the peoples of +the two countries. "At present," he said, "no Frenchman ever +sees an Englishman except at Amiens or on the Somme. Many of +them still have no idea of what the English are doing...." + +"Have I ever told you the story of compulsory Greek at Oxford and +Cambridge?" I asked abruptly. + +"What has that to do with it?" + +"Or how two undistinguished civil service commissioners can hold +up the scientific education of our entire administrative class?" + +M. Reinach protested further. + +"Because you are proposing to loosen the grip of a certain narrow +and limited class upon British affairs, and you propose it as +though it were a job as easy as rearranging railway fares or +sending a van to Calais. That is the problem that every decent +Englishman is trying to solve to-day, every man of that Greater +Britain which has supplied these five million volunteers, these +magnificent temporary officers and all this wealth of munitions. +And the oligarchy is so invincibly fortified! Do you think it +will let in Frenchmen to share its controls? It will not even +let in Englishmen. It holds the class schools; the class +universities; the examinations for our public services are its +class shibboleths; it is the church, the squirearchy, the +permanent army class, permanent officialdom; it makes every +appointment, it is the fountain of honour; what it does not know +is not knowledge, what it cannot do must not be done. It rules +India ignorantly and obstructively; it will wreck the empire +rather than relinquish its ascendancy in Ireland. It is densely +self-satisfied and instinctively monopolistic. It is on our +backs, and with it on our backs we common English must bleed and +blunder to victory.... And you make this proposal!" + + +3 + +The antagonistic relations of the Anglican oligarchy with the +greater and greater-spirited Britain that thrust behind it in +this war are probably paralleled very closely in Germany, +probably they are exaggerated in Germany with a bigger military +oligarchy and a relatively lesser civil body under it. This +antagonism is the oddest outcome of the tremendous /de- +militarisation/ of war that has been going on. In France it +is probably not so marked because of the greater flexibility and +adaptability of the French culture. + +All military people--people, that is, professionally and +primarily military--are inclined to be conservative. For +thousands of years the military tradition has been a tradition of +discipline. The conception of the common soldier has been a +mechanically obedient, almost dehumanised man, of the of officer +a highly trained autocrat. In two years all this has been +absolutely reversed. Individual quality, inventive organisation +and industrialism will win this war. And no class is so innocent +of these things as the military caste. Long accustomed as they +are to the importance of moral effect they put a brave face upon +the business; they save their faces astonishingly, but they are +no longer guiding and directing this war, they are being pushed +from behind by forces they never foresaw and cannot control. The +aeroplanes and great guns have bolted with them, the tanks +begotten of naval and civilian wits, shove them to victory in +spite of themselves. + +Wherever I went behind the British lines the officers were going +about in spurs. These spurs at last got on my nerves. They +became symbolical. They became as grave an insult to the tragedy +of the war as if they were false noses. The British officers go +for long automobile rides in spurs. They walk about the trenches +in spurs. Occasionally I would see a horse; I do not wish to be +unfair in this matter, there were riding horses sometimes within +two or three miles of the ultimate front, but they were rarely +used. + +I do not say that the horse is entirely obsolescent in this war. +In was nothing is obsolete. In the trenches men fight with +sticks. In the Pasubio battle the other day one of the Alpini +silenced a machine gun by throwing stones. In the West African +campaign we have employed troops armed with bows and arrows, and +they have done very valuable work. But these are exceptional +cases. The military use of the horse henceforth will be such an +exceptional case. It is ridiculous for these spurs still to +clink about the modern battlefield. What the gross cost of the +spurs and horses and trappings of the British army amount to, and +how many men are grooming and tending horses who might just as +well be ploughing and milking at home, I cannot guess; it must be +a total so enormous as seriously to affect the balance of the +war. + +And these spurs and their retention are only the outward and +visible symbol of the obstinate resistance of the Anglican +intelligence to the clear logic of the present situation. It is +not only the external equipment of our leaders that falls behind +the times; our political and administrative services are in the +hands of the same desolatingly inadaptable class. The British +are still wearing spurs in Ireland; they are wearing them in +India; and the age of the spur has passed. At the outset of this +war there was an absolute cessation of criticism of the military +and administrative castes; it is becoming a question whether we +may not pay too heavily in blundering and waste, in military and +economic lassitude, in international irritation and the +accumulation of future dangers in Ireland, Egypt, India, and +elsewhere, for an apparent absence of internal friction. These +people have no gratitude for tacit help, no spirit of intelligent +service, and no sense of fair play to the outsider. The latter +deficiency indeed they call /esprit de corps/ and prize it +as if it were a noble quality. + +It becomes more and more imperative that the foreign observer +should distinguish between this narrower, older official Britain +and the greater newer Britain that struggles to free itself from +the entanglement of a system outgrown. There are many Englishmen +who would like to say to the French and Irish and the Italians +and India, who indeed feel every week now a more urgent need of +saying, "Have patience with us." The Riddle of the British is +very largely solved if you will think of a great modern liberal +nation seeking to slough an exceedingly tough and tight skin.... + +Nothing is more illuminating and self-educational than to explain +one's home politics to an intelligent foreigner enquirer; it +strips off all the secondary considerations, the allusiveness, +the merely tactical considerations, the allusiveness, the merely +tactical considerations. One sees the forest not as a confusion +of trees but as something with a definite shape and place. I was +asked in Italy and in France, "Where does Lord Northcliffe come +into the British system--or Lloyd George? Who is Mr. Redmond? +Why is Lloyd George a Minister, and why does not Mr. Redmond take +office? Isn't there something called an ordnance department, and +why is there a separate ministry of munitions? Can Mr. Lloyd +George remove an incapable general?..." + +I found it M. Joseph Reinach particularly penetrating and +persistent. It is an amusing but rather difficult exercise to +recall what I tried to convey to him by way of a theory of +Britain. He is by no means an uncritical listener. I explained +that there is an "inner Britain," official Britain, which is +Anglican or official Presbyterian, which at the outside in the +whole world cannot claim to speak for twenty million Anglican or +Presbyterian communicants, which monopolises official positions, +administration and honours in the entire British empire, +dominates the court, and, typically, is spurred and red-tabbed. +(It was just at this time that the spurs were most on my +nerves.) + +This inner Britain, I went on to explain, holds tenaciously to +its positions of advantage, from which it is difficult to +dislodge it without upsetting the whole empire, and it insists +upon treating the rest of the four hundred millions who +constitute that empire as outsiders, foreigners, subject races +and suspected persons. + +"To you," I said, "it bears itself with an appearance of faintly +hostile, faintly contemptuous apathy. It is still so entirely +insular that it shudders at the thought of the Channel Tunnel. +This is the Britain which irritates and puzzles you so intensely-- +that you are quite unable to conceal these feelings from me. +Unhappily it is the Britain you see most of. Well, outside this +official Britain is 'Greater Britain'--the real Britain with +which you have to reckon in the future." (From this point a +faint flavour of mysticism crept into my dissertation. I found +myself talking with something in my voice curiously reminiscent +of those liberal Russians who set themselves to explain the +contrasts and contradictions of "official" Russia and "true" +Russia.) "This Greater Britain," I asserted, "is in a perpetual +conflict with official Britain, struggling to keep it up to its +work, shoving it towards its ends, endeavouring in spite of its +tenacious mischievousness of the privileged to keep the peace and +a common aim with the French and Irish and Italians and Russians +and Indians. It is to that outer Britain that those Englishmen +you found so interesting and sympathetic, Lloyd George and Lord +Northcliffe, for example, belong. It is the Britain of the great +effort, the Britain of the smoking factories and the torrent of +munitions, the Britain of the men and subalterns of the new +armies, the Britain which invents and thinks and achieves, and +stands now between German imperialism and the empire of the +world. I do not want to exaggerate the quality of greater +Britain. If the inner set are narrowly educated, the outer set +if often crudely educated. If the inner set is so close knit as +to seem like a conspiracy, the outer set is so loosely knit as to +seem like a noisy confusion. Greater Britain is only beginning +to realise itself and find itself. For all its crudity there is +a giant spirit in it feeling its way towards the light. It has +quite other ambitions for the ending of the war than some haggled +treaty of alliance with France and Italy; some advantage that +will invalidate German competition; it begins to realise newer +and wider sympathies, possibilities of an amalgamation of +interests and community of aim that is utterly beyond the habits +of the old oligarchy to conceive, beyond the scope of that tawdry +word 'Empire' to express...." + +I descended from my rhetoric to find M. Reinach asking how and +when this greater Britain was likely to become politically +effective. + + +V. THE SOCIAL CHANGES IN PROGRESS + + +1 + +"Nothing will be the same after the war." This is one of the +consoling platitudes with which people cover over voids of +thought. They utter it with an air of round-eyed profundity. +But to ask in reply, "Then how will things be different?" is in +many cases to rouse great resentment. It is almost as rude as +saying, "Was that thought of yours really a thought?" + +Let us in this chapter confine ourselves to the social-economic +processes that are going on. So far as I am able to distinguish +among the things that are being said in these matters, they may +be classified out into groups that centre upon several typical +questions. There is the question of "How to pay for the war?" +There is the question of the behaviour of labour after the war. +"Will there be a Labour Truce or a violent labour struggle?" +There is the question of the reconstruction of European industry +after the war in the face of an America in a state of monetary +and economic repletion through non-intervention. My present +purpose in this chapter is a critical one; it is not to solve +problems but to set out various currents of thought that are +flowing through the general mind. Which current is likely to +seize upon and carry human affairs with it, is not for our +present speculation. + +There seem to be two distinct ways of answering the first of the +questions I have noted. They do not necessarily contradict each +other. Of course the war is being largely paid for immediately +out of the accumulated private wealth of the past. We are buying +off the "hold-up" of the private owner upon the material and +resources we need, and paying in paper money and war loans. This +is not in itself an impoverishment of the community. The wealth +of individuals is not the wealth of nations; the two things may +easily be contradictory when the rich man's wealth consists of +land or natural resources or franchises or privileges the use of +which he reluctantly yields for high prices. The conversion of +held-up land and material into workable and actively used +material in exchange for national debt may be indeed a positive +increase in the wealth of the community. And what is happening +in all the belligerent countries is the taking over of more and +more of the realities of wealth from private hands and, in +exchange, the contracting of great masses of debt to private +people. The nett tendency is towards the disappearance of a +reality holding class and the destruction of realities in +warfare, and the appearance of a vast /rentier/ class in its +place. At the end of the war much material will be destroyed for +evermore, transit, food production and industry will be +everywhere enormously socialised, and the country will be liable +to pay every year in interest, a sum of money exceeding the +entire national expenditure before the war. From the point of +view of the state, and disregarding material and moral damages, +that annual interest is the annual instalment of the price to be +paid for the war. + +Now the interesting question arises whether these great +belligerent states may go bankrupt, and if so to what extent. +States may go bankrupt to the private creditor without +repudiating their debts or seeming to pay less to him. They can +go bankrupt either by a depreciation of their currency or-- +without touching the gold standard--through a rise in prices. In +the end both these things work out to the same end; the creditor +gets so many loaves or pairs of boots or workman's hours of +labour for his pound /less/ than he would have got under the +previous conditions. One may imagine this process of price (and +of course wages) increase going on to a limitless extent. Many +people are inclined to look to such an increase in prices as a +certain outcome of the war, and just so far as it goes, just so +far will the burthen of the /rentier/ class, their call, tat +is, for goods and services, be lightened. This expectation is +very generally entertained, and I can see little reason against +it. The intensely stupid or dishonest "labour" press, however, +which in the interests of the common enemy misrepresents +socialism and seeks to misguide labour in Great Britain, ignores +these considerations, and positively holds out this prospect of +rising prices as an alarming one to the more credulous and +ignorant of its readers. + +But now comes the second way of meeting the after-the-war +obligations. This second way is by increasing the wealth of the +state and by increasing the national production to such an extent +that the payment of the /rentier/ class will not be an +overwhelming burthen. Rising prices bilk the creditor. +Increased production will check the rise in prices and get him a +real payment. The outlook for the national creditor seems to be +that he will be partly bilked and partly paid; how far he will be +bilked and how far depends almost entirely upon this possible +increase in production; and there is consequently a very keen and +quite unprecedented desire very widely diffused among intelligent +and active people, holding War Loan scrip and the like, in all +the belligerent countries, to see bold and hopeful schemes for +state enrichment pushed forward. The movement towards socialism +is receiving an impulse from a new and unexpected quarter, there +is now a /rentier/ socialism, and it is interesting to note +that while the London /Times/ is full of schemes of great +state enterprises, for the exploitation of Colonial state lands, +for the state purchase and wholesaling of food and many natural +products, and for the syndication of shipping and the great +staple industries into vast trusts into which not only the +British but the French and Italian governments may enter as +partners, the so-called socialist press of Great Britain is +chiefly busy about the draughts in the cell of Mr. Fenner +Brockway and the refusal of Private Scott Duckers to put on his +khaki trousers. /The New Statesman/ and the Fabian Society, +however, display a wider intelligence. + +There is a great variety of suggestions for this increase of +public wealth and production. Many of them have an extreme +reasonableness. The extent to which they will be adopted +depends, no doubt, very largely upon the politician and permanent +official, and both these classes are prone to panic in the +presence of reality. In spite of its own interests in +restraining a rise in prices, the old official "salariat" is +likely to be obstructive to any such innovations. It is the +resistance of spurs and red tabs to military innovations over +again. This is the resistance of quills and red tape. On the +other hand the organisation of Britain for war has "officialised" +a number of industrial leaders, and created a large body of +temporary and adventurous officials. They may want to carry on +into peace production the great new factories the war has +created. At the end of the war, for example, every belligerent +country will be in urgent need of cheap automobiles for farmers, +tradesmen, and industrial purposes generally, America is now +producing such automobiles at a price of eighty pounds. But +Europe will be heavily in debt to America, her industries will be +disorganised, and there will therefore be no sort of return +payment possible for these hundreds of thousands of automobiles. +A country that is neither creditor nor producer cannot be an +importer. Consequently though those cheap tin cars may be +stacked as high as the Washington Monument in America, they will +never come to Europe. On the other hand the great shell +factories of Europe will be standing idle and ready, their staffs +disciplined and available, for conversion to the new task. The +imperative common sense of the position seems to be that the +European governments should set themselves straight away to out- +Ford Ford, and provide their own people with cheap road +transport. + +But here comes in the question whether this common-sense course +is inevitable. Suppose the mental energy left in Europe after +the war is insufficient for such a constructive feat as this. +There will certainly be the obstruction of official pedantry, the +hold-up of this vested interest and that, the greedy desire of +"private enterprise" to exploit the occasion upon rather more +costly and less productive lines, the general distrust felt by +ignorant and unimaginative people of a new way of doing things. +The process after all may not get done in the obviously wise way. +This will not mean that Europe will buy American cars. It will +be quite unable to buy American cars. It will be unable to make +anything that America will not be able to make more cheaply for +itself. But it will mean that Europe will go on without cheap +cars, that is to say it will go on a more sluggishly and clumsily +and wastefully at a lower economic level. Hampered transport +means hampered production of other things, and in increasing +inability to buy abroad. And so we go down and down. + +It does not follow that because a course is the manifestly right +and advantageous course for the community that it will be taken. +I am reminded of this by a special basket in my study here, into +which I pitch letters, circulars, pamphlets and so forth as they +come to hand from a gentleman named Gattie, and his friends Mr. +Adrian Ross, Mr. Roy Horniman, Mr. Henry Murray and others. His +particular project is the construction of a Railway Clearing +House for London. It is an absolutely admirable scheme. It +would cut down the heavy traffic in the streets of London to +about one-third; it would enable us to run the goods traffic of +England with less than half the number of railway trucks we now +employ; it would turn over enormous areas of valuable land from +their present use as railway goods yards and sidings; it would +save time in the transit of goods and labour in their handling. +It is a quite beautifully worked out scheme. For the last eight +or ten years this group of devoted fanatics has been pressing +this undertaking upon an indifferent country with increasing +vehemence and astonishment at that indifference. The point is +that its adoption, though it would be of general benefit, would +be of no particular benefit to any leading man or highly placed +official. On the other hand it would upset all sorts of +individuals who are in a position to obstruct it quietly--and +they do so. Meaning no evil. I dip my hand in the accumulation +and extract a leaflet by the all too zealous Mr. Murray. In it +he denounces various public officials by name as he cheats and +scoundrels, and invites a prosecution for libel. + +In that fashion nothing will ever get done. There is no +prosecution, but for all that I do not agree with Mr. Murray +about the men he names. These gentlemen are just comfortable +gentlemen, own brothers to these old generals of ours who will +not take off their spurs. They are probably quite charming +people except that they know nothing of that Fear of God which +searches by heart. Why should they bother? + +So many of these after-the-war problems bring one back to the +question of how far the war has put the Fear of God into the +hearts of responsible men. There is really no other reason in +existence that I can imagine why they should ask themselves the +question, "Have I done my best?" and that still more important +question, "Am I doing my best now?" And so while I hear plenty +of talk about the great reorganisations that are to come after +the war, while there is the stir of doubt among the +/rentiers/ whether, after all, they will get paid, while the +unavoidable stresses and sacrifices of the war are making many +people question the rightfulness of much that they did as a +matter of course, and of much that they took for granted, I +perceive there is also something dull and not very articulate in +this European world, something resistant and inert, that is like +the obstinate rolling over of a heavy sleeper after he has been +called upon to get up. "Just a little longer.... Just for +/my/ time." + +One thought alone seems to make these more intractable people +anxious. I thrust it in as my last stimulant when everything +else has failed. "There will be /frightful/ trouble with +labour after the war," I say. + +They try to persuade themselves that military discipline is +breaking in labour.... + + +2 + +What does British labour think of the outlook after the war? + +As a distinctive thing British labour does not think. "Class- +conscious labour," as the Marxists put it, scarcely exists in +Britain. The only convincing case I ever met was a bath-chairman +of literary habits Eastbourne. The only people who are, as a +class, class-conscious in the British community are the Anglican +gentry and their fringe of the genteel. Everybody else is +"respectable." The mass of British workers find their thinking +in the ordinary halfpenny papers or in /John Bull./ The so- +called labour papers are perhaps less representative of British +Labour than any other section of the press; the /Labour +Leader/, for example, is the organ of such people as Bertrand +Russell, Vernon Lee, Morel, academic /rentiers/ who know +about as much as of the labour side of industrialism as they do +of cock-fighting. All the British peoples are racially willing +and good-tempered people, quite ready to be led by those they +imagine to be abler than themselves. They make the most cheerful +and generous soldiers in the whole world, without insisting upon +that democratic respect which the Frenchman exacts. They do not +criticise and they do not trouble themselves much about the +general plan of operations, so long as they have confidence in +the quality and good will of their leading. But British soldiers +will of their loading. But British soldiers will hiss a general +when they think he is selfish, unfeeling, or a muff. And the +socialist propaganda has imported ideas of public service into +private employment. Labour in Britain has been growing +increasingly impatient of bad or selfish industrial leadership. +Labour trouble in Great Britain turns wholly upon the idea +crystallised in the one word "profiteer." Legislation and +regulation of hours of labour, high wages, nothing will keep +labour quiet in Great Britain if labour thinks it is being +exploited for private gain. + +Labour feels very suspicious of private gain. For that suspicion +a certain rather common type of employer is mainly to blame. +Labour believes that employers is mainly to blame. Labour +believes that employers as a class cheat workmen as a class, plan +to cheat them of their full share in the common output, and drive +hard bargains. It believes that private employers are equally +ready to sacrifice the welfare of the nation and the welfare of +the workers for mere personal advantage. It has a traditional +experience to support these suspicions. + +In no department of morals have ideas changed so completely +during the last eight years as in relation to "profits". Eighty +years ago everyone believed in the divine right of property to do +what it pleased its advantages, a doctrine more disastrous +socially than the divine right of kings. There was no such sense +of the immorality of "holding up" as pervades the public +conscience to-day. The worker was expected not only to work, but +to be grateful for employment. The property owner held his +property and handed it out for use and development or not, just +as he thought fit. These ideas are not altogether extinct today. +Only a few days ago I met a magnificent old lady of seventy nine +or eighty, who discoursed upon the wickedness of her gardener in +demanding another shilling a week because of war prices. + +She was a valiant and handsome personage. A face that had still +a healthy natural pinkness looked out from under blond curls, and +an elegant and carefully tended hand tossed back some fine old +lace to gesticulate more freely. She had previously charmed her +hearers by sweeping aside certain rumours that were drifting +about. + +"Germans invade /Us!/" she cried. "Who'd /let/ 'em, +I'd like to know? Who'd /let/ 'em?" + +And then she reverted to her grievance about the gardener. + +"I told him that after the war he'd be glad enough to get +anything. Grateful! They'll all be coming back after the war-- +all of 'em, glad enough to get anything. Asking for another +shilling indeed!" + +Everyone who heard her looked shocked. But that was the tone of +everyone of importance in the dark years that followed the +Napoleonic wars. That is just one survivor of the old tradition. +Another is Blight the solicitor, who goes about bewailing the +fact that we writers are "holding out false hopes of higher +agricultural wages after the war." But these are both +exceptions. They are held to be remarkable people even by their +own class. The mass of property owners and influential people in +Europe to-day no more believe in the sacred right of property to +hold up development and dictate terms than do the more +intelligent workers. The ideas of collective ends and of the +fiduciary nature of property, had been soaking through the +European community for years before the war. The necessity for +sudden and even violent co-operations and submersions of +individuality in a common purpose, is rapidly crystallising out +these ideas into clear proposals. + +War is an evil thing, but most people who will not learn from +reason must have an ugly teacher. This war has brought home to +everyone the supremacy of the public need over every sort of +individual claim. + +One of the most remarkable things in the British war press is the +amount of space given to the discussion of labour developments +after the war. This in its completeness peculiar to the British +situation. Nothing on the same scale is perceptible in the press +of the Latin allies. A great movement on the part of capitalists +and business organisers is manifest to assure the worker of a +change of heart and a will to change method. Labour is +suspicious, not foolishly but wisely suspicious. But labour is +considering it. + +"National industrial syndication," say the business organisers. + +"Guild socialism," say the workers. + +There is also a considerable amount of talking and writing about +"profit-sharing" and about giving the workers a share in the +business direction. Neither of these ideas appeals to the +shrewder heads among the workers. So far as direction goes their +disposition is to ask the captain to command the ship. So far as +profits go, they think the captain has no more right than the +cabin boy to speculative gains; he should do his work for his pay +whether it is profitable or unprofitable work. There is little +balm for labour discontent in these schemes for making the worker +also an infinitesimal profiteer. + +During my journey in Italy and France I met several men who were +keenly interested in business organisation. Just before I +started my friend N, who has been the chief partner in the +building up of a very big and very extensively advertised +American business, came to see me on his way back to America. He +is as interested in his work as a scientific specialist, and as +ready to talk about it to any intelligent and interested hearer. +He was particularly keen upon the question of continuity in the +business, when it behoves the older generation to let in the +younger to responsible management and to efface themselves. He +was a man of five-and-forty. Incidentally he mentioned that he +had never taken anything for his private life out of the great +business he had built up but a salary, "a good salary," and that +now he was gong to grant himself a pension. "I shan't interfere +any more. I shall come right away and live in Europe for a year +so as not to be tempted to interfere. The boys have got to run +it some day, and they had better get their experience while +they're young and capable of learning by it. I did." + +I like N's ideas. "Practically," I said, "you've been a public +official. You've treated your business like a public service." + +That was his idea. + +"Would you mind if it was a public service?" + +He reflected, and some disagreeable memory darkened his face. +"Under the politicians?" he said. + +I took the train of thought N had set going abroad with me next +day. I had the good luck to meet men who were interesting +industrially. Captain Pirelli, my guide in Italy, has a name +familiar to every motorist; his name goes wherever cars go, spelt +with a big long capital P. Lieutenant de Tessin's name will +recall one of the most interesting experiments in profit-sharing +to the student of social science. I tried over N's problem on +both of them. I found in both their minds just the same attitude +as he takes up towards his business. They think any businesses +that are worthy of respect, the sorts of businesses that interest +them, are public functions. Money-lenders and speculators, +merchants and gambling gentlefolk may think in terms of profit; +capable business directors certainly do nothing of the sort. + +I met a British officer in France who is also a landowner. I got +him to talk about his administrative work upon his property. He +was very keen upon new methods. He said he tried to do his duty +by his land. + +"How much land?" I asked. + +"Just over nine thousand acres," he said. + +"But you could manage forty or fifty thousand with little more +trouble." + +"If I had it. In some ways it would be easier." + +"What a waste!" I said. "Of course you ought not to /own/ +these acres; what you ought to be is the agricultural controller +of just as big an estate of the public lands as you could manage-- +with a suitable salary." + +He reflected upon that idea. He said he did not get much of a +salary out of his land as it was, and made a regrettable allusion +to Mr. Lloyd George. "When a man tries to do his duty by his +land," he said... + +But here running through the thoughts of the Englishman and the +Italian and the Frenchman and the American alike one finds just +the same idea of a kind of officialdom in ownership. It is an +idea that pervades our thought and public discussion to-day +everywhere, and it is an idea that is scarcely traceable at all +in the thought of the early half of the nineteenth century. The +idea of service and responsibility in property has increased and +is increasing, the conception of "hold-up," the usurer's +conception of his right to be bought out of the way, fades. And +the process has been enormously enhanced by the various big-scale +experiments in temporary socialism that have been forced upon the +belligerent powers. Men of the most individualistic quality are +being educated up to the possibilities of concerted collective +action. My friend and fellow-student Y, inventor and business +organiser, who used to make the best steam omnibuses in the +world, and who is now making all sorts of things for the army, +would go pink with suspicious anger at the mere words "inspector" +or "socialism" three or four years ago. He does not do so now. + +A great proportion of this sort of man, this energetic directive +sort of man in England, is thinking socialism to-day. They may +not be saying socialism, but they are thinking it. When labour +begins to realise what is adrift it will be divided between two +things: between appreciative co-operation, for which guild +socialism in particular has prepared its mind, and traditional +suspicion. I will not over to guess here which will prevail. + + +3 + +The impression I have of the present mental process in the +European communities is that while the official class and the +/rentier/ class is thinking very poorly and inadequately and +with a merely obstructive disposition; while the churches are +merely wasting their energies in futile self-advertisement; while +the labour mass is suspicious and disposed to make terms for +itself rather than come into any large schemes of reconstruction +that will abolish profit as a primary aim in economic life, there +is still a very considerable movement towards such a +reconstruction. Nothing is so misleading as a careless analogy. +In the dead years that followed the Napoleonic wars, which are +often quoted as a precedent for expectation now, the spirit of +collective service was near its minimum; it was never so strong +and never so manifestly spreading and increasing as it is to-day. + +But service to what? + +I have my own very strong preconceptions here, and since my +temperament is sanguine they necessarily colour my view. I +believe that this impulse to collective service can satisfy +itself only under the formula that mankind is one state of which +God is the undying king, and that the service of men's collective +needs is the true worship of God. But eagerly as I would grasp +at any evidence that this idea is being developed and taken up by +the general consciousness, I am quite unable to persuade myself +that anything of the sort is going on. I do perceive a search +for large forms into which the prevalent impulse to devotion can +be thrown. But the organised religious bodies, with their creeds +and badges and their instinct for self-preservation at any cost, +stand between men and their spiritual growth in just the same way +the forestallers stand between men and food. Their activities at +present are an almost intolerable nuisance. One cannot say "God" +but some tout is instantly seeking to pluck one into his +particular cave of flummery and orthodoxy. What a rational man +means by God is just God. The more you define and argue about +God the more he remains the same simple thing. Judaism, +Christianity, Islam, modern Hindu religious thought, all agree in +declaring that there is one God, master and leader of all +mankind, in unending conflict with cruelty, disorder, folly and +waste. To my mind, it follows immediately that there can be no +king, no government of any sort, which is not either a +subordinate or a rebel government, a local usurpation, in the +kingdom of God. But no organised religious body has ever had the +courage and honesty to insist upon this. They all pander to +nationalism and to powers and princes. They exists so to pander. +Every organised religion in the world exists only to exploit and +divert and waste the religious impulse in man. + +This conviction that the world kingdom of God is the only true +method of human service, is so clear and final in my own mind, it +seems so inevitably the conviction to which all right-thinking +men must ultimately come, that I feel almost like a looker-on at +a game of blind-man's bluff as I watch the discussion of +synthetic political ideas. The blind man thrusts his seeking +hands into the oddest corners, he clutches at chairs and +curtains, but at last he must surely find and hold and feel over +and guess the name of the plainly visible quarry. + +Some of the French and Italian people I talked to said they were +fighting for "Civilisation." That is one name for the kingdom of +God, and I have heard English people use it too. But much of the +contemporary thought of England stills wanders with its back to +the light. Most of it is pawing over jerry-built, secondary +things. I have before me a little book, the joint work of Dr. +Grey and Mr. Turner, of an ex-public schoolmaster and a +manufacturer, called /Eclipse or Empire?/ (The title +/World Might or Downfall?/ had already been secured in +another quarter.) It is a book that has been enormously +advertised; it has been almost impossible to escape its column- +long advertisements; it is billed upon the hoardings, and it is +on the whole a very able and right-spirited book. It calls for +more and better education, for more scientific methods, for less +class suspicion and more social explicitness and understanding, +for a franker and fairer treatment of labour. But why does it +call for these things? Does it call for them because they are +right? Because in accomplishing them one serves God? + +Not at all. But because otherwise this strange sprawling empire +of ours will drop back into a secondary place in the world. +These two writers really seem to think that the slack workman, +the slacker wealthy man, the negligent official, the conservative +schoolmaster, the greedy usurer, the comfortable obstructive, +confronted with this alternative, terrified at this idea of +something or other called the Empire being "eclipsed," eager for +the continuance of this undefined glory over their fellow- +creatures called "Empire," will perceive the error of their ways +and become energetic, devoted, capable. They think an ideal of +that sort is going to change the daily lives of men.... I +sympathise with their purpose, and I deplore their conception of +motives. If men will not give themselves for righteousness, they +will not give themselves for a geographical score. If they will +not work well for the hatred of bad work, they will not work well +for the hatred of Germans. This "Empire" idea has been cadging +about the British empire, trying to collect enthusiasm and +devotion, since the days of Disraeli. It is, I submit, too big +for the mean-spirited, and too tawdry and limited for the fine +and generous. It leaves out the French and the Italians and the +Belgians and all our blood brotherhood of allies. It has no +compelling force in it. We British are not naturally +Imperialist; we are something greater--or something less. For +two years and a half now we have been fighting against +Imperialism in its most extravagant form. It is a poor incentive +to right living to propose to parody the devil we fight against. + +The blind man must lunge again. + +For when the right answer is seized it answers not only the +question why men should work for their fellow-men but also why +nation should cease to arm and plan and contrive against nation. +The social problem is only the international problem in retail, +the international problem is only the social one in gross. + +My bias rules me altogether here. I see men in social, in +economic and in international affairs alike, eager to put an end +to conflict, inexpressibly weary of conflict and the waste and +pain and death it involves. But to end conflict one must abandon +aggressive or uncordial pretensions. Labour is sick at the idea +of more strikes and struggles after the war, industrialism is +sick of competition and anxious for service, everybody is sick of +war. But how can they end any of these clashes except by the +definition and recognition of a common end which will establish a +standard for the trial of every conceivable issue, to which, that +is, every other issue can be subordinated; and what common end +can there be in all the world except this idea of the world +kingdom of God? What is the good of orienting one's devotion to +a firm, or to class solidarity, or /La Republique +Francais/, or Poland, or Albania, or such love and +loyalty as people profess for King George or King Albert or the +Duc d'Orleans--it puzzles me why--or any such intermediate object +of self-abandonment? We need a standard so universal that the +platelayer may say to the barrister or the duchess, or the Red +Indian to the Limehouse sailor, or the Anzac soldier to the Sinn +Feiner or the Chinaman, "What are we two doing for it?" And to +fill the place of that "it," no other idea is great enough or +commanding enough, but only the world kingdom of God. + +However long he may have to hunt, the blind man who is seeking +service and an end to bickerings will come to that at last, +because of all the thousand other things he may clutch at, +nothing else can satisfy his manifest need. + + +VI. THE ENDING OF THE WAR + + +1 + +About the end of the war there are two chief ways of thinking, +there is a simpler sort of mind which desires merely a date, and +a more complex kind which wants particulars. To the former class +belong most of the men out at the front. They are so bored by +this war that they would welcome any peace that did not +definitely admit defeat--and examine the particulars later. The +"tone" of the German army, to judge by its captured letters, is +even lower. It would welcome peace in any form. Never in the +whole history of the world has a war been so universally +unpopular as this war. + +The mind of the soldier is obsessed by a vision of home-coming +for good, so vivid and alluring that it blots out nearly every +other consideration. The visions of people at home are of plenty +instead of privation, lights up, and the cessation of a hundred +tiresome restrictions. And it is natural therefore that a writer +rather given to guesses and forecasts should be asked very +frequently to guess how long the war has still to run. + +All such forecasting is the very wildest of shooting. There are +the chances of war to put one out, and of a war that changes far +faster than the military intelligence. I have made various +forecasts. At the outset I thought that military Germany would +fight at about the 1899 level, would be lavish with cavalry and +great attacks, that it would be reluctant to entrench, and that +the French and British had learnt the lesson of the Boer war +better than the Germans. I trusted to the melodramatic instinct +of the Kaiser. I trusted to the quickened intelligence of the +British military caste. The first rush seemed to bear me out, +and I opened my paper day by day expecting to read of the British +and French entrenched and the Germans beating themselves to death +against wire and trenches. In those days I wrote of the French +being over the Rhine before 1915. But it was the Germans who +entrenched first. + +Since then I have made some other attempts. I did not prophesy +at all in 1915, so far as I can remember. If I had I should +certainly have backed the Gallipoli attempt to win. It was the +right thing to do, and it was done abominably. It should have +given us Constantinople and brought Bulgaria to our side; it gave +us a tragic history of administrative indolence and negligence, +and wasted bravery and devotion. I was very hopeful of the +western offensive in 1915; and in 1916 I counted still on our +continuing push. I believe we were very near something like +decision this last September, but some archaic dream of doing it +with cavalry dashed these hopes. The "Tanks" arrived to late to +do their proper work, and their method of use is being worked out +very slowly.... I still believe in the western push, if only we +push it for all we are worth. If only we push it with our +brains, with our available and still unorganised brains; if only +we realise that the art of modern war is to invent and invent and +invent. Hitherto I have always hoped and looked for decision, a +complete victory that would enable the Allies to dictate peace. +But such an expectation is largely conditioned by these delicate +questions of adaptability that my tour of the front has made very +urgent in my mind. A spiteful German American writer has said +that the British would rather kill twenty thousand of their men +than break one general. Even a grain of truth in such a remark +is a very valid reasoning for lengthening one's estimate of the +duration of the war. + +There can be no doubt that the Western allies are playing a +winning game upon the western front, and that this is the front +of decision now. It is not in doubt that they are beating the +Germans and shoving them back. The uncertain factor is the rate +at which they are shoving them back. If they can presently get +to so rapid an advance as to bring the average rate since July +1st up to two or three miles a day, then we shall still see the +Allies dictating terms. But if the shove drags on at its present +pace of less than a mile and four thousand prisoners a week over +the limited Somme front only, if nothing is attempted elsewhere +to increase the area of pressure, [*This was written originally +before the French offensive at Verdun.] then the intolerable +stress and boredom of the war will bring about a peace long +before the Germans are decisively crushed. But the war, +universally detested, may go on into 1918 or 1919. Food riots, +famine, and general disorganisation will come before 1920, if it +does. The Allies have a winning game before them, but they seem +unable to discover and promote the military genius needed to +harvest an unquestionable victory. In the long run this may not +be an unmixed evil. Victory, complete and dramatic, may be +bought too dearly. We need not triumphs out of this war but the +peace of the world. + +This war is altogether unlike any previous war, and its ending, +like its development, will follow a course of its own. For a +time people's minds ran into the old grooves, the Germans were +going /nach Paris/ and /nach London/; Lord Curzon +filled our minds with a pleasant image of the Bombay Lancers +riding down /Unter den Linden./ But the Versailles +precedent of a council of victors dictating terms to the +vanquished is not now so evidently in men's minds. The utmost +the Allies talk upon now is to say, "We must end the war on +German soil." The Germans talk frankly of "holding out." I have +guessed that the western offensive will be chiefly on German soil +by next June; it is a mere guess, and I admit it is quite +conceivable that the "push" may still be grinding out its daily +tale of wounded and prisoners in 1918 far from that goal. + +None of the combatants expected such a war as this, and the +consequence is that the world at large has no idea how to get out +of it. The war may stay with us like a schoolboy caller, because +it does not know how to go. The Italians said as much to me. +"Suppose we get to Innsbruck and Laibach and Trieste," they said, +"it isn't an end!" Lord Northcliffe, I am told, came away from +Italy with the conviction that the war would last six years. + +There is the clearest evidence that nearly everyone is anxious to +get out of the war now. Nobody at all, except perhaps a few +people who may be called to account, and a handful of greedy +profit-seekers, wants to keep it going. Quietly perhaps and +unobtrusively, everyone I know is now trying to find the way out +of the war, and I am convinced that the same is the case in +Germany. That is what makes the Peace-at-any-price campaign so +exasperating. It is like being chased by clamorous geese across +a common in the direction in which you want to go. But how are +we to get out--with any credit--in such a way as to prevent a +subsequent collapse into another war as frightful? + +At present three programmes are before the world of the way in +which the war can be ended. The first of these assumes a +complete predominance of our Allies. It has been stated in +general terms by Mr. Asquith. Evacuation, reparation, due +punishment of those responsible for the war, and guarantees that +nothing of the sort shall happen again. There is as yet no +mention of the nature of these guarantees. Just exactly what is +to happen to Poland, Austria, and the Turkish Empire does not +appear in this prospectus. The German Chancellor is equally +elusive. The Kaiser has stampeded the peace-at-any-price people +of Great Britain by proclaiming that Germany wants peace. We +knew that. But what sort of peace? It would seem that we are +promised vaguely evacuation and reparation on the western +frontier, and in addition there are to be guarantees--but it is +quite evident that they are altogether different guarantees from +Mr. Asquith's--that nothing of the sort is ever to happen again. +The programme of the British and their Allies seems to +contemplate something like a forcible disarmament and military +occupation of Belgium, the desertion of Serbia and Russia, and +the surrender to Germany of every facility for a later and more +successful German offensive in the west. But it is clear that on +these terms as stated the war must go on to the definite defeat +of one side or the other, or a European chaos. They are +irreconcilable sets of terms. + +Yet it is hard to say how they can be modified on either side, if +the war is to be decided only between the belligerents and by +standards of national interest only, without reference to any +other considerations. Our Allies would be insane to leave the +Hohenzollern at the end of the war with a knife in his hand, +after the display he has made of his quality. To surrender his +knife means for the Hohenzollern the abandonment of his dreams, +the repudiation of the entire education and training of Germany +for half a century. When we realise the fatality of this +antagonism, we realise how it is that, in this present +anticipation of hell, the weary, wasted and tormented nations +must still sustain their monstrous dreary struggle. And that is +why this thought that possible there may be a side way out, a +sort of turning over of the present endlessly hopeless game into +a new and different and manageable game through the introduction +of some external factor, creeps and spreads as I find it creeping +and spreading. + +That is what the finer intelligences of America are beginning to +realise, and why men in Europe continually turn their eyes to +America, with a surmise, with a doubt. + +A point of departure for very much thinking in this matter is the +recent speech of President Wilson that heralded the present +discussion. All Europe was impressed by the truth, and by +President Wilson's recognition of the truth, that from any other +great war after this America will be unable to abstain. Can +America come into this dispute at the end to insist upon +something better than a new diplomatic patchwork, and so obviate +the later completer Armageddon? Is there, above the claims and +passions of Germany, France, Britain, and the rest of them, a +conceivable right thing to do for all mankind, that it might also +be in the interest of America to support? Is there a Third Party +solution, so to speak, which may possibly be the way out from +this war? + +And further I would go on to ask, is not this present exchange of +Notes, appealing to the common sense of the world, really the +beginning, and the proper beginning, of the unprecedented Peace +Negotiations to end this unprecedented war? And, I submit, the +longer this open discussion goes on before the doors close upon +the secret peace congress the better for mankind. + + +2 + +Let me sketch out here what I conceive to be the essentials of a +world settlement. Some of the items are the mere commonplaces of +everyone who discusses this question; some are less frequently +insisted upon. I have been joining up one thing to another, +suggestions I have heard from this man and that, and I believe +that it is really possible to state a solution that will be +acceptable to the bulk of reasonable men all about the world. +Directly we put the panic-massacres of Dinant and Louvain, the +crime of the /Lusitania/ and so on into the category of +symptoms rather than essentials, outrages that call for special +punishments and reparations, but that do not enter further into +the ultimate settlement, we can begin to conceive a possible +world treaty. Let me state the broad outlines of this +pacification. The outlines depend one upon the other; each is a +condition of the other. It is upon these lines that the +thoughtful, as distinguished from the merely the combative +people, seem to be drifting everywhere. + +In the first place, it is agreed that there would have to be an +identical treaty between all the great powers of the world +binding them to certain things. It would have to provide:--- + + +That the few great industrial states capable of producing modern +war equipment should take over and control completely the +manufacture of all munitions of war in the world. And that they +should absolutely close the supply of such material to all the +other states in the world. This is a far easier task than many +people suppose. War has now been so developed on its mechanical +side that the question of its continuance or abolition rests now +entirely upon four or five great powers. + +Next comes the League of Peace idea; that there should be an +International Tribunal for the discussion and settlement of +international disputes. That the dominating powers should +maintain land and sea forces only up to a limit agreed upon and +for internal police use only or for the purpose of enforcing the +decisions of the Tribunal. That they should all be bound to +attack and suppress any power amongst them which increases its +war equipment beyond its defined limits. + +That much has already been broached in several quarters. But so +far is not enough. It ignores the chief processes of that +economic war that aids and abets and is inseparably a part of +modern international conflicts. If we are to go as far as we +have already stated in the matter of international controls, then +we must go further and provide that the International Tribunal +should have power to consider and set aside all tariffs and +localised privileges that seem grossly unfair or seriously +irritating between the various states of the world. It should +have power to pass or revise all new tariff, quarantine, alien +exclusion, or the like legislation affecting international +relations. Moreover, it should take over and extend the work of +the International Bureau of Agriculture at Rome with a view to +the control of all staple products. It should administer the sea +law of the world, and control and standardise freights in the +common interests of mankind. Without these provisions it would +be merely preventing the use of certain weapons; it would be +doing nothing to prevent countries strangling or suffocating each +other by commercial warfare. It would not abolish war. + +Now upon this issue people do not seem to me to be yet thinking +very clearly. It is the exception to find anyone among the peace +talkers who really grasps how inseparably the necessity for free +access for everyone to natural products, to coal and tropical +products, e.g. free shipping at non-discriminating tariffs, and +the recognition by a Tribunal of the principle of common welfare +in trade matters, is bound up with the ideal of a permanent world +peace. But any peace that does not provide for these things will +be merely laying down of the sword in order to take up the +cudgel. And a "peace" that did not rehabilitate industrial +Belgium, Poland, and the north of France would call imperatively +for the imposition upon the Allies of a system of tariffs in the +interests of these countries, and for a bitter economic "war +after the war" against Germany. That restoration is, of course, +an implicit condition to any attempt to set up an economic peace +in the world. + +These things being arranged for the future, it would be further +necessary to set up an International Boundary Commission, subject +to certain defining conditions agreed upon by the belligerents, +to re-draw the map of Europe, Asia, and Africa. This war does +afford an occasion such as the world may never have again of +tracing out the "natural map" of mankind, the map that will +secure the maximum of homogeneity and the minimum of racial and +economic freedom. All idealistic people hope for a restored +Poland. But it is a childish thing to dream of a contented +Poland with Posen still under the Prussian heel, with Cracow cut +off, and without a Baltic port. These claims of Poland to +completeness have a higher sanction than the mere give and take +of belligerents in congress. + +Moreover this International Tribunal, if it was indeed to prevent +war, would need also to have power to intervene in the affairs of +any country or region in a state of open and manifest disorder, +for the protection of foreign travellers and of persons and +interests localised in that country but foreign to it. + +Such an agreement as I have here sketched out would at once lift +international politics out of the bloody and hopeless squalor of +the present conflict. It is, I venture to assert, the peace of +the reasonable man in any country whatever. But it needs the +attention of such a disengaged people as the American people to +work it out and supply it with--weight. It needs putting before +the world with some sort of authority greater than its mere +entire reasonableness. Otherwise it will not come before the +minds of ordinary men with the effect of a practicable +proposition. I do not see any such plant springing from the +European battlefields. It is America's supreme opportunity. And +yet it is the common sense of the situation, and the solution +that must satisfy a rational German as completely as a rational +Frenchman or Englishman. It has nothing against it but the +prejudice against new and entirely novel things. + + +3 + +In throwing out the suggestion that America should ultimately +undertake the responsibility of proposing a world peace +settlement, I admit that I run counter to a great deal of +European feeling. Nowhere in Europe now do people seem to be in +love with the United States. But feeling is a colour that +passes. And the question is above matters of feeling. Whether +the belligerents dislike Americans or the Americans dislike the +belligerents is an incidental matter. The main question is of +the duty of a great and fortunate nation towards the rest of the +world and the future of mankind. + +I do not know how far Americans are aware of the trend of feeling +in Europe at the present time. Both France and Great Britain +have a sense of righteousness in this war such as no nation, no +people, has ever felt in war before. We know we are fighting to +save all the world from the rule of force and the unquestioned +supremacy of the military idea. Few Frenchmen or Englishmen can +imagine the war presenting itself to an American intelligence +under any other guise. At the invasion of Belgium we were +astonished that America did nothing. At the sinking of the +/Lusitania/ all Europe looked to America. The British mind +contemplates the spectacle of American destroyers acting as +bottleholders to German submarines with a dazzled astonishment. +"Manila," we gasp. In England we find excuses for America in our +own past. In '64 we betrayed Denmark; in '70 we deserted France. +The French have not these memories. They do not understand the +damning temptations of those who feel they are "/au-dessus de +la melee./" They believe they had some share in +the independence of America, that there is a sacred cause in +republicanism, that there are grounds for a peculiar sympathy +between France and the United States in republican institutions. +They do not realise that Germany and America have a common +experience in recent industrial development, and a common belief +in the "degeneracy" of all nations with a lower rate of trade +expansion. They do not realise how a political campaign with the +slogan of "Peace and a Full Dinner-Pail" looks in the middle +west, what an honest, simple, rational appeal it makes there. +Atmospheres alter values. In Europe, strung up to tragic and +majestic issues, to Europe gripping a gigantic evil in a death +struggle, that would seem an inscription worthy of a pigsty. A +child in Europe would know now that the context is, "until the +bacon-buyer calls," and it is difficult to realise that adult +citizens in America may be incapable of realising that obvious +context. + +I set these things down plainly. There is a very strong +disposition in all the European countries to believe America +fundamentally indifferent to the rights and wrongs of the +European struggle; sentimentally interested perhaps, but +fundamentally indifferent. President Wilson is regarded as a +mere academic sentimentalist by a great number of Europeans. +There is a very widespread disposition to treat America lightly +and contemptuously, to believe that America, as one man put it to +me recently, "hasn't the heart to do anything great or the guts +to do anything wicked." There is a strong undercurrent of +hostility therefore to the idea of America having any voice +whatever in the final settlement after the war. It is not for a +British writer to analyse the appearance that have thus affected +American world prestige. I am telling what I have observed. + +Let me relate two trivial anecdotes. + +X came to my hotel in Paris one day to take me to see a certain +munitions organisation. He took from his pocket a picture +postcard that had been sent him by a well-meaning American +acquaintance from America. It bore a portrait of General +Lafayette, and under it was printed the words, "General +Lafayette, /Colonel in the United States army./" + +"Oh! These Americans!" said X with a gesture. + +And as I returned to Paris from the French front, our train +stopped at some intermediate station alongside of another train +of wounded men. Exactly opposite our compartment was a car. It +arrested our conversation. It was, as it were, an ambulance +/de grand luxe/; it was a thing of very light, bright wood +and very golden decorations; at one end of it was painted very +large and fair the Stars and Stripes, and at the other fair-sized +letters of gold proclaimed--I am sure the lady will not resent +this added gleam of publicity--"Presented by Mrs. William +Vanderbilt." + +My companions were French writers and French military men, and +they were discussing with very keen interest that persistent +question, "the ideal battery." But that ambulance sent a shaft +of light into our carriage, and we stared together. + +Then Colonel Z pointed with two fingers and remarked to us, +without any excess of admiration: + +"/America!/" + +Then he shrugged his shoulders and pulled down the corners of his +mouth. + +We felt there was nothing more to add to that, and after a little +pause the previous question was resumed. + +I state these things in order to make it clear that America will +start at a disadvantage when she starts upon the mission of +salvage and reconciliation which is, I believe, her proper +role in this world conflict. One would have to be blind +and deaf on this side to be ignorant of European persuasion of +America's triviality. I would not like to be an American +travelling in Europe now, and those I meet here and there have +some of the air of men who at any moment may be dunned for a +debt. They explode without provocation into excuses and +expostulations. + +And I will further confess that when Viscount Grey answered the +intimations of President Wilson and ex-President Taft of an +American initiative to found a World League for Peace, by asking +if America was prepared to back that idea with force, he spoke +the doubts of all thoughtful European men. No one but an +American deeply versed in the idiosyncrasies of the American +population can answer that question, or tell us how far the +delusion of world isolation which has prevailed in America for +several generations has been dispelled. But if the answer to +Lord Grey is "Yes," then I think history will emerge with a +complete justification of the obstinate maintenance of neutrality +by America. It is the end that reveals a motive. It is our +ultimate act that sometimes teaches us our original intention. +No one can judge the United States yet. Were you neutral because +you are too mean and cowardly, or too stupidly selfish, or +because you had in view an end too great to be sacrificed to a +moment of indignant pride and a force in reserve too precious to +dispel? That is the still open question for America. + +Every country is a mixture of many strands. There is a Base +America, there is a Dull America, there is an Ideal and Heroic +America. And I am convinced that at present Europe underrates +and misjudges the possibilities of the latter. + +All about the world to-day goes a certain freemasonry of thought. +It is an impalpable and hardly conscious union of intention. It +thinks not in terms of national but human experience; it falls +into directions and channels of thinking that lead inevitably to +the idea of a world-state under the rule of one righteousness. +In no part of the world is this modern type of mind so abundantly +developed, less impeded by antiquated and perverse political and +religious forms, and nearer the sources of political and +administrative power, than in America. It does not seem to +matter what thousand other things America may happen to be, +seeing that it is also that. And so, just as I cling to the +belief, in spite of hundreds of adverse phenomena, that the +religious and social stir of these times must ultimately go far +to unify mankind under the kingship of God, so do I cling also to +the persuasion that there are intellectual forces among the +rational elements in the belligerent centres, among the other +neutrals and in America, that will co-operate in enabling the +United States to play that role of the Unimpassioned Third +Party, which becomes more and more necessary to a generally +satisfactory ending of the war. + + +4 + +The idea that the settlement of this war must be what one might +call an unimpassioned settlement or, if you will, a scientific +settlement or a judicial and not a treaty settlement, a +settlement, that is, based upon some conception of what is right +and necessary rather than upon the relative success or failure of +either set of belligerents to make its Will the standard of +decision, is one that, in a great variety of forms and partial +developments, I find gaining ground in the most different +circles. The war was an adventure, it was the German adventure +under the Hohenzollern tradition, to dominate the world. It was +to be the last of the Conquests. It has failed. Without calling +upon the reserve strength of America the civilised world has +defeated it, and the war continues now partly upon the issue +whether it shall be made for ever impossible, and partly because +Germany has no organ but its Hohenzollern organisation through +which it can admit its failure and develop its latent readiness +for a new understanding on lines of mutual toleration. For that +purpose nothing more reluctant could be devised than Hohenzollern +imperialism. But the attention of every new combatant--it is not +only Germany now--has been concentrated upon military +necessities; every nation is a clenched nation, with its powers +of action centred in its own administration, bound by many +strategic threats and declarations, and dominated by the idea of +getting and securing advantages. It is inevitable that a +settlement made in a conference of belligerents alone will be +shortsighted, harsh, limited by merely incidental necessities, +and obsessed by the idea of hostilities and rivalries continuing +perennially; it will be a trading of advantages for subsequent +attacks. It will be a settlement altogether different in effect +as well as in spirit from a world settlement made primarily to +establish a new phase in the history of mankind. + +Let me take three instances of the impossibility of complete +victory /on either side/ giving a solution satisfactory to +the conscience and intelligence of reasonable men. + +The first--on which I will not expatiate, for everyone knows of +its peculiar difficulty--is Poland. + +The second is a little one, but one that has taken hold of my +imagination. In the settlement of boundaries preceding this war +the boundary between Serbia and north-eastern Albania was drawn +with an extraordinary disregard of the elementary needs of the +Albanians of that region. It ran along the foot of the mountains +which form their summer pastures and their refuge from attack, +and it cut their mountains off from their winter pastures and +market towns. Their whole economic life was cut to pieces and +existence rendered intolerable for them. Now an intelligent +Third Party settling Europe would certainly restore these market +towns, Ipek, Jakova, and Prisrend, to Albania. But the Albanians +have no standing in this war; theirs is the happy lot that might +have fallen to Belgium had she not resisted; the war goes to and +fro through Albania; and when the settlement comes, it is highly +improbable that the slightest notice will be taken of Albania's +plight in the region. In which case these particular Albanians +will either be driven into exile to America or they will be +goaded to revolt, which will be followed no doubt by the punitive +procedure usual in the Balkan peninsula. + +For my third instance I would step from a matter as small as +three market towns and the grazing of a few thousand head of +sheep to a matter as big as the world. What is going to happen +to the shipping of the world after this war? The Germans, with +that combination of cunning and stupidity which baffles the rest +of mankind, have set themselves to destroy the mercantile marine +not merely of Britain and France but of Norway and Sweden, +Holland, and all the neutral countries. The German papers openly +boast that they are building up a big mercantile marine that will +start out to take up the world's overseas trade directly peace is +declared. Every such boast receives careful attention in the +British press. We have heard a very great deal about the German +will-to-power in this war, but there is something very much older +and tougher and less blatant and conspicuous, the British will. +In the British papers there has appeared and gained a permanent +footing this phrase, "ton for ton." This means that Britain will +go on fighting until she has exacted and taken over from Germany +the exact equivalent of all the British shipping Germany has +submarined. People do not realise that a time may come when +Germany will be glad and eager to give Russia, France and Italy +all that they require of her, when Great Britain may be quite +content to let her allies make an advantageous peace and herself +still go on fighting Germany. She does not intend to let that +furtively created German mercantile marine ship or coal or exist +upon the high seas--so long as it can be used as an economic +weapon against her. Neither Britain nor France nor Italy can +tolerate anything of the sort. + +It has been the peculiar boast of Great Britain that her shipping +has been unpatriotic. She has been the impartial carrier of the +whole world. Her shippers may have served their own profit; they +have never served hers. The fluctuations of freight charges may +have been a universal nuisance, but they have certainly not been +an aggressive national conspiracy. It is Britain's case against +any German ascendancy at sea, an entirely convincing case, that +such an ascendancy would be used ruthlessly for the advancement +of German world power. The long-standing freedom of the seas +vanishes at the German touch. So beyond the present war there +opens the agreeable prospect of a mercantile struggle, a bitter +freight war and a war of Navigation Acts for the ultimate control +in the interests of Germany or of the Anti-German allies, of the +world's trade. + +Now how in any of these three cases can the bargaining and +trickery of diplomatists and the advantage-hunting of the +belligerents produce any stable and generally beneficial +solution? What all the neutrals want, what every rational and +far-sighted man in the belligerent countries wants, what the +common sense of the whole world demands, is neither the +"ascendancy" of Germany nor the "ascendancy" of Great Britain nor +the "ascendancy" of any state or people or interest in the +shipping of the world. The plain right thing is a world shipping +control, as impartial as the Postal Union. What right and reason +and the welfare of coming generations demand in Poland is a +unified and autonomous Poland, with Cracow, Danzig, and Posen +brought into the same Polish-speaking ring-fence with Warsaw. +What everyone who has looked into the Albanian question desires +is that the Albanians shall pasture their flocks and market their +sheepskins in peace, free of Serbian control. In every country +at present at war, the desire of the majority of people is for a +non-contentious solution that will neither crystallise a triumph +nor propitiate an enemy, but which will embody the economic and +ethnological and geographical common sense of the matter. But +while the formulae of national belligerence are easy, +familiar, blatant, and instantly present, the gentler, greater +formulae of that wider and newer world pacifism has still to +be generally understood. It is so much easier to hate and +suspect than negotiate generously and patiently; it is so much +harder to think than to let go in a shrill storm of hostility. +The rational pacifist is hampered not only by belligerency, but +by a sort of malignant extreme pacifism as impatient and silly as +the extremest patriotism. + + +5 + +I sketch out these ideas of a world pacification from a third- +party standpoint, because I find them crystallising out in men's +minds. I note how men discuss the suggestion that America may +play a large part in such a permanent world pacification. There +I end my account rendered. These things are as much a part of my +impression of the war as a shell-burst on the Carso or the yellow +trenches at Martinpuich. But I do not know how opinion is going +in America, and I am quite unable to estimate the power of these +new ideas I set down, relative to the blind forces of instinct +and tradition that move the mass of mankind. On the whole I +believe more in the reason-guided will-power of men than I did in +the early half of 1914. If I am doubtful whether after all this +war will "end war," I think on the other hand it has had such an +effect of demonstration that it may start a process of thought +and conviction, it may sow the world with organisations and +educational movements considerable enough to grapple with an +either arrest or prevent the next great war catastrophe. I am by +no means sure even now that this is not the last great war in the +experience of men. I still believe it may be. + +The most dangerous thing in the business so far is concerned is +the wide disregard of the fact that national economic fighting is +bound to cause war, and the almost universal ignorance of the +necessity of subjecting shipping and overseas and international +trade to some kind of international control. These two things, +restraint of trade and advantage of shipping, are the chief +material causes of anger between modern states. But they would +not be in themselves dangerous things if it were not for the +exaggerated delusions of kind and difference, and the crack- +brained "loyalties" arising out of these, that seem still to rule +men's minds. Years ago I came to the conviction that much of the +evil in human life was due to the inherent vicious disposition of +the human mind to intensify classification.[*See my "First and +Last Things," Book I. and my "Modern Utopia," Chapter X.] I do +not know how it will strike the reader, but to me this war, this +slaughter of eight or nine million people, is due almost entirely +to this little, almost universal lack of clear-headedness; I +believe that the share of wickedness in making war is quite +secondary to the share of this universal shallow silliness of +outlook. These effigies of emperors and kings and statesmen that +lead men into war, these legends of nationality and glory, would +collapse before our universal derision, if they were not stuffed +tight and full with the unthinking folly of the common man. + +There is in all of us an indolent capacity for suffering evil and +dangerous things, that I contemplate each year of my life with a +deepening incredulity. I perceive we suffer them; I record the +futile protests of the intelligence. It seems to me incredible +that men should not rise up out of this muddy, bloody, wasteful +mess of a world war, with a resolution to end for ever the shams, +the prejudices, the pretences and habits that have impoverished +their lives, slaughtered our sons, and wasted the world, a +resolution so powerful and sustained that nothing could withstand +it. + +But it is not apparent that any such will arises. Does it appear +at all? I find it hard to answer that question because my own +answer varies with my mood. There are moods when it seems to me +that nothing of the sort is happening. This war has written its +warning in letters of blood and flame and anguish in the skies of +mankind for two years and a half. When I look for the collective +response to that warning, I see a multitude of little chaps +crawling about their private ends like mites in an old cheese. +The kings are still in their places, not a royal prince has been +killed in this otherwise universal slaughter; when the fatuous +portraits of the monarchs flash upon the screen the widows and +orphans still break into loyal song. The ten thousand religions +of mankind are still ten thousand religions, all busy at keeping +men apart and hostile. I see scarcely a measurable step made +anywhere towards that world kingdom of God, which is, I assert, +the manifest solution, the only formula that can bring peace to +all mankind. Mankind as a whole seems to have learnt nothing and +forgotten nothing in thirty months of war. + +And then on the other hand I am aware of much quiet talking. +This book tells of how I set out to see the war, and it is +largely conversation.... Perhaps men have always expected +miracles to happen; if one had always lived in the night and only +heard tell of the day, I suppose one would have expected dawn to +come as a vivid flash of light. I suppose one would still think +it was night long after the things about one had crept out of the +darkness into visibility. In comparison with all previous wars +there has been much more thinking and much more discussion. If +most of the talk seems to be futile, if it seems as if everyone +were talking and nobody doing, it does not follow that things are +not quietly slipping and sliding out of their old adjustments +amidst the babble and because of the babble. Multitudes of men +must be struggling with new ideas. It is reasonable to argue +that there must be reconsideration, there must be time, before +these millions of mental efforts can develop into a new +collective purpose and really /show/--in consequences. + +But that they will do so is my hope always and, on the whole, +except in moods of depression and impatience, my belief. When +one has travelled to a conviction so great as mine it is +difficult to doubt that other men faced by the same universal +facts will not come to the same conclusion. I believe that only +through a complete simplification o religion to its fundamental +idea, to a world-wide realisation of God as the king of the heart +and of all mankind, setting aside monarchy and national egotism +altogether, can mankind come to any certain happiness and +security. The precedent of Islam helps my faith in the creative +inspiration of such a renascence of religion. The Sikh, the +Moslem, the Puritan have shown that men can fight better for a +Divine Idea than for any flag or monarch in the world. It seems +to me that illusions fade and effigies lose credit everywhere. +It is a very wonderful thing to me that China is now a +republic.... I take myself to be very nearly an average man, +abnormal only by reason of a certain mental rapidity. I conceive +myself to be thinking as the world thinks, and if I find no great +facts, I find a hundred little indications to reassure me that +God comes. Even those who have neither the imagination nor the +faith to apprehend God as a reality will, I think, realise +presently that the Kingdom of God over a world-wide system of +republican states, is the only possible formula under which we +may hope to unify and save mankind. + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of War and the Future by H. G. 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