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356 WITH THE GERMAN ARMIES IN THE WEST
The talk of German militarism recalls the old parable about
the mote and the beam. Is not Britain’s supremacy of the
sea built up on a military system ? Can one imagine a more
widespread militarism than that which spreads its recruiting
nets over five continents, which reaches gratefully after the
straw held out by Republican Portugal, and which advertises
in every newspaper and at every street corner " the need for
more men " ?
The warning words of Kipling written after the Boer war
now ring with a deeper and more earnest meaning than ever
before.
If English culture and English learning accuse German
militarism of indulging in dreams of lawless conquest, I ask :
How about the Boer war ? Is it perhaps an expression of the
same humane solicitude for the small States that now induces
England to break a lance for the sake of Belgium’s indepen-
dence ? It would be a wasted effort to attempt to elucidate
now, when it is too late, how the great war would have de-
veloped had England kept out of it. But one thing is certain,
namely, that had she done so, Belgium would not have lost
her independence for longer than the duration of the war.
The war would not then have assumed the dimensions of a
world war such as it is now—the greatest and most tragical
catastrophe that has ever visited the human race. No nation
has had a greater and more world-wide responsibility to bear
than England.
Before this spectacle and generally before the situation in
which Great Britain now finds herself every sincere friend of
England must shudder at the meaning of it all as he reads and
re-reads Kipling’s " Recessional " written for the Sixty Years
Jubilee in 1897. The whole British Empire was then in trans-
ports of exultation over the history of past years and over the
fabulous power and glory of the immense Empire. Kipling
alone stood like the guardian of the nation’s conscience and
his voice was lifted up in words which will re-echo as long as
there is a Briton left in the world.
Now that I have unburdened my heart to the English, let
us continue our trip after the pause in the Citadel.
We drove out through the Porte de Gand, where there is
quite a crush of fresh troops marching to the fighting line,
wounded soldiers on the way to hospital, motor-lorries, am-
munition columns and all that we are accustomed to see on
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