0095.htm

MY ATTITUDE TOWARDS WAR
Rev, B. De Ligt has written in a French journal called
Evolution a long open letter to me. He has favoured me
with a translation of it. The open letter strongly criticizes
my participation in the Boer War and then the Great War
of 1914, and invites me to explain my conduct in the light
of Ahimsa. Other friends too have put the same question.
I have attempted to give tne explanation more than once
in these columns.

There is no defence for my conduct weighed only in
the scales of Ahimsa. I draw no distinction between those
who wield the weapons of destruction and those who do
Red Cross work. Both participate in war and advance
its cause. Both are guilty of the crime of war. But even
after introspection during all these years, I feel that, in the
circumstances in which I found myself, I was bound to adopt
the course I did both during the Boer War and the Great
European War and for that matter the so-called Zulu
'Rebellion' of Natal in 1906.

Life is governed by a multitude of forces. It would
be smooth sailing, if one could determine the course of one's
actions only by one general principle whose application at
a given moment was too obvious to need even a moment's
reflection. But I cannot recall a single act which could
be so easily determined.

Being a confirmed war resister I have never given my-
self training in the use of destructive weapons in spite of
opportunities to take such training. It was perhaps thus
that I escaped direct destruction of human life. But so
long as I lived under a system of government based on
force and voluntarily partook of the many facilities and
privileges it created for me, I was bound to help that
Government to the extent of my ability when it was engaged
in a war, unless I non-co-operated with that Government
and renounced to the utmost of my capacity the privileges
it offered me,



	30 MY ATTITUDE TOWARDS WAR Rev, B. De Ligt has written in a French journal called Evolution a long open letter to me. He has favoured me with a translation of it. The open letter strongly criticizes my participation in the Boer War and then the Great War of 1914, and invites me to explain my conduct in the light of Ahimsa. Other friends too have put the same question. I have attempted to give tne explanation more than once in these columns. There is no defence for my conduct weighed only in the scales of Ahimsa. I draw no distinction between those who wield the weapons of destruction and those who do Red Cross work. Both participate in war and advance its cause. Both are guilty of the crime of war. But even after introspection during all these years, I feel that, in the circumstances in which I found myself, I was bound to adopt the course I did both during the Boer War and the Great European War and for that matter the so-called Zulu 'Rebellion' of Natal in 1906. Life is governed by a multitude of forces. It would be smooth sailing, if one could determine the course of one's actions only by one general principle whose application at a given moment was too obvious to need even a moment's reflection. But I cannot recall a single act which could be so easily determined. Being a confirmed war resister I have never given my- self training in the use of destructive weapons in spite of opportunities to take such training. It was perhaps thus that I escaped direct destruction of human life. But so long as I lived under a system of government based on force and voluntarily partook of the many facilities and privileges it created for me, I was bound to help that Government to the extent of my ability when it was engaged in a war, unless I non-co-operated with that Government and renounced to the utmost of my capacity the privileges it offered me, 78