THREE BRITISH WARS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 91, 20 April 1915, Page 7

THREE BRITISH WARS.

CRB MEAN—BOER—PRESENT JUSTIFIED ON MORAL GROUNDS. Speaking at a meeting at Cambridge, England, in February last, 'the Rev. Prof. W. Emery Barnes delivered a very interesting address on the moral aspect of three British wars I—the Crimean War, the Boer War, 'and the present war. He dealt with the various causes of each war, and came to the conclusion that in the case of all three we were justified on j moral grounds in taking up the 1 sword. THE CRIMEAN WAR. in his opening remarks, Prof. Barnes observed that it seemed to him that the British people passed through 'a triple experience during our great !wars. At first there was national enthusiasm, then followed a period of weariness as the war went on, and 'then a period of disbelief, when we fancied somehow that we had been wrong in taking up arms at all, ami we began to think that the war was, !■ after all, a great mistake, if not acrime. He proposed to show how this thesis applied to three wars, the Crimean War, the Boer War, and then he should venture on some suggestions with regard to the great Wilhelm the Second War of 1914. The llussian War of 1854 was undoubtedly popular among the voters of Great Britain '—it was thoroughly popular with the middle class, who made it. It was | entered upon enthusiastically by Great Britain: but the second phase soon 'rame. Even before our troops moved 'from the unhealthy nlains of Bulgaria to Sebastopol, England was beginning to get aweary. There was not much fighting to speak of, but cholera took its toll of life from the j\vray. Disappointment came quicklv after the Alma, and when at length Sebastopol fell evervone was very j weary of the war. The third phase in ;mir attitude towards the Crimean ,Wr name in the seventies, and since ,IS7fi onwards the hasfv newspapers and bastv re«de--s had freouently asserted that the Russian War of 1854 iwas a mistake and a crime.. Erom that | view be 'lissented altogether. He j argued tb-'t we were morally rinrht to w' 1 that war; hut from n military point of view it was as absurd a mistake as ever we made. THE BOER WAR.

Turmno' to the quorum of the Boer War, Prof. Barnes said lie thought this n far more complex problem. There was no doubt that public oninio" wont tliionirli three phases aw in with rerrnrd to the war. First it was welcomed as a war winch could not honour.nl.lv be avoided. Then on mo a cold fit, when many asked "How soon is the war to be over?" Lastly, before the war was ended, we heard murmurs, "Was it necessary or right to wage war with the Boers at all?" After briefly reviewing the state ol things which led to the war, Prof. Barnes remarked that Oom Paul's ultimatum made war inevitable. It made Britain as a nation enthusiastic for the war. As to the question of the righteousness of the war, lie submitted that as long as we looked only to the single events of the formal negotiations each side might complain of wrong. If Jameson and Chamberlain forced war on Kruger, Kruger in turn forced war on Great Britain. But lie woidd ask them to look at the larger question. The Oom Paul regime was not only an anarchronism but a danger. When we made war on the Boers we recognised that Paul Kruger was a dangerous anachronism to the great white population of South Africa. THE PRESENT WAR.

Coming to the present war, Prof. Barnes said it offered many parallels jin its nature to the Crimean War. At the time of the Crimeaij War the Emperor Nicholas thought; the day had 'come to divide the territories of the Sick .Man. In 1914 the Emperor William If. and the German War Staff thought the day had come when the healthy appetite of Germany was ready to absorb fresh territory, certainly on the western holder, possibly on the eastern. Again Great Britain 'became a party to the war in order to prevent the further aggrandisomenC of an overgrown Power. Doubtless 'many thoughtful Germans who had little natural sympathy with the great general War Staff thought they entered upon a defensive struggle at the beginning of August last. The German armies, it was true, took the offensive at once, but it was true that a very large part of the German nation fancied they were striking at a great Power from which they expected great danger ultimately to ensue. Germany, in her eastern provinces ruled over a large Slavonic population of Poles, and feared them, and Austria ruled over a number of Slavs equal to the combined population of Austrian* and Hungarians. Austria had long been in a perilous condition, and Austria could not be weak without affecting the state of Germany too. The Serbs in Austria numbered millions, and after the Serbian success in the last Balkan War they were thrilled with the idea, of a Serbian empire. Russia was suffering from loss of prestige alter the Russo-Japanese War, Germany was confronted by a growing Slavdom and feared and hated it. William decided to strike before the Power he dreaded became more powerful.

Great Britain Csu!«i W. Stand Aside. But fear was always cruel and unjust, and William dealt a blow at Belgium and thrust war upon France in rsuch a way that Great Britain could not stand aside.'Hear, hear). These three nations had imbibed a peace propaganda for years, and men like Bernhardi had actually counted upon this as a cause of. weakness in the nations which Germany was to attack. The same reasons which led us to defend Turkey in 1851 against the Autocrat of Russia were still stronger in justifying our resolve to defend Belgium and Serbia against the attacks of the Autocrat of Germany. The two cases seemed to him to be parallel, only our present case was perhaps stronger than the old, because the nation we defend was nearer to us, and>we really knew, all of us, more of the actual circumstances which led to the war. He thought .we were really justified on the general ground that Great Britain had always shown herself a peaceful nation, so peaceful that we had exposed ourselves to very esvere criticism from real students of war. After the Crimean War we cut down our Army so ruthlessly that in less than 18 months, ,vhen the Indian Mutiny broke out, we had very few troops to throw into Tndia. in a military .sense it was a very great mistake*; but looked at from a moral oint of view it showed that we are an intensely peaceful nation, and had no desire for aggrandisement.. Therefore, without any misgiving, he ventured to hope that )ii all three occasions Great' Britain was really justified on moral gVoimds in going to war. (Applause.)