The Dominion. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1916. "WE SHALL NOT FORGET"

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2895, 6 October 1916, Page 4

The Dominion. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1916. "WE SHALL NOT FORGET"

I?hbbe is much justification lor the emphatic .protest which has been evoked by the references to our future relations with Germany ■ made by Lord Bryce in his recent 'address to the Congregational lUnion._ He urges the nation to repress its passion, and thinks it would bo wrong to cngago in a trade war. It is really wonderful how anxious some people seem to be to save the Germans from the retribution which justice demands should be meted out to them for the foul-, lest deeds that have ever defiled the pages of human history. These people tell us that as soon as the war is over we should shake hands with the criminals, forget their dreadful crimes, and the terrible anguish they have brought on the world, and become good friends.. It is a revolting idea. This false sentimentality deserves no encouragement whatever. It would be a positive outrage against the most fundamental principles of justice if our dealings with the Germans after the lighting is finished are to be' as full, and free, and friendly as our dealings with the French and the Belgians and the other nations who are partners with us in this great struggle. When Lord Bryce urges us to repress our passion, he appears to forget that there is > suoh a thing as righteous indignation. It is natural, and it is right, that the borriblo acts committed by the Germans on sea Sand land should arouse the most passionate feelings of angor and disgust. We would be as callous as the Germans themselves if our hearts did not-quiver with passion when wo read the ghastly Btory of murder, outrage, and wanton destruction, contained in the report of the Commission,' presided over by Lord Bryce! himself, which investigated the German atrocities in France and Belgium. Here is one of the Commission's findings:

That in the conduct of the'war generally innocent civilians, both" men and women, were murdered in large numbers, women violated, and children murdered.

The Commission reported that this killing of non-combatants was doue under orders, and as part of a deliberate plan._ Are we then tb shako the blood-stained hands of these murderers, enrich, them by our trade, and take them again into fellowship as though the maintenance of the distinction between right and_ wrong, good and evil, was a trivial matter 'I Are the airmen who 'dropped poisoned sweets on Bucharest in the hope of infecting the people with virulent disease fit to be received into civilised society? Even more culpable are those in authority who devised and suggested such abominable methods of warfare. British people will not soon forget these crimes. They will be bitterly disappointed if, when the day of reckoning comes, Germany is not treated as an outlaw nation— the enemy of tho human raceshould be treated.

Though Germany has heaped crime upon crime, and piled horror upon horror, there are still some "friends of the enemy" among 113 who would, in order to save this criminal nation from humiliation, sever that connection between wrongdoing and punishment which is one of tho foundations of tho social order. A German professor recently told his fellow-countrymen not to worry themselves about the resentment which their "frightfulness" was arousing among tho Entente nations because it would soon be forgotten and Germar trade would go on as usual when tho war was over. Encouragement is given to this contemptuous indifference to our threats of punishment by the mischievous utterances of those people who implore us to repress our passion and deprecate the idea of punishing a whole nation for the crimes of its leaders. This distinction between the guilt of the German ruling class and the guilt of the nation as a whole is quite' imaginary. Its baselessness has been frequently exposed. It has been thoroughly investigated by Professor Morgan, late Home Office- Commissioner with the British Expeditionary Force, who declares that.it is a great mistake to regard Germany as tho misguided pupil of a military casto, which alone stands iu the way of her reformation.. The German nation is a moral pervert. Conventions with' it arc both a delusion and

a snare. For a generation the German people have been taught that the hist of conquest and the arrogance of race are the most precious of the virtues, and now the nation is rotten to the core. His study of the facts has forced Professor Morgan to the conolusion that there is little hope except in a sentence of outlawry. But it may be possible to bring_ to justice some of thai individual criminals. Those, for in- j stance, who were responsible for the' murder of Nurse Cavell and Oaftain Fryatt. Mr. Asquith has promised that when the time comes the guilty ones, whoever they may be, and whatever their position, shall be punished. He says: "The of the system under which such crimes are committed may well be the most guilty of all." The Kaiser himself presided, over the War Council whioh confirmed the sentence of death passed on Captain Fryatt. In view of this fact, there is much force in the contention .of Professor W. Alison Phillips that the overthrow of the Hohenzollerns should be made a sine qua no-n of peace. This might mean the prolongation and< further embitterment of, the war, "but the' memory of Charles Fryatt and the other victims of German ruthlessness will steel our hearts to persevere, cost what it may, until.we have cleansed Europe and the world of this foul reproach." The Empire will hold Mr. Asquith to the pledge he made in April of last year "with all emphasis and 'all deliberation"—a pledge to exact reparation., "Wo shall not forget, and we ought r.ot to forget, this horrible record of calculated cruelty and crime." Since those words were uttered many additions have been made to the ghastJ<? list., Can we ever forget it? Should it not, make an irresistible appeal to every man fit to* bear arms to come forward and do .Ms part to ensure that the' punishment will be adequate 1 ?