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their main contentions—and justify the Kaiser’s lordly contempt of
the scrap of paper, are of a piece with every manifestation of the
political cult which has become one of Germany’s holiest
possessions. And it is because the British nation as a whole
obstinately refused to listen to those who apprised them of this
elemental movement, and of the dangers it concealed, that they
dispensed with a large land army, slackened the work of
shipbuilding, and trusted to a treaty which they are now surprised to
see dealt with as a mere scrap of paper.
In like manner the British people at first smiled sceptically at the
narratives of Belgians who witnessed and described the killing of
unarmed men, women, and children, the finishing of the wounded on
the battlefield, the living shields of women and girls with which they
protected their soldiers, the taking and shooting of hostages, and
other crimes against humanity. After all, it was argued, the Germans
are not quite so unlike ourselves as these stories would have us
believe. They, too, are men who have left wives, sisters, mothers,
and children at home, and the wells of human pity are not dried up
within them. They are incapable of such savagery. Those tales
evidently belong to the usual class of fiction which sprouts up on all
battlefields.
Yet, whatever the truth might be—and since the fiendish
passions of the soldiery were let loose against Louvain, Malines, and
Rheims we know that some of the narratives were based on
gruesome facts—the ground at first taken up was untenable. Nobody
possessing even a superficial acquaintance with Prussian history
had grounds for asserting that the German army was incapable of
such diabolical deeds. Its recorded doings in seasons of peace
demonstrated its temper. That the officers and the rank and file are
obedient to their commanders will not be gainsaid. To their Kaiser
they are, if possible, still more slavishly submissive. Well, the Kaiser,
when his punitive expedition was setting out for China, addressed
them thus: “When you encounter the enemy you will defeat him. No
quarter shall be given, no prisoners shall be taken. Let all who fall
into your hands be at your mercy. Just as the Huns a thousand years
ago, under the leadership of Etzel (Attila), gained a reputation in
virtue of which they still live in historical tradition, so may the name of
Germany become known in such a manner in China that no
Chinaman will ever again even dare to look askance at a German.”
The monarch who gave utterance to those winged words was not
conscious of saying aught that might shock or surprise his people.
His false conscience felt no qualms. The principle underlying this
behest was the foundation-stone of Prussian culture. And the
Kaiser’s wish is now realized. The name of Germany, whose love of
wanton destruction, delight in human torture, and breach of every
principle of manly and soldierly honour are now become proverbial,
will henceforward be bracketed in history together with that of the
Huns.
How British people who read and stigmatized these barbarous
behests, emphatically issued by the supreme ruler of the German
nation and the supreme head of the German Church, should have
held him who uttered or the troops that executed them incapable of
the crimes laid to their charge in Belgium is a mystery. Terrorism in
occupied countries has always been part of the Prussian method of
waging war. It is such an excellent substitute for numbers! The
examples of it given in the years 1814 and 1815 are still
remembered. Since then it has been intensified. During the Boxer
movement in China I witnessed illustrations of it which burned
themselves in my memory. The tamest of all was when the German
troops arrived in Tientsin. The nights were cool just then, and a knot
of soldiers were dismayed at the prospect of spending a night
without blankets. I happened to know where there was an
untenanted house with a supply of blankets, and out of sheer
kindness I took them to it. With a smile of gratitude the officer in
command set the blankets on one side. Every portable article of
value was next seized and appropriated. And then the soldiers took
to smashing vases, statues, mirrors, the piano, and other articles of
furniture. They laughed at my remonstrances, and reminded me of
the Kaiser’s orders. All at once they abandoned the spoil, and
rushed down to the courtyard to shoot some Chinese who were said
to be there. As luck would have it, however, the newcomers were
their own comrades, so there were no executions that first evening.
But the Kaiser’s men made up for it later.
Germany’s necessity, as defined by her War Lord or any of her
high officials, knows no law. Stipulations and treaties are for non-
German States, which must be held strictly to their obligations. To
Teutons the Treaty of Bucharest and the neutrality of Belgium were
meaningless terms. But only to Teutons. The Japanese are to be
made to respect the neutrality of China. For the chosen people are a
law unto themselves. That is, and has long been, the orthodox
doctrine of the Pan-German Church. What more natural than its
application to the treaty of 1839, which Bismarck confirmed in writing
in the year 1870, and which the Kaiser and Herr von Bethmann
Hollweg, with the hearty approval of the whole articulate German
nation, have recently spoken of contemptuously as a scrap of paper?
If any doubt could be entertained as to the extent to which this
German theory of morality has spread, it will have been dispelled by
the body of eminent German theologians who have just issued their
appeal to Evangelical Christians abroad. They, at any rate, have no
fears that their eloquent appeal will be treated as a mere scrap of
paper. It is the word of their “good old God.”
CHAPTER I
THE CAREFULLY LAID SCHEME