NO PEACE PRATTLE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 51, 27 September 1916, Page 3

NO PEACE PRATTLE.

WHY THE WAR MUST BE CARRIED TO GERMAN SOIL. By Horatio Bottomley (in the Sunday Pictorial.) Cursed bo the Peace-monger! What is all this prattle of Peace which is making the air hideous? I was sitting next to two old , officers I the other day—two of those gouty,! testy “dug-outs,” who. till this war c.-fme, had been on the Retired List I since the battle of Wat'Oi'ino-.—or it! may have been the Crimea! They had just been reading of the capturej by the British of another village orj wood—and they started betting as to whether jt would bo September or October before the war is over! “Cor-! many won’t go on,” they were say-J ln S>, “when once wo get them out of B'islginVn.” And I couldn’t help in-! temipting. “My dear sirs,” 1 said/ ‘‘Germany will have .to go on—or else make loom for us—till wo reach Bor) U. The war has begun.” Well, if you find senior officers' talking like that,, can you wonder that ordinary folk fall into the same habit? .And I,have noticed lately a tendency on the part of the politicians to whittle down the sacred pledge of the \Preinier, on the faith of which the manhood of Britain flew to arms. There is too much talk about not discussing peace “so long as one German foot is on Be.lg ian soil.” That was not the pledge. Pi gissia has to bo. crushed—-pul-verised, anu’ihilated, Wiped out. ■ And the Kaiser and the Crown Prince to be shot, or banged,' or departed. That is what the boys arc fighting for. * ■ * •» *

Talk of Peace as much as you likc 7 so long as you mean our Peace—the Peace which will come when, in the words of General Joffre, “the military power, of the enemy will break down”—to which I woidd add, “and when hewi Navy either surrenders or is sent to the bottom of the sea.” But, optimist, as I am, 1 do not think that will be for a few months yet When I used to say that' the- Wat would Ire over before now 1 really didn’t know that the War Ollice had no guns and shells in stock, and Wasn’t even making any. But all that is altered now—and, as 1 say, the war has begun. And Germany doesn’t like it. Jut she still lives in a Fool’s Paradise, and hopes to bluff us into a settlement which will enable her to resume her,} ordinary business on her own soil —intact ami untouched. Did you notice that strange phrase in the Kaiser's latest message to his troops: “The desire for peace is in all our hearts”? How long has Peace been in the savage breast of the Butcher of Berlin ? W ho was it but the Kaiser who marked with approval that sentence in Bernhardi’s book: “All efforts for the prevention of wa r sh 4 uhl be discour- I aged; they arc unworthy of a great nation”? I * * * * No, Mr Kaiser, we cither follow you, or precede you, to Berlin. \es ) if it takes another year—or another ten years; and if it costs all the money in the world. You see, what .wo haven’t ourselves, we can borrow. You can’t. • What food we cannot produce for ourselves, w<> can import. Ton can’t. What men we want we can get——even il we have to put the black devils of Africa and other portions of our Empire on to you. They are yearning to have a go at you. And we’re building uimo ships—and such sjiipsl A nasty lot of people to go to war with, aren’t we? And we are only just beginning ! * * * * And all the time we arc keeping the ledger up to date. Apart from compensation for the violence of Belgium; the murders of sweet women; of innocent children, of defenceless old folk, of gallant gentlemen, andh

the WrtVirC of worthy and valiant , Rifts—apart, 1 say, from all those things, there will be a nice little Bill for you to pay. Leaving our Allies to settle with you direct f we shall want a matter of about— shall we say—five thousand millions? No doubt we can arrange to take it by annual instalments, whilst an Army of Occupation looks after the collection of the money and sees that it is paid with regularity . and despatch. Then, of course, your Colonies and vuur Fleet will have to he given tip.

What is that, yon say—you have plenty of good friends over here, who will see that you arc not humiliated? Poor fool—do not deceive yourself. Wo will look after them. Not for a pdtehed-up Peace have wo given ol our best and bravest; every British

hoy who falls on the field of battle ! is one more seal to our sacred and i our solemn Covenant to see this 'l'hing through. By their blood, and on their souls; and by the God of Battles, we swear it. You little knew what yon were doing when, on that fourth of'August two years ago, you flung your glove in tbo lace ol Britannia. Withered is your arm—and withered shall be your Empire and its power. * X X X There is something ludicrously pathetic in your moan that “the war continues only because , the battle cry of the Allies is still the destruction of Germany.” Don’t you understand, man, what are the stakes for which we are playing—your empire or ours? Who started the agmc—with marked cards? And now that you are found out, and all the •trumps arp in our bands, you coijimence to cry, and want to get up and leave the table. No, Mr Kaiser, we will play to a finish, unless you, ,like to pay forfeit—and the forfeit is your crown. And, by tbo way, who was it said that he would fight ‘‘till the last man —and, him gone, would arm the cats and dogs”? * * x x

No, we will have no Peace' Prattle. Away with the Peace Posts. lam not now referring specifically to the pro-German cranks and traitors. What I have in my mind is the sudden ecstasy of the pessimists—-than lariifim tlrei'o is no more “latuotis pptiniist” in an access of good cheer. fit,' ; believo me, there is always danger when the croaker begins to crow. You all know the kind of man 1 mean. The highly critical military expert on tiie 9.15 to the City is in finer feather than he has been for many a weary month. Ihe initial successes) of the British Armies'oo'ir tin'" Somme have sot smiling' -•'niiinywhose faces for nearly two years have; worn a- settled aspect of gloom. aV. uJ : 'frankly,* 1 am a little mistrnsttul of these mercurial spirits. We must be rigidlv on our guard. * * x- * ' T sometimes think the spirit of the Empire was at its best and grandest at the moment of the retreat froth Mens, when, for the sins of the politicians, wo came within an ace oi unspeakable disaster. What a grim, ironic tragedy it would lie il the stern resolution that withstood the shock of failure and disappointment should crumble beneath the Delilah kisses of success! As long as the Hun bestrode our path in the insolence of his armed might, we were ready enough to swear eternal vengeance and to repel with scorn the faintest hint of compromise. Shall wo he just as firm when even the Kaiser himself whines “Kamerad!” and holds up his blood-stained hands for peace? If not, we shall fail in our solemn duty to God and man. It, with the foe at our mercy, wo falter in our avenging task, we shall be traitors to the human race. To torgive the Him will he to compound his felonies; pity will lie poltroonery; mercy, worse than madness. -y ' * * This war must lie settled not “on points,” but by the knock-out blow. There shall he no atrocities, no outrages, no transgressions of the imanities of war”; but, to.

; the good of their own souls, ! tile civilian population of (formally I must tremble within onrshnt of the ; Allies guns. The psychological ('fleet of all actual invasion of German tcr- , ritory will he the finest possible guar- , antce for the future peace of Europe. Under the tutelage of mad professors, at the bidding of military pedants, at the instigation of a maniacal monarch, the Gorman people have evoked a foul monster which, up till now, has appeared to them in the guise of a benignant fairy; they have never seen its hideous features; never felt its loathsome touch—never shuddered at its naked horror. t- » * « They have ■ toyed with their great military, machine as a child may play with a dagger. They have never felt its cruel edge. This immunity must cease. No peace can come to Europe till the Germans at home have quailed before the sword. That is why all talk of peace is treason nnnd the tide of combat is rolled back to Berlin. U may bo a calamity if tbo war lasts longer than it need ; it will be a dire disaster if it ends too soon. We must be sustained by the firm faith that our heroes are lighting and falling in a work of world regeneration. Posterity will bless their name ; history will honour their devotion, and will realise that each life has fulfilled its predestined function in the majestic economy of God, who will not forget. X -X- X- X So let ns bridle our grief. God grant that we have not built our courage upon the sands! The tragedy, the bitter chagrin—the cruel shame—if ever it should prove that -the blood of our martyrs lias been spent to no purpose—their heroism wasted; their sacrifice rendered of no avail through the folly and faithlessness of the politicians permaturoly paltering with peace. Keep this thought ever in mind! Our Rolls of Honour are our hostages to Destiny. Those brave fellows—our sons and . brothers—died trusting us—trusting those who should follow them to death or glory—trusting to all of us i never to sheath the sword till their I blood is finally avenged and their dying labours crowned with the laurels of everlasting victory. There lies - our simic duty to the dead; to the living also—and to generations not j yet horn. There must he no peace . signed westward of the Rhine.