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ENGLISH PRISONERS FROM YPRES 355
concealed under an exceedingly severe press and telegraph
censorship. Of Hindenburg’s victories the English people
have not the remotest idea. The realisation of the German
operations in Poland is distorted into futile attempts to stop
the victorious Russian march towards Berlin. The most
shameful lies and malevolent calumnies are disseminated
concerning the German Emperor. The Teutons are barbarians
who must be crushed, and this laudable enterprise must be
shared by the cultured peoples of Serbia, Senegambia, Monte-
negro and Portugal. The whole war is conducted on the English
side on a foundation of distorted information and conscious
untruths. The truth is as rare in the English press as lies are
in the German. But do the people really believe all that is said
in the English papers ? They do, blindly and absolutely. Of
this I have been convinced by letters received from England.
When one asks English prisoners why they joined in the
war they answer more or less logically :
" We must obey
orders, you know." If one goes further and tries to find out
the reasons for England’s participation, the answers become
less certain :
" We must keep abreast of German competition ;
we must defend Belgium, whose neutrality we have guaranteed
;
England was bound by treaties and must keep her word."
In the press one finds yet further reasons, such as the necessity
for destroying German militarism ! An appeal which was
sent to me and which is signed by many learned men, including
several Nobel prize winners, concludes with the words
:
" We deeply regret that under the unfortunate influence of a
military system and its lawless dreams of conquest, the state
which we have once honoured now stands unmasked as
Europe’s common enemy and as the enemy of all peoples
who respect the law of nations. We must carry to an end the
war to which we have committed ourselves. To us, as to
Belgium, it is a war of self-defence, fought out for liberty and
peace."
At the same time as one feels grateful for the information
that it was for the sake of liberty and peace that England
declared war on Germany on the 4th of August, one cannot
help feeling a little surprised that the learned gentlemen who
have put their sonorous names to this paper could believe that
the neutral Germanic nation of the North could ever be
induced to see in the Germanic nation of the South its own and
Europe’s most dangerous enemy.
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