登陆注册
15710500000002

第2章

By the growth and expansion of Science (God forgive the word!) which will inevitably make each future war more devilish and inhuman than the last;By the cry of the black and coloured peoples of the Earth who have for long enough already said how hard and cruel the faces of the white men seemed to them, and who now think how black their souls are;By the hardness of heart, the insensitiveness of a certain kind, which during a century or more now has been bred by the institutions of Commercialism;By the habitual betrayal, through long periods of 'prosperity' and `peace,' of men by their fellows -- of the weak by the powerful, of the generous by the mean, of the simple and thoughtless by the crafty and selfish;By the huge dividends declared by Armament Firms; by the international agreements of these firms with one another, even to cozen their own respective Governments;By the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of innocent folk trampled underfoot in the ditch of competition, the mad, race in which the devil takes the hindmost;By the treacherous internal warfare of the ordinary industrial life of every country, the secret betrayal and murder of bodies and souls for profit -- at last written out in letters of blood and fire across the continents, for all to behold --This must not be again !

Let the Allies by all means accuse Germany of world-ambition and world-plunder, and let the German people accuse their Prussian lords but let every nation also search its own heart and accuse itself.

For have not the lords of every nation set before themselves the same goal, the goal of world-ambition and glory and 'empire' and plunder? And have not the mass-peoples of every nation stood meanly by and acclaimed the fraud, nor spoken out against it, silently consenting to these things in the prospect of some advantage also to themselves?

Have not all the nations without exception acted meanly and dastardly towards the out lying black races, and even towards those more civilized peoples whom they thought weaker than themselves -- and now in the stress of war are they not finding that their own rights and liberties are being slowly filched from them?

Yes, that is, the end of Glory and of Greed.

But the day of glory is departed. The newspapers, it is true, still keep up the phrase. They talk of a battalion "covering itself with glory." But the men themselves do not talk so. They know too well what it all means. They see no glory in covering themselves with the blood of their brothers of the opposing trenches; with whom a few moments before they were joining in songs and jokes.

They only say: Now that we have begun, we will see it through -- but it must not be Again.

Never I think in all the history of the world has there been a thing so great in its way as the present British Army and Navy. This enormous force, raised -- except for a small remnant -- by Voluntary enlistment from all classes of the nation, and inspired more by a general and protective sense towards the Motherland than by anything else, has fulfilled what it considered to be its duty and its honour with a devotion and a heroism unsurpassed. It were impossible to stay and recount its many wonderful deeds.

A young officer said to me one day -- "Horrible as the whole thing is, yet it almost seems worth while, when you think of the splendid things done -- and done too in such a simple matter-of-fact way: when you think of all the love and devotion poured out, and the lives our men have given one for the sake of another."Great indeed is the spirit of such an army, great its magnanimity, its simplicity of mind, its unself-consciousness, its single concentration on its purpose.

Yet perhaps the most surprising thing about our men is that they have done all this with so little hatred in their hearts for the enemy.

Whatever the Germans may have felt, and whatever the French, the Britishers have just done their fighting in their own nonchalant way "because they had to" -- with scarcely a shadow of malice or revenge -- rather with that respect for a doughty opponent which always distinguishes the true fighter.

Think of that quaint story (Between The Lines, by Boyd Cable, pp 188 ff)of the German Burschen in their trenches, singing with pious enthusiasm the Song of Hate (probably commanded and compelled, poor devils, to sing it)and our men for days secretly listening, learning the words, practicing the tune on their muffled, mouth-organs; till having got it all complete they one morning, burst it forth in full chorus on the astonished Teutons, nor failed at the end to blaze out "Gott strafe England" at the top of, their voices as if they really meant it -- and then subsided into a roar of laughter. They simply would not take the German "Hate" seriously.

Well, what can an enemy do with such an army? It would seem indeed to be invincible.

The other surprising thing about this Army is (but it is also in part true of the Russians and others) that the members of it not only bear so little malice in their heart of hearts against the enemy, but that all the time they (or nine-tenths of them) are giving their life-blood, for a Country which in hardly any available or adequate sense can really be said to belong to them.

Not one man of ours in ten, probably not one in a hundred, has any direct rights or interest in his native soil; and the Motherland has too often (at any rate in the past) turned out a stepmother who disowned him later when crippled in her service.

He is told that he is fighting for his country, but he finds that his real privilege is to die at the foot of a Trespass-board on some rich man's estate, singing bravely to the last that "Britons never, never shall be slaves!" He is told that he is defending his hearth and his home, and to prove that that is so, he is sent out on a far campaign to further some dubious scheme -- in Mesopotamia! I think we cannot refuse to say that the good temper and they single-heartedness and the single mindedness of the British soldier are beyond all praise.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 傲娇少爷太难搞

    傲娇少爷太难搞

    一场失败的结婚宴,让他从此性情大变,傲娇?他的代名词。搞怪?她本性如此。“沐帆少爷,以后我就是您的贴身女*佣,要寸步不离的跟着您!”“我洗澡你也要跟着么?我不介意哦!”某男坏坏一笑。……“这才是你的真实身份吧,该叫你姜潇娅呢还是姜小雅?把我当猴耍很好玩?”“不是的,沐帆,你听我解释……”……诠释一场千金女佣和傲娇少爷的爱情童话,大家可以放心踩坑~
  • TFBOYS之恋之期

    TFBOYS之恋之期

    三个女孩,因为有共同的目标走在了一起,途中遇到了超级新星TFBOYS,三个女孩能否达到目标呢?TFBOYS能否追到三个女孩呢?他们又会发生什么故事呢?(注:本故事纯属虚构,如有雷同,纯属意外!)
  • 最强召唤系统

    最强召唤系统

    刘丙天泡妹被打意外穿越至天龙大陆,身带游戏升级系统成为偏门的召唤师。岂知他的出现竟是预言之子,是魔界大军入侵整个大陆的契机!冥王、神兽、仙女龙,任凭召唤,成就天才之名。随着修为等级的提升,自己的身世慢慢浮出水面,却发现自己身上的召唤系统,魔界的入侵,神秘人的帮助,这一切只不过是一场阴谋。而刘丙天,他只不过三界选中的一枚棋子。只不过,他是一枚决心跳出棋盘、主宰命运的大棋子……
  • 那年,雪很大

    那年,雪很大

    就如韩世玉这样资深的标致男人,这几十年在他身边流转过无数的漂亮女性,她们或是美丽动人的、温婉端庄的、清秀俏丽的、等等等等,但是从来没有像周墨兰这样的女人,刚一映入他的眼帘,就觉得她如诗一样美好,,在她身上总有一种生机勃勃的力量传递给她身边的人,但其实,她并不十分美丽,只是她带着清泉般的透彻,春风沐浴的娴静,致使她真的让很多人无法将她忘怀。
  • 主角之上

    主角之上

    基本的境界:主角光环~主神光环~主宰光环。
  • 半夏苏浅恬

    半夏苏浅恬

    sky,呵呵她居然叫sky跟sky商业购物同名,是巧合还是她本来就是sky的幕后之人,为了探寻这个秘密他想方设法接近她,一步步陷入她的温柔乡......
  • 静鸾容尘

    静鸾容尘

    本文纯属虚构,切勿对号入座用余三生繁华,换汝一世安好。凤凰落,嫣然泪。长街长,烟花繁,汝嫣然回看。聚雨轩,泪潸潸。故人,泪已干。只为那人一次有心帮助,从四年级开始便帮她,挡过她故意惹下的祸。后因一次蓦然的出彩,遭她妒忌。被救却被封锁记忆,成为军事电脑。因自身原因,濒临死亡。后竟在手术过程中穿越,本以为会这样到老,可还是开始下一场穿越。让爱自己的人对自己几经绝望。不料,到最后,那个好闺蜜将自己身份夺去,结局轮回。那么,这一次轮回,结局又如何。斩情剑斩情,轮回锁轮回。以吾之命,化汝之血。结此轮回契约,共生同灭!
  • 最受欢迎的哈佛心理课

    最受欢迎的哈佛心理课

    哈佛大学汇聚世界上最优秀的心理学家,让哈佛学子的心灵得到了丰富的滋养,并孕育出一批又一批享誉全球的精英人才。《最受欢迎的哈佛心理课》由牧之编著,集众家之长,将哈佛心理课的教育理念渗透到个人素质、生活心态、职场心理、社交心理等方方面面,让读者能够全方位地领悟哈佛心理学的智慧和魅力。《最受欢迎的哈佛心理课》汇聚心理学经典理论,浓缩哈佛人智慧精华,有效地激发心灵能量,帮助我们提升心理认知境界,提升心智水平,提高生活品位。通过心理素质锻炼等十多堂心理课,让我们学会重塑自我,掌控情绪,提高情商,平衡心态,从而在未来的道路上无往不胜,百毒不侵,做最强大、最幸福快乐的人。
  • 谁的心,不曾兵荒马乱

    谁的心,不曾兵荒马乱

    一种情思,几处闲愁,过往烟云,试擦几行泪。
  • 凤驭苍穹:邪尊滚下榻

    凤驭苍穹:邪尊滚下榻

    她,一代至尊,上有大哥稀世珍宠,下有百万精英追随,肆意潇洒。她,第一嫡女,美丽与智慧并存,却自掩锋芒,只愿做亲人溺宠下的娇娇女。一朝惊变,至尊陨落,她成了她……一世重生,陌生的世界,却是熟悉的暗潮汹涌。冷眼看风雨,她笑,前世今生,她唯一的珍惜!这一世,决计不会再让任何人触碰半分!可是,当一夕间,家族被灭,大哥失踪,怒火足以焚天下。衣袍一挥,天下乱,硝烟起。她执剑一指,睥睨天下,金戈铁马,笑看沙场风云,运筹帷幄间天下归一。哥哥,要寻!仇人,要杀!至尊王者,罗刹重生,前世今生,犯我者,必百倍还之!