Correspondence

Horowhenua Chronicle, 15 September 1915, Page 2

Correspondence

0 LOur correspondents' opinions aie their own; tn© responsibility of editorial ones makes sufficient ballast tor the editor's shoulders.! A 'LETTER FROM Mil CHESTER TON. (To the Editor.) Sir,—l hope you will grant me spact to say a few words about the Belgian; still iu Belgium. The admirable efforts of the National Committee fo Relict in Belgium are going a loll) way to avert famine, but if the millioi and a, half destitute Belgians are t be kept alive the Natiuiial must have yet further support. Th only conceivable cause of doubt in th matter must lie in a men; wearines in well-doing., produced not only by aJ intellectual dillicuity but by such wholly iinintelleetual things as tiui and fatigue. i think, therefore, th best way of preventing nuiy possibl neglect of so great a matter is to re peat once more the great u'.tth.s upu: which rested the whole original claii tffci so iijucli on our sympathy as on on

OTnmon houeSty The simplicity ai enormity ol the Jiuigian story can be be set forth, perhaps, in four truism all toweringly self-evident.

First, of course, the mere badness c the story is almost too big to be hoi in the mind. There have been stork of a •woman or a child actually robbe of reason for life by the mere ocula shock of some revolting cruelty don iu their presence. There was really danger of something ot the kind par* lysing our protest against the largest and. by the help of God. the last of th crimes of the Prussian Kings. The 01 lookers might have been struck hit a sort of gibbering imbecility and eve amiability, by the lull and indefensibl finality of the foul stroke. Wo ha no machines that could measure th stunning directness of the blow froi hell. We could hardly realise a enormous public act which the aotu did not wish to excuse, but only t execute. Vet such an act was th occupation of Belgium; almost the oul act in history for whidi there was quit simply and literally nothing to be sa.ii ilad history is tho whole basis ol l'ru: .sia : but even in bad history the Prii! si aus could find no precedent and n palliation; and the morle Jntelligen Prussians did not try. A few wei so feeble-minded as to say they ha found dangerous documents in Uru? sels. as if what they had done coul possibly be excused by things they di not know when they did it. This a most piteous lapse in argument wahowever, covered up by. the eleven Prussians as quickly a.s might be. Tlu preferred to stand without a rag < reason on them than with such a n> as that. Before we come to the mo , strous material suffering there is the existing situation an abstract ui miison. nay an abstract insanity, whk the brain of man must not be*' , .

nightmare must not abide to the en.< The tiniest trace of Prussian victoi that: remains av LI I make us (hi ik < something which is not to be thoug* of: of something like the viotiy < beasts over mankind.

Second, it DiUKfc be remembered tin tiiifr murder lias been clone upon a pp pic of such proximity and 'am.'iia ity tli;it there cannot bo any in s'.fil ;ibout Liie matter. There is some ehai owy juslilicat'ion lor the comparath iiidillerence to the wrongs of very r mole peoples; for it is not easy l'or i to guess liuiv much slavery shocks negro or cannibalism a cannibal. J3i the innkeepers and shopkeepers of i) lend i'olt exactly as the innkeepers ai shopkeepers of Dover would feel. V have to imagine a pro-historic cruel coming suddenly upon a scene whi< wii.j civilised and almost coininonplac Imagine ligers breaking out oif 'i Zoological Gardens and eating all fcl people in Albany street; imagine R< Indians exhibited at U'lympia literal

ricalpiiig every passer-by th; place to Hammersmith U road way: im gine Jack tile Ripper crowned king W'hitchapel and conducting his exeei ionti in broad daylight outside the Tu station at Aldgate; imagine as mil as you can ot what is violent and co tradictory in «iu over-turn of all mode lite by troglodytes; and you are st 1 ailing short of this fearful lielgi; scene in that familiar iJelgian fecenei It is idle to talk of exaggerations misrepresentations about a. case so do to us. Chinese tortures may not bo iantatstic as travellers tell us; Sibci may not he so desolate as ith iugitiv say it is: but "we con no more invent such a iuu: acre in Belgium Uiat we could a mai acre in JJalluvm. The things of shan less shame that have been done a something worse than prodigies, woi than nightmares, -worse than devilrit they are facts. Third, this people ivo have heard daily have endured this unheard thing: and endured it lor us. T>h.€ arc countless cases lor coinpassi among the bewildering and heartreu ing by-products of this war; but this not a case for compassion. This is ease for that mere working minimum a sense of honour that makes us rep a poor man who has advanced In s ]<• penny to post a have forg ten to stamp. In tin's'' respect B ginm stands alone; and the claims ev of other Allies may well .stand .asi till who is paid to the uttermost far

There lwis been ovei'ywhoi'c disc; but it was Koll'-sac fice of individuals, oach tor his o* country; the Swliian dying lor Serb or the Italian for Italy. But the 8 gian did not liioroly. die for Belgill Ik'lgiiiin diod for Europe. Not 01 was the soldier sacrificed for the n ion; the nation was sacrificed for im kind. It ifi a sacrifice wliich is, think, quite' unique even among Chi tians; and quite inconceivable amo pagans. If we. even privately ut a lnuriuoi , . or even privately grut a penny for binding the wownds of solitary and exceptional a martyr, our solves shall be something almost Military and exceptional. We sli perhaps be nearest to the- state of tl unspeakable sociologist who pereuac his wife to partake of a simultanec suicide; and then htmself oheevfu lived on.

Fourth: If there be anyone on t earth who cloca not find tihe final eucc of such crime more than the mind ( bear; if there bo anyone who does i feel it ag the more graphic since walks among the tramway lines ■'« I lamp-posts of a life like our own; there be anyone who flow not feol tl

to be caught napping about Belgium is like being caught robbing one's mother on her death-bed; there still remains a sort of brutal compassion for bodily pain, which has been half-admitted hero and there even by the oppressors themselves. I'f we do not tlo a great deal more even than wo have already done, it may yet bo said oi us that we Jelfc it to the very butchers of this nation to see that it did not bleed to death. I therefore plead for further help for the Members of the National Committee who have taken this duty upon themselves. All subscriptions can be addressed to the Treasurer tit Trafalgar Buildings, Trafalgar Square, London, or to Local Committees where they have boon formed. Yours faithfully G. K. CHESTERTON. Overloads, Beaconsfield. Bucks, oth August, 1915.