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THE  GODS  IN 
THE  BATTLE 

E  HXOYSON 


f 


r 


v 


THE  GODS  IN  THE  BATTLE 


The  greatest  artist  that  the  War  has  revealed,  the 
Dutchman,  Louis  Raemaekers,  a  loyal  and  courageous 
neutral  on  whose  head  the  Germans  have  set  a  price 
in  his  country,  has  presented  me  with  an  imperishable 
drawing  for  the  cover  of  the  volume.  I  offer  him  the 
gratitude  of  one  of  his  earliest  French  admirers,  who 
did  not  wait  to  recognise  his  genius  until  the  hour  of 
his  fame  had  struck.  The  gift  was  accompanied  with 
these  words : 

u  Haarlem, 

"21**  September  1915. 

"  Rest  assured  that  if  it  were  physically  possible 
for  me  to  open  my  heart,  France  would  see  herself 
reflected  there  in  a  picture  far  more  beautiful  than 
those  my  hand  has  traced. 

"  Louis  Raemaekers." 


PRO  JUSTITIA 


4-AUG-1914 — 4 -AUG  1916 


Frontispiece 


THE 

GODS  IN  THE  BATTLE 


BY 

PAUL  HYACINTHE  LOYSON 

Translated  from  the  French  by 
LADY  FRAZER 

With  an  Introduction  by 

h.  G.  WELLS 


"For  on  this  side  and  on  that  the  gods  went  forth 
to  tear.  .  .  .  Then  uttered  Athene  a  cry  .  .  .  and  a  shout 
uttered  Ares  against  her,  terrible  as  the  blackness  of  the 
storm."  Homer,  Iliad,  xx. 

"  This  war  has  become  what  it  was  meant  to  be— a  clash 
of  principles  above  the  a)%mies,  a  fight  for  an  ideal  in  the 
midst  of  hell."  The  Author 


HODDER    AND     STOUGHTON 

LONDON   NEW  YORK   TORONTO 

MCMXVII 


> 


SY* 


IV 


*k 


Printed  in  Great  Britain  hy  Hatell,  Watson  A  Viney,  Ld.t 
London  and  Ayletbttry. 


TO 

MY  COMRADES  ON  THE  HEAD-QUARTERS  STAFF  OF 

THE   54TH   BRIGADE,  OFFICERS   AND   PRIVATES, 

IN    MEMORY    OF    THE    GREAT    WEEK    OF 

THE     FRENCH     MOBILISATION,     AND 

OF    THE    REALISATION    OF    THE 

DREAM  OF  THE  ENTRY  INTO 

ALSACE,    A  BLAMELESS 

REVENGE  IMPOSED 

BY  GERMANY 


In  the  use  of  violence  there  are  no  limits.  .  .  .  The  absolute 
form  of  war. — Clausewitz,  1832. 

A  war  of  necessity  sanctifies  every  means. 

Treitschke,  1896. 

Terrorism  becomes  a  necessary  military  principle. 

Julius  von  Hartmann,  1877. 

Nothing  should  be  left  an  invaded  people  except  their 
eyes  for  weeping. — Bismarck,  1870. 

Above  all,  be  harsh  ! — Mommsen,  1903. 

You  say  that  a  good  cause  sanctifies  even  war :   I  tell  you 
it  is  a  good  war  that  sanctifies  every  cause. 

Nietzsche,  1886. 

Perpetual  peace  is  not  even  a  beautiful  dream.     War  forms 
part  of  the  universal  order  established  by  God. 

Moltke,  1880. 

War  is  an  instrument  of  progress.  .  .  .  Choose  the  moment 
for  attack. — Bernhardi,  1912. 

It  is  contrary  to  the  right  of  nations  !  .  .  .  A  scrap  of 
paper  ! — Bethmann-Hollweg,   1914. 

Germany,   thanks   to   her  faculty  for  organisation,   has 
reached    a   higher    stage    of    civilisation    than    other 
peoples.     The  war  will  enable  those  nations  to  partici- 
pate in  it. — Professor  Ostwald,  1914. 
ix 


We  have  nothing  to  apologise  for.  We  are  morally  and 
intellectually  superior  to  all :  above  all  comparison. 
This  time  we  shall  make  a  clean  sweep. 

Professor  Lasson,  1914. 

Let  us,  by  the  help  of  our  dirigibles,  sow  terror  and  death 
among  the  nations. 

Erzberger,  Member  of  the  Reichstag,  1915. 

M  Kultur  M  does  not  exclude  bloody  savagery  ;  it  renders 
devilry  sublime. — Thomas  Mann,  1914. 

Oh  thou,  oh  Germany  !  Slaughter  millions  of  men  and  heap 
up  the  smoking  human  flesh  and  bones  as  high  as  the 
clouds,  and  higher  than  the  mountain  tops. 

Heinrich  Vierordt,  Aulic  Counsellor,  1914. 

Must  civilisation  raise  its  temples  on  mountains  of  corpses, 
seas  of  tears,  and  the  death-rattles  of  the  dying  ?  Yes. 
Marshal  von  Haeseler,  1915. 

Give  no  quarter  ;  be  as  terrible  as  the  Huns  of  Attila. 

William  II,  1900. 

Prisoners  may  be  shot.  Hostages  may  be  forced  to  expose 
their  lives. — Manual  of  the  German  Head-Quarter  Staff , 
1902. 

It  is  with  my  consent  that  the  General  in  command  had 
the  locality  burned,  and  that  about  a  hundred  persons 
were  shot. 

Von  Bulow,  in  command  of  the  2nd 
German  Army,  1914. 

All  the  prisoners  will  be  killed.  The  wounded,  armed  or 
unarmed,  will  be  killed.  The  prisoners,  even  in  large 
units,  will  be  killed.  We  ought  not  to  leave  a  single 
living  man  behind  us. 

General  Stenger,  commanding  the 
58th  Brigade,  1914. 


TRANSLATOR'S  PREFACE 

To  attempt  a  biographical  sketch  of  a  living  man 
is  a  difficult  and  delicate  task  at  all  times,  but  it  is 
doubly  difficult  when  the  subject  is  a  personality  so 
vivid  and  vivifying  as  the  author  of  this  book.  Yet 
I  am  emboldened  to  make  the  attempt  by  the  wish 
to  give  readers  a  clearer  impression  of  this  typical 
Frenchman  than  they  might  receive  through  the 
dimming  veil  of  an  English  translation. 

M.  Paul  Hyacinthe  Loyson  bears  an  honoured 
name.  His  father  was  the  famous  French  orator 
known  as  Pfere  Hyacinthe,  who  died  at  a  good  old 
age  in  1912,  leaving  behind  him  many  friends  and 
admirers  in  France,  England,  and  other  parts  of  the 
world.  Not  a  few  can  still  remember  the  eloquence, 
hardly  surpassed  in  the  glorious  roll  of  French 
preachers,  which  held  spellbound  vast  congregations 
in  the  long  resounding  aisles  of  Notre  Dame.  A 
loyal  and  devoted  son  of  the  Catholic  Church,  Father 
Hyacinthe  was  yet  of  too  bold  and  independent  a 
mind  to  acquiesce  tamely  in  all  the  dogmas  imposed 
by  ecclesiastical  authority ;  such  doctrines  as  the 
infallibility  of  the  Pope  and  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy 
he  rejected,  and  he  emphasised  his  rejection  of  the 
latter  by  marrying,  in  1872,  an  American  lady  of 
Puritan  faith  and  descent.     But  the  outward  breach 


xii  TRANSLATORS  PREFACE 

with  the  Holy  See  which  this  step  created  never 
divided  Father  Hyacinthe  in  heart  from  the  spiritual 
and  moral  forces  of  Catholicism,  as  he  conceived 
them ;  and  he  might  have  said,  as  Savonarola  said 
when  they  unfrocked  him  at  the  stake,  that  they 
could  separate  him  from  the  Church  Militant,  but 
not  from  the  Church  Triumphant.  Of  this  noble 
father  M.  Paul  Hyacinthe  Loyson  is  the  worthy  son. 
He  lives  in  his  fatner's  memory,  and  inherits  his 
moral  fervour,  his  aspirations  after  eternal  truth  and 
justice,  his  burning  indignation  at  falsehood  and 
cowaraice  and  wrong.  Tnus  the  spirit  of  the  father 
survives  in  the  son.  Alike  under  the  robe  of  the 
bare-footed  friar  and  the  uniform  of  the  Interpreting 
Officer,  it  is  the  heart  of  France  that  beats. 

The  son  was  born  in  1873  and  educated  in  Paris 
where  he  graduated  at  the  Sorbonne.  His  inter- 
national sympathies  were  quickened  and  extended 
by  an  early  and  happy  marriage  with  an  American 
lady,  and  by  his  settlement  with  her  for  several 
years  at  Rome.  There  he  came  to  know  and  love 
Italy,  whose  musical  language  he  speaks  fluently. 
In  his  childhood  and  youth,  too,  as  he  tells  in  this 
volume,  it  was  his  fortune  to  travel  much  in  Ger- 
many and  to  fall  under  the  spell  of  German  poetry, 
philosophy  and  music. 

From  Italy  he  returned  with  his  wife  and  children 
to  Paris  in  time  to  enlist  his  pen  on  the  side  of  justice 
in  the  great  Dreyfus  case.  When  that  was  over,  and 
the  South  African  War  broke  out,  he  took  up  the 
literary  cudgels  on  behalf  of  the  Boers,  accepting 
perhaps  too  readily,  but  without  animosity  to 
England,  the  views  of  certain  British  Liberals. 


TRANSLATORS  PREFACE  xiii 

In  the  interval  between  the  South  African  and  the 
great  European  War,  M.  Loyson  busied  himself  with 
many  schemes  for  the  furtherance  of  those  high  aims 
which  he  constantly  keeps  before  him.  He  wrote 
plays  (Les  Ames  Ennemies  and  L'Apdtre)  turning  on 
religious  and  moral  themes,  which  have  been  acted 
in  Paris,  translated  into  foreign  languages  and 
successfully  performed  in  many  countries,  particularly 
in  Germany.  He  founded  and  edited  a  weekly  journal, 
Les  Droits  de  rHomme,  devoted  to  the  defence  and 
propagation  of  the  principles  of  democracy  and  inter- 
national peace.  Further,  impressed  with  a  sense  of 
the  growing  peril  of  war,  he  exerted  himself  by  all 
means  in  his  power  to  avert  it  by  promoting  a 
peaceful  and  friendly  understanding  with  Germany. 
On  this  subject  it  is  enough  to  refer  to  the  note  of 
the  French  publishers  translated  in  this  volume. 

When  all  M.  Loyson's  pacific  dreams  were  shat- 
tered by  the  German  declaration  of  war  on  France, 
he  threw  himself  strenuously  into  the  cause  of  his 
country,  menaced  by  a  monstrous  aggression.  He 
served  as  Interpreting  Officer  on  the  Alsatian  front, 
sharing  in  victory  and  retreat  alike.  He  then 
offered  his  services  to  the  British  army,  and  remained 
with  it  for  eight  months.  Afterwards,  being  invited 
by  the  French  Government  to  undertake  propaganda 
work,  he  accepted  the  honour  on  condition  of  being 
allowed  free  initiative  and  full  scope  in  carrying  it  out. 
At  Emile  Vandervelde's  request  he  was  accredited 
to  the  "  Bureau  Documentaire  Beige  "  at  Havre.  It 
was  there  that  he  found  comparative  leisure  to  write 
the  present  volume.  No  sooner  was  it  complete 
than  an  English  Liberal,  a  member  of  Parliament, 


xlv  TRANSLATOR'S  PREFACE 

Josiah  Wedgwood,  suggested  to  M.  Loyson  to  come 
to  England  to  strengthen  the  ties  of  friendship  be- 
tween the  two  neighbouring  nations.  In  the  spring 
of  1916  M.  Loyson  accepted  this  mission,  for  which 
he  is  so  eminently  qualified  by  his  British  sym- 
pathies, by  his  innate  tact,  and  by  his  mastery  of 
the  English  language.  Once  in  this  country,  he  did 
not  let  the  grass  grow  under  his  feet.  He  lectured 
before  the  Universities  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge 
and  in  London  at  King's  College  and  the  Royal  Insti- 
tution. He  addressed  the  Trades  Union  Congress 
at  Birmingham,  and  at  the  invitation  of  the  British 
Workers'  National  League  he  spoke  at  working 
men's  gatherings  at  Glasgow  and  Nottingham.  He 
discussed  the  problems  of  war  with  the  Fabian 
Society  and  Bernard  Shaw ;  he  challenged  Morel  of 
the  Union  of  Democratic  Control  to  a  discussion,  but 
the  challenge  was  not  accepted.  He  accompanied 
Mr.  Birrell  to  Dublin  at  the  time  of  the  brief  in- 
surrection in  1916.  On  the  occasion  of  the  public 
protest  against  Captain  Fryatt's  murder,  our  author 
addressed  the  crowd  in  Trafalgar  Square,  speaking 
from  the  steps  of  Nelson's  column — the  first  French- 
man, probably,  who  has  ever  spoken  from  that  place 
to  an  English  audience.  At  his  suggestion  the  dis- 
tinguished Mayor  of  Lyons,  M.  Edouard  Herriot, 
came  over  to  this  country,  addressed  a  large  and 
representative  audience  at  the  National  Liberal  Club 
in  London,  and  paid  a  visit  to  the  Grand  Fleet  in 
Scotland.  Again,  M.  Loyson  co-operated  with  Sir 
Francis  Younghusband  and  the  Fight  for  Right 
Movement  in  organising  a  public  meeting  at  the 
Mansion  House,  under  the  presidency  of  the  Lord 


TRANSLATOR'S  PREFACE  xr 

Mayor,  on  August  4th,  1916,  the  anniversary  of  the 
outbreak  of  war.  At  M.  Loyson's  request,  M.  Paul 
Painlev6,  the  French  Minister  of  Public  Instruction 
and  of  Inventions,  and  M.  Emile  Vandervelde,  the 
Belgian  Minister,  attended  the  meeting  at  the  Mansion 
House  and  delivered  eloquent  speeches ;  on  the 
same  evening  the  French  Minister,  by  special  invita- 
tion, spoke  at  the  great  national  meeting  in  the 
Queen's  Hall,  and  was  accorded  an  enthusiastic 
reception  by  the  vast  assembly.  After  these  varied 
activities,  M.  Loyson  proceeded  in  September  1916 
to  Holland,  where  he  spent  several  weeks  acquainting 
himself  personally  with  the  state  of  Dutch  public 
opinion  and  promoting  the  cause  of  the  Allies  in  that 
country.  Subsequently,  at  the  invitation  of  a  Swiss 
Committee,  presided  over  by  Madame  Isabelle 
Debran,  author  of  Prisonnihe  en  Allemagne,  M. 
Loyson  delivered  a  series  of  lectures  in  Switzerland 
for  the  benefit  of  the  French  Red  Cross,  taking  as 
his  theme  "  France  as  the  Champion  of  the  Right 
in  History."  These  lectures  he  delivered  in  both 
languages  in  various  parts  of  French  and  German 
Switzerland.  And  the  latest  news  I  have  of  him  is 
that  he  is  to  lecture  in  Italian  to  an  Italian-Swiss 
audience  at  Lugano. 

So  much  for  the  multifarious,  the  indefatigable 
activity  of  M.  Loyson  in  the  great  cause  to  which 
he  has  devoted  all  the  energies  of  his  mind  and  body. 
Yet  the  war,  which  he  strove  with  all  his  strength 
to  avert,  has  not  changed  the  man  nor  even  his 
aims  ;  for  now,  as  ever,  peace,  lasting  peace,  based 
on  justice — on  the  punishment  of  monstrous  crime 
and  the  reparation  of  foul  wrong — is  the  object  of 


xvi  TRANSLATORS  PREFACE 

all  his  endeavours ;  now  as  ever  he  turns  whatever 
he  touches  into  an  instrument  for  accomplishing 
that  noble  end.  A  cosmopolitan  in  spirit,  a  pacificist 
at  heart,  an  artist  and  a  poet,  with  a  childlike  joyous 
simplicity  mingling  with  depth  of  feeling, — such  he 
was  when  the  war  broke  out,  and  such  we  find  him 
here  in  the  pages  which  it  has  been  my  privilege  to 
do  into  English. 

Many  chapters  of  the  translation  have  been  sub- 
mitted to  the  author  either  in  proof  or  in  manuscript, 
and  I  have  benefited  by  his  revision ;  but  his  repeated 
and  prolonged  absences  on  duty  have  prevented 
some  parts  from  receiving  the  advantage  of  his 
criticisms  and  corrections.  My  husband,  Sir  James 
George  Frazer,  has  read  proofs  of  the  whole,  but  it 
is  possible  that  some  errors  may  still  have  escaped  us. 

The  book  has  been  to  some  extent  abridged,  under 
the  author's  direction.  For  the  order  of  the  trans- 
lation, which  differs  considerably  from  that  of  the 
French  original,  I  am  alone  responsible.  The  Open 
Letters  have  been  placed  by  themselves  at  the 
beginning,  the  matter  relating  to  the  "  Romain 
Holland  Case "  has  been  collected  in  the  middle, 
and  all  the  notes  have  been  relegated  to  the  end. 
By  this  division  the  reader  who  desires  to  enjoy 
the  high  literary  qualities  of  the  Letters  can  do  so 
undistracted  by  footnotes  and  undisturbed  by  the 
controversial  matter  of  the  "  Case  "  ;  while  those  who 
wish  to  study  the  "  Case  "  and  other  subjects  touched 
upon  in  the  Letters,  will  find  all  the  necessary  docu- 
ments and  references  in  the  second  and  third  parts 
of  the  volume. 

The  headings  of  the  chapters  have  been  for  the 


TRANSLATORS  PREFACE  xvii 

most  part  furnished  by  the  author  ;  and  the  frontis* 
piece  is  taken  from  the  programme  designed  by 
him  for  the  public  meeting  at  the  Guildhall  on 
August  4th,  1916. 

Neither  author  nor  translator  will  accept  any 
pecuniary  benefit  from  the  sale  of  this  volume.  The 
fee  which  the  author  received  from  the  publishers 
for  the  right  of  translation  has  been  handed  by  him 
to  the  British  Red  Cross  Fund ;  and  as  the  trans- 
lator, I  shall  be  sufficiently  rewarded  if  I  can  serve 
as  a  medium  between  the  land  of  my  birth  and  the 
land  of  my  adoption,  by  enabling  English  readers 
to  enjoy  in  some  measure  the  eloquence  and  wit  of 
the  French  original.1 

Lilly  Frazer. 

November  1916 

1  The  translation  has  been  adapted  to  the  Sixth  Edition  of 
the  French  original,  Etes-vous  Neutres  devant  le  Crime  ?  pub- 
lished by  Berger-Levrault,  5-7  rue  des  Beaux-Arts,  Paris,  1916. 


PUBLISHERS'  NOTE  TO  THE  FRENCH 
ORIGINAL 

The  necessities  of  war-time  make  us  depart  from  our 
usual  practice  of  offering  no  comments  on  the  works 
we  publish.  We  do  so,  it  is  superfluous  to  say,  in  a 
purely  documentary  manner  and  without  joining  in  a 
discussion  which  the  author  himself  declared  closed 
since  the  German  aggression  and  since  what  he  has 
defined  as  "  the  revelation  of  Kultur." 

But  it  seems  to  us  necessary  for  foreign  readers  to 
know  the  personality  and  political  antecedents  of 
Paul  Hyacinthe  Loyson  in  order  to  appreciate  the 
value  of  his  testimony  in  this  great  case  of  humanity 
versus  Germany. 

Here  then  are  these  biographical  particulars,  which 
wre  borrow,  without  comment,  from  various  publica- 
tions. 

When  certain  of  these  letters  appeared  in  La  Revue, 
M.  Jean  Finot  introduced  them  by  these  lines  :  "  The 
author  was  well  known  before  the  war  as  one  of  the  most 
ardent  and  esteemed  pacifists.  Editor  of  a  large  weekly 
journal,  author  of  plays  that  had  great  success  in  foreign 
countries,  bearing  also  a  name  very  much  respected  in 
all  Liberal  circles,  he  was  looked  upon,  by  the  younger 
generation,  as  one  of  the  foremost  standard-bearers  of 
French  pacificism  and  of  reconciliation  with  Germany" 

In  fact,   Paul  Hyacinthe  Loyson  often  went  to 

Germany  to  superintend  the  production  of  his  plays 

or  to  attend  congresses,  at  which  he  appealed,  in  his 

xviii 


FRENCH  PUBLISHERS'  NOTE  xix 

speeches,  to  the  German  democracy.  He  visited 
his  literary  colleagues,  and  went  from  editor  to  editor, 
from  the  Berliner  Tageblatt  to  the  Frankfurter  Zeitung, 
even  to  the  Kolnische  Zeitung  and  the  ZukunfU  in  his 
endeavours  to  promote  personal  relations  for  the 
purpose  of  establishng  an  exchange  of  views. 

In  France  he  pursued  the  same  task,  with  a  pru- 
dence and  a  prophetic  foresight  of  which  proof  will 
be  found  in  the  Appendix.1  Thus  it  was  that  in 
January  1912  he  published  the  manifesto — in  French, 
English  and  German  —  of  the  League  of  the  Right 
of  Nations,  named  by  him  and  founded  under  the 
auspices  of  MM.  Paul  Desjardins  and  Ernest 
Denis,  a  league  of  which  the  Temps  has  registered, 
during  the  war,  an  energetic  declaration  against  the 
manoeuvres  of  a  u  German  peace."  Then  in  the 
month  of  June  in  the  same  year  (1912)  Paul  Hyacinthe 
Loyson  issued  a  second  manifesto,  that  of  the  Com- 
mittee for  the  Intellectual  Reconciliation  of  France 
and  Germany,  "  Pour  mieux  se  connaitre  "  (to  know 
each  other  better).  He  himself  was  the  active  general 
secretary  of  the  Committee.  On  that  occasion  he 
received  Fr£d6ric  Passy's  last  letter,  written  a  few 
days  before  his  death  : 

9th  June,  1912. 
"  My  dear  Friend, 

"  The  last  number  of  the  Droits  de  V Homme  has 
just  been  read  to  me,  and  I  beg  you  to  be  so  good  as  to 
enter  my  name  among  the  members  of  the  Society 

1  In  the  English  translation  the  main  portion  of  the  Appendix 
has  been  incorporated  in  Part  II,  "  The  RomamKolland  Case." 
— Tr&nefator's  Note. 


xx  FRENCH  PUBLISHERS'  NOTE 

Pour  mieux  se  connaitre,  which  seems  to  me  worthy  of 
every  encouragement.  I  have  always  dreamed  of 
Alsace  serving  as  a  ground  of  reconciliation  between 
France  and  Germany,  and  I  expressed  myself  to  that 
effect  as  long  ago  as  1872  in  my  volume  Ofjrande  a 
V Alsace.  I  wish  to  tell  you  at  the  same  time  how 
much  the  influence  of  your  journal  appears  to  me 
to  grow,  and  what  a  considerable  place  you  are  more 
and  more  winning  for  yourself  in  the  independent 
press,  the  organ  of  all  generous  ideas. 

"  Frederic  Passy." 

Still  in  the  same  year,  at  the  Peace  Congress,  meet- 
ing at  Geneva  (October  1912)  on  the  morrow  of  the 
great  diplomatic  disturbance  over  the  Agadir  affair, 
it  was  again  the  author  of  this  book  who,  by  virtue  of 
a  secret  meeting  held  at  night  at  the  Hotel  de  la  Paix, 
for  the  last  time  before  the  war,  raised  the  question  of 
Alsace-Lorraine  by  addressing  himself  to  M.  Quidde, 
a  deputy  in  the  Bavarian  Parliament,  as  "  the  situa- 
tion," said  he,  "is  as  threatening  to-day  as  it  was  in 
1869."  And  in  conformity  with  his  principle  of 
basing  claims  on  right,  he  associated  himself  with  the 
conclusions  of  the  meeting  organised  at  Mulhouse 
on  13th  March  1918,  by  socialist,  progressive  and 
central  groups :  "  Let  the  Parliament  of  Alsace- 
Lorraine,  elected  by  universal  suffrage,  declare  itself 
strongly  opposed  to  the  idea  of  a  war  between  Ger- 
many and  France  ;  let  all  disputes  pending  between 
the  two  peoples  be  settled  amicably  for  the  present 
and  the  future." 

A  Socialist  deputy,  who  represented  Metz  in  the 
Reichstag  and  is  now  serving  in  the  French  army, 


FRENCH    PUBLISHERS9  NOTE  xxi 

expressed  (19th  December,  1914)  this  same  point  of 
view  by  the  following  declaration  :  "  Alsatian-Lor- 
rainers,  we  tried,  during  the  harsh  period  of  foreign 
domination,  to  subordinate  our  right  and  our  hopes  to 
the  intense  desire  for  peace,  and  we  struggled  to  obtain 
in  time  of  peace  a  government  which  would  have  allowed 
us  to  preserve  to  our  country  its  personality  and  national 
character.  This  deliberate  resignation  we  do  not  regret. 
It  is  on  that  account  that  we,  as  well  as  all  other  French- 
men, can  conscientiously  say  that  we  have  neglected 
nothing  to  avoid  war.  Our  moral  strength,  in  the  present 
crisis,  is  only  the  greater.  But  the  enemy  has  himself 
delivered  us  from  the  reserves  which  our  anxiety  for  peace 
imposed  upon  us." 

Finally,  the  Congress  of  the  "  Jeunesses  Laiques  " 
(youthful  laity)  of  1913,  at  Paris  had  deputed  Paul 
Hyacinthe  Loyson  and  Gustave  Herve  to  defend  a 
similar  motion  in  favour  of  the  rights  of  Alsace-Lor- 
raine, one  at  the  Radical  Congress  at  Brest,  the  other 
at  the  Socialist  Congress  at  Vienna  (Austria),  both 
congresses  being  summoned  for  the  autumn  of  1914. 

It  is  fitting  that  these  facts,  merely  noted  by  us, 
should  be  present  to  the  minds  of  neutrals  who  read 
this  volume.  The  accusation,  pronounced  by  a  man 
who  before  the  war  had  great  sympathy  for  Germany, 
is  only  the  more  convincing. 


INTRODUCTION 

By  H.  G.  Wells 

The  Scilly  Islanders  used  to  live  by  taking  in  each 
other's  washing,  and  the  time  is  approaching  when 
a  writer  will  have  time  for  little  more  than  writing 
prefaces  for  other  writers.  We  shall  publish  our  little 
volumes  of  "  Collected  Prefaces  " — with  of  course  a 
preface  by  some  one  else.  And  M.  Loyson,  who  is 
so  active,  so  modern,  and  so  irresistible,  has  excelled 
us  all  with  a  damning  introductory  patchwork  to 
which  he  has  made  Treitschke,  Mommsen,  William 
the  Second,  and  other  unwilling  witnesses  contribute. 

Not  content  with  this,  he  asks  me  to  make  it  clear 
to  his  English  readers  just  how  he  stands  in  relation 
to  socialism  and  patriotism.  In  that  request  he  does 
himself  scanty  justice,  for  these  brilliant  open  letters 
of  his,  so  full  of  sympathy,  of  masterly  invective  and 
steadfast  insistence  upon  the  essentials  of  the  present 
struggle,  do  quite  clearly  define  everything  he  has 
to  define,  and  say  everything  that  he  has  to  say.  M. 
Loyson,  since  the  war  began,  has  devoted  himself  to 
the  logical  and  rhetorical  demolition  of  Pro-Germans 
and  irrational  Pacificists ;  he  is  an  Alexander  at  this 
all-too-easy  task,  and  there  are  moments  when  I 
suspect  him  of  weeping  secretly  to  find  no  fresh  worlds 
of  these  rare  enemies  to  conquer. 

So  far  as  my  brief  testimony  goes,  I  enter  the  box 


INTRODUCTION  xxiii 

prefatory  to  testify  that  M.  Loyson  is  a  very  good 
democratic  socialist  indeed.  He  combines  a  pride  in 
his  country,  inevitable  in  any  Frenchman  after  the 
last  two  years,  with  a  considerable  freedom  from 
any  patriotic  excesses.  I  am  unblushingly  inter- 
national, cosmopolitan,  and  so  forth  in  my  feelings 
and  habits  of  mind ;  nationalism,  to  be  frank,  bores 
me ;  but  I  think  every  socialist  must  needs  be 
grateful  for  his  passionate  insistence  upon  the  essen- 
tial antagonism  between  the  socialist  idea  and  the 
aggressive  nationalist  monarchy  of  Germany. 

In  England,  if  we  disregard  those  two  sturdy  week- 
lies, Justice  and  The  Clarion,  we  have  the  most 
grotesque  "  socialist "  and  labour  press  it  is  possible 
to  conceive ;  it  is  a  press  little  read  at  home,  but 
seriously  quoted  abroad ;  France  and  Italy  both 
produce  an  analogous  anti-war  movement,  and  it 
will  enable  the  English  reader  to  understand  better 
what  M.  Loyson  fights  against,  to  recall  the  quality 
of  our  own  Labour  Leader  people.  The  curious 
inquirer  into  this  obscure  literature  will  find  that  it 
is  written  almost  entirely  by  people  absolutely  remote 
from  any  experience  of  labour  and  innocent  of  any 
intelligent  knowledge  of  socialist  thought.  Very 
busy  in  it  is  that  mysterious  person  Morel  or  Deville, 
who  refuses  so  persistently  to  prosecute  the  New 
Witness  for  the  most  outrageous  accusations.  About 
equally  active  are  Mr.  Bertrand  Russell,  hitherto 
known  to  the  intelligenzia  as  an  awe-inspiring  mathe- 
matical philosopher,  who  objected  to  Euclid  upon 
grounds  no  one  could  possibly  understand  in  books 
no  one  could  possibly  read,  and  who  has  just  in- 
tensified his  claimsj  to  speak  for  British  socialists  by 


xxiv  INTRODUCTION 

producing  a  volume  in  praise  of  tepid  voluntaryism ; 
Miss  Paget  (Vernon  Lee),  who  has  produced  about 
equally  inaccessible  aesthetic  writings  ;  and  Mr.  Gilbert 
Cannan,  who  .  .  .  but  a  novelist  must  not  criticise  a 
novelist !  Mr.  Cannan  has  made  an  excellent  trans- 
lation of  M.  Romain  Rolland.  Assisting,  there  are  a 
few  people  of  the  local  secretary  type,  full  of  the 
peculiar  venom  against  the  employer,  that  blind 
hatred  of  any  ordered  work  whatever,  that  detesta- 
tion of  any  form  of  success,  even  if  it  is  the  success 
of  a  labour  representative,  that  is  characteristic  of 
the  Reluctant  Employee.  Week  after  week  the 
Labour  Leader  and  the  Herald  appear,  full  of  dis- 
traught hostility  to  the  war  from  such  pens  as 
these,  and  silent  upon  and  manifestly  ignorant  of 
the  fact  that  now,  even  as  the  war  goes  on,  the 
socialisation  of  the  community  is  in  progress.  A 
contemplation  of  this  combination  of  the  genteel 
independent  and  the  resentful  untaught,  a  considera- 
tion of  the  common  failure  of  these  two  types  to  rise 
to  the  conception  of  a  collective  aim,  to  the  idea  of 
individual  sacrifice  in  a  fight  against  overwhelming 
evil,  a  study  of  their  pose  of  bleak  superiority  to  the 
hot  generosity  of  the  European  effort,  will  give  the 
English  reader  just  the  data  he  needs  for  the  appre- 
ciation of  M.  Loyson's  onslaughts  upon  their  conti- 
nental parallels.     And  so,  to  M.  Loyson. 

H.  G.  Wells. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Translator's  Preface  xi 

Publishers'  Note  to  the  French  Original  xviii 

Introduction  (H.  G.  Wells)           .         .         .  xxii 

Table  of  Contents xxv 

To  the  Author  (Emile  Verhaeren)         •         .  xxix 

PART   I 
OPEN  LETTERS 

I.    In  the  Gloom  of  Crime          .         .  3 

II.    The  Doves  with  the  Ravens          .  17 

III.  Waiting  for  Roumania  27 

IV.  Waiting  for  Italy          ...  28 
V.    The  Poet  as  Leader  82 

VI.    The  Poet  as  Witness     ...  35 

VII.    The  Bastard  of  a  Great  Father  .  37 

VIII.    Neutrals  playing  the  German  Game  39 

IX.    Wrenching  off  the  Mask  from  the 

Neutrals'  Face        ...  44 

X.    The    German   Rat   in    the   Dutch 

v/HEESE       •             •             •             •             •  4T 


xxvi  CONTENTS 

PAGB 

XI.    Again  the  Rat  in  the  Cheese        .  50 

XII.    St.  George  tamed  by  the  Dragon  54 

XIII.  The  Shadow  of  the  Guillotine     .  59 

XIV.  The    Patriarch    of   the    "  Ninety- 

Three  " 64 

XV.    The  Spawn  of  the  "  Ninety-Three  "  68 

XVI.    The  Accuser  Accused    ...  71 

XVII.    William  Tell  without  the  Apple  75 

XVIII.    The  Parthenon  minus  Minerva       .  80 

XIX.    The  Candid  Hyphenated        .         .  84 

XX.    A  Yankee  objects  to  Dr.  Wilson  .  90 

XXI.  The  Author's  Plea  for  Uncle  Sam  100 

XXII.  A  Yankee  again   objects  to  Dr. 

Wilson     .         .         .                 .  104 

XXIII.  The  Author  pleads  again  for  Uncle 

Sam  ......  in 

XXIV.  In  the  Light  of  Justice  .        .        .  115 


CONTENTS  xxvii 

PART    II 
THE  ROMAIN  BOLLAND  CASE 


I. 

Criticism  of  Romain  Rolland  . 

PAGB 

135 

II. 

Preface   to  the   Appeal   to   Romaic 
Rolland  .... 

147 

III. 

Appeal  to  Romain  Rolland 

.     152 

IV. 

A  Note  to  Neutrals 

.     165 

V. 

The  "Immanent"  Contradictions 

.     170 

VI. 

The  Franco-German  Committee 

.     177 

VII. 

But  Words  Remain 

.     198 

VIII. 

Marginal  Notes 

.     197 

IX. 

Working  the  Oracle 

.     216 

X. 

Alternatives     .... 

.     223 

XI. 

Criticisms 

PART    III 

.     227 

Notes 

.     239 

Index           

.     285 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

Frontispiece        .         .         .  Facing  Title-page 

Plate  I Facing  page  158 

»      II       .  . „     198 

99  ***  •••*•»  5>  199 

j>       J-  V  •  ,  .  t         ,,  ,,      25o 


TO  THE  AUTHOR  OF  THIS  BOOK 

Emile  Verhaeren,  grievously  ill  through  having 
lived  to  witness  the  ordeal  of  the  Right  and  the 
martyrdom  of  his  People,  wished  to  incorporate  in 
this  book  the  following  words,  which  constitute  a  deed : 

"  Everything  I  wrote  in  La  Belgique  Sanglante 
proves  to  you,  my  friend,  how  glad  I  am,  in  these 
dark  days  when  the  Right  is  sabred  by  troopers  and 
buffeted  by  Emperors,  to  give  you  my  testimony. 

"  This  war  is  an  infamous  war.  It  is  directed 
against  the  loftiest  and  proudest  ideas  that  men  have 
formed  for  themselves  on  earth  since  they  have  thought 
and  acted  for  the  public  weal.  It  requires  us  to  hate 
and  not  to  tergiversate  in  the  name  of  a  cold  and 
guilty  neutrality.  We  must  not  hold  the  scales  in 
our  hands  when  the  adversary  grasps  the  sword  in 
his.  Thus  I  am  with  you,  and  in  spite  of  my  affection 
for  Romain  Rolland,  I  cannot  side  with  him  in  his 
error. 

"  And  in  writing  this  I  think  of  your  father. 
"  Yours  with  all  my  heart, 

"Emile  Verhaeren."1 

IQth  November  1915. 

1  The  great  poet  was  killed  on  November  27,  1916,  crushed 
by  a  train  at  Rouen  a  few  moments  after  delivering  his  lasf 
speech  and  giving  his  last  breath  to  the  Fight  for  Right.  His 
parting  message  to  Loyson  had  been  as  follows :  "  Coeur 
magnifique  et  ardent,  votre  plume  est  une  6pee." 

xxix 


PART    I 
OPEN    LETTERS 


Note. — In  order  not  to  interrupt  the  text,  all  the 
notes,  numbered  consecutively,  have  been  placed 
at  the  end  of  the  volume. 


IN   THE    GLOOM   OF   CRIME 

To  Emile  Verhaeren 

November  1915. 
My  very  dear  Friend, 

Belgium  Bleeding  from  her  Wounds  I *  I  rise 
from  reading  these  pages,  seething  as  they  are  with 
hate  and  a  blazing  indignation,  with  a  burning  in 
my  fingers  and  a  scent  of  murder  in  my  nostrils. 
Here  we  see  you  as  we  knew  you,  always  ardent, 
always  whole-souled,  moulded  from  a  single  block — a 
block  of  bronze.  You,  whom  the  Germans  had 
but  recently  hailed  as  greatest  of  poets,  as  a 
rival  of  the  laurels  of  their  Richard  Dehmel ;  you, 
from  the  morrow  of  their  crime,  rejected  with 
scorn  all  temptation  to  retain  your^German  friend- 
ships and  your  German  fame.  As,  after  the  ex- 
plosion of  a  shell,  fragments  of  still  living  flesh 
may  be  seen  sticking  to  the  trees  or  walls  around, 
so,  after  the  outburst  of  this  infamous  German  war 
which  has  shattered  your  illusions,  you  fling  this 
book,  like  a  fragment  of  your^  soul,  in  the  face  of 
the  criminals. 

"  Many  nations,"   you  say,    "  you  admired,   and 
some   you    loved :     among    the    latter,    Germany,'' 

3 


4  OPEN  LETTERS 

Hence  th'j  mental  upheaval  caused  in  you  by  this  war. 
11  Never,"  you  say,  "  have  you  experienced  disillusion 
so  vast  or  so  instantaneous ;  you  doubted  whether 
you  were  still  the  man  you  had  been."  8 

Such  a  blow,  shaking  the  very  depths  of  the  soul, 
has  been  no  experience  of  mine  ;  for  the  German 
peril  has  been  to  me  ever  present  and  ever  increasingly 
present.  Above  all,  during  the  last  three  years  I  had 
dreaded  the  explosion,  doubting  only  who  would 
apply  the  match  ;  and  I  am  grateful  to  the  tawny 
aggressors  for  having  taken  upon  themselves  the 
whole  infamy.  But,  if  surprise  has  been  wanting, 
a  moral  horror  has  seized  upon  me  and  holds  me  yet, 
nay,  will  never  leave  me  till  my  last  breath,  in  face 
of  this  premeditated  murder  of  our  glorious  dream  of 
a  nobler  world,  in  face  of  this  savage  slaughter  of  the 
holy  child  Humanity.  This  shattering  of  the  many 
memories,  ties,  affections,  which  I  shared  with  those 
beyond  the  Rhine — all  this,  my  friend,  I  feel  like  you  ; 
and  that  is  why,  as  I  collect  these  scattered  letters 
into  a  volume,  I  choose  to  take  you  as  my  witness 
and  comrade  in  my  self-examination. 

You  doubtless  still  remember,  Verhaeren,  our  meet- 
ing at  Charleroi  station  in  1911.  You  were  going  to 
Hamburg,  to  give  there  a  lecture  which  should  be 
the  occasion  of  your  apotheosis  in  Germany ;  I  to 
Dlisseldorf  to  put  on  the  stage  a  play,  which  the 
German  public  crowned  with  applause.  We  took  the 
same  train,  and  talked  together.  Like  you  I  loved 
with  a  great  love  the  older  Germany.  In  my  child- 
hood and  youth  I  travelled  much  in  that  country, 
and  I  was  saturated  with  that  poetry,  the  most 
intoxicating  I  know.     He  who  has  never  of  an  evening, 


IN  THE  GLOOM  OF  CRIME  5 

in  a  country  lane  of  the  Rhenish  provinces,  heard  an 
improvised  choir  chant  a  song  of  Schubert,  knows 
nothing  of  the  exquisite  soul  of  that  people — the  true 
soul,  the  ancient  soul,  the  soul  they  have  murdered  ! 
Later,  towards  my  twentieth  year,  it  was  still  their 
great  music  that  revealed  to  my  mind  its  aspirations 
and  its  depths,  it  was  in  the  symphonies  of  Beethoven 
that  I  learned  to  know  the  Eternal.  And  in  like 
fashion  it  has  been  by  initiation  into  their  philosophy, 
weird,  moving,  and  complex  as  Being  itself,  pervaded 
by  the  very  spirit  of  the  great  mysteries ;  it  has  been 
by  that  subterranean  exploration,  led  by  the  intuitive 
light  of  the  tiny  Platonic  lamp ;  it  has  been  by  the 
varied  notes  borrowed  from  that  philosophy  and 
strung  into  one  key  that  harmony  was  revealed  to  me. 
Alas  !  all  these  motives  of  gratitude  to  Germany, 
which  had  supplied  so  many  elements  in  the  compo- 
sition of  my  thought,  were  reinforced  by  a  debt  of 
sentiment.  The  dearest  affections  of  my  life,  outside 
my  own  hearth,  had  been  centred  there  for  thirty 
years.  Ceaselessly  renewed  and  enriched,  they  still 
lived  in  my  manhood,  they  were  full-blown  on  the 
eve  of  the  great  Sacrilege.  Sweet,  tragic  German 
friendships,  checked  and  gagged  though  they  be, 
they  still  murmur  in  my  breast !  Why  deny 
this  past  of  mine,  the  sacrifice  of  which  to-day 
adds  perhaps  a  painful  merit  to  the  strength  of 
my  indignation  ?  Nay,  the  friendship  of  individuals 
seemed  multiplied  by  the  warm  welcome  of  the 
general  public.  On  the  1st  of  August  1914  my 
house  was  full  of  German  laurels.  They  were 
burned  when  the  savage  flames  consumed  the  villages 
of  your  Belgium,1 


6  OPEN  LETTERS 

You  perceive  then,  my  friend,  that  my  heart,  like 
yours,  was  infused  with  the  spirit  of  Germany.  Like 
you,  I  admired  that  nation,  so  original,  diligent, 
enterprising,  bold  ;  "  that  nation  which  was  better 
organised  than  any  other,  and  which  scanned  the  future 
with  the  keenest  and  brightest  eyes  in  the  world."  4 
These  high  qualities,  does  not  even  hate  admire 
them  ?  So  far  from  their  having  been  destroyed  since 
the  war  began  by  the  cynicism  of  politicians  and  the 
savagery  of  soldiers,  they  have  grown  wonderfully 
stronger.  Many  a  time,  before  peace  left  us,  despite 
the  bluster  of  our  noisier  spirits,  have  I  held  them  up 
for  an  example  to  the  French. 

And  yet,  my  admiration  was  not  without  fear,  and 
therefore  it  had  its  mingling  of  prudence.  Germany 
I  worshipped  ;  Prussia  I  hated  ;  and  I  knew  that 
Prussia  held  Germany  in  the  hollow  of  her  hand.  Ah, 
Verhaeren,  have  you  ever  been  present  at  the  changing 
of  the  Guard  before  the  Emperor's  palace  at  Berlin  ? 
There  are  the  men,  petrified  into  line,  their  eyes  fixed 
and  glazed  like  those  of  corpses,  betraying  no  sign  of 
living  human  nature  save  a  ghastly  effort  of  their 
whole  will  to  annihilate  itself ;  and  the  officer  passes 
close  to  their  faces,  inspecting  eyelashes  and  pupils, 
ready  to  punish  the  slightest  symptom  of  a  surviving 
human  feeling.  I  have  seen  that,  Verhaeren ;  and 
I  have  carried  away  from  it  the  impression  of  the 
most  atrocious  treason  against  the  dignity  of  man. 
I  had  come,  without  knowing  it,  into  contact  with 
Kultur  ;  and  I  leapt  into  the  first  departing  train  to 
escape  the  moral  asphyxia  in  which,  already,  there 
lurked  suffocating  gases.  But  had  not  you  and  I, 
clear  friend,  on  that  journey  which  I  have  just  recalled, 


IN  THE  GLOOM  OF  CRIME  7 

clear  warning  that  this  great  people  of  automata 
was  only  waiting  the  touch  of  a  button  to  break  into 
motion  and  to  crush  us  beneath  its  ponderous  wheels  ? 
Think  of  that  line  of  strategic  railways  which  met  our 
gaze  at  Herbesthal,  when  we  crossed  the  German 
frontier.  Recollect  those  lines  which  stopped  so 
suddenly  short  a  few  metres  from  the  Belgian  soil. 
.  .  .  That  was  the  forewarning  of  invasion,  signed  by 
robber-hands,  the  first  placard — as  it  were  the  artist's 
proof — but  earlier  even  than  that  affixed  by  von 
Bissing  on  your  side  of  the  frontier.  Thenceforward, 
whenever  I  touched  the  subject  of  the  relations 
between  France  and  Germany,  I  recalled  as  in  a 
photograph  the  platforms  of  Herbesthal ;  but,  as  I 
mused,  I  saw  them  suddenly  swarm  with  myriads  and 
myriads  of  grey  phantoms,  rolling  endlessly  towards 
Belgium. 

How  keen,  before  the  war,  was  the  responsibility 
attaching  to  the  slightest  words  falling  from  the  pen 
of  any  public  man,  insignificant  though  he  was.  .  .  . 
At  that  time  I  calculated  closely  every  one  of  my 
acts ;  and,  since  the  catastrophe,  I  have  applied 
the  fiery  ordeal  of  rereading  with  bated  breath  what 
I  wrote  before.  I  felt  the  eyes  of  all  our  thousands 
of  unsheeted  dead  fixed  upon  me,  and  scarcely  dared 
I  raise  my  head  to  read  my  sentence  in  their  gaze. 
But  now  I  fear  no  more.  My  conscience  has  come  out 
of  the  test  so  clear,  my  reason  so  satisfied,  that  I 
reprint,  in  this  volume,  the  essential  passages  of  these 
old  papers.8 

Athwart  the  tangles  of  the  dread  problem  the  line 
of  conduct  which  I  had  traced  for  myself  was  defined 
clearly  as  follows : 


8  OPEN  LETTERS 

Within  the  limits  of  our  honour,  to  do  the  utmost 
to  avoid  war  ; 

With  no  limit  to  our  energy,  to  do  the  utmost  to 
prepare  for  war ; 

With  one  hand  to  stretch  out  to  Germany,  until 
the  last  available  moment,  the  quivering  olive-branch 
of  peace ; 

With  the  other  hand  to  point  our  sword. 

And  at  the  precise  moment  when  this  policy  had 
triumphed,  not  only  at  home  over  certain  "  mani- 
festations of  flighty  persons  or  of  conscienceless  in- 
triguers," 8  but  also,  on  our  home  and  colonial 
frontiers,  over  the  bitter  provocations  repeated  by 
Germany  during  ten  years ;  at  that  quiet  hour  when 
the  republican  people  of  France  had  just  proclaimed 
once  again  "  that  it  desired  peace  with  honour  " ; 7 
suddenly,  treacherously,  came  the  violation  of  Belgium 
and  of  our  neutral  northern  frontiers,  and  Prussia 
made  her  choice  between  our  two  offers ;  she  flung 
Germany  upon  the  point  of  our  sword.  France,  in 
turn,  will  drive  the  sword  in  up  to  the  hilt. 

But,  horrible  though  it  be  for  all,  it  is  a  holy  war 
for  us,  a  shameful  war  for  them  !  War,  their  war,  which 
they  have  provoked,  willed,  planned,  engineered, 
held  ready  on  the  frontier  like  a  wild  beast  on  the 
leash ;  war,  our  war,  which  we  willed  not,  the  demon 
which  we  had  done  our  utmost  to  exorcise  :  the  war 
of  honourable  men  who  had  stretched  out  the  right 
hand  of  fellowship,  the  war  of  pacificists  for  the  Right. 
For  it  is  well  at  this  point  to  take  note  of  these 
pacificists — these  Frenchmen  who,  having  made  France 
peaceful,  have  given  her  thereby  at  once  her  justifica- 
tion before  the  world  and  her  moral  force  in  face  of 


IN  THE  GLOOM  OF  CRIME  9 

the  aggressor.  It  is  they  who  have  forged  her  cuirass, 
without  stain  and  without  flaw,  resplendent  and 
invulnerable.  It  is  they,  too,  who  have  sharpened, 
on  the  white  stone  of  a  righteous  cause,  her  sword  ; 
and  her  sword  shall  surely  conquer,  for  from  the 
true  nobility  of  soul  always  springs  the  true  force 
of  arms. 

And  it  is  they,  further,  who  wish  for  France  that 
very  Revanche  which  yesterday  they  rejected ; 
they  wish  it  in  reward  for  having  resigned  it  in 
the  past  rather  than  drench  the  world  in  blood.8 
Never  have  the  pacificists  of  France  shown  them- 
selves more  logical  in  the  application  of  their 
principle;  never  have  they  served  it  better,  never 
were  they  truer  to  it;  they  have  clothed  it  in  a 
warlike  garb  and  rushed  into  the  thick  of  the 
fray.  Peace  by  Right,  if  Might  agrees  ;  War  for 
Right,  if  Might  provokes;  Peace  and  War  are 
only  means,  Right  is  the  sole  end,  the  sole  absolute 
end.  This  is  the  sign  of  Peace-makers,  through 
which  they  shall  inherit  the  earth ;  this  is  the  mark 
which  all  men  recognise  in  them ;  this  is  the  seal 
which  they  set  upon  this  war,  the  inner  meaning 
with  which  they  endow  it,  the  soul  which  they 
give  to  it.  To  the  pitiless  Teutonic  mysticism  they 
oppose  the  Latin  faith  of  humanity ;  in  the  face 
of  the  barbarian  despot  they  brandish  the  Revo- 
lutionary Rights  of  Man ;  in  the  black  night  of 
Pangermanism  they  usher  in  the  Dawn,  the  Brother- 
hood of  Peoples.  And  thus,  in  magnificent  wise, 
this  war  has  truly,  in  Nietzsche's  words,  become 
that  which  it  is,9  the  clash  of  principles  above  the 
armies,   the  meeting   of  two   irreconcilable  worlds, 


10  OPEN  LETTERS 

the  truest  of   religious  wars,  a  duel  of  ideals  in  the 
very  mouth  of  hell. 

Wherefore,  then,  Verhaeren,  that  shadow  of  remorse 
hovering  at  the  end  of  the  votive  inscription,  so  enig- 
matic and  so  disturbing,  on  the  threshold  of  your 
book  ?  "  In  the  state  of  hatred  in  which  you  are, 
your  soul  seems  diminished,  and  you  dedicate  these 
pages  with  sadness  to  the  man  you  once  were."  O 
my  "grievously  wounded  one,"  I  come  to  you,  to 
you  whose  soul  is  mutilated,  crushed  with  pain  and 
horror,  fallen  heavily  to  earth  after  a  last  flight 
above  your  ruined  home.  I  come  to  you,  my  friend, 
to  release  you  from  all  remorse,  to  justify  you  in  your 
own  sight,  and  to  beg  you  to  lift  your  eyes  to  your 
own  conscience  and  behold  her  in  all  her  bridal  purity. 
You  are  yet  warm  from  the  kisses  of  hate,  and  you  ask 
yourself  with  loathing  whether  she  was  not  a  prosti- 
tute. Not  so,  my  friend  ;  but  the  mighty  maiden 
who  has  clasped  you  in  her  arms,  who  is  apt  to  in- 
toxicate with  her  fierce  yet  sullen  embrace.  The 
hate  which  has  seized  you  is  the  holy  hate,  high- 
souled, .  pure.  Not  you  nor  I  permit  ourselves  to  be 
touched  by  the  other. 

For  if  Hate  be  to  loathe  the  enemy  simply  because 
he  is  the  enemy ;  if  it  be  to  depreciate  his  courage, 
which  is  as  splendid  as  our  own,  though  different ; 
if  it  be  to  ridicule  the  stoic  virtues  which  harden  him 
in  his  home  against  bereavement  and  hunger,  even 
as  we,  in  our  threatened  homes,  present  to  our  suffer- 
ings a  front  of  bronze  ;  if  it  be  to  belittle  his  past 
genius  and  glory,  his  musicians  and  poets  of  the  Age 
of  Innocence,  and  even — I  will  dare  to  say  it — the 
infamous  splendour  of  that  glorious  dream  which  has 


IN   THE  GLOOM  OF  CRIME  11 

bewitched  this  great  and  abominable  people ;  if, 
in  a  word,  it  be  to  refuse  him  all  his  merits,  all  his 
powers,  in  the  insane  fancy  that  so  we  increase  our 
own,  during  all  these  months  in  which  he  has  camped 
upon  our  fields  ;  if  Hate  be  to  deny,  in  bad  faith,  such 
acts  of  nobility,  chivalry,  and  charity — exceptional  it 
is  true — by  which  some  Germans  have  honoured  them- 
selves in  this  war,  as  our  men  have  done  not  less  often ; 
if  it  be  to  grudge  the  tribute  of  a  flower  to  the  enemy 
entombed  on  our  soil,  however  we  may  shudder;  for 
one  never  knows  what  the  earth  may  hide ; — if  it  be  to 
maintain,  with  malicious  joy,  that  the  entire  German 
people,  because  it  is  German,  has  knowingly  willed 
this  war,  forgetful  of  the  few  or  the  many,  perhaps 
the  millions  amongst  its  millions,  who  protest  against 
it ;  if  it  be  to  reproach  those  millions,  with  an  irony 
too  just,  because  they  have  not  risen  in  protest  against 
the  war,  while  discouraging  by  clumsy  disdain  the 
first  timid  sighs  of  remorse  in  the  few  that  do  repent ; 
if  it  be  to  refuse  to  Karl  Liebknecht,  Clara  Zetkin  and 
Rosa  Luxemburg — the  one  hooted  by  five  hundred 
colleagues,  the  others  buried  alive  in  their  prisons — 
and  to  their  few,  their  very  few,  comrades,  the 
French  laurel  which  is  their  due  ;  if  it  be  to  pretend 
that  every  vestige  of  humanity,  and  all  hope  of 
redemption,  is  rooted  out  in  the  heart  of  every 
German ;  if  Hate,  in  fact,  be  the  blind  ancestral 
rancour  which  would  lead  us  from  Bismarck  to 
Napoleon  and  back  to  Louis  XIV  ;  if  it  be  the  insane 
fancy  that  we  can  crush  a  nation  of  a  hundred 
million  souls  ;  if  it  be  the  "  base,  contemptible  idea  "  10 
of  threatening  Germany  with  that  with  which  she 
threatens  us,  and  of  banishing  Right  into  the  camp 


12  OPEN  LETTERS 

of  the  foe ;  if  it  be  the  hateful  and  despicable  thirst 
for  reprisals,  for  defiling  as  they  have  defiled,  for 
burning  as  they  have  burned,  for  violating  as  they 
have  violated,  for  murdering,  breaking,  destroying 
after  their  model — in  a  word,  for  tormenting  instead 
of  chastising,  for  becoming  like  the  criminals  in  order 
to  avenge  ourselves  and  for  revelling  as  they  do  in 
lust ;  if  Hate  be  this,  and  if  we  can  endure,  in  a  war 
of  justice  and  liberation,  to  import,  as  by  contraband, 
the  off-scourings  of  their  vile  Kultur,  and  to  stamp 
them  with  the  French  trade-mark ;  if  Hate  could  lead, 
with  us  as  with  them,  to  the  taste  for  blood,  the  gutter, 
and  the  vulgar  press  that  battens  on  it ;  if  Hate 
brings  with  it  "  the  yielding  to  the  ape  and  to  the 
tiger,"  the  subjection  of  reason  to  instinct,  the  work- 
ing of  madness  in  the  brain,  the  carnal  and  bestial 
passion  which  distorts  the  mouth  and  purples  the 
eyes  ;  then,  my  friend,  Shame  be  to  Hate,  and  to  Hate 
Shame,  seven  times  repeated  ! 

But  if  Hate  is  to  make  appeal,  in  ourselves,  to  the 
sternest  energies  of  our  moral  indignation,  to  our 
wrath,  to  our  scorn,  to  our  loathing,  in  order  to 
abominate  the  man  or  the  men  who,  at  the  supreme 
moment,  knowingly  assumed  the  complete,  sole, 
decisive,  and  willing  responsibility  for  the  vastest 
butchery  in  all  history  since  men  began  to  kill  one 
another ;  if  Hate  is  to  hold  that  these  men,  by 
virtue  of  this  responsibility — which  surpasses,  by 
all  the  infinite  distance  between  thought  and  act, 
that  of  all  possible  accomplices  who  contributed  to 
the  general  causes,  innumerable,  secondary,  or  distant 
of  the  disaster — have  ranked  themselves,  thereby 
and    from  that  supreme   moment,   before  the  first 


IN  THE  GLOOM  OF  CRIME  13 

drop  of  blood  was  shed,  with  the  foulest  of  murderers ; 
if  Hate  is   to   associate  with  them,   and  to  set  on 
the   same    pillory   those    so-called   high -priests    of 
Peace, n  those  hangers-on  who   dub  themselves  full 
citizens,  all  of  whom,  to  the  very  eve  of  the  crime, 
denounced   as   the   only  criminals  those  whom   we 
denounce,   and   then   assumed  the  velvet  livery  of 
despotism  for  fear    of   the    strait-waistcoat   of  the 
prisoner ;  if  Hate  is  to  assert  that,   as  soon  as  the 
"  scrap   of  paper "  had  been  torn,   all  the  virtues, 
all  the  shames,    all  the  pities,  all  the   laws,  human 
and    divine,   woven  by  the  patience   of  ages,   were 
rent  in  twain  from  top  to  bottom  to  reveal  to  us, 
behind  their  tatters,  that  million-throated  Bestiality 
which  styles  itself  the  army  of  Kultur ;   if  Hate  is 
to  track  untiringly,  with  clear-sighted  horror,  every 
precise  development  of  that  organisation  of  slaughter, 
every  minute  application  of  "  terrorism  for  mercy's 
sake  "  proclaimed  from  German   professorial  chairs 
and  decreed  by  German  staff-officers  who  unmuzzled 
the  hyenas  of  the  sewer  ;  if  Hate  is  to  scour  the  ruins 
of  Louvain,  Termonde,  Aerschot,  Dinant,  in  search 
of  a  calcined  skeleton,  or  to  wait  of  an  evening  by  the 
strand  till  the  flood  throws  up  its  flotsam  of  corpses  ; 
if  it  is  to  seek  eagerly  for  the  bodies  of  those  martyrs 
of  the  Right  as  if  each  of  these  men,  women,  grandsires, 
and  little  children  were  of  our  own  family,  our  own 
sisters,  mothers,  children,  fathers ;   if  it  is  to  cleanse 
them  from  their  stains  with  tears  of  anger,  and  to 
bend  our  knees  beside  them  with  tears  of  adoration, 
to    cover    with   flowers    those    violated    wombs,    to 
close   with    our    lips    those    gaping    wounds,    those 
eyeless  sockets,  those  tongueless  mouths ; ig  if  it  is 


14  OPEN  LETTERS 

to  gather  together  the  scattered  fragments   in  our 
endeavour    to    fashion    the     semblances    of   corpses 
out   of  that  which  remains  of  the  remnants;    and 
then,   above  each  melancholy  heap,  after  all  these 
funeral  offices,  to  strive  to  number  the  hecatomb,  to 
force  one's  distracted  thought  to  pile  it  even  to  the 
skies ;  in  Belgium,  France,  Serbia,  Palestine,  Armenia, 
and  from  the  very  ocean  "  deeper  than  e'er  plummet 
sounded"  to  the  very  surface  of  the  waves;  nay,  if 
before  the  crushing  spectacle  of  this  gigantic  atrocity, 
which  sets  back  human  effort  a  thousand  years  and 
renews  the  days  of  Attila ;  if,  without  tears,  without 
anger,  without  emotion  of  any  kind,   thought  itself 
faints  with  horror  like  Dante  in  hell  before  the  many 
damned ;   nay,  if  it  be  Hate  to  awake  from  this  dull 
infernal  trance  in  order  to  arise,  to  regain  our  soul  and 
recover  our  voice  and  say  coldly,  calmly,  straight  out 
to  the  whole  German  people,  "  People  of  Goethe  and 
of   Beethoven,    behold  the  work  which    thou    hast 
approved ;  for  though  thou  didst  not  premeditate  it, 
nor  consciously  will  it,  yet  did  thy  slavery  consent 
thereto  beforehand.      Thou  hast  suffered    barbarous 
Prussia  to  deprave  thy  genius  by  degrees ;  thou  hast 
yielded  thy  conscience  into  the  hands  of  the  Despot ; 
and  when  the  Despot,  by  a  clash  of  his  sabre,  sounded 
the  hour  of  abomination,  when  he  presented  his  helm 
overflowing  with  the  blood  of  five  million  dead,  thou 
didst  rush  upon  this  blood  like  the  greedy  ghosts 
around  the  shade  of  Achilles ;    thou  didst  drain  it, 
thou  didst  relish  it,  and,  smitten  thenceforward  with 
a  horrible  contagion,  a  prey  to  a  maniac  intoxication, 
thou,  the  people  of  Kant  and  Schiller,  didst  no  sooner 
know  of  these  things,  these  murders  of  the  innocent 


IN  THE  GLOOM  OF  CRIME  15 

on  land,  at  sea,  and  from  the  air,  than  thou  didst 
throng  the  streets  to  howl  for  joy.  Yea,  thou  didst 
howl  for  joy,  and  thou  shalt  howl  for  hunger ;  but 
thou  hast  not  groaned  for  remorse;"  ls 

O  coming  Justice  of  the  universe,  and  thou,  Truth 
that  already  rulest,  if  it  be  Hate  to  say  these  things  to 
them,  and  if  it  be  Hate  to  add  thereto  that  for  us,  our 
children,  and  our  children's  children  unto  the  tenth 
generation,  to  forget  the  victims  would  be  to  absolve 
the  butchers ;  if  it  be  Hate  to  swear  an  oath  that 
the  heinous  crime  shall  be  engraved  in  the  memory 
for  ever,  that  the  names  of  all  these  martyrs  shall 
be  inscribed  upon  that  Iron  Cross  on  which  Hu- 
manity is  crucified,  to  the  end  that  the  stars,  those 
eternal  witnesses,  may  remember  that  which  has 
been  ; 

And  if  it  be  Hate  to  desire  still  more  that,  in  atone- 
ment for  the  crime,  the  punishment  of  death  should 
be  inflicted  solemnly,  in  the  face  of  the  world,  by 
Justice14  that  knows  no  passion,  on  the  man  or 
men  that  signed  the  order  for  carnage,  and  opened 
the  sluice  to  the  deluge  of  blood,  and  on  the  men, 
the  men  that  transmitted  the  order  over  the  reddened 
waves ;  nay,  if  it  be  Hate  to  consent,  with  peace 
smiling  in  the  heart,  should  this  vengeance  fail 
through  the  weakness  of  our  arms,  to  be  oneself  the 
rope,  the  ball,  or  the  dagger  in  the  hands  of  chastise- 
ment, that  so  Justice  may  have  her  course  ; 

If,  in  a  word,  it  be  Hate,  hereafter,  to  be  firm 
in  the  resolve  to  banish  Germany  from  Humanity, 
save  and  except  she  herself  finish  our  uncompleted 
vengeance,  and  herself,  before  the  palace  of  the 
Reichstag,  now  consecrated  to  the  people's  rights, 16 


16  OPEN  LETTERS 

execute  justice  on  the  head  of  the  tyrant ;  nay,  if  it 
be  Hate  to  repel  henceforward  all  their  speeches, 
all  their  excuses,  all  their  promises,  with  the  cry, 
"Belgium,  Belgium!"  our  throats  dry,  as  it  were 
choking  with  bitter  ashes  ;  if  it  be  Hate — oh,  hardest 
of  duties — to  lay  the  finger  of  silence  for  ever  on 
the  mouth  of  our  dear  friendships  (save  only  if  our 
friends  disavow  the  crimes)  and  to  bury  them,  with 
gnawing  grief,  living  corpses,  in  our  hearts  ; 

Yes,  if  Hate  is  the  outraged  sister  of  Love,  the 
clear-eyed  daughter  of  Will,  the  guardian  of  Right, 
the  handmaid  of  Duty  ;  if  she  springs  from  the  calm 
depths  of  Conscience,  incorruptible  as  Light,  to  stand 
sentry  by  the  abyss  of  the  unforgettable — till  re- 
pentant Crime  implore  mercy  from  Justice ; 

Then,  my  friend,  glory  to  Hate,  to  Hate  glory,  unto 
seventy-times  seven ! lfl 

For,  in  the  words  of  Victor  Hugo  {V Annie 
terrible), 

Car  j'aime  la  haine 
Quand  elle  est  sereine, 
Quand  elle  a  raison, 
Et  quand,  oomme  Electre, 
Elle  est  le  grand  spectre 
Droit  sur  l'horizon  ! 


I  love  that  Hate  serene,  That  sits  as  passion's  queen, 
With  orb  of  Justice  crowned  j;  And  like  Electra  stands  With 
spectral  eyes  and  hands  Upon  the  horizon's  bound  ! 17 

{Paraphrase  by  E.  E.  Kellett.) 


II 

THE  DOVES  WITH  THE  RAVENS 

Open  Letter  to  Miss  Emily  Hobhouse,  England,  on  the 
deserters  from  the  Battle  of  Armageddon  18 

20th  May  1915. 
Dear  Miss  Hobhouse, 

Your  postcard  reached  me  last  winter  and  told 
me  of  the  visit  you  had  paid  to  my  wife  in  Paris,  and 
I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you  for  both  these  tokens 
of  friendship.  I  already  had  received,  earlier  in  the 
year  from  London,  your  pamphlet  To  the  Women  of 
all  the  Belligerents,  and  it  enabled  me  to  follow  your 
propaganda.  The  more  recent  campaigns  of  the 
"  Union  of  Democratic  Control,"  19  and  the  Inter- 
national Congress  of  Women  at  the  Hague,20  were  all 
the  more  interesting  to  me  because  I  venture  to  look 
upon  you  as  one  of  the  chief  promoters  of  both  these 
movements. 

Thus  to-day  I  am  fully  prepared  to  give  you  my 

impression,  or  rather,  let  me  say,  my  mature  conviction. 

Your  stern  modesty,  though  tinged  with  contempt, 

almost,  for  any  personal  homage,  cannot  hinder  me 

from  paying  homage  to  you. 

Fifteen    years    ago,    you    were    indeed    the    most 
courageous  of  English  women,  when  in  the  name  of 
Justice,  which  knows  no  distinction  of  race,  you  rose 
2  17 


18  OPEN  LETTERS 

against  your  own  people — you  a  solitary  gentle- 
woman— sheltering  with  outstretched  arms  your  poor 
Transvaal  sisters,  scorning  alike  the  foaming  torrent 
of  insults  and  the  volleys  of  stones  that  were  some- 
times hurled  at  you.21 

Such  I  find  you  again  to-day  in  one  of  your  publica- 
tions,22 in  each  of  those  peerless  women  whose  beauty 
of  soul  is  mirrored  in  her  portrait;  such  you  were, 
such  you  remain :  one  of  those  noble  creatures  who 
soar  above  humanity  to  bear  witness  to  its  aspirations 
before  the  invisible  tribunal. 

That  is  why  the  only  homage  worthy  of  you,  the 
only  one  I  feel  sure  that  you  will  accept,  is  boldly  to 
tell  you  the  truth. 

You  have  guessed  already,  have  you  not,  what  I 
am.  going  to  say  ?  My  wife's  reply  to  you,  when,  sur- 
rounded by  the  wounded  soldiers  she  tends,  you  came 
and  asked  her  to  add  her  name  to  those  of  your  Union, 
my  wife's  reply  foreshadows  my  own  :  "  The  women 
of  France  have  been  too  brutally  outraged"  Months  have 
been  added  to  months  ;  more  than  nine  have  passed 
since  those  nights,  lurid  with  flame  and  smoke,  of  the 
invasion.  Are  you  ready  to  find,  among  the  members 
of  your  league,  charitable  German  godmothers  as 
sponsors  for  the  children  begotten  in  France  to-day 
of  these  foul  crimes  ?  What  about  our  womenkind — 
our  little  girls,  our  poor  aged  country-wives,  defiled  by 
twenty  brutish  satyrs  in  succession — have  you  sought 
to  obtain  their  names  also,  to  unite  them  with  German 
names  ? 

Do  not  be  shocked,  do  not  be  indignant,  do  look 
facts  fully  in  the  face.  Your  design  is  noble ;  I  know 
it,  and  I  thoroughly  appreciate  it,  as  you  will  see. 


THE  DOVES   WITH  THE  RAVENS         19 

You  appeal  to  maids,  women,  wives  without  dis- 
tinction, whose  menfolk  in  their  "  madness "  are 
killing  one  another ;  you  ask  them  to  drop  all  discus- 
sion as  to  the  responsibility  for  the  war.  You  beseech 
all  those  who  suffer  to  unite  their  voices,  to  lift  them 
up  in  one  single  cry,  in  one  single  shout  of  revolt, 
imploring,  in  the  name  of  human  pity,  that  all  this 
Rightfulness  should  cease ;  for  only  one  single  mother, 
Humanity,  stands  weeping  over  those  pale  bodies, 
slain  in  countless  myriads  and  locked  in  fratricidal 
embrace. 

That  thought,  I  admit  it,  my  friend,  is  a  thought 
worthy  of  you;  a  thought  perhaps  worthy  of  your 
heart,  but  not  worthy  of  your  mind  nor  of  your  soul ; 
it  strikes  me  as  if  the  one  lacked  discernment  and  the 
other  failed  in  courage.23 

Dare  I  really  reproach  you  thus  ?  And  is  it  I,  the 
man  of  fifteen  years  ago,  the  man  of  yesterday  and  of 
to-day,  who  can  utter  this  paradox  ?  If  War  is  ever  to 
cease,  this  war  must  last. 

That  stands  out  with  terrible  lucidity  to  any  one 
who  coolly  examines  the  naked  facts.  You  see,  the 
Germans  have  gone  too  far.  Their  guilt  of  lust,  their 
crimes  of  arson,  their  acts  of  drowning  are  too  great 
and  too  numerous ;  their  defiance  to  Humanity  has 
been  too  blatant,  they  have  too  often  laughed  to  scorn 
and  spat  in  the  face  of  "  God." 

This  is  no  longer  a  conflict  between  civilised  men,  it 
is  the  mortal  tussle  of  primeval  man  which  the  Germans 
have  desired  ;  it  is  the  deadly  hug  of  the  savage  brute, 
standing  on  the  threshold  of  its  den,  threatening 
man.  Either  man  or  wild  beast  must  be  wiped  off 
the   face  of  the  earth;    either    we    or   the    sons    of 


20  OPEN  LETTERS  s 

Treitschke  must  go,  for  the  same^sufy  will  never  again 
lend  its  radiance  to  both  of  us.  TrucS^nnot  be  made 
with  ravenous  creatures,  nor  with  plague  nor  with  fire. 
A  war  interrupted  is  a  war  reinforced.  Any  sus- 
pension of  arms  would  prove  a  fresh  nightmare  of  an 
"armed  Peace.''  Compared  with  it  the  hag-ridden 
incubus  of  yesterday  would  be  merely  like  the  fancy- 
coloured  dream  of  a  little  child. 

Were  this  horrid  dream  to  last,  riding  like  the  Old 
Man  of  the  Sea  on  all  our  backs,  then  all  free  peoples, 
under  the  menace  of  the  still  rampant  monster,  under 
the  glare  of  the  blood-shot  Prussian  eye,  gleaming 
more  fiercely  than  ever,  would  be  compelled  to  submit 
to  the  Prussian  discipline,  just  as  our  soldiers  in  the 
trenches,  cowled  and  masked,  have  been  forced  to 
model  themselves  on  their  ancestors  of  the  Stone  Age. 
We  may  almost  see  them  coming  out  of  their  earth 
caverns  to  take  up  the  cudgels  against  their  foes, 
spectres  at  grips  with  spectres,  walking  ghosts  of  pre- 
historic brutes.  In  a  word,  all  the  activities  of  peace, 
all  the  virtues  of  democracy,  all  the  resources  of 
science,  would  then  have  to  unite  and  concentrate 
with  frantic  resolve  to  beard  the  monster  once  more 
in  his  den,  to  resume  hostilities. 

Then  would  every  soldier  be  raked  in  from  every 
corner,  then  those  pale-faced  orphaned  striplings, 
those  wretched  sons  of  war  unions,  would  be  sum- 
moned to  the  drill  almost  from  their  birth  ;  then  the 
lame,  the  maimed,  the  aged  whom  Death  has  spared 
would  have  to  be  mustered  and  called  in  to  help  in 
the  final  consummation.  And,  brooding  over  every- 
thing, hanging  like  a  pall,  would  be  a  cloud  as  of  noi- 
some gas,  addling  the  brain  of  one  whole  generation. 


THE  DOVES  WITH  THE  RAVENS         21 

Thought  becomes  breathless  under  its  obsession,  under 
this  haunting  idea :  We  must  live  to  kill.  For 
twenty  years  we  must  stand  at  the  closed  gates  of 
Hell,  biding  our  time,  only  to  see  them  thrown  open 
wide  at  last.  Such  is  the  Heaven  which  a  precarious 
peace  holds  out  to  poor  humanity  ! 

Would  it  were  only  that.  But  Hate,  which  you 
yourself  hate,  dear  friend,  foul  Hate  erected  into  a 
daily  need  !  Everywhere  to  be  found ;  in  our  souls 
as  in  our  fields,  in  our  ruined  cities  of  the  north  as 
through  the  length  and  breadth  of  France.  In  every 
quarter,  shells  yet  unexploded,  bestialities  yet  un- 
satiated,  powers  of  murder  clamouring  for  their  prey  ; 
on  our  side,  a  thirst,  this  time,  sacred,  for  revenge, 
after  so  many  barren  sacrifices  and  so  many  hideous 
crimes  unatoned ;  on  the  side  of  the  Teutons, 
gripped  at  the  throat,  like  proud  beasts  of  prey, 
withered  with  the  scorn  of  all  mankind,  overwhelmed 
with  ridicule  at  their  failure  to  terrorise  the  world  ; 
on  the  side  of  the  Teutons  a  poignant  need  to  stifle 
their  shame,  or,  with  the  least  vile  of  them,  to  strangle 
their  remorse  by  perpetrating  a  crime  still  more 
gigantic,  still  more  abominable,  a  new  war,  such  that 
imagination,  having  exhausted  all  her  images,  can 
compare  it  only  to  a  charge  of  dynamite  that  should 
blow  our  planet  to  atoms. 

Is  that,  dear  friend,  what  you  wish  ? 2I  It  is  that 
for  which  you  certainly  labour. 

The  light  white  sheets  of  your  "  manifestoes,'* 
which  through  the  storm  of  shrapnel  you  think  to 
waft  fluttering  like  so  many  doves  of  peace  with  olive 
branches  in  their  mouths,  are  simply  sowers  of  deaths 
— of  deaths  more  multitudinous  by  millions  than  those 


22  OPEN  LETTERS 

that  now  we  mourn  !  From  this  follows  the  very 
logical  conclusion  that  our  devil-dare  fellows  in  the 
trenches  are  fighting  for  the  cause  of  God ;  and  that 
you,  God's  angel  though  you  be,  have  taken  service, 
all  unwittingly,  in  the  host  of  Hell. 

How  can  I  make  you  see,  in  plainer  words,  that  you, 
who  stand  for  peace,  you  are  assuredly  perpetuating 
war,  and  that  we,  soldiers  against  our  will,  we  are 
true  knights  6f  peace  ? 

In  my  opinion  all  your  mistake  springs  from  your 
wish  to  heal  the  sick  without  probing  the  sickness  ; 
from  your  desire  to  stay  the  effect  without  arresting 
the  cause. 

Germany,  who  is  sweating,  whirling  in  the  mad 
frenzy  of  the  Dance  of  Death,  is  invited  by  you  to 
step  it  out  and  trip  a  light  fantastic  measure  to  the 
soft  sound  of  the  reed-pipes  of  concord.  Europe, 
dying  of  a  virulent  disease,  of  the  fungus  of  Prussian- 
ism,  you  attempt  to  cure  by  applying  a  poultice  of 
aromatic  herbs  to  her  sores.  We,  we  seek  out  the 
evil  in  the  sufferer's  entrails,  in  order  to  extirpate 
it  thoroughly,  for  good  and  all ;  and  while  we  are 
in  the  very  throes  of  this  operation,  and  when  the 
danger  of  death  is  at  its  height,  you  come  to  the 
door  of  our  ward  leading  a  chorus  of  women  ;  they 
beg  us  to  tarry  in  our  task  of  purifying  the  wound, 
they  bid  us  to  lay  down  our  surgical  knife  and 
ask  us  to  sew  up  the  flesh  over  the  morbid  growth 
still  alive.25  What  a  lack  of  foresight  is  shown,  what  a 
want  of  courage  !  It  means  that  the  patient  is  doomed 
to  die  because  of  the  desire  to  spare  him. 

Dear  lady,  have  you  considered  what  would  result 
from  the  fault  committed  by  you  and  by  your  English 


THE  DOVES   WITH  THE  RAVENS         23 

sisters  who  were  the  very  soul  of  the  Hague  Congress  ? 
Through  your  decision  not  to  seek  out  at  whose  door 
must  be  laid  the  guilt  of  the  war,  not  to  follow  the 
river  of  blood  to  its  spring-head,  you  have  won,  by 
your  complacency,  the  favour  of  the  German  women 
who  were  responsive  to  your  call ;  but  thus  you  have 
thrown  into  the  well  of  silence  the  key  of  the  problem 
you  meant  to  solve,  the  problem  which  holds  every- 
thing else,  which  contains  the  whole  series  of  abomina- 
tions ;  for,  as  quoted  by  Take  Jonescu,  "  The  greater 
the  calamity,  the  more  important  is  the  question  of  its 
origins."  Moreover  you  have,  by  your  very  act,  set 
aside  the  essential  element  of  the  problem,  the  wicked 
invasion  of  Belgium,  that  prologue  to  the  whole 
Satanic  tragedy.  While  you  were  moaning  over  the 
distress  of  the  wretched  Belgians,  you  remained  dumb 
in  face  of  the  crime  which  has  let  slip  the  dogs  of  war. 
You  have  cynically  insulted  its  victims  by  allowing 
the  wives  of  the  executioners  to  shed  stage-tears  over 
the  blood-red  hatchet,  while  they  applauded  it  at 
work. 

Ah  I  since  your  German  sisters  were  gathered 
amongst  you,  why  did  you  not  improve  that  rare 
occasion  and  implore  them  to  cease  being  purblind 
as  to  the  terrible  facts  of  this  war ;  why  did  you  not 
ask  them  to  throw  off  that  vizor  of  triple  brass  which 
distorts  their  conscience ;  why  did  you  not  entreat 
them  to  bring  their  husbands  to  their  knees  and  thus 
to  win  the  same  freedom  ? 

That  was  your  true  task,  women  of  England  ! 
Therein  lay  the  salvation  of  the  world  and  the  hope 
of  Germany  !  But  no  !  the  voluntary  abdication  of 
your  reason  brought  with  it  the  fatal  abdication  of  your 


24  OPEN  LETTERS 

conscience.  In  the  Report  of  your  Congress  you  have 
stifled  the  echo  of  that  remorseful  cry  indignantly 
uttered  by  one  woman  amongst  you  (Amy  Lillington86); 
nay,  by  a  crowning  act  of  deceit,  you  pretended  that 
the  proud  and  dignified  letter  of  the  Union  of  French- 
women, which  explained  their  members'  absence,  did 
not  reach  you  in  time  to  be  copied  and  distributed. 
That,  allow  me  to  say  it,  was  not  fair  play. 

The  worst  outrage  of  all  has  recoiled  on  yourselves  ; 
it  is  on  Women  that  you  really  have  lavished  insult. 
While  the  brave  Suffragettes,  relinquishing  the  noisy 
clamour  for  their  rights,  have  won  these  without 
violence  by  falling  into  the  ranks  of  militant  humanity, 
you  women  pacificists,  with  eyes  thrice  blindfolded  by 
blind  love,  you  have  confirmed  the  odious  masculine 
prejudice  of  the  moral  inequality  of  sexes ;  you  have 
acknowledged  that  Woman,  sunk  to  the  dumb  show 
of  Pity,  was  incapable  of  soaring  up  to  the  conception 
of  Justice,  up  to  the  search  and  confession  of  Truth, 
that  supreme  goal  of  every  human  being,  whether  it 
be  man  or  woman,  on  whose  forehead  is  imprinted 
the  seal  divine.27 

Women,  generous-hearted  women,  whose  souls, 
like  my  own,  are  full  of  pity  for  human  pain,  why  did 
you  not  learn  the  dumb  lesson  taught  by  our  wounded 
to  the  women  who  tend  them  ?  Of  course  they  bless 
the  maternal  hands  which  tremblingly  touch  their 
sores ;  of  course  they  thirst  for  compassion ;  but  what 
they  really  need  is  infinitely  more.  I  have  seen  them 
carried  off  the  battle-fields,  I  have  seen  them  dying 
in  the  ambulances ;  their  superhuman  silence  has 
struck  me  with  wonder  and  has  thrilled  me  with 
sacred  awe.     Their  deep  silence  cried  out  to  the  sur- 


THE  DOVES  WITH  THE  RAVENS  25 

vivors  :  "  Tell  us  that  we  do  not  die  in  vain  ;  tell  us 
that  above  the  pity  in  your  heart  your  soul  breathes 
to  us,  Well  done  !  Tell  us  that  though  our  anguish  is 
great,  our  Cause  is  greater  still";  and,  behind  the 
figure  of  Pity,  kneeling  at  their  side,  I  saw  Justice 
standing  erect,  commending  her  younger  sister's 
work,  but  with  a  finger  on  her  lips,  bidding  her  be 
silent  too  in  reverence  for  those  heroes,  in  piety  for 
their  faith.  .  .  . 

Dear,  dear  friend,  this  is  also  my  message  to  you  : 
Great  is  the  sorrow,  greater  still  is  the  cause !  This 
cause  was  your  own  once,  when  you  so  splendidly 
arose  to  defend  it  under  the  African  sky ;  this  cause 
is  that  of  eternal  Right.  Its  place  on  the  map  may  be 
altered,  but  its  place  never  varies  in  the  soul  of  man- 
kind. You,  of  all  people — nay,  more  than  any  one — 
have  won  me  over,  and  for  ever,  to  that  Cause ;  must  I 
to-day  grieve  because  you  ignore  it,  abandon  it,  fight 
it  even  together  with  that  handful  of  misguided 
English  people,  the  disgrace  of  a  perverted  Socialism, 
who  cast  on  that  great  Cause  a  distrust  which  no  proof 
justifies  ? 

I  own,  however,  that  the  very  fact  of  your  past 
association  with  these  people,  the  memory  of  our 
common  Fight  for  Right,  which  in  those  days  meant 
the  Independence  of  the  Transvaal,  gave  me  scruples 
about  the  present  war.  As  a  soldier  I  was  bound  to 
serve,  as  a  man  I  was  free  to  disapprove  in  silence. 
I  asked  myself :  How  came  it  that  England,  so  lately 
a  strong  oppressor,  is  to-day,  as  if  by  a  miracle,  the 
Knight-errant  of  Freedom  ?  The  answer  came  to  me 
as  with  the  piercing  sound  of  the  trumpets  and 
drowned   every   qualm.     It  came   to   me  from   the 


26  OPEN  LETTERS 

Boers  themselves,  and  from  that  noble  Botha — your 
friend,  one  of  our  proudest  comrades  in  the  struggle — 
"  Free  England,  through  Peace,"  said  he,  "  has  purged 
her  former  war.  She  has  not  made  an  Alsace-Lorraine 
of  the  Transvaal,  she  has  not  subjugated  serfs,  she 
has  given  herself  new  citizens;  our  defeat  was  a 
victory  which  has  even  freed  our  conquerors.  That 
is  why,  for  the  sake  of  the  world,  we  prefer  an  English 
peace  to  a  German  peace.  That  is  why  we,  kin 
though  we  are  to  her  enemies,  bring  joyfully  to 
England  our  comradeship  in  arms,  and  this  testimony 
which  is  irrefutable,  since  it  is  the  outcome  of  experi- 
ence, that  England  stands  for  Liberty,  that  the 
triumph  of  the  Allies  stands  for  civilisation." 

My  friend,  my  dear  friend — the  camps  have  been 
formed,  sides  have  been  taken,  blood  is  up ;  perhaps 
this  appeal  from  your  disciple  may  but  serve  to  chafe 
feelings  which  you  share  with  all  of  us,  because  they 
are  part  of  our  poor  humanity.  But  ask  yourself, 
is  it  not  your  conscience,  your  own  conscience  of  yore, 
which  looks  at  you  through  my  eyes  ?  .  .  • 


Ill 

WAITING  FOR   ROUMANIA28 

To  Queen  Elizabeth  of  Roumania  (Carmen  Sylva) 
on  the  death  of  the  King  her  husband 

14th  October  1914. 
Madame, 

Two  years  ago  you  laid  a  royal  wreath  upon 
the  coffin  of  my  father.29  An  echo  of  that  sympathy, 
in  all  humbleness,  I  send  to  you  to-day. 

At  this  hour,  the  meeting-point  of  the  dismay,  the 
indignation,  and  the  enthusiasm  of  the  whole  world, 
each  grieving  soul  is  sister-soul  to  France. 

In  every  trial,  be  it  for  hearts  that  mourn  or  for 
peoples  that  groan  in  slavery,  for  all  that  weep  or 
that  rouse  themselves  in  the  valley  of  the  Shadow  of 
Death,  I  believe  in  the  triumph  of  the  Just.  "  God 
is  love,"  said  Christ.  That  teaching  has  proved  vain. 
It  is  our  will  that  God  be  Justice. 

And  Justice  He  will  be  for  you,  Madame,  who  have 
been  all  love. 


27 


IV 
WAITING   FOR   ITALY 

To  Ernest  Nathan,  Ex-Mayor  of  Rome 

3rd  December  1915. 
My  dear  Friend, 

I  have  just  read  your  manly  discourse  in  the 
Costanzi.30  Divested  of  your  official  functions,  no 
longer  presiding  in  the  capital,  you  take  upon  you 
a  moral  magistracy,  and  speak  to  the  Roman  people 
from  the  height  of  its  noble  past,  its  traditions,  and 
its  destiny.  Let  us  not  doubt  it — the  participation 
of  Italy  in  this  righteous  war  will  mean  an  arduous 
task  for  the  democracy,  but  it  will  be  one  big  with 
fate :  II  popolo  fard  da  se.  You  will  tell  me  I  am  an 
optimist.  Let  me  explain  my  confidence  by  recalling 
one  of  the  most  moving  memories  of  my  life. 

I  gained  this  certainty  the  very  first  day,  the  eve 
of  our  mobilisation,  the  eve  of  my  departure  for  the 
front,  on  that  tragic  night  of  1st  August  1914,  when  I 
was  summoned  to  the  Cafe  au  Globe,  in  Paris,  by  our 
brave  friend  Campolonghi.81  He  had,  without  losing 
an  hour,  ponvoked  a  meeting  of  the  best  portion  of 
such  of  his  young  compatriots  as  were  then  in  the 
capital  and  capable  of  bearing  arms. 

Paris  was  sombre  and  stoical ;    you  might  have 
believed  that  its  blinds  were  drawn,  and  its  population 

28 


WAITING  FOR  ITALY  29 

absent,  scattered  as  they  were  into  solitary  persons 
hastening  separately  to  duty.  Such  a  Paris  had  never 
been  seen  before.  Not  a  cry  of  "  Revanche,"  not  a 
shout  of  "A  Berlin."  Not  a  stone  flung  against  the 
German  Embassy.  Not  an  affront  to  von  Schoen, 
who  seemed  to  provoke  affront  by  lingering  ostenta- 
tiously on  the  boulevard.  Such  was  the  change  which 
forty  years  of  the  Republic  had  wTrought  in  the  Paris 
of  the  Empire.  Where  were  the  "  mafficking " 
crowds  which,  in  July  1870,  had  rushed  to  war  along 
these  same  boulevards  as  down  a  steep  place  into 
the  sea  ? — I  was  at  this  point  in  my  musings  when, 
at  the  crossing  of  the  Boulevard  de  Strasbourg  with  the 
Boulevard  St.  Denis,  by  the  yellow  glow  of  a  sultry 
evening,  with  the  first  withered  leaves  and  the 
unswept  dust  swirling  about  me,  I  descried,  on  the 
deserted  road,  emptied  of  carriage  and  motor-bus,  a 
column  of  mobilised  men,  coming  from  the  Bastille 
and  marching  towards  the  Gare  de  TEst.  Not  a  song, 
not  a  cry ;  a  deathlike  silence.  They  too  felt  it,  the 
hour  of  Destiny,  that  hour  which,  in  the  history  of 
the  world,  had  never  sounded  yet.  And  they  were 
advancing  towards  the  infinite  unknown,  preceded  by 
three  magnificent  women  in  festal  robes,  like  three 
living  "  Marseillaises "  by  Rude,  each  bearing  an 
Allied  flag — the  flags  of  France,  Russia,  and  England 
— what  flag  then  was  missing  ? 

I  hastened  to  the  Globe.  There,  I  felt  plunged  into 
the  crater  of  a  volcano,  for  there  I  found  Italy. 
Passion,  frenzy,  foamed  so  violently  that,  for  an 
hour,  not  a  single  coherent  cry  could  be  heard. 
Nothing  compelled  these  men  to  clamour  for  death  ; 
yet  they  were  fanatically  eager  to  dare  it.      What 


30  OPEN  LETTERS 

better  proof  of  French  good  faith  than  this  mania 
for  sacrifice  seizing  all  the  Italians  in  Paris,  even 
before  the  torrent  burst  ?  It  was  the  trumpet-call 
of  the  common  Latin  ideal,  once  again  in  peril 
from  barbarian  hordes.  Had  France  been  the 
aggressor,  not  a  man  of  all  these  would  have  stirred 
from  his  home.  At  length  Campolonghi  spoke  ;  the 
welling  lava  hushed  the  volcano  ;  and  not  a  single 
rousing  speech  now  resounding  in  Italy,  down  to 
yours,  illustrious  syndic  who  have  just  awaked  the 
She-Wolf,  but  is  merely  the  rolling  reverberation  of 
that  first  thunderous  appeal. 

At  the  urgent  request  of  Campolonghi,  who  had 
inveigled  me  on  to  the  platform  that  I  might 
address  these  volunteers  32  briefly  in  their  own  tongue, 
I  said  but  this:  " Brothers  of  Italy,  you  show  the 
way  to  your  friends  at  home  ;  you  are  the  advance- 
guard  of  that  Italian  army  which  will  surely  march 
upon  Trieste.  But  you  go  to  fight  in  France ;  your 
blood  will  baptize  this  war,  this  just,  Republican 
war.  Honour  to  you  above  all  others ;  for  we  are 
doing  our  duty,  joyously ;  but  you,  magnificently,  are 
making  a  free  gift." 

Therefore,  my  dear  friend,  I  cannot  doubt  your 
people.  There  are  feelings  which  cannot  deceive. 
On  this  day,  I  know,  your  Parliament  meets  ;  to  it 
falls  the  decision  of  the  length  of  the  war,  of  the  fate 
of  civilisation,  of  its  own  honour  in  the  sight  of 
history.  Am  I  certain  of  that  decision  ?  I  am  not 
ignorant  of  what  some  are  saying — I  overhear  mur- 
murs or  jeers — "  This  Italy  of  mine  is  too  crafty,  she 
stuffs  her  pockets  with  the  gold  of  both  camps,  she 
will  achieve  Trent  and  Trieste,  as  formerly  Venice 


WAITING  FOR  ITALY  81 

and  Lombardy,  among  the  spoils  contemptuously 
flung  to  her  by  others  ;  she  will  be  the  huckster  of 
victory,  snapping  up  the  blood-stained  fragments  of 
war."  Yesterday,  a  "  Boche  "  prisoner  added  to  the 
outrage  by  his  confident  boast,  "  Italien  niemals  gegen 
Deutschland."  And  my  very  soul  feels  the  buffet; 
it  is  to  me  as  if  my  beloved  sister  were  accused  of 
selling  herself  in  the  streets  ;  and  I  reply  with  in- 
dignation, choking  back  my  burning  tears,  "It  is 
not  true,  it  is  not  true  !  " 


V 

THE    POET   AS    LEADER 

To  Lieutenant  Gdbriele  d'Annunzio,  in  altis 

24th  September  1915. 
Dear  Poet  and  Friend, 

We  had  learned  through  a  telegram  that  you 
had  gone  to  the  front  as  a  lieutenant.  That  was  the 
very  moment  I  waited  for  in  order  to  write  to  you, 
because  I  hoped  that  the  distance  which  your  glory 
puts  between  you  and  me  might  be  lessened  or  con- 
cealed by  the  equality  of  our  military  rank. 

But  the  gulf  between  us  has  suddenly  widened  a 
hundredfold  ;  for  now  our  eyes  must  follow  you  lost 
in  the  empyrean.  Trent  and  Trieste  behold  you 
giving  bodily  shape  in  the  azure  sky  to  the  fairest 
of  Apollo's  fables  ;  at  the  beating  of  Pegasus'  wTings 
the  lands  that  languish  under  oppression  are  kindled 
afresh  with  hope.  So  true  is  it  that  Providence  is  no 
idle  dream  when  a  man  steps  into  her  place,  and 
apotheosis  is  more  than  a  name  when  a  poet  takes 
heaven  by  storm. 

What  an  epic  niche  you  have  carved  for  yourself, 
my  friend,  in  the  temple  of  History  !  More  than  any 
other  nation  that  has  freely  joined  in  the  war,  Italy 
will  have  decided  the  final  victory  of  Right,  and 
more  than  any  other  man  in  Italy  you  will  have  con- 
tributed to  determine  her  decision.     On  the  brink  of 

32 


THE  POET  AS  LEADER  88 

the  awful  abyss,  snuffing  the  vapour  of  blood  that 
rises  from  it,  the  mare  still  snorted.  You  grasped 
her  by  the  mane,  and  bestriding  her  at  one  bound, 
digging  your  knees  into  her  flanks,  you,  like  a  Curtius 
in  arms,  with  uplifted  falchion,  struck  your  golden 
rowels  into  her  sides  and  with  distended  pinions 
launched  out  into  the  effulgence  on  high. 

History  indeed  will  record  that  from  the  rock  of 
Quarto  Rome's  captive  eagle  was  at  last  released  and 
sent  soaring  towards  the  Alps.  History,  to  com- 
memorate the  age-long  co-operation  of  poets  in  the 
achievement  of  Italy's  mission,  will  consecrate  the 
Trinity : 

Dante,   Petrarch,  d'Annunzio. 

Such  an  honour  is  almost  appalling  for  a  man.  Even 
you,  cloyed  with  glory,  I  wager  it  was  enough  to  turn 
you  pale.  Despite  the  songs  of  your  former  muse, 
saturated  with  homesickness  of  the  Amarissime,"  in 
spite  of  your  Ode  ad  un  Torpedinatore,  in  spite  of 
the  Laudi,  in  spite  of  la  Nave,  could  you  foresee  that 
from  the  lips  of  the  "  child  of  pleasure  "  would  burst 
forth  words  so  new,  glorifying  the  years  of  youthful 
chastity  that  lead  to  manly  deeds  ?  M  Let  us  not  fear 
to  invoke  Schiller,  for  to-day  he  would  be  another 
Jeremiah  inflamed  against  the  sins  of  Jerusalem — 

"  Soil  das  werk  den  Meister  loben 
Doch  der  Segen  kommt  von  oben." 

It  is  this  grace  from  on  high,  of  which  I  now  admire 
the  revelation  in  you.  Before  you  won  this  resound- 
ing triumph  in  the  soul  of  the  multitude,  what  a 
silent  victory  you  must  have  gained  over  yourself! 
To  ennoble  your  country  you  began  by  ennobling 
yourself ;  to  help  her  to  overcome  Destiny  you  have 
3 


34  OPEN  LETTERS 

overcome  yourself.  Not  in  the  manner  of  that  ego- 
tistical Destroyer,36  whom  formerly,  before  you  knew 
your  own  strength,  you  had  greeted  with  one  of  your 
songs  of  sombre  beauty.  No ;  it  was  in  the  manner 
of  a  Restorer,  giving  lavishly  of  himself  for  the  sal- 
vation of  all,  the  enthusiasm  of  the  nation  sweeping 
along  in  a  torrent  the  pride  of  the  individual.  The 
cause  was  sublime,  and  you  have  lifted  yourself  to 
its  level.  Thus  you  make  a  new  Covenant  with  that 
Ideal  in  action  which  is  laying  down  for  the  peace 
that  shall  follow  war  a  law — the  profound  law  of  all 
healthy  nations,  the  law  which  your  Romans,  like 
Hercules,  named  Virtue  ! 

In  order  to  make  yourself  in  very  truth  the  Poet 
of  your  own  people,  the  poet  who  creates,  who 
fertilises,  who  founds,36  you  returned  home  from  your 
distant  exile  on  yon  barren  heath.57 

Latin  art,  shortly  breaking  loose  from  her  "  ivory 
tower,"  will  return  likewise  to  us  in  order  to  recover 
her  high  dignity  in  the  city.  Queenly  in  her  un- 
blenching  gaze  at  the  gods  in  the  depth  of  the  azure 
sky,  the  poetry  of  Latin  lands,  long  mourning  the  loss 
of  her  Olympian  consorts,  the  Hugos  and  Carduccis, 
receives  at  your  hand  again  the  bridal  golden  ring, 
and  takes  through  you  again  her  place  in  our  modern 
humanity,  from  which  the  petty  puling  souls  had 
deemed  her  banished.  Behold  her  again  leader  of 
peoples,  pillar  of  fire  at  the  head  of  the  hosts,  empress 
of  the  visible  world,  mistress  of  the  invisible  ! 

Glory  to  you  for  avenging  the  spiritual ! 

Glory  to  you  for  restoring  the  divine  ! 

Glory  to  you  for  proving  that  the  astutest  of  diplo- 
mats cannot  hold  a  candle  to  a  poet !  M 


VI 
THE   POET   AS    WITNESS 

To  Maurice  Maeterlinck,  after  his  Speech  at  Milan 

10th  December  1914. 
Dear  Friend, 

You  know  with  what  fraternal  sympathy  I 
have  for  the  last  twenty  years  watched  you  soaring 
on  the  wings  of  genius  in  your  literary  glory.  But 
do  you  not  feel  as  I  do,  that  the  finest  things  in 
literature  are  only,  for  posterity,  a  handful  of  ashes, 
barely  entitled  to  an  infinitesimal  niche  in  the  burial- 
ground  of  masterpieces  ?  .  .  . 

Only  the  word  spurring  men  to  deeds  clears  at 
one  bound  the  abyss  of  time  ;  and  in  what  deed  do  you 
share  !  Behind  your  king,  behind  your  soldiers,  you 
have  just  passed  from  literature  into  the  epic ;  it  is 
in  history  that  I  salute  you. 

For,  this  time,  the  honour  was  conferred  upon  you 
of  signing  an  immortal  page  dictated  by  your  heroes 
— the  avenging  inscription  on  the  charred  walls,  an 
epitaph,  an  oath  of  resurrection,  an  attestation  of 
eternal  Justice. 

Could  you  yourself,  you  the  Poet  of  all  Mystery, 
name  the  Power  which  selects  a  man  for  a  deed 
and  grants  you  this  favour  of  being,  in  the  eyes  of 

35 


36  OPEN  LETTERS 

history,  the  spokesman  of  the  greatest  people  of  all 
time — of  being  their  soul,  their  voice,  their  cry  ? 

Poets  admire  you  and  envy  you.     Blessings  on  you 
in  the  name  of  all  Latin  countries. 39 


VII 
THE    BASTARD    OF   A    GREAT    FATHER 

To  Monsieur  Bjoern  Bjoernson,  Berlin  i9 

1st  March  1915. 
Sir, 

If  I  had  been  your  guest  I  should  abstain  from 
writing  these  lines  to  you;  but  I  was  the  guest  of 
your  noble  father  when,  by  an  irony  of  fate,  you  and 
I  met  at  his  table. 

I  had  an  affection  for  your  father,  and  he  for  me. 
One  day  he  even  asserted  that  I  was,  of  all  Frenchmen, 
the  one  who  had  understood  him  best.  I  also  knew 
and  discussed  with  him,  on  many  occasions,  his 
Germanophile  illusions.  But  so  surely  as  he  was 
the  national  bard  of  his  country,  the  chief  of  the 
liberals  of  Norway,  and  my  distinguished  collaborator 
in  the  Courrier  Europten,  of  which  he  also  was  a 
founder,  so  surely,  Monsieur,  would  he  blush  to-day 
to  see  his  name  prostituted  in  the  service  of  bar- 
barism. 

There  are  such  things  as  spiritual  bastards. 

He,  the  poet;  you  the  stage-manager,  the  im- 
presario of  the  Dance  of  Death.  He  the  great 
Scandinavian  bear,41  standing  sentinel  on  the  iceberg, 

37 


88  OPEN  LETTERS 

kindling  with  his  prophetic  eyes  all  the  obscure 
auroras  of  the  soul  to  burst  forth  with  their 
brightest  fires  into  an  effulgent  justice ;  thou  "  licked 
cub"  yet  unlicked  by  Bernhardi,  in  Hagenbeck's 
wild-beast  show.42 


VIII 

NEUTRALS  PLAYING  THE  GERMAN  GAME 

To  Enrico  Bignami,  Director  of  the  Revue  Ccenobium, 
Lugano,  Switzerland 

10th  March  1915. 
My  very  dear  Friend, 

With  the  best  intentions  in  the  world  you  are 
committing  a  very  harmful  act  in  founding  your 
League  of  Neutrals. 

Our  friendship  rests  on  too  solid  a  basis  for  me  to 
risk  offending  you ;  and  even  if  I  had  to  risk  it,  it  is 
what  that  very  friendship  would  urge  me  to  do. 

No  doubt  I  shall  highly  astonish  you ;  your  mani- 
festo, which  I  have  read  twice,  smacks  of  embarrass- 
ment and  ambiguity  ;  any  one  would  think  that  your 
pen  was  ashamed.  You  do  not  dare  to  call  things, 
horrible  things,  by  their  right  names.  You  seem  to 
plead  guilty,  you  the  advocate  of  the  holiest  of  causes. 
And  I  am  fain  to  arrive  at  this  conclusion,  that  you 
want  to  propitiate  everybody,  in  anticipation  of  any 
issue  of  war,  which  issue  is  not  yet  clear  in  your  own 
eyes. 

Now,  my  dear  friend,  in  the  great  trial  which  has 

been  in  progress  since  the  2nd  August  1914  before  the 

conscience  of  all  men,  of  all  people,  and  of  all  ages, 

39 


40  OPEN  LETTERS 

it  is  as  vain  as  it  is  monstrous  to  pretend  to  put  the 
accused  and  the  victims  in  the  same  dock,  to  pro- 
nounce the  assassins  and  the  corpses  "  not  guilty  " 
off-hand. 

To  whichever  side  the  chances  of  victory  may  seem, 
in  your  eyes,  to  incline ;  despite  the  vast  predomi- 
nance with  which  the  victor,  were  it  Germany,  would 
to-morrow  threaten  to  crush  the  world,  you  have  no 
precautions  to  take  for  the  purpose  of  safeguarding 
your  interests  as  neutrals  when  the  time  comes  to 
give  your  evidence ;  as  a  juryman  of  the  areopagus  of 
Conscience,  you  must  give  your  verdict  to  the  supreme 
Judge — to  Justice. 

The  manifesto  of  the  League  of  Neutrals,  which  does 
not  dare  to  utter  an  elementary,  a  preliminary  pro- 
test against  the  cynical  violation  of  that  Queen  of 
Neutrals,  Belgium;  which  does  not  roar  out — you 
understand  me,  which  does  not  roar  out — its  indig- 
nation against  the  bestial  tortures  inflicted  on  it  by 
the  brigands,  this  manifesto  looks  to  me  like  the  most 
lamentable  abdication  of  the  very  principles  which  it 
champions  ;  like  a  scandal  more  disgraceful  than  the 
war  itself,  in  which,  at  least,  Germany  is  not  wanting 
in  frankness  ;  like  an  implied  encouragement  to  all 
future  violators. 

Poor  Belgium  !  Is  she  dead,  then,  that  you  pass  her 
name  by  in  silence  ?  Will  you  enthrone  the  Justice  of 
Nations  on  her  blood-stained  ruins  ?  Is  it  in  a  "  whited 
sepulchre"  that  you  will  hold  the  next  Peace  Congress? 
Ah  !  this  peace  that  you  herald  as  a  liberator  and 
restorer,  this  "  durable "  peace,  what  simplicity, 
what  mockery  if  Prussia  dictated  its  terms  !  Durable, 
in  fact,  in  ceternum,  she  would  make  the  world  a  dumb 


NEUTRALS  PLAYING  THE  GERMAN  GAME     41 

hell,  a  desert  of  souls  and  consciences,  a  sort  of  moral 
Sahara,  where  nothing  would  grow  but  the  spiky 
cactus  of  Kultur.  Is  it  this  solitude,  as  has  been  said, 
that  you  would  call  Peace  ? 

Do  not  think  that  in  my  French  heart  there  seethes 
and  bubbles  up  the  old  ancestral  hatred.  I  am  com- 
pelled to  strike  my  heart  to  make  the  dark  spring 
burst  forth.  I  force  myself  to  hate  from  a  sense  of 
duty — yes,  a  reasoned  sense  of  duty — and  my  whole 
nature,  my  whole  past,  all  my  hopes  cry  out  against 
it. 

Few  of  my  compatriots,  as  you  know,  have  loved 
Germany  so  much  as  I — do  you  remember  my  toast 
at  the  Congress  at  Berlin  " — the  ancient  "  Germania 
Mater,"  who  has  become  the  cruel  Fury  of  the 
West ;  few  like  myself  have  been  overwhelmed  with 
insults  for  having  persisted  until  the  end  in  holding 
out  the  hand  of  friendship  to  the  Germans,  and 
it  is  this  action,  with  which,  at  heart,  nearly  all 
France  identified  itself,  which  allowed  her  in  the 
tragic  hour,  and  because  of  her  perfectly  clear 
conscience,  to  confront  Destiny  with  a  smile  on  her 
lips. 

But  since  the  2nd  August  1914,  Prussianised 
Germany  has  divorced  herself  from  Humanity.  So 
much  the  worse  for  her  !  so  much  the  worse  for  her 
worthy  folk  at  home,  who  no  more  than  ourselves 
wanted  war,  but  who  are  also  responsible  for  it, 
having  tolerated  such  rulers,  having  for  half  a 
century  kissed  the  sword  with  closed  eyes !  Yes,  I 
maintain  it,  I  swear  it  to  you,  if  the  Prince  of 
Peace,  Jesus  Christ,  were  on  earth  to-day  He  would 
pick  up  a  French  rifle  and  use  it  in  our  trenches.44 


42  OPEN  LETTERS 

Because  it  is  for  the  most  definite,  the  most  im- 
perious, the  most  august  Ideal;  in  short  (for  I 
cannot  put  my  hand  to  any  equivocation),  it  is,  to 
use  the  good  old  words,  for  God  that  the  atheist 
Republic  is  fighting. 

You  see,  my  friend,  you  are  unfortunate  in  address- 
ing me.  In  war  time  as  well  as  in  peace  time,  I 
abhor  neutrals  and  cowards.  It  is  sufficient  to  tell 
you  that  you  are  not  one  of  them.  I  even  prefer  the 
Pangermans  to  them ;  let  us  have  monsters  rather 
than  abortions  !  Yes,  let  us  rather  have  these  new 
ape-men,  who  at  least  belch  forth  their  way  of  thinking 
in  the  form  of  "  crumps"  of  420's. 

But  I  am  mistaken,  there  are  no  neutrals ;  for  the 
simple  reason  that  nothingness  does  not  exist.  There 
are  only  non-belligerent  states,  where  public  opinion, 
unrestrained  by  official  trammels,  has  instinctively 
mobilised  itself  everywhere — where  one  by  one  all 
consciences  enrol  themselves  in  greater  number  each 
day  among  the  invisible  legions  45  that  hover  in  the 
clouds  over  the  battle-fields.  For  such  is  the  in- 
evitable law  of  this  really  world-wide  mSUe  that 
not  a  single  solitary  soul  escapes  the  moral  con- 
scription, and  such  is  also  the  grandeur  of  this 
apocalyptic  struggle,  that  the  whole  universe,  even 
to  the  most  distant  stars,  seems  to  rise  up  trembling 
with  indignation  against  the  infamy. 

Come,  my  good  friend,  revise  the  articles  of  your 
statutes.  Add  to  them  at  the  bottom  of  the  pages, 
as  simple  notes,  a  few  extracts  from  so  many  irre- 
futable documents  concerning  German  ferocity.  Be 
assured  that  fruitful  peace,  just  peace,  such  as  you 
desire,   follows    in    the   wake   of  the   allied    armies, 


NEUTRALS  PLAYING  TEE  GERMAN  GAME    43 

that  she  is  the  canteen-woman  in  their  ranks,  that 
she  will  pour  out  the  cup  of  drink  after  the  charge, 
and  that  she  alone  will  not  be  violated  by  Mr.  von 
Kluck's  hordes.  Be  persuaded,  above  all,  that  the 
"  scraps  of  paper"  which  proclaim  the  neutrality  of 
all  the  little  sisters  of  Belgium  shall  henceforth  have 
to  be  posted  up  on  the  brazen  gates  of  Krupp's  closed 
factory,  if  we  do  not  wish  to  see  them  torn  again. 
For  we  Frenchmen,  pacificists  and  republicans,  we 
will  only  forgive  Germany  on  the  day  when  she 
herself  decides  not  to  forgive  Prussia. 


IX 

WRENCHING  OFF  THE  MASK  FROM  THE 
NEUTRALS'  FACE 

To  Dr.  Rodolphe  Broda,  Lausanne  4fl 

15th  May  1915. 
Come,  my  dear  colleague,  a  truce  to  equivocation  I 
The  most  commendable  intention  in  the  world,  such 
as  the  reconciliation  of  peoples — of  which  I  myself 
do  not  despair  after  the  atonement  of  the  culprit — 
may  appear  the  most  treacherous  unless  it  be  accom- 
panied by  declarations  both  straightforward  and 
exact. 

It  is  not  nearly  enough  for  you  to  declare  yourself 
against  the  invasion  of  Belgium  if,  at  the  same  time, 
in  your  opinion,  that  invasion  must  be  regarded  as 
an  isolated  case  of  injustice  in  the  general  conduct  of 
the  present  war  by  the  Germans. 

A  more  formidable  question — one,  in  fact,  which  is 
uppermost — is  to  know  who  is  responsible  for  this 
cataclysm — its  premeditation,  its  preparation,  its  out- 
break, its  degradation  by  methods  of  savagery,  and, 
consequently,  the  destruction  of  the  noblest  blessings 
of  humanity,  the  loss  of  which  will  make  itself  felt 
throughout  the  whole  of  next  century  47 — tell  me, 
who  was  it  who  willed  all  that  ? 

44 


WRENCHING  OFF  THE  MASK  45 

It  is  idle  for  you  to  seek  to  burk  the  main  question, 
to  try  not  to  see  the  pyramid  by  walking  round  it 
and  by  burying  yourself  in  the  sands,  droning  like 
a  muezzin,  repeating  over  and  over  again  some  time- 
honoured  chant.  Its  huge  shadow  follows  after  you, 
bears  down  on  you,  catches  up  with  you,  surrounds 
you,  and  turns  you  ghastly  pale  in  your  flight  to 
escape  its  clutches. 

Once  and  for  all,  let  you  and  your  fellow-workers 
make  no  mistake  about  it — the  trial  which  has  opened 
is  a  trial  for  life ;  and  the  heads  of  the  guilty  are  at 
stake.  The  theory  of  "no  true  bill "  which  you 
proffer  us  to-day  and  the  prospect  of  reconciliation 
which  you  hold  out  for  to-morrow  will  not  be  accept- 
able to  us.  Evidence  sufficient  to  convict  is  before 
the  world :  evidence  which  is  sordid,  blood-stained, 
still  warm.  It  is  on  the  evidence  of  these  damning 
crimson  stains,  as  she  sees  them,  fingers  them,  scents 
them,  that  History  will  pronounce  judgment.  The 
curtain  will  be  rung  down  on  the  stupendous  drama 
by  a  verdict  in  due  form,  branding  the  bandits  on 
the  brow  outright.  But  if  the  proofs  of  the  crime  are 
stored  out  of  sight  and  left  in  the  dark,  and  if  the 
documents  of  the  case  be  conjured  away,  how  will  it 
be  possible  to  bring  in  that  verdict  ?  "  History  of  a 
Crime  without  a  Criminal  1"  an  excellent  subject 
indeed  for  a  competition  among  the  ninety-three 
intellectuals. 

This  being  so,  speak  to  us  a  little  less  about  to- 
morrow and  a  little  more  about  yesterday  and  to-day 
Come  down  from  above  the  battle,  live  again  through 
those  days  of  July  1914,  read  again  the  reports  of  the 
crime  and  look  again  at  that  glaring  infamy.     One 


46  OPEN  LETTERS 

must  reap  what  one  has  sown.  The  peace  to  come 
will  not  put  an  end  to  the  plague  in  general,  but  it 
will  end  this  very  special  war  and  all  its  consequences  ; 
the  security  of  our  conditions  for  Peace  will  avert 
future  scourges. 

So  no  longer,  my  dear  colleague,  expect  to  find  any 
approval  within  both  camps  by  humouring  both 
foes,  the  civilised  and  the  others,  whose  principles, 
if  not  their  arms,  will  wage  war  against  each  other 
through  all  the  ages  for  the  honour  of  humanity. " 


X 

THE  GERMAN  RAT  IN  THE  DUTCH  CHEESE 

To  the  Secretary  of  the  Nederlandsche  Anti-Oorlog  Raad 
("Dutch  League  against  War"  extolled  by  Romain 
Rolland),  Amsterdam. 

12th  January  1915. 
It  is,  sir,  I  think  to  the  former  director  of  Les  Droits 
de  V Homme,  to-day  a  soldier  in  the  army  which  fights 
for  the  Rights  of  Nations,  that  you  address  your 
appeal.  If  it  were  not  for  the  war,  I  would  frankly 
own  that  it  sounded  to  me  as  a  mild  joke.  But 
laughter  at  this  hour  would  be  impious,  and  I  have 
but  one  alternative — amazement  or  indignation. 

What,  worthy  old  souls  of  Holland,  is  that  the  height 
to  which  your  Dutch  courage  rises  ?  You  cry  out  with 
all  your  might  against  War,  but  you  avoid,  as  you 
would  the  plague,  the  slightest  allusion  to  this  war  ! 
You  invoke  the  world's  conscience  to  maintain  that 
the  right  of  neutrals  is  sacrosanct,  but  you  do  not 
breathe  a  word  of  complaint,  not  even  a  sigh  escapes 
you,  on  behalf  of  Belgium  ! 

Neutrals  before  the  heroic  martyrdom  of  the  sister- 
country,  whose  blood-stained  ghost  at  your  threshold 
rises  up  like  a  remorse,  like  an  omen  ?  Neutrals 
before  the  rape  of  Neutrals  ?  Neutrals  before  iniquity? 
Neutrals  before  infamy  ?   Neutrals  before  savagery  ? 

47 


48  OPEN  LETTERS 

What  then  is  the  task  which  you  undertake  ? 

Is  it  by  shamefacedly  picking  up  the  fragments  of 
"the  scrap  of  paper"  and  thrusting  them  deep  into 
your  pockets,  is  this  the  way  in  which  you  flatter 
yourselves  that  you  "  avoid  the  danger  of  annexation," 
according  to  your  gentle  formula  ?  And  when  the 
Prussian  iron  heel  suddenly  trespasses  on  your  bed 
of  tulips,  prudently  grown  in  neutral  tints,  when 
you  also  are  ground  beneath  it,  will  you  still  bleat 
neutrality  ? 

I  understand ;  you  are  dreaming  the  blissful  dream 
of  the  lion  lying  down  with  the  lamb.  And  for  fear 
of  disturbing  the  company  you  leave  the  lamb  in 
the  lion's  jaws.  Our  soldiers  rush  at  the  Beast,  to 
break  his  fangs  before  he  can  devour  his  prey. 
The  peace  that  they  will  impose  upon  Europe  is  a 
peace  of  justice,  not  of  cowardice  ;  a  peace  which 
can  only  be  built  solidly  on  the  ruins  of  the  Prussian 
donjon  in  which  Germany  is  held  in  thrall ;  a  peace 
which  will  arraign  the  Kaiser,  a  "  Kolossal "  Bill 
Sikes,  slayer  of  women  and  children,  before  the 
Tribunal  at  The  Hague,  reinforced  by  some  stalwart 
armed  policemen,  provided  with  the  necessary  tools 
for  executing  the  sentence. 

After  this  you  will  discover,  O  Dutch  pacificists, 
that  we,  warring  ceaselessly,  have  attained  your  ideal ; 
that  we,  your  friends  who  terrified  you,  we  have  saved 
all  the  neutrals,  and  to  your  astonishment  we  also 
have  saved  you  into  the  bargain. 

We  French  pacificists  (disciples  and  friends  of 
Fr6d6ric  Passy),  we  are  perfectly  consistent  in  waging 
this  war  against  war.49  Our  serenity  of  conscience 
is  only  equalled  by  our   enthusiasm.      Therein    lies 


THE  GERMAN  RAT  IN  THE  DUTCH  CHEESE    49 

the  source  of  our  strength;  there  lies  the  secret 
of  those  expressions  of  sympathy  which  reach  us 
from  all  parts  of  the  world ;  there  lies  the  guarantee 
of  our  triumph. 

For  never  were  we  among  those  neutrals  who  become 
eunuchs  for  Satan's  kingdom. 


XI 

AGAIN  THE  RAT  ENTRENCHED   IN   THE 
CHEESE 

To   the   Managing    Committee   of   the   Dutch   Review 
"  Vrede  door  Rechte  "  B0 

25th  July  1915. 
Six  months  ago,  more  or  less,  certain  good  "  neutral  " 
souls  of  Holland  received  the  first  of  my  little  letters. 51 
...  It  is  at  this  moment  that,  obedient  to  the  orders 
of  the  great  General  Staff  of  the  German  propaganda, 
which  launches  its  bolts  methodically,  sometimes  in 
Holland,  sometimes  in  Switzerland,  with  the  remark- 
able combination  of  a  vast  enveloping  strategy — it 
is  at  this  moment  that  your  cousins  of  the  Algemeen 
Nederlandsch  Verbond  of  Nimeguen  announce  their  in- 
tention of  resuming,  on  their  part,  the  magnanimous 
warning  of  their  sponsor,  Dr.  Broda,52  the  Swiss  agent 
of  the  fatuous  pacificists  :  To  prevent  at  all  costs 
the  revelation  of  atrocities  committed  in  the  war. 

Gentlemen,  I  beg  you  to  record  my  complete  ad- 
herence to  this  seasonable  proposal.  There  are  some 
things  which  one  may  do  without  exciting  your  repro- 
bation, such  as  the  violation  of  Belgium,  the  mas- 
sacre of  the  innocent,  the  destruction  of  miracles  of 
art :  against  all  this  you  do  not  open  your  lips.  But 
let  any  one  think  of  publishing  it,  let  any  one  spread 

50 


AGAIN  THE  RAT  IN  THE  CHEESE        51 

abroad  the  evidences  of  it — for  shame  !  you  raise 
indignant  cries  of  reproach.  That  is  where  the 
abomination  begins.  The  guilty  person  is  not  the 
author,  but  the  witness  of  the  crime.  The  crime  lies 
not  in  doing,  but  in  speaking.  Let  be,  and  put  a  stop 
to  the  talking ;  that  is,  in  short,  the  ideal  formula  which 
assures  the  peace  of  your  "  neutral "  consciences ; 
the  safeguard  of  the  good  name  of  humanity,  the 
immediate  possibility  of  seeing  the  butchers  and  the 
victims  exchange  touching  embraces — still  wet  with 
the  blood  which  has  been  shed — the  red  kisses  which 
the  ogre  gives  the  corpses." 

How  could  the  Belgians  and  the  French  remain 
insensible  to  this  chivalrous  offer  of  Germany  to  dis- 
arm all  hate  ?  Was  it  not  in  France  and  Belgium  that 
these  atrocities  were  committed  ?  What  generosity 
on  the  part  of  Germany  to  agree  to  forget  them! 
And  is  not  this  moment  clearly  indicated  as  the  best 
in  which  to  conclude  this  pact  of  silence,  when  the 
tell-tale  tracts  of  the  Allies'  propaganda  begin  to  make 
their  way  in  the  world  ?  Indeed,  if  you  come  to  that, 
what  can  it  matter  to  the  French  and  Belgians  to 
sacrifice  their  protestations,  since  they  are,  after  all, 
only  concerned  with  "  alleged  atrocities,"  according  to 
the  expression  of  the  prospectus  ?  Confess  that,  in 
this  case,  Germany  is  very  good  to  give  herself  so 
much  trouble  to  stifle  the  accusation  when  it  would 
be  so  simple  to  refute  it.  And  if,  as  bad  luck  would 
have  it,  some  corpses  should  turn  out  to  be  genuine 
after  all,  what  a  fuss  they  make,  the  bullies !  In 
life,  these  heroes  were  criminals  :  they  had  no  right 
to  be  right ;  no  right  to  be  innocent,  loyal,  just ; 
no  right  to  be  brave  before  the  bristly  beard  of  the 


52  OPEN  LETTERS 

Hun ;  no  right  to  keep  their  sworn  faith,  under  the 
fearless  eyes  of  the  neutrals.  That  attitude  and  that 
example  seem  to  you  and  to  the  Germans  to  smack 
of  insufferable  insolence.  That  is  the  reason  why,  in 
Death,  these  heroes  deserve  to  be  forgotten,  with  a 
forgetfulness  hermetic  and  profound  ;  the  oblivion  of 
the  hasty  trench,  where  they  were  heaped  pell-mell, 
women,  children,  priests,  and  old  men.  It  must 
not  be  said  that  they  are  dead.  It  must  not  be  said 
that  they  have  lived  at  all.  And  for  fear  lest,  on 
the  Flemish  dune  at  evening,  the  rough  grass,  stirred 
by  the  breeze,  should  utter  their  everlasting  plaint, 
come,  brother  Belgians,  and  lend  a  hand  to  the 
second  death  of  your  heroes,  bury  even  their  memory, 
do  not  even  refuse  a  kick  to  the  relics  of  your 
martyrs  :  merrily,  merrily,  trip  it  on  their  grave  ! 

But  the  ruins,  gentlemen,  can  you  forget  them  ? 
They  are  not,  like  the  dead,  six  feet  underground. 
The  photographs  of  them  are,  we  know,  forbidden 
in  Germany.  But  when  travellers  shall  come,  when 
pilgrims  shall  flock  from  all  the  world  to  the  Calvary 
of  a  whole  people  ?  Are  they,  too,  to  be  buried  out 
of  sight  ?  But  how  ?  The  earth  is  glutted  with 
corpses  deep  as  Hell.  You  cannot  despatch  the  ruins 
in  their  sinister  nakedness,  packed  in  bundles,  like 
dead  Germans,  to  the  great  incinerators  of  the  tall 
furnaces  !  Have  you  thought  of  that,  gentlemen  ? 
The  spectacle  of  these  massacred  towns,  of  these 
decapitated  houses,  of  these  riddled  walls  ;  the  sight 
of  these  stone  corpses,  blackened  by  fire,  twisted  by 
shell,  crumpled  up  on  their  bed  of  shrapnel,  that 
would  be  a  scandal  for  the  blue  sky,  a  tremendous 
history  lesson  for  the  generations  to  come!     No,  a 


AGAIN  THE  RAT  IN  THE  CHEESE  53 

thousand  times,  no  !  It  must  not  be  that  any  one 
should  know  what  a  German  war  is  like. 

Allow  me,  then,  to  come  to  the  aid  of  your  tearful 
modesty  with  a  suggestion  which  will  allow  you  to 
hide  these  things  also.  Open  by  all  means  in  your 
review,  and  as  fast  as  possible,  a  German  and  neutral 
subscription  for  the  purpose  of  raising  vast  hoardings 
all  round  what  was  the  Library  of  Louvain,  the 
Cloth  Hall  at  Ypres,  and  the  Cathedral  of  Rheims. 
Then,  with  the  kind  assistance  of  the  German- 
Committee -for  -  the -protection  -of-  works -of-  art  -  in- 
enemy-countries,"  post  up  on  that  clean  surface — as 
clean  as  your  conscience — in  great  twelve-foot  letters, 
the  famous  text84  that  you  carry  in  your  heart:  It 
is  not  true  that  the  German  troops  destroyed  what 
was  behind  these  boards.  It  is  not  true.  .  .  .  It  is 
not  true.  .  «  .  It  is  not  true. 

Gentlemen  of  the  neutral  countries,  my  compli- 
ments to  you  ! 


XII 
ST.    GEORGE    TAMED    BY   THE   DRAGON 

To  Georg  Brandes,  Copenhagen 

30th  March  1915. 
My  Illustrious  Colleague, 

I  read  in  your  "  Letter  to  Georges  Clemen- 
ceau,"  published  in  yesterday's  issue  of  VHomme 
enchaini,  the  following  explanation  of  your  silence  at 
the  time  when  Germany,  in  a  fit  of  madness,  violated 
all  principles  in  Belgium  : 

"  If  I  were  obliged  to  draw  up  protestations  every 
time  there  happens  in  the  world  an  event  of  which 
I  disapprove,  I  should  have  nothing  else  to  do."  65 

Who  will  not  agree  that  this  is  obvious  ?  One 
trembles  at  the  idea  of  the  immense  sacrifice  of 
precious  time  which  might  have  been  exacted  from 
you  by  one  protestation  on  behalf  of  Belgium  !  What 
a  Boeotian  is  this  Clemenceau,  and  what  a  lesson  in 
true  atticism — I  mean  in  ordinary  propriety,  you  give 
him  !  The  massacre  of  thousands  of  innocents,  the 
razing  to  the  ground  of  hundreds  of  villages — the 
workman-like  burning  of  some  ten  art-cities,  protected 
all  of  them  by  a  proper  warrant  of  neutrality — all 
this,  sir,  is  suitably  included  by  you  in  the  common- 
place category  of  the  daily  "  News  in  brief  "  which 

54 


ST.  GEORGE  TAMED  BY  THE  DRAGON    55 

you  have  not  even  time  to  note  down.  De  minimis 
non  curat — doktor  !  The  cock  of  the  walk  does  not 
concern  himself  with  flea-bites. 

What  makes  it  all  the  more  vexatious  in  your  case 
is  that  you  had  a  namesake,  even  a  double,  so  people 
tell  me.  And  just  think  how  unfortunate  !  That  in- 
discreet counterpart  of  yours  had  a  mania  for  making 
protestations  every  time  anything  happened  of  which 
he  disapproved.  He  spent  all  his  time  in  doing  that 
and  nothing  else.  He  passed  from  the  Kurds  to 
the  Dreyfus  affair,  Brandissing  invectives.  A  white 
French  tie,  constantly  set  in  motion,  typified  the 
fluttering  Dove  of  Justice  on  his  shoulder.  In  short, 
he  was  playing  the  same  ridiculous  part  which 
C16menceau  would  like  to  see  you  take — Busy-body, 
Knight  of  the  Ideal !  And  this  bold  impostor  who 
robbed  you  of  your  name,  your  voice,  and  your  face, 
entered  into  the  spirit  of  his  part  with  incredible  relish, 
succeeded  even  in  bringing  us  under  his  magic  spell, 
and  found  the  means  after  every  general  upheaval 
to  come  to  Paris  to  be  duly  entertained  by  us,  pre- 
ferably in  a  banquet,  in  recognition  of  his  signal 
contribution  to  the  victory  of  this  or  that  Principle 
Stay,  the  vision  comes  back  to  me  all  transplendent 
the  first  sight  of  that  knight-errant  called  Georg 
Brandos  which  my  eyes  ever  beheld.  It  was,  I 
believe,  in  1900,  in  the  Avenue  de  1' Opera  at  the  house 
of  Louis  Havet.  The  dinner,  of  course,  was  given  in 
your  honour.  What  am  I  saying  ?  in  honour  of  your 
Double.  It  was  a  meeting  of  the  "  Idea,"  and  it 
was  your  Double's  bounden  duty  to  attend  it.  Ah  ! 
it  seems  far  away  now,  this  incident  of  fifteen  years 
p,go  which  threw  France  into  two  hostile  camps  and 


56  OPEN  LETTERS 

led  to  any  number  of  biting  cruelties,  of  which  the 
blessed  balm  of  1914  came  to  efface  for  ever  even  the 
smallest  scar.  Then,  of  course,  Georg  Brandos  had 
hurried  up ;  no  impeccable  scruples  of  neutrality 
forbade  his  coming  to  meddle  with  all  his  might  in  an 
affair  which  only  concerned  ourselves.  And  with 
what  homage  we  surrounded  him !  With  what 
religious  deference,  with  what  artless  gratitude ! 
In  the  drawing-room  the  crowd  of  chosen  guests, 
sipping  their  after-dinner  coffee,  made  a  circle  round 
his  chair  ;  they  relished  his  lightest  word  as  a  foreign 
liqueur.  To  young  men  thirsting  for  the  honour  of 
his  acquaintance  one  pointed  out  the  white  cravat, 
and  they  confessed ;  "  He  is  an  apostle."  To  young 
girls  fresh  from  school,  one  whispered :  "  He  writes 
for  the  stage  " ;  and  the  accident  of  your  name  and 
that  of  one  of  our  great  actresses  being  synonymous  6B 
gave  at  once  to  the  youthful  inquirers  an  insight 
into  all  your  work.  ...  I  mean  into  the  work  of 
that  Brandes.  Thus  this  same  Brandes  conquered 
Paris.  He  won  at  a  canter.  You  will  say  that  at 
this  price  it  is  no  serious  matter  to  lose  him.  Such 
was  not  the  Other's  opinion. 

Two  years  later  saw  a  return  to  Paris,  a  new  series 
of  festivities,  so  that  his  glory  should  not  grow  cold. 
A  real  banquet  this  time,  again  given  in  your  honour — 
I  beg  your  pardon,  in  His  Honour — by  the  Revue 
3! Art  Dramatique.  I  even  took  part  in  the  prepara- 
tions, and  had  to  accept  as  thanks  the  strange 
speech  of  Georg  Brandes  made  at  the  end,  when 
champagne  was  offered  round.  What  a  Nietzsche- 
like bitterness !  He  expounded  that  saying  of  Flau- 
bert's ;    "  The  jackals  of  the  desert  foul  the  founda- 


ST.   GEORGE  TAMED  BY  THE  DRAGON    57 

tions  of  the  pyramid,  but  the  jackals  pass  and  the 
pyramid  remains "  (sic).  The  jackals  were  his 
enemies  and  the  pyramid  was  himself.  The  humility 
of  this  quotation  did  indeed  seem  to  me  pyramidal. 
But  Pierre  Quillard  reserved  for  us  the  most  astonish- 
ing declaration  of  all.  In  a  fiery  dithyramb  he 
exalted  the  guest  of  France,  the  democrat  of  the  world, 
the  champion  of  the  rights  of  all  nations,  the  soldier 
of  all  holy  causes ;  and  he  prophesied  that  Georg 
Brandes  would  meet  his  death  "  with  a  bullet  in  his 
heart  at  the  foot  of  a  wall."  I  leave  you  to  imagine 
the  sensation  of  awe. 

Whilst  the  hero  of  the  banquet  paled  with  joy 
under  this  lyric  tribute,  we  had  no  doubt  whatever 
that  his  heroism  would  one  day  lead  him  to  an  act  of 
madness.  And  I  swear  to  you  that  last  September, 
after  the  massacres  in  Belgium,  I  looked  in  fear  and 
trembling  for  his  name  among  the  list  of  martyrs. 
He  is  the  kind  of  man,  said  I  to  myself,  to  go  and  get 
himself  killed  there.  What  a  relief  it  was  then,  sir, 
to  read  your  letter  to  Clemenceau!  So  you  were 
very  much  alive,  and  very  comfortable  in  Copenhagen. 
Thus  you  dissipate  at  last  the  inglorious  ambiguity 
of  those  quick-change  music-hall  artists  :  the  two 
Brand&s.  The  false  one,  the  impostor,  the  champion 
of  all  the  empty  causes,  the  paladin  of  all  that  pack  of 
fiddlesticks ;  you  send  him  back  to  his  wild-goose 
chase,  and  you  reassert  yourself — you,  the  true,  you 
the  well-balanced,  the  cool-headed,  with  one  title 
the  more  for  the  admiration  of  sensible  men. 

Your  manifesto  is  a  fine  piece  of  legerdemain  ;  it 
could  only  be  accomplished  by  a  man  of  supreme 
talent,  by  the  most  acute  of  jnodein  thinkers.  Imagine 


58  OPEN  LETTERS 

it !  You  have  taken  a  stronger  line  than  the  famous 
manifesto  of  the  ninety-three  German  intellectuals. 
They,  in  fact,  would  not  allow  themselves  to  believe 
in  the  violation  of  Belgium,  and  the  atrocities  which 
followed  in  its  train.  For  yourself,  you  recognise  the 
infamous  crime,  but  your  time  is  too  limited  to  con- 
demn it.  Haeckel  and  Ostwald  are  dethroned.  And 
then  what  a  superb  chapter  to  add  to  your  Great 
Currents — your  masterpiece  !  Have  you  not  yourself 
just  discovered,  explored,  and  described  the  zone  of 
the  eddies,  the  neutral  zone  between  two  opposing 
currents,  where  on  the  sluggish  muddy  waters  whirl 
waifs  and  floating  corpses  ? 

I  have  the  honour  to  salute  your  own  ! 

(Put  a  grey  cravat  round  his  neck.)67 


XIII 
THE    SHADOW    OF   THE    GUILLOTINE 

To  Maximilian  Harden,  Berlin 

5th  August  1915. 

I  owe  you  a  letter,  Maximilian,  in  remembrance  of 
our  meeting  and  also  as  an  expression  of  my  thanks 
to  the  one  among  the  enemies  of  France  who  has 
best  avenged  her  cause. 

Recall  my  visit  to  you  in  1910.  In  your  little 
burgh  of  Griinewald  you  received  me  with  the  correct 
polished  manners,  the  haughty  courtesy  of  an  officer 
who,  standing  on  the  edge  of  his  trench,  awaits  the 
approach  of  a  bearer  with  a  flag  of  truce.  As  a  matter 
of  fact  I  came  to  propose  to  you  that  you  should  use 
your  powers  as  a  dictator  to  put  a  stop  to  that  per- 
petual clash  of  pens  which  was  inciting  the  clash  of 
steel  between  our  two  countries.  I  came  partly  to 
rub  down,  with  an  oaken  towel,  a  canvas  I  had  painted 
for  you,  and  which  later  on  your  hordes  were  to  unroll 
for  us,  to  your  perfect  joy.  I  wanted  to  know  if  you 
would  have  the  courage  to  sign  it.  You,  who  swore 
that  the  Germans  desired  nothing  so  much  as  our 
friendship,  but  you  who  also  added  that  my  country- 
men were  secretly  preparing  for  revanche.  Such  a 
mistake,  such  misreading  of  facts  on  the  part  of  an 

59 


60  OPEN  LETTERS 

acute  judge  of  French  affairs  whose  view  of  the  depths 
were  not  distorted  by  the  ripples  on  the  surface,  such 
miscalculation  overwhelmed  me.  For  a  whole  hour, 
but  all  in  vain  I  strove  hard  to  undeceive  you. 

You  would  not  recede  from  your  opinion,  you  clung 
like  grim  death  to  your  argument — you  thought  that 
you  had  found  the  right  peg  on  which  to  hang  your 
pretext !  As  for  me,  in  my  candour,  your  obstinacy  in 
defending  your  foregone  conclusion  astounded  me 
more  than  your  prejudice.  At  that  moment  you 
were  not  what  you  were  destined  to  become  later — 
the  proud  admired  cynic.  I  took  my  leave,  we 
shook  hands,  we  saluted  in  military  style,  I  went 
away,  Simple  Simon,  as  I  came. 

We  had  agreed,  however,  to  send  each  other  our 
periodicals,  and  I  missed  no  opportunity,  as  you  know, 
of  informing  my  readers  of  the  zig-zag  turn  of  your 
views,  which  seemed  as  if  they  were  searching  for 
their  mark,  like  wavering  flashes  of  forked-lightning 
before  the  crash. 

May  I  flatter  myself  that  I  have  at  length  convinced 
you  ?  A  solemn  manifestation  of  the  French  people 
with  regard  to  Germany  came  to  support  my  testi- 
mony. Two  months  and  a  half  before  your  German 
War  you  declared  that  the  results  of  our  General 
Election  proved  that  Republican  France  wished  to 
live  at  peace  with  Germany,  and  you  exhorted  the 
whole  of  your  pack  of  howling  hounds  to  "  keep  their 
tongues  between  their  teeth."  68  You  held  your  own 
tongue  only  so  as  to  dart  it  out  farther  and  yelp 
louder.  The  prey  was  not  yet,  to  your  mind,  within 
your  reach,  for  you  had  not  yet  become  what  you 
were  to  be. 


THE  SHADOW  OF  THE  GUILLOTINE      61 

Two  months  from  then  we  had  the  ultimatum  to 
Serbia,  which  Austria,  as  you  say,  "  planned  in  con- 
cert "  with  Germany.59  For  that  confession — Maxi- 
milian, the  Case-HARDENed  I — on  the  day  when  your 
sans-culottes,  made  bold  by  a  sound  drubbing,  do  you 
the  honour  of  the  guillotine,  let  us  wreathe  the 
scaffold  in  roses. 

Yes,  certainly,  it  was  advisable  to  hatch  the  crime, 
but  all  precautions  must  be  taken,  and  you  exhausted 
yourself  in  vain  efforts  to  keep  your  cherished  accom- 
plices from  an  adventure  which  afforded  too  many 
chances  of  disaster.  You  had  not  yet  quite  become 
your  own  self,  for  you  were  reduced  to  muttering  this 
urgent  piece  of  advice  with  bated  breath,  ashamed 
under  your  mask.  But  you  had  the  gimlet  eye  of  a 
master  brigand  when  you  watched  the  clock  which 
was  to  chime  out  the  exact  hour  for  your  crime. 

Madly,  stupidly,  the  dogs  of  war  were  let  loose; 
then  you  hastened  your  decisions  in  order  to  overtake 
events ;  you  tore  off  that  stifling  mask  of  yours  and 
you  breathed  freely  again,  at  last  revealing  yourself, 
rising  to  your  full  height !  By  Jove,  what  a  grand 
sinewy  wild  beast  you  turned  out  to  be  !  Away  with 
those  decrepit  hoary  ninety-three  "  intellectuals," 
who  concocted  a  potion  of  soothing  mallow-root  as  a 
soporific  for  the  consciences  of  neutrals ;  such  a 
narcotic  turns  the  stomach  of  Arminius'  sons  !  The 
universe  will  pour  scorn  on  you  if  you  stammer 
excuses  for  the  crime,  and  if  you  deny  the  evidence 
of  that  Great  Day  60  dreamed  of  so  rapturously  that 
it  had  long  formed  a  common  toast  ("  Dem  Tag  ") 
in  officers'  mess-rooms.  One  does  not  excuse  a  crime, 
one  simply  obtrudes  it,  its  very  enormity  sublimises  it, 


62  OPEN  LETTERS 

its  completeness  vindicates  it.  Such  a  "  transmutation 
of  values  "  is  the  true  essence  of  Kultur.  Treaties, 
oaths,  traditions,  decencies — all  these  ancient  fallacies 
of  humanity,  what  do  they  amount  to  ?  They  amount 
to  scraps  of  paper  rolled  tight  into  a  single  ball 
and  kicked  defiantly  across  the  frontiers.  And  with 
brutish  gesture  Germania  stands  there  like  an  ogress, 
naked,  grimacing  death,  coruscating  in  all  her  superb 
hideousness,  feasting  her  eyes  on  devastations,  intoxi- 
cating her  soul  with  the  moans  of  her  victims ;  and 
as  the  grape-gatherer  crushes  his  juicy  pulp,  so  she 
treads  under  her  feet  the  youth  of  peoples,  quaffing 
like  a  ghoul  their  blood  from  a  skull  filled  to  the 
brim. 61 

By  Heaven,  Maximilian  !  you  will  remain  the  arch- 
type  of  the  German  intellectual.  Let  the  world  gaze 
upon  you — you  the  only  one  who  dared  to  unveil  the 
filthy  nudity  of  his  mother.  You,  the  only  one  who 
among  a  whole  nation  of  seventy  million  mealy- 
mouthed  knaves,  were  frank. 

And  that  was  why — supreme  homage  to  you, 
Harden  !  an  august  spectre  yonder,  moving  comes  on 
towards  you,  the  ghost  of  that  other  Great  Frederick — 
Nietzsche — who  acknowledges  you,  and  you  alone,  as 
his  equal,  as  spiritual  instigator  of  the  great  Germanic 
War,  as  demiurge  of  this  apocalypse,  of  this  scourge 
born  of  burning  desire,  hatched  in  the  fire  by  the 
demon  of  pride.  In  truth,  in  your  study,  where 
thousands  of  books  lie  in  serried  rows  on  the  floor,82  in 
order  that  your  contempt  might  trample  them  under- 
foot, in  truth  you  have  the  right  to  display  on  your 
desk — that  operating  table  of  yours — the  eagle- 
vulture  of  Zarathustra. 


THE  SHADOW  OF  THE  GUILLOTINE      63 

Hail  to  thee,  greetings  from  us  to  you,  all  hail  to 
thee  in  thy  gory  immortality,  O  Maximilian,  the  Stony 
Hearted  ! 63  You  have  what  your  pale-faced  double 
lacked,  according  to  Danton's  rough  saying.  Bismarck 
has  bequeathed  to  you  his  virile  vigour,  under  the 
sharp  hairless  edge  of  your  lips  you  have  also  the 
fangs  of  Bismarck's  mastiffs. 

But,  beware  ! — methinks,  I  see  a  red  line  round 
your  throat. 


XIV 

THE  PATRIARCH  OF  THE  "NINETY-THREE" 

To  His  Excellency  Ernest  Haeckel,  Professor  of  the 
University  of  Jena 

28rd  May  1915. 
Master, 

Before  conferring  immortality  on  the  "  Mani- 
festo of  the  Ninety-three  "  by  the  lustre  of  a  signature 
which  shines  out  above  all  the  others  as  a  sun  eclipses 
the  stars,  you  deigned  to  publish,  in  October  1914, 
in  Dr.  Carus'  Open  Court,  an  article  entitled 
"  England's  Bloodguiltiness  in  the  World- War."  By 
an  inconceivable  misfortune,  these  pages  from  the 
world-famous  pen  of  the  most  gifted  of  German  men 
of  science  failed  to  captivate  the  attention  of  Europe. 

Permit  the  most  humble  of  your  admirers  to  put  a 
stop,  however  late  in  the  day,  to  such  a  scandal,  and 
to  bear  the  echo  of  your  august  voice  to  the  ears  of  the 
allied  nations  for  their  confusion  and  for  their  good — 
I  mean  for  their  initiation  into  the  critical  methods 
of  that  Kultur  of  which  you  are  yourself  the  god. 

On  page  581,  line  3  :  M  The  Parliaments  and  the 
enemy  press  of  the  Triple  Entente,  the  English,  French, 
and  Russian  newspapers,  are  all  striving  in  vain  at 
this  moment  to  throw  the  whole  responsibility  for 
the  war  on  Germany ;  the  accusation  is  so  flagrantly 

64 


PATRIARCH  OF  THE  "NINETY-THREE"    65 

false  to  any  one  who  knows  the  facts  of  the  case  that 
it  needs  no  refutation." 

What  a  pity,  O  Master !  that  you,  who  are  so  well 
acquainted  with  these  facts,  have  not  refuted  the 
error  for  our  sakes,  who  are  the  dupes  of  ignorance ! 
But  the  Olympian  Oracle  is  sufficient  unto  itself. 
Kultur  dispenses  with  all  argument ;  and  the  more  so 
as  you  do  not  argue  yourself. 

On  page  582,  line  32  :  "  You  allow  that  the  invasion 
of  neutral  Belgium  by  the  German  troops  preceded 
England's  declaration  of  war  on  Germany." 

On  page  583,  line  30,  you  write  :  "On  this  day  " 
(4th  August) — with  Belgium  already  invaded — "  the 
fate  of  the  whole  world  hung  suspended  in  the  balance. 
It  lay  in  the  power  of  England,  of  her  Government, 
and  of  her  Parliament,  by  their  epoch-making  decision, 
either  to  cast  the  die  in  favour  of  Peace,  of  Justice, 
and  of  Right,  or  to  cast  it  in  favour  of  war,  and  sin, 
and  misery."  Bear  with  me  while  I  interpret  the 
meaning  of  the  oracle  to  the  dull  mind  of  the  civil- 
ised world:  " Justice  and  Right"  were  to  approve 
the  violation  of  Belgium  by  your  troops;  "Sin  and 
Misery"  were  to  oppose  it.  We  abase  ourselves  in 
silence  before  the  inscrutability  of  German  reasoning. 

I  will  proceed  with  our  initiation. 

On  page  584,  line  10  :  "  Serious  as  this  war  wrould 
have  been  for  us"  (against  Russia  and  France),  "we 
should  none  the  less  have  had  great  hopes  of  victory. 
But  by  England's  declaration  of  war  against  us  on 
4th  August,  the  political  and  strategic  situation  was 
altogether  changed.  Because  of  this,  by  England's 
fault  alone,  the  long-dreaded  European  War  is  trans- 
formed into  a  world-war  of  unprecedented  dimensions." 
5 


m  OPEN  LETTERS 

Gloss  for  the  benefit  of  the  barbarous  Allies  :  a 
war  which,  without  the  intervention  of  England,  only- 
set  fighting  a  wretched  twenty  millions  of  men — Ger- 
mans, Russians,  Austrians,  French,  Belgians,  Serbs, 
and  Montenegrins,  to  the  presumed  advantage  of 
Germany — that  was  only  "  small  beer,"  seeing  that 
Germany  tossed  off  the  whole  glassful.  The  abo- 
mination only  began  with  the  unseemly  action  of 
John  Bull,  who  came  and  dashed  the  glass  from 
her  lips. 

Master,  our  initiation  progresses.  In  order  to  allow 
every  one  the  wonder  of  seeing  how  German  science 
is  endowed  with  a  prescience  truly  divine,  I  will 
merely  note  your  announcement  on  page  586,  line  16, 
that  Germany,  for  her  victory,  could  count  on  "  the 
powerful  alliance  of  Canada  and  Ireland,  India  and 
Australia,  Egypt  and  South  Africa."  We  know,  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  that  all  these  colonies  have  levied 
armies,  as  you  prophesied.  No  doubt  it  was  the 
Wilhelmstrasse  that  told  you  they  were  levied  against 
their  wicked  stepmother,  England. 

And  so  I  come  at  last,  O  Master  !  to  the  pearl 
of  your  whole  casket,  to  the  sacred  jewel  of  your 
shrine,  which  I  draw  with  trembling  hands  from  the 
tabernacle  of  Kultur,  in  order  to  present  it  to  the 
crowd,  who  blink  in  dazzled,  mystical  contemplation. 

Peoples,  on  your  knees,  listen  all : 

On  page  581,  line  38  :  "  Russia,  who  at  the  beginning 
of  August  announced  the  attack  against  the  Triple 
Alliance  of  Central  Europe  and  was,  in  fact,  the  first  to 
declare  war  .  .  ." ;  and  on  page  584,  line  8,  for  it  is 
essential  that  the  fact  should  be  engraven  by  you 
with  a  second  notch  on  the  granite  of  eternal  history  : 


PATRIARCH  OF  THE  "  NINETY-THREE  "     67 

"  When  Russia,  in  the  beginning  of  August,  declared 
war  on  Germany"  9i 

0  Champion  of  Truth  !  0  Redeemer !  O  Victorious 
One  !  Under  your  liberating  thrust — you  new  Samson 
with  eyes  put  out — the  Temple  of  Lies  collapses,  built 
up  of  books  of  many  colours,  including  the  German 
White  Book,  where  we  read  that  fraudulent  inscription 
that  it  was  His  Majesty  the  Kaiser  who  declared  war 
on  the  Tzar.     (White  Book,  Appendix  26.) 

Master,  let  us  not  probe  this  mystery ;  were  you 
ignorant  of  the  circumstances  which  hurried  on  the 
war  ?  did  your  mistrustful  Kaiser  hide  them  from 
you  at  the  time  when  you  were  writing,  before  the 
confession  of  the  White  Book  ?  Did  you  hope, 
perhaps,  still  to  impose  by  your  simple  word  on  the 
naive  American  peoples  ?  What  matter !  what 
matter  ! 

You,  the  Father  of  the  "Ninety- three,"  the  Founder 
of  German  Science,  method  made  man,  the  critic  made 
god,  the  exactitude  of  infinite  detail  in  the  mag- 
nificence of  the  whole,  you  the  dethroner  of  Spinoza, 
the  overthrower  of  Hegel,  the  restorer  of  the  Valhalla 
of  the  Teuton  Great  God  Pan.  "  Your  Excellency 
Ernest  Haeckel,  Professor  of  Zoology  in  the  University 
of  Jena,"  you  have  raised  by  that  article  an  imperish- 
able monument  to  the  supreme  glory  of  Kultur — a 
monument  more  massive  and  more  overwhelming 
than  that  of  the  Battle  of  Leipzig  ! 


XV 

THE  SPAWN  OF  THE  "  NINETY-THREE  " 

To  Herbert  Eulenberg,  man  of  letters,  one  of  the  signa- 
tories of  the  Manifesto  of  the  Ninety-three 

1st  November  1914. 
In  what  incredible  company  do  I  meet  you  again,  my 
Colleague  !  All  that  gammon  under  your  signature, 
you  the  most  alert  of  all  the  adherents  of  "  Young 
Germany "  !  all  this  baseness  under  your  pledge, 
you  the  most  generous  of  poets  ! 

Do  you  remember  our  meeting  at  Dusseldorf — was 
it  three  years  or  three  centuries  ago  ?  Your  effusions 
took  my  breath  away,  your  praise  made  me  blush.  A 
local  newspaper,  no  doubt  inspired,  as  I  suspect,  by 
you,  declared  that  the  piece  a  Frenchman  had  just 
had  performed  at  your  theatre  "was  like  the  work  of 
a  German,  so  much  depth  did  it  reveal."  After 
the  curtain  had  fallen  the  frivolity  of  my  race  was 
rechristened  by  your  care ;  I  wras  inundated  with 
champagne  !  I  almost  rose  to  the  height  of  Kultur  ! 
Next  day  I  hung  a  wreath  tied  with  the  French 
colours  on  the  house  where  our  Heine,  proscribed 
in  Prussia,  was  born — the  stern  eye  of  the  police  was 
on  me,  and  you  gave  the  signal  for  sly  applause. 
Two  days  after  I  was  your  guest  at  Kaiserswerth. 

68 


THE  SPAWN  OF  THE  "  NINETY  THREE"    6) 

What  a  revelation  of  the  most  acute  intellectual 
modernism !  In  sight  of  the  Rhine,  which  seemed 
taking  flight,  as  if  it  no  longer  felt  at  home,  under 
the  shade  of  an  old  embattled  Gothic  tower,  which 
looked  like  a  dowager  suddenly  landed  in  the  giddy 
throng  of  a  dancing  saloon — you  opened  to  me  your 
republican  heart.  What  do  I  say  ?  Republican  ? 
Socialist !  What !  Socialist  ?  Anarchist !  I  was 
ashamed,  I  assure  you,  to  utter  in  your  presence  my 
halting  scraps  of  old-fashioned  preachments,  like  a 
bourgeois  with  goggles  and  an  umbrella  in  the  time 
of  Louis  Philippe,  appearing  awkwardly  embarrassed 
before  the  Mephistopheles  of  the  insurrection.  But 
the  game  with  the  apple  especially  roused  my  enthu- 
siasm. Do  you  remember  the  game  with  the  apple  ? 
You  were  walking  through  the  village,  and,  holding 
at  arm's  length  an  apple  to  a  string  of  urchins,  you 
exclaimed,  "  Whoever  wants  it  must  shout,  4  Long 
live  Democracy !  Long  live  Universal  Suffrage ! 
Down  with  the  Government ! '  "  You  spoke,  they 
shouted,  and  carried  off  the  apple.  As  for  me,  I 
poked  my  little  finger  in  my  ear,  to  make  sure  that 
I  was  not  deceived  by  some  buzzing  in  it.  "  Long 
live  Universal  Suff  .  .  ."  "Long  live  Demo  .  .  ." — 
Ye  gods  !    "  Down  with  the  Government !  " 

To-day  I  read  the  manifesto  over  again.  Oh,  my 
dear  friend,  what  a  terrible  dry  wag  you  are  !  As  I 
cannot  for  one  moment  imagine  that  you,  one  of  the 
young  German  party,  thought,  by  mixing  yourself  up 
with  this  illustrious  throng,  to  obtain  for  yourself  a 
place  on  the  top  of  the  official  coach,  I  am  reduced  to 
conclude  that  the  explanation  of  this  complicity  lies 
in  some  fierce  irony. 


70  OPEN  LETTERS 

Only,  Herbert  Eulenberg,  you  must  pardon  me  if 
I,  who  formerly,  like  the  youngsters  of  Kaiserswerth, 
bit  the  apple  you  offered  me,  the  sour  apple  of  the 
Liberalism  of  "  Young  Germany,"  now,  in  the  presence 
of  bystanders,  I  spit  out  the  pips  in  your  face. fiB 


XVI 

THE   ACCUSER   ACCUSED 

To    Monsieur   X ,    author   of    the    German    book 

"  J' Accuse"  published  in  Switzerland 

1st  June  1915. 
Sir, 

The  charges  which  you  have  just  made  against 
your  country,  Germany,  add  yet  more,  if  that  is 
possible,  to  the  formidable  volume  of  crime  collected 
by  civilised  humanity.  These  words  are  not  in  the 
nature  of  praise,  they  are  a  statement  of  fact — nothing 
more. 

For  in  truth  you  must  be  told  that  your  book, 
though  of  rare  critical  power,  as  a  moral  force  is 
worthless.  I  would  go  further,  and  say  that  the 
underhand  way  in  which  it  has  been  placed  before 
the  public  cannot  fail  in  some  measure  to  damage 
the  author's  character,  and  at  the  same  time  his 
authority.  The  title  you  have  borrowed  was  fol- 
lowed once  by  a  name,  and  was  paid  for  by  a  year 
of  exile."  In  this  immeasurably  greater  contest, 
who  are  you  who  bring  forward  these  accusations  ? 
Who  is  the  witness  at  the  bar  appearing  to  blacken 
his  whole  country's  name  ?  No  one ;  only  an  un- 
signed letter  of  300  pages.     You  know  the  fate  of 

71 


72  OPEN  LETTERS 

such  documents  :  torn  up  with  a  gesture  of  scorn 
they  are  trampled  under  the  table.  Such  a  gesture 
Germany  might  well  feign,  and  with  some  show  of 
justice,  out  of  the  depths  of  her  hypocrisy.  If,  still 
in  disguise,  your  book  insinuates  itself  into  Germany, 
all  its  clear  vision  will,  through  lack  of  courage,  be  but 
a  gleam  without  heat ;  it  will  touch  no  one,  it  will  prove 
sterile,  it  will  lack  personal  magnetism.  Possibly  you 
may  influence  men's  opinions,  you  will  never  induce 
conversion.  But  is  not  your  whole  object  by  illumining 
men's  wits  to  blow  their  consciences  to  a  white  heat  ? 
For  the  realisation  of  your  ideals,  which  may  seem 
Utopian,  but  are  none  the  less  the  only  hope  of  re- 
establishing a  normal  Europe  on  the  day  when  Right 
has  conquered,  there  is  one  essential  condition  :  in 
order  that  Germany  may  be  admitted  again  into  the 
society  of  civilised  nations;  in  order  that  we  may 
cease  from  our  righteous  hatred  and  may  after  the 
war  live  side  by  side  as  neighbours  and  not  as  men 
armed  with  pitchforks  at  the  mouth  of  a  wild  beast's 
lair,  Germany,  sobered  from  her  pride,  must  be  in- 
spired with  a  twofold  anger — anger  of  shame  against 
herself  and  anger  of  hatred  against  her  rulers.  For 
this  books  are  not  wanting,  crammed  with  every 
proof  of  crime.  She  waits  for  no  secret  revolution, 
but  for  a  leader  who,  rising  up  in  protest,  will  by 
his  example  stir  the  crowd  to  raise  their  myriad  arms 
for  vengeance.67 

Between  Truth  and  you  the  exchange  up  till  now 
has  been  unequal.  From  her  you  have  received  the 
bitter  joy  of  discovering  what  she  is,  and  a  spiteful 
pleasure  in  whispering  it  abroad.  And  so  far  you 
have  made  her  no  return,  for  by  cautious  service 


6 


THE  ACCUSER  ACCUSED  73 

you  contribute  nothing  to  her  triumph.  Truth,  like 
all  the  deities,  awaiting  her  incarnation,  lives  only 
through  our  sacrifices,  shines  only  through  our  wounds. 
Far  from  my  lips  be  the  facile  suggestion  that,  re- 
maining in  Germany  and  proclaiming  in  the  same 
breath  the  truth  and  your  name,  you  should,  tied  to 
the  stake,  submit  to  the  cruel  gaze  of  twelve  mausers. 
Only  those  who  are  martyrs  themselves  might  give 
such  counsel  to  their  rivals  of  the  future.  The  pity  is 
that  they,  having  already  given  their  lives  for  their 
cause,  are  no  longer  here  to  speak.  No,  my  regrets 
are  less  daring.  Apart  from  your  life  there  were  your 
goods,  your  means  of  livelihood,  your  visions  for  the 
future,  and  your  sad  but  passionate  attachment  to 
the  faithless  fatherland  ;  these  are  the  treasures  you 
should  have  forfeited,  casting  them  to  the  tempest  to 
force  the  winds  to  hearken  to  truth.  How  proud  was 
the  part  offered,  and  how  unique  in  the  annals  of  man  ! 
From  your  place  among  the  minor  figures  you  would 
have  passed  straight  into  the  supreme  sphere  of 
history.  You  would  have  been  the  first  to  raise  up 
the  old  Germany  buried  under  a  mass  of  iniquity  ;  the 
first  to  dictate  to  your  brothers  the  words  of  the  great 
repentance ;  the  first  to  restore  to  them  their  title  of 
men;  and,  a  benefactor  to  all  nations,  you  first 
would  have  set  in  motion  for  the  future  the  only  means 
of  attaining  a  deep-springing,  all-pervading  peace. 

But,  you  will  ask,  "  What  should  I  do  to  win  for 
myself  such  honour  ?  " — Rise  from  amongst  your 
people,  and  gather  together  your  household  gods,  like 
an  outcast  leading  by  the  hand  your  wife  and  children ; 
throw  down  your  mask  on  the  boundary-stone,  saying 
as  you  crossed  the  frontier,  "  Truth,  I  name  myself 


74  OPEN  LETTERS 

and  make  my  confession  aloud  before  you,  that  my 
summons  may  ring  in  the  ears  of  my  people,  swelled 
by  the  tears  of  my  sacrifice.  .  .  .  Before  thee  I  stand, 
my  life  is  broken,  I  am  helpless,  poor  and  naked  as 
thyself." 

She  would  have  clothed  you  with  her  glory.68 


XVII 
WILLIAM  TELL  WITHOUT  THE  APPLE 

To  M.  Roger  Bornand,  Mondon  (Switzerland) 

15th  June  1915. 

My  dear  Friend  and  Colleague, 

•  •  •  •  • 

I  admit  that  the  feeling  of  pride  which  I  cherish 
with  regard  to  Switzerland,  my  native  land  and  often- 
times my  chosen  residence,  is  undergoing  much  mor- 
tification. From  the  very  earliest  days  of  the  war  this 
devotion  was  put  to  the  test.  I  expected,  on  the 
morrow  of  the  crime,  to  see  break  out  on  the  part  of 
your  compatriots — of  the  Germans  more  than  of  the 
others — a  moral  revolt,  a  conscientious  protest  which, 
all  the  more  exalted  because  arising  in  a  little  nation, 
would  be  recorded  in  epic  history  :  what  glory  Switzer- 
land missed  that  day  ! 

Was  not  the  cradle  of  modern  liberty  carved  out  of 
the  rock  on  the  banks  of  the  lake  of  glaciers  ?  69  Is  not 
this  war,  decreed  by  the  Gessler  of  the  Nations,  who 
aimed  at  having  his  helmet  saluted  by  the  whole  world, 
a  war  of  democracy,  of  liberation,  of  ennoblement,  even 
for  those  among  us  do  not  know  their  own  strength, 
even  for  our  enemies  who  are  calling  to  us  ?  For  us  is 
it  not  a  holy  and  pure  war,  firing  the  heart  of  the  most 

75 


76  OPEN  LETTERS 

timid,  leaving  the  pacifists  without  remorse ;  a  war 
so  grand  in  the  midst  of  its  horrors  that  it  seems  as 
if  it  were  the  work  of  a  god  ?  Finally,  is  not  this 
"  scrap  of  paper,"  that  is  being  torn  up,  the  Helve- 
tian charter  ?  and  is  not  Switzerland's  independence 
at  stake  on  the  Yser,  Antwerp  answering  you  from 
Zurich  ?  .  .  .  Alas  !  thought  I  in  confusion,  Belgium 
that  we  abased  dethrones  Switzerland  that  we  exalted. 
Instead  of  crying  out  to  her  sister  :  "  Stand  firm  !  " 
Switzerland  whispers  her  :  "Be  silent !  "  Weary  of 
lifting  up  their  arms  with  sacramental  gesture,  the 
three  heroes  of  Grutli,  at  the  call  of  their  violated 
sister,  have  stuck  their  hands  in  their  pockets.  It  only 
remains  to  drape  with  crape  Schiller's  rock  at  Altdorf, 
which  rises  in  the  middle  of  stagnant  water.  .  .  . 

This  is  what  I  should  write  to  you  if  I  did  not  refrain 
from  doing  so  because  I  cannot  bring  myself  to 
believe  it. 

And  now  this  is  what  I  add  to  it,  in  all  joy  and 
pride,  addressed  to  you  and  all  my  SwTiss  friends  : 

It  is  to  your  undying  honour  that  the  only  neutral 
government  in  the  world  that  has  dared  to  condemn 
the  German  Empire  for  its  violation  of  Belgium  is  the 
Swiss  Federation,  through  the  voice  of  Henri  Fazy, 
the  Father  of  its  Parliament.70 

For  a  moment,  Mont  Blanc  was  obliged  to  com- 
plain of  the  Jungfrau,  who  persisted  in  putting  on  her 
cap  of  mist  in  order  to  keep  off  the  sun's  rays.  But 
with  how  vigorous  a  hand  did  Spitteler  disperse  the 
clouds  and  restore  her  former  splendour  !  Thanks 
to  him,  the  honour  of  this  German  Switzerland  shone 
more  clearly  than  before  !  The  old  bard  has  justified 
his  prophetic  name?  which  means  a  summit11    He  has. 


WILLIAM  TELL   WITHOUT  THE  APPLE     77 

in  fact,  raised  himself  to  a  great  height  by  the  steep 
pathway  of  a  sacrifice,  to  which  a  poet  is  always 
sensitive,  that  of  thousands  of  his  Teutonic  readers 
who  will  drag  his  verses  in  the  mire.  Noble  crowning 
of  a  long  life  !  To  set  a  seal  on  his  work  by  an  action, 
to  exchange  glory  for  truth,  to  perform  a  chivalrous 
deed  for  a  whole  people  ! 

Helvetia  therefore  is  unanimous,  speaking  only  one 
language,  that  of  humanity  ;  hoping  for  the  triumph 
of  only  one  cause,  that  of  Justice,  which  it  is  needless 
to  name.  Thus  I  find  myself  free  to  tell  you  a  very 
funny  story.  You  are  not  unaware  of  the  existence 
of  Sylvania,  that  charming  country  as  large  as 
Switzerland,  and  whose  free  institutions,  no  less  than 
its  natural  beauties,  are  scarcely  inferior  to  those  of 
your  country.  Now,  one  of  its  citizens,  a  certain  M. 
Fulistro,72  whom  chance  made  a  witness  of  the  bucolic 
entry  of  the  Germans  into  Louvain,  took  it  into  his 
head,  on  returning  to  his  own  country,  to  tell  the 
story  to  his  fellow-countrymen  and  to  show  them 
some  photographs.  Luckily,  "  Mother  Wolff "  and  her 
cubs  were  on  the  watch.  Even  in  Sylvania?  Yes, 
Sir,  she  had  the  lecture  prohibited,  or,  at  least,  she 
claimed  to  have  done  so.  Perhaps  M.  Fulistro  will 
even  have  to  pay  a  fine  for  having  been  in  Belgium, 
when  the  Germans,  as  we  know,  were  received  by  a 
deluge  of  flowers.  What,  you  will  say,  is  Sylvania 
no  longer  a  free  country  ?  And  to  relate  what  has 
been  seen  on  such  and  such  a  day  at  such  and  such 
a  place,  and  to  show  photographic  proofs  of  it,  is  an 
offence  against  the  constitution  ?  Tell  that  to  your 
granny,  my  dear  Wolff's  Agency !  Those  are  so 
many  clumsy  weary  old  wives'  tales,  concocted  by 


78  OPEN  LETTERS 

candle-light  in  your  offices.  I  know  Sylvania,  and  I 
can  tell  you  what  her  conception  of  neutrality  is. 
It  is  this  :  Impartiality  of  the  government  towards 
all  the  belligerents,  liberty  for  all  citizens  to  form  their 
own  judgment  according  to  their  conscience.  And  you, 
hypocrites  (I  am  speaking  to  Mother  Goose's  knaves), 
you  want  to  tell  me  that  the  neutrality  of  the  State 
ought  to  neutralise  the  individual  in  the  exercise 
of  all  his  moral  prerogatives  as  of  all  his  physical 
functions  ?  They  are  to  be  neither  men,  nor  women, 
nor  clodhoppers.  Neither  for  the  Germans,  nor  for 
the  French.  Neither  for  Justice,  nor  for  Infamy. 
Such  ideas  are  stopped  at  the  frontier.  It  is  forbidden 
to  speak,  to  write,  to  think,  or  to  know.  All  news  is 
impounded  at  the  Custom-house.  The  battle  of  the 
Marne  ?  A  gross  exaggeration.  The  Lusitania  ? 
Know  nothing  of  it.  The  war  of  1915  ?  Humbug  ! 
Sylvania  is  "  neutral,"  you  understand  ?  Isolated, 
cut  off,  removed  from  the  world.  The  Isle  of  Apathy 
in  lukewarm  water.  I  assure  you  that  it  is  worth  a 
journey  to  see  it  all.  People  used  to  come  to  admire  her 
eternal  snows  before  they  were  not  melted,  they  will 
now  come  to  contemplate  the  "  neutral,"  the  latest 
product  of  her  cheese-making  industry,  as  soon  as 
the  phenomenon  is  complete :  he  is  blind,  deaf, 
dumb,  one-armed,  without  legs,  sexless,  cretinised, 
strait- jacketed,  and  double-locked  in  the  cell  of  white- 
livered  Jerry  Sneak.  .  .  . 

Did  not  I  tell  you  that  Wolff's  jokes  were  clumsy  ? 
....  All  the  same,  go  and  take  a  trip  to  Sylvania  and 
tell  me  how  things  really  look  there  now.  I  fancy  I 
can  hear  you  from  afar,  you  Swiss  people,  jeer  at  the 
idea  of  such  a  regime  !    Go  on  laughing,  you  happy 


WILLIAM  TELL   WITHOUT  THE  APPLE     79 

people;  laugh,  laugh  till  your  sides  split;  roar  with 
laughter  like  free  men. 

P.S. — Could  you  put  your  hand  on  a  picture  post- 
card, published  in  Switzerland,  where  it  had  a  great 
run  a  few  years  ago,  at  the  time  of  the  Kaiser's  visit  ? 
It  represented  him  conversing  in  this  wise  with  one  of 
your  little  soldiers  : 

"  How  many  men  are  there  in  the  Swiss  Army  ?  " 

"  Three  hundred  thousand." 

"  And  if  I  brought  double  as  many  against  you  ?  " 

"  Each  man  would  fire  twice." 

In  Switzerland  it  is  neck  or  nothing,  and  as  to  your 
censorship  it  knows  how  to  wink  with  one  eye.78 


XVIII 

THE    PARTHENON   MINUS    MINERVA 

To  Professor  Diomedes  Kyriacos,  The  University, 
Athens 

10th  July  1915. 
Honoured  Sir, 

On  finding  among  my  father's  correspondence 
the  noble  letters  that  you  exchanged  with  him  at 
the  time  of  his  visit  to  Greece,  I,  in  my  turn,  cannot 
refrain  from  addressing  these  lines  to  you  in  memory 
of  that  friendship. 

I  also  experience  the  tender  emotion  of  feeling 
within  myself,  as  it  were  the  soul  of  the  dead  struggling 
through  me  to  speak  to  this  Greece  that  he  loved  so 
well ;  to  this  Athens  that  heaped  such  honours  upon 
him,  like  one  of  its  orators  of  old  ;  to  your  sovereign, 
King  Constantine,  whose  pious  mother  sent  to  the 
pilgrim  on  his  return  to  France,  in  token  of  her 
special  regard,  a  little  Greek  Testament,  a  precious 
relic  among  my  many  books. 

What  a  unique  privilege,  Monsieur,  has  fallen  to 
your  people  !  To  have  no  need  to  translate  St.  John, 
to  have  no  need  to  translate  Homer  !  To  hold  in  your 
own  hands  the  direct  deposit  of  the  double  moral 
tradition  that  has  constituted  the  glory  of  the  West : 

80 


THE  PARTHENON  MINUS  MINERVA       81 

the  spirit  of  justice  emanating  from  Judea,  the  spirit 
of  science  radiating  from  Athens  ! 

And  here  are  the  world's  destinies  about  to  be  at 
stake  once  more  at  your  gates.  And  here  History, 
that  logical  muse,  is  bringing  back  the  epic  to 
the  same  shores,  rebuilding  the  wall  of  Themistocles 
before  the  eternal  menace  of  the  Medes,  making 
Greece,  ideal  sanctuary,  the  real  centre  of  the  im- 
mense battle  of  the  twentieth  century,  as  if  these 
places,  thrice  sacred,  had  kept  the  privilege  of  absorb- 
ing all  human  grandeur  for  ever  ! 

But   what    infamous    rumours,    what    blasphemy, 
propagated  in  the  land  of  the  Cimbri,  come  to  freeze 
our  ardour  !   The  Iliad  is  to  be  revived,  and  Greece  is 
no  longer  in  it !    On  Troy's  shores  as  well  as  on  those 
of  Quarto,  under  the  liberating  shells,  "  the  tombs  burst 
open,  the  dead  arise,"  and  the  Greeks  flee  at  the  call 
of  Achilles.74     What !    if  these  calumnies  are  to  be 
believed,  the  flanks  of  the  insidious  horse,  sent  this 
time  by  the  Medes  to  the  Greeks  and  dragged  into  the 
heart  of  the  Acropolis,  are  filled  with  barbarian  emis- 
saries who  spread  themselves  over  the  city  by  night ! 
Has  Ephialtes  any  descendants  ?    Marathon,  Salamis, 
Platsea,  these  victories  of  intelligence  like  our  battle 
of  the  Marne,   are  they  this  time  won  and  turned 
against  the  Greeks  ?    Admit,  if  such  rumours  reach 
them,   admit  that  Miltiades   and  Leonidas   tremble 
with  rage  in  Pluto's  realm.  .  .  .  Now  I  dare  no  longer 
raise  my  eyes  to  my  library  shelves,  for  fear  that  my 
little   Evangelion   has   been  transmuted,  maliciously, 
into  a  copy  of  the  Koran  translated  into  a  Hamburg 
Greek,  and   bearing   the  imprint  of  Mohammed-El- 
Guilhoum  !    What  a  taste  of  bitter  irony  would  your 
6 


82  OPEN  LETTERS 

immortal  fables  possess  for  you  !  Those  who  allow 
themselves  to  be  lured  into  the  haunt  of  the  imperial 
Circe,  let  them  think  of  the  sorry  figure  that  her  guests 
will  cut  in  history  !  And,  in  cruel  contrast  with  a 
time  when  even  the  animals  of  Greece  had  more  in- 
telligence than  the  barbarians,  when  the  graceful 
dolphins  of  Attica  laughed  at  the  shipwrecked  monkey 
who  took  Piraeus  for  a  man,  woe  to  Piraeus  if,  in  its 
turn,  it  confounded  men  with  brutes  in  the  wreck  of 
your  ideal ! 

Ah  !  if  through  some  trick  of  fate,  some  treason 
of  destiny,  these  Cimbri  spoke  true ;  if  She  who 
was  doubly  our  Mother  in  giving  us  the  light  of 
intelligence,  expiring  each  time  in  her  tragic  labour 
to  be  re-born  immediately,  still  more  dear,  to  the  mur- 
mur of  our  blessings  (restored  to  life  when  the  Roman 
boor,  leaning  over  her  to  despoil  her,  received  the 
dazzling  brightness  of  his  victim  and  illuminated  the 
whole  world  ;  n — restored  to  life  when  the  Turkish 
brigand,  trampling  on  her  at  Byzantium,76  scattered 
her  last  crowns  to  the  winds  of  the  Mediterranean  as 
far  as  the  skies  of  distant  Florence,  who  inherited  from 
her  the  magic  of  grace,  in  the  miracle  of  a  new  dawn) 
— yes,  if  Greece,  fruitful  so  many  times  by  her  trials, 
victorious  so  oft  over  her  conquerors,  yielded  this  time 
without  a  struggle ;  refused  the  supreme  test ;  was 
afraid  of  her  glory  ;  disowned  her  race,  disowned  her 
work — the  sun  disowning  light ! — if,  in  short,  the 
miracle  of  Greece  was  effaced  by  the  scandal  of  Greece, 
and,  if  at  the  hour  when  the  cannon  of  the  Dardanelles 
reawakens  with  its  warning  echo  your  great  but 
slumbering  hopes,  the  world  had  to  see  this  mon- 
strous   thing — the    fallen    grandchildren    of  Pericles 


THE  PARTHENON  MINUS  MINERVA       83 

kissing  the  marks  of  the  Turkish  shots  on  the  dese- 
crated walls  of  the  Parthenon,  then,  on  that  fateful 
night,  would  be  heard  the  sublime  shout :  Arise  ye 
dead  !  (Debout  les  morts  !)  Arise,  soldiers  of  Europe 
who  once  fought  the  sacred  battles  of  the  Palladium, 
of  Navarino,  of  Missolonghi,  of  the  Morea  !  Arise,  ye 
poets  whose  burning  lines  were  thrown  broadcast  into 
the  battle  in  which  one  of  them  threw  his  life  ;  arise 
Byron,  Chateaubriand,  Hugo,  Lamartine,  Dela- 
vigne  !  That  the  sanctuary  of  Athens  should  not  see 
the  obscene  triumph  of  Thor,  all,  in  that  darkness, 
with  all  their  strength,  would  dismantle  the  august 
ruin  and  rain  down  its  last  avenging  stones  upon  the 
faithless  city  ! 

But  wrhat  a  mad  dream  have  I  dreamed  !  What  a 
shameful  nightmare  is  dispelled  !  The  good  king 
Constantine  is  recovering,  the  great  Venizelos  smiles. 
.  .  .  And  I  think  of  those  women  of  Asiatic  Greece 
who,  last  spring,  at  the  report  of  a  French 
disaster,  ran  in  crowds  to  the  shore  and,  piercing  the 
air  with  their  mournful  dirge,  cast  on  the  waves  of  the 
Hellespont  flowers  bathed  in  their  tears  as  an  offering 
to  the  dead  mariners  of  the  Bouvet,  while  the  ship's 
shattered  hull  drifted  by  them  out  to  sea.  ...  A 
graceful  act,  linking  the  past  with  the  future  !  A 
fragrant  offering,  wafted  by  the  breezes  and  borne 
over  the  seas,  over  mountain  tops  and  continents, 
away  yonder,  towards  the  wide  grey  plain,  where  it 
rests  tenderly  on  the  brows  of  all  our  heroes  of  France 
who  have  fallen  on  the  Thermopylae  of  Flanders  in 
defence  of  the  immortal  Cause.  .  .  . 

The  women  have  brought  the  flowers,  the  men  will 
bring  the  swords." 


XIX 

THE    CANDID    HYPHENATED 

To  Doctor  Paid  Cams,  Director  of  "  The  Open  Court," 
Chicago  78 

23rd  May  1915. 
Dear  Dr.  Carus, 

I  look  upon  you  as  the  type  of  a  man  of  honour, 
as  a  man  whose  mind  is  of  the  very  freest — a  Pan- 
theist born  of  the  Scriptures,  extending  benevolence 
beyond  all  created  beings,  to  every  atom  of  the  uni- 
verse ;  in  short,  a  man  of  the  kindest  and  least  war- 
like nature  in  the  world.  You  were  my  parents' 
very  dear  friend  ;  you  remained  that  of  the  family, 
even  going  so  far  as  to  hasten  to  offer,  you  a  German- 
American  by  birth  and  education,  your  mite  in  aid  of 
the  home  for  military  convalescents,  soldiers  returned 
from  the  front,  which  my  wife  has  installed  in  her 
house.  This  act,  like  many  others,  does  you  credit, 
and  I  owe  you  the  expression  of  my  hearty  esteem. 

But  I  also  owe  you  my  reflections  on  the  extra- 
ordinary campaign  which  you  have  undertaken  with 
your  pen  in  the  United  States  since  the  beginning  of 
hostilities. 

If  my  memory  serves  me,  you  once,  many  years 
ago,  tried  barrack-life  in  your  native  country,  then 

84 


THE  CANDID  HYPHENATED  85 

emigrated  as  soon  as  possible,  to  the  great  relief  of 
your  whole  being,  to  a  land  of  freer  air,  to  escape 
from  the  asphyxiation  of  autocracy.  Years  pass,  the 
great  war  breaks  out,  and  you,  whom  we  thought — 
as  you  no  doubt  also  considered  yourself — to  belong 
to  world-wide  culture — I  mean  that  which  is  not 
confined  to  one  race — at  once,  instinctively,  mechanic- 
ally, resumed  the  position  of  the  Feldwebel  (sergeant) 
under  arms,  clicking  your  heels  together  and,  with  a 
whistle,  ordering  the  enrolment  of  all  hands,  of  all 
arguments,  of  all  the  most  telling  pleas  in  favour  of 
unbridled  Kaiserism,  to  make  them  file  past  with 
the  goose-step,  in  serried  columns,  in  your  American 
review,  which  only  yesterday  was  still  the  strictest 
critical  organ  of  the  most  fraternal  humanism. 

The  case  is  typical  and  has  an  historical  value. 

I  have  here  under  my  hand  one  of  your  first  war 
numbers,  and  I  am  forced  to  acknowledge  that  the 
German  propaganda  organised  in  the  United  States — 
I  only  refer  to  the  most  independent,  that  which  owes 
nothing  to  Herr  Dernburg — has  produced  nothing 
better  nor  more  complete.  On  the  cover,  with  the 
idyllic  legend  :  "  Peace,"  an  old  abandoned  cannon, 
twined  about  with  brambles  and  foliage,  in  the  bower 
of  the  Sleeping  Beauty,  an  obvious  symbol  of  Ger- 
many's pacific  dream  and  of  her  state  of  unprepared- 
ness  for  the  war  which  has  been  so  wickedly  forced 
upon  her.  Inside  the  magazine  a  profusion  of  superb 
illustrations,  how  eloquent  in  their  antithesis  :  old 
Nuremberg  asleep  in  its  tranquillity  like  Hans  Sachs 
over  his  emptied  tankard,  and  opposite  some  ugly 
sparrows  from  France,  those  aeroplanes,  you  know, 
that  bombarded  the   sacred  town  of  art  before  the 


86  OPEN  LETTERS 

declaration  of  war — in  the  German  communiquis  n  ; 
then,  impressive,  minatory,  a  photograph  of  the 
monumental  pyramid  of  the  Battle  of  Leipzig,  the 
whole  weight  of  Teuton  pride,  yesterday's  victory, 
to-morrow's  triumph  ;  then  a  fierce,  savage,  insolent 
Peter  the  Great,  brandishing  a  scourge — provoking 
the  retort  of  Bernhardi ;  next  a  delicious  first  view  of 
the  ruins  of  the  Castle  of  Heidelberg,  due  to  French 
infamy,  thus  revealed  for  the  first  time  through  you — 
justification,  "  before  the  letter,"  of  the  vandalisms  of 
Louvain  and  Rheims  ;  finally  (the  sting  is  in  the  tail) 
the  reproduction  of  two  pictures  by  Verestchagin — 
a  Russian,  gentlemen,  let  us  bow — one  depicting 
moujiks  shot  by  Napoleon's  troops,  the  other,  vener- 
able Parsees  tied  to  the  mouths  of  English  cannon  ; 
can  you,  after  that,  doubt  the  fragility  of  the  Triple 
Entente,  the  separate  peace  with  Russia  and  the  revolt 
of  India  ? 

As  to  the  contents  of  the  number,  it  would  be  cruel 
to  dig  them  up  after  the  lapse  of  seven  months.  You 
had  then,  I  must  say  it,  invited  my  wife  to  reply,  and 
she  handed  her  pen  to  me  ;  you  made  the  same  offer 
to  others,  who  exercised  it  in  The  Open  Court.  It  is 
only  just  to  place  this  on  record. 

Discreetly  and  with  confidence  I  relied  upon  the 
succession  of  events  to  furnish  me  with  a  refutation, 
Will  you  venture  to  maintain  that  I  was  wrong  ? 

Let  us  sum  up  : 

Premeditation  of  the  war,  from  1913,  by  Austro- 
Germany,  proved  (admissions,  in  the  Italian  Parlia- 
ment, by  the  little  suspected  Signor  Giolitti,  Herr  von 
Billow's  associate). 

No  effort  of  Germany's  to  advise  Austria  to  use 


THE  CANDID  HYPHENATED  87 

moderation  proved  {not  a  single  genuine  document  in 
favour  of  Germany  in  the  German  White  Book). 

Tzar's  persistent  and  sincere  appeals  to  the  Kaiser 
to  ward  off  the  catastrophe,  including  the  offer  to 
submit  the  dispute  to  the  Hague  Tribunal,  an  offer 
rejected  by  Germany,  proved  (telegram  from  the 
Tzar,  29th  July  1914,  authenticated  by  the  North 
German  Gazette,  5th  February  1915). 

Agreement  by  Austria  herself,  she  alone  being  con- 
cerned (30th  July),  thoroughly  to  discuss  the  Serbian 
question  directly  with  Russia,  proved  (Yellow  Book, 
104). 

Russia's  offer  thereupon  to  maintain  a  passive 
attitude  (31st  July),  provided  Austria  stops  the  march 
of  her  troops  in  Serbia,  although  continuing  to 
occupy  that  country,  and  acceptance  of  that  offer 
by  Austria,  who  informs  her  ally  Germany  of  it, 
whence  the  intervention  of  Germany,  who  seeing  war 
escape  her,  hurls  at  Russia  her  terrible  ultimatum 
rendering  war  inevitable,  proved  (Orange  Book,  67 
Blue  Book,  135).88 

Immediately,  violation  by  Germany  of  Belgian 
neutrality  in  defiance  of  the  "  scrap  of  paper  "  as  of 
the  rights  of  nations,  proved  (cynical  admission  by 
Chancellor  Bethmann-Hollweg  at  the  Reichstag  sitting 
of  the  4th  of  August,  long  before  the  pretended  dis- 
covery, at  Brussels,  of  pseudo-documents  relative  to 
an  Anglo-Belgian  military  convention).  Thereupon, 
treachery,  atrocities,  and  vandalism  of  all  sorts — every 
string  of  Nero's  lyre  vibrating  ;  the  whole  country  in 
flames  and  reeking  with  gore,  civilians  driven  before 
soldiery,  massacres  of  the  population,  who  would  have 
been  perfectly  justified  in  defending  themselves  by 


88  1  OPEN  LETTERS  * 

organised  resistance  (Article  3  of  the  Hague  Conven- 
tion) ;  amplification  of  method,  war  taxes,  ransom 
of  the  slaughtered  victim,  burning  of  the  Louvain 
Library,  burning  of  Rheims  Cathedral,  bomb  on 
Notre-Dame  de  Paris,  bombs  on  English  sea-side 
towns,  raids  by  Taubes  and  Zeppelins  of  all  sizes, 
torpedoing  of  neutral  cargoes,  fishing-boats,  even 
passenger  boats,  Falaba,  Lusitania,  without  warning 
and  without  rescuing  the  passengers  ;  in  addition, 
varied  interludes  of  incendiary  bombs,  villages  razed 
to  the  ground,  destruction  of  all  the  churches,  furni- 
ture, and  goods  of  various  kinds  carried  off  to 
Germany,81  whole  populations  deported,  treacherous 
pretences   of  surrender,    disguises  in  the  uniform  of 

our  armies,  bombardment  of  ambulances,  etc ; 

then  in  the  distance  muffled  accompaniment  of 
Deutschland  uber  Alles  by  the  allies  of  your  u  intel- 
lectuals," massacres  of  Serbian  women  by  Austrians,8' 
hecatombs  of  Armenians  by  Turkish  swords,83  etc, 
etc. ;  finally,  to  crown  all  these  splendid  achieve- 
ments, in  the  very  heart  of  the  European  battle-field, 
fireworks  of  German  chemistry,  burning  pitch,  flaming 
petrol,  apotheosis  of  Kultur,  carried  up  to  the  throne 
of  the  "  old  German  god  "  in  a  cloud  of  asphyxiating 
gas  ! 8i 

Result : 

The  loss  to  Germany  of  the  rare  sympathies  that 
she  still  retained  among  neutrals  ;  the  changed  atti- 
tude of  Scandinavia,  Holland's  fear,  the  awakening 
of  German  Switzerland  to  the  voice  of  Spitteler,  the 
impatience  of  Greece  and  the  Balkans,85  the  protest 
of  the  United  States  against  your  insolent  tutek 
age,   by  the   crushing   defeat    of  your  Germanising 


THE  CANDID  HYPHENATED  89 

candidate  for  the  mayoralty  of  Chicago — the  Kaiser's 
headquarters  —  then  a  chorus  of  indignation,  of 
stupor  and  rage  against  your  murderous  sailors,  the 
expulsion  of  Dernburg,86  the  menace  of  war,  the 
expulsion  of  Biilow,  the  Allies  strengthened,  Italy, 
disdaining  to  bargain  and  deciding,  for  all  nations, 
on  which  side  Justice  is,  rushing  into  the  fray, 
with  head  erect,  against  the  enemy  of  the  human 
race ;  in  fact,  literally  the  whole  world,  the  total  of 
the  thinking  element  of  the  terrestrial  globe,  rising  in 
disgust  and  anger  against  your  Germany,  a  moral 
blockade  for  a  hundred  years,  established  round  her 
by  herself,  a  circle  of  flame  from  her  devastations,  a 
circle  of  ice  from  our  scorn.     There  ! 

My  dear  Paul  Carus,  your  article  devoted  to  the 
war  on  the  morrow  of  its  outbreak  ended  with  these 
words  :  "  I  am  open  to  discussion,  and,  in  the  event 
of  my  changing  my  views,  I  undertake  to  acknowledge 
my  errors  frankly  and  without  hesitation." 

It  is  for  your  own  reasoning  powers  to  decide 
whether  that  hour  has  arrived.  Your  conscience  is 
sufficiently  honourable  to  keep  its  promise  to  day. 

In  this  expectation,  saluting  you  with  my  pen 
from  the  other  side  of  that  ocean  of  blood  with  which 
Prussia  has  inundated  the  world,  I  beg  to  transmit 
my  postscript  to  one  of  your  collaborators.87' 88 


XX 

A    YANKEE    OBJECTS    TO    DR.    WILSON 

Mr.  Whilbey  Warring,  American  Citizen,  to  the  Author 
of  "  Lettres  aux  Neutres  "  89 

New  York, 
3rd  October  1915. 
Sir, 

I  have  followed  with  great  satisfaction  in  La 
Revue,  edited  by  M.  Jean  Finot,  the  publication  of 
your  Lettres  aux  Neutres,  and,  without  having  the 
pleasure  of  knowing  you,  I  am  taking  the  liberty  of 
congratulating  you  upon  them. 

But  why  is  the  essential  letter,  on  the  attitude  of  the 
government  of  the  United  States  during  the  war, 
missing  ? 

It  is,  doubtless,  the  very  gravity  of  the  reproaches 
that  my  government  deserves  that  prevents  you  from 
formulating  them  ? 

I  admire  this  discretion,  but  I,  as  an  American 
citizen,  am  not  called  upon  to  observe  it. 

Undeceive  yourself,  however,  sir ;  you  had  not  to 
humour  the  susceptibility  of  my  compatriots  by  with- 
holding your  criticism.  According  to  the  estimate  of 
one  of  our  most  eminent  diplomatists,  Mr.  Choate, 
ninety  per  cent,  of  the  Americans  are  with  the  Allies, 

90 


A    YANKEE  OBJECTS  TO  DR.   WILSON     91 

body  and  soul.  Ninety  per  cent.,  there  is  no  doubt 
about  it,  think,  like  President  Roosevelt  (of  whom 
all  are  not  political  followers),  that  "the  United 
States  have  for  thirteen  months  played  an  ignoble 
rdle  among  the  nations  by  consenting  to  remain 
passive  spectators  of  the  wrongs  inflicted  on  the  weak, 
whom  we  had  sworn  to  protect,  and  in  looking  on  at 
our  own  citizens,  men,  women,  and  children,  being 
murdered  on  the  high  seas,  without  doing  anything 
ourselves." 

Ninety  per  cent,  approve  of  what  he  says  when  he 
adds  that  "  the  professional  pacifist  is  as  much  out  of 
place  in  a  democracy  as  the  coward." 

Ninety  per  cent,  subscribed  to  the  definition  of 
neutrality,  given  in  our  journal  Life :  "  the  most 
ignoble  work  of  God." 

Ninety  per  cent.,  in  short,  bow  with  a  sorrowful 
acquiescence  before  the  decision  of  our  greatest 
novelist,  Henry  James,  who,  as  Mr.  William  White 80 
declares,  has  become  a  naturalised  Englishman,  "in 
order  no  longer  to  bear  the  hundred-millionth  part  of 
this  responsibility  and  of  this  disgrace." 

Is  it  possible  that  all  the  neutral  governments  have 
not  understood  what  all  their  peoples  have  under- 
stood, namely,  that  the  Allies  are  fighting  for  all 
the  neutrals,  for  Holland,  for  Switzerland,  for  the 
Scandinavians,  for  the  Balkans,  for  the  United  States 
of  to-morrow  ? 9i  Is  it  possible  that  all  the  leaders 
responsible  for  the  honour  of  these  neutral  nations  do 
not  hear  pealing,  at  this  very  moment,  the  trumpet 
of  the  Last  Judgment,  the  supreme  appeal  of  the 
eleventh  hour?  And  do  they  not  know  that,  once 
this  judgment  of  History  is  pronounced,  they  will 


92  OPEN  LETTERS 

find  themselves  on  the  morrow  of  the  war  branded 
for  centuries  to  come  with  indelible  infamy  ? 

At  the  expense  of  our  government  especially,  whom 
its  principal  nurse,  Mr.  Bryan,  has  crippled  for  life, 
History  I  fear  will  be  terribly  ironical. 

Ah  !  what  a  pity  our  genial  Mark  Twain  is  dead  ! 
He  it  was  who  would  have  been  best  qualified  to  hold 
the  muse's  pen  and  write  a  la  blague  this  page  of 
Tacitus  revised  by  Swift. 

The  following  is,  in  the  main,  I  imagine,  how  he 
would  have  expressed  himself  (may  his  shade  forgive 
me  the  shortcomings*  of  the  form) : 

"  The  Great  War  having  broken  out  in  the  month  of 
August  1914,  the  government  of  the  Union  expressed 
its  great  displeasure,  not  that  it  particularly  objected 
to  see  Europe — and,  it  might  almost  be  said,  the  whole 
world — offer  a  spectacle  of  barbarism — barbarism  pro- 
viding a  good  return  for  the  business  of  third  parties — 
but  because  ten  millions  of  Germans  encamped  on 
the  soil  of  the  Republic,  it  appears,  froze  stiff  eighty 
millions  of  Americans. 

"  So  they  did  not  hesitate  to  do  their  duty.  As  all 
the  little  nations  not  involved  in  the  conflict  turned 
their  eyes  towards  Uncle  Sam  to  take  their  cue  from 
him,  Uncle  Sam  whispered  to  them  the  cowardly 
advice  which  at  once  circulated  round  the  world : 
6  Breathe  no  word  about  the  violation  of  Belgium, 
but,  as  if  by  accident,  lower  your  eyes  to  light  your 
cigarette,  I  mean  the  pipe  of  neutrality,  which  ab- 
solves you  from  having  seen  anything.'  The  little 
neutral  nations  needed  no  pressing;  squatting  in  Indian 
fashion  around  the  dead  ashes  of  American  idealism, 
they  started  a  smoking  competition,  each  vying  with 


A   YANKEE  OBJECTS  TO  DR.   WILSON     0:J 

the  other  in  inhaling  the  lucky  fumes  of  immorality 
to  send  to  sleep,  delicious  sleep,  the  last  scruples  of 
his  conscience.  It  was  Uncle  Sam  who  carried  off 
the  prize  for  drawing  most  patiently  the  strongest 
puffs  from  his  pipe,  to  such  an  extent  that  he  fell 
fast  asleep. 

"  Political  neutrality  was,  from  that  moment, 
reinforced  by  moral  neutrality,  a  patent  of  Uncle 
Sammy's  own  invention  :  all  the  rascalities  of  neutral 
states,  after  that,  were  only  the  fruits  of  his  example. 

"  This  impartial  ignorance  of  the  crime  did  not, 
however,  satisfy  the  pseudo-American  citizens  who 
had  brought  away  a  spiked  helmet  in  their  emi- 
grants' baggage,  and  had  stitched  to  the  leaves  of 
their  new  certificate  of  naturalisation  their  order  of 
moral  mobilisation  in  the  service  of  their  former 
country.92  They  pretended  that  the  most  stunning 
neutrality  demanded  that  American  opinion  should 
declare  itself  on  the  side  of  the  Kaiser.  And  they 
incontinently  undertook  the  most  formidable  of  pro- 
pagandas according  to  the  most  modern  of  recipes. 
Ten  million  Barnums  came  and  gesticulated  in 
front  of  the  cage  to  recommend  to  the  sympathy  of 
the  public  the  menagerie  of  Pangermanism.  News- 
papers were  created,  purchased,  and  trusts  formed  ; 
an  important  branch  of  Wolff's  Agency  was  installed 
in  the  United  States,  with  the  consent  of  the  federal 
authorities,  who  placed  at  its  disposal  the  official 
wireless  telegraph  station  at  Sayville.  More  than 
that,  what  had  never  been  seen  in  any  country,  at  any 
time,  a  second  German  ambassador  came  to  supple- 
ment the  first  at  Washington,  to  execute  more  espe- 
cially the  dirty  work  of  provocation.     And   at  the 


94  OPEN  LETTERS 

White  House  two  covers  were  laid.  This  furor 
Germano-Americanus  was  in  full  blast  a  whole  twelve- 
month. 

"  But  now,  quite  contrary  to  the  result  that  our 
good  Germans  had  expected,  first-rate  blunderers  in 
psychology  as  we  know  them  to  be,  this  shameless 
agitation  raised  up  against  them  the  whole  of 
American  opinion  in  a  compact  mass.  Eighty  mil- 
lions of  Yankee  doodles,  in  place  of  the  traditional 
'feather,'  stuck  a  French  flag  in  their  hats  to  spite 
the  German  ninny.93  And  from  the  banks  of  the 
Potomac,  the  Mississippi,  the  Colorado,  came  the 
most  fervent  wishes,  the  most  cruel  sarcasms,  the 
most  inflammatory  pamphlets  in  favour  of  the  Allies 
against  the  Barbarians.  Individually,  but  unani- 
mously, the  Americans  forsook  their  moral  neutrality : 
their  conscience  was  not  a  jelly-fish.  They  even  re- 
fused (is  it  not  almost  incredible  ?)  to  believe  that  the 
Belgian  Militia  had  invested  Aix-la-Chapelle. 

"  At  the  sound  of  these  protestations  the  dozing 
Uncle  Sammy  opened  his  eyes  and  resolved  on  action. 
Positively,  he  freighted  a  real  warship  to  carry  to 
Europe  an  expeditionary  army  of  dolls — a  touching 
Christmas  offering  to  the  little  orphans  of  all  the 
dead  soldiers,  of  those  who  had  burned  Louvain  as 
well  as  of  those  wrho  had  defended  it ;  and,  not 
daring  to  take  upon  himself  to  accuse  the  executioners 
of  poor  Belgium,  he  paid  out  of  his  own  pocket  the 
expenses  of  feeding  her  captive  sons.  Then,  trembling 
at  his  own  temerity,  he  consulted  his  almanac,  noted 
down  the  birthdays  of  all  the  heads  of  the  contending 
States  and  sent  them,  each  in  turn,  sire  Kaiser  served 
first,  the  same  telegram  of  encouragement.    When  this 


A   YANKEE  OBJECTS   TO  DR.   WILSON     95 

message  reached  the  unfortunate  Albert  in  his  troops' 
last  trench,  in  the  last  strip  of  territory  of  which 
they  were  disputing  the  possession  with  the  cynical 
vandals,  it  tactfully  included,  with  Sammy's  com- 
pliments, a  seasonable  and  touching  allusion  to  the 
plight  in  which  the  king  was  placed. 

4  Yet  the  American  Junkers  were  indignant  at  such 
evident  marks  of  partiality  for  the  Allies;  they 
adopted  underhand  methods,  subsidising  everywhere 
monster  strikes  to  dry  up  the  source  of  production 
of  which  they  could  not  capture  the  tide — all  which 
was  profoundly  sagacious.  As  they  had  done  with 
certain  journals,  they  also  attempted  to  '  trust '  the 
banks,  in  order  to  paralyse  their  transactions.  And 
it  must  be  admitted  that  this  new  method  was  better 
evidence  of  a  modern  conception  of  warfare  than  the 
1  420's.5  But  American  banks  and  industries,  in  a 
laudable  spirit  of  neutrality,  having  answered,  quite 
innocently,  that  they  held  themselves,  just  as  for  the 
Allies,  at  the  disposal  of  Germany,  provided  that  the 
latter  would  take  the  trouble  to  come  and  fetch  the 
goods,  the  Iroquois  of  Panteutonism  raised  a  great 
shout  of  anger.  It  is  said  that  for  a  moment  they  had 
thoughts  of  decreeing,  as  they  did  with  the  African 
Bedouins,  the  holy  war  of  the  last  Redskins.  In 
any  case  they  proceeded  to  take  strong  measures. 
Bands  of  armed  freebooters  were  mobilised  in  the 
territory  of  the  Union  to  invade  Canada.  A  railway 
viaduct  was  blown  up.  Munition  factories  were 
blown  up.  Cargoes  of  horses  were  blown  up.  A 
millionaire  even  was  almost  blown  up.84  And  in  all 
these  machinations,  all  these  attempts,  all  these 
murders,  was  found  the  hand,  not  even  gloved,  of 


&6  OPEN  LETTERS 

His  Excellency  the  Ambassador  of  the  German 
Emperor  at  Washington :  a  newspaper  has  proved 
it."     Uncle  Sammy  hastened  to  shake  that  hand. 

"  Assuredly  no  other  country  in  the  world,  not  even 
China,  would  have  suffered  a  foreign  government 
thus  to  foment,  organise,  direct  in  all  its  details 
civil  war  on  its  territory.  But  the  world  sees  clearly 
that  the  United  States  were  very  much  below  China, 
that  is  to  say,  very  much  below  nothing,  too  weak  even  to 
follow  the  example  of  the  republic  of  San  Marino 
[Central  Italy],  which,  with  no  flies  on  her  flag,  had 
declared  war  on  Germany.96  Uncle  Sammy  has  lost 
his  bristling  tuft  and  temper;  he  passed  his  fingers, 
as  if  to  consider,  over  his  neutral  shaven  chin,  and, 
screwing  up  his  courage  to  the  sticking-point,  decided 
that  he  would  dare  to  continue  to  hold  his  tongue, 
that  he  would  keep  at  Washington  the  ambassador 
of  his  friend  the  Kaiser,  and  the  peace  of  Christ  with 
all  the  world. 

'  You  will  be  astonished,  sir,  that  I  have  omitted 
to  tell  you  of  the  most  capital  joke  of  the  Germans, 
the  torpedoing  of  the  Transatlantic  liners.  I  have 
done  this  purposely  in  my  endeavour  to  take  the  hint 
of  your  cunning  Parisian  slang.  When  I  stayed  in 
Paris  I  was  always  hearing  bateaux  spoken  of.  You 
say,  I  think,  '  faire  monter  quelqu'un  dans  un 
bateau.5  97  Well,  the  Germans  have  not  ceased  to 
make  us  go  on  board  boats,  nor  to  send  all  these  boats 
to  the  bottom  of  the  sea.  That  is  why  I  kept  the 
story  of  the  boats  to  the  last :  because  it  is  not  nearly 
ended.  Ah  !  if  we  had  been  able  to  borrow  from  you 
the  Paris  boat,  nee  mergitur  1 98  Ours  alas  !  merguntur. 
...  I  am  wrong,  however,  to  lay  the  blame  on  the 


A    YANKEE  OBJECTS  TO  DR.    WILSON     97 

Germans.  Have  they  not  made  unheard-of  efforts 
to  spare  us  these  misadventures  ?  Did  not  Uncle 
Sam's  great  friend  through  the  agency,  if  you  please, 
of  his  ambassador  to  the  United  States  (who  said 
that  we  had  not  at  Washington  a  government  that 
governs  ?  We  have  the  German  government !),  did 
not  the  Kaiser  cause  to  be  inserted  in  our  news- 
papers an  official  note  enjoining  free  Americans  not 
to  embark  .  .  .  what  was  it  called  ?  .  .  .  Ah  !  I 
have  it :  the  Lusitania  !  .  .  .  not  to  embark  in  the 
Lusitania  ? 

"  Inconceivable  obstinate  folly  !  Damnable  vice  of 
insubordination  !  Our  Yankees  had  the  cheek  to  rely 
for  their  security  on  the  protection  of  international 
usage  and  on  the  formal  guarantee  of  their  national 
legislation  !  They  embarked  !  You  know  the  result. 
Spare  me  the  trouble  of  making  a  pathetic  evocation 
in  a  literary  style,  which,  I  am  aware,  has  long  gone  out 
of  fashion.  During  the  five  months  that  our  hundred 
and  fifty  compatriots  have  been  at  the  bottom  of  the 
sea — without  any  excuse  having  been  offered  to  them, 
without  any  settlement  of  their  case  having  been 
even  yet  arrived  at,  so  much  so  that  we  have  begun 
to  wonder  whether  in  the  mind  of  the  American 
government  it  was  not  the  Lusitania  that  torpedoed 
the  German  submarine — during  those  five  months 
that  have  elapsed,  the  aquatic  allies  of  Kultur,  the 
sharks,  have  had  ample  leisure  to  polish  up  the 
bones.  You  may  be  sure  that  the  skeletons  are  spick 
and  span,  decent  enough  to  be  ranged  in  rows  in  the 
United  States  pavilion  at  the  next  c  World's  Fair ' 
to  which  Berlin  will  invite  neutrals,  and,  in  the  mean- 
time, quite  worthy  of  being  lodged  in  the  White 
7 


98  OPEN  LETTERS 

House  which  Teddy"  calls  a  'whited  sepulchre.' 
One  hundred  and  fifty  American  victims,  what  a  trifle 
out  of  ninety  millions  that  we  number  !  And  then 
women  and  children,  what  meagre  game  in  the  total 
bag  !  There  was  in  the  whole  affair  but  one  vexa- 
tious loss:  I  mean  the  skin  of  that  millionaire101 
which  would  have  deserved,  for  the  Kaiser's  gratifica- 
tion, to  furnish  a  sumptuous  binding  for  the  golden 
book  of  the  German  navy. 

"  All  the  same,  at  the  polecat-screeches  uttered  by 
the  eighty  million  men,  proud  citizens  of  free  America, 
Sam  felt  his  tuft  sprout  afresh.  And  he  politely  sent  a 
Note  to  Germany.  Germany  told  Sam  to  go  fish.  He 
sent  another  Note.  Fresh  rebuff.  He  then  *  solemnly ' 
gave  warning  that  next  time  it  would  be  no  laughing 
matter.  The  reply  was  another  torpedoing.  He  then 
1  solemnly '  gave  warning  that  the  next  time  .  .  . 
Reply,  another  torpedoing.  He  then  '  solemnly ' 
gave  warning  that  the  next  time  .  .  .  Reply,  another 
torpedoing.  He  then  'solemnly,'  etc.,  etc.,  etc.101  I 
perceive  that  it  is  the  verb  monter  en  bateau  that  I 
am  conjugating  to  you.  Permit  me  to  stop  the  con- 
jugation, which  may  continue  indefinitely  so  long  as 
there  are  on  the  free  seas,  according  to  the  calculation 
of  von  Tirpitz,  a  single  German  to  brag,  a  single 
Yankee  to  tremble."102 

That,  sir,  is  what  I  should  have  liked  Mark  Twain 
to  write  to  relieve  my  feelings.  You  will  not  dare 
to  publish  this  letter,  which,  however,  reflects  very 
faithfully,  I  repeat  it,  the  sentiments  of  ninety  per 
cent,  of  American  Americans. 

Yours  sincerely, 

Whilbey  Warring. 


A   YANKEE  OBJECTS  TO  DR.   WILSON      99 

P.S. — What  a  noble  revenge  for  our  pride,  for 
our  honour,  for  our  strength  is  to  be  found  in  the 
glorious  memory  of  the  war  with  Spain!  It  was  a 
dangerous  thing  to  rub  up  against  us.  Was  it  not 
enough  that  the  Maine  was  sunk,  one  doesn't  know 
how,  for  us  to  throw  ourselves  with  an  intrepid 
courage  on  the  most  redoubtable  of  warlike  nations, 
on  the  daughter  of  the  Cid  Campeador  ?  And  this 
time,  ay  this  time,  in  this  great  European  war,  we 
drew  our  sword,  we  mingled  its  sparks  with  the  flashes 
from  the  swords  of  Right !  Who  speaks  of  our  pitiful 
abstention?  Two  masterly  diversions  accomplished 
by  us  on  the  flanks  of  the  enemy :  three  half-castes 
unhorsed  on  the  Mexican  frontier  and,  in  Haiti,  a 
negro  killed  ! 103     Oh  logic  of  the  Bryan  doctrine  ! 

W.  W. 


XXI 

THE  AUTHOR'S    PLEA   FOR   UNCLE    SAM 

The  Author's  Reply  to  Mr.  Whilbey  Warring 

15th  October  1915. 
Yes,  sir,  I  will  venture  to  publish  your  letter,  in 
deference  to  that  large  section  of  American  opinion 
of  which  you  claim  to  be  the  interpreter. 

But  how  unjust  you  are  in  your  bitter  recrimina- 
tions! I  admit  that  you  distinguish  between  the 
government  and  the  opinion  of  the  United  States. 
Yet  you  do  not  give  to  the  latter  all  the  credit  it 
deserves  ;  and  it  devolves  upon  a  Frenchman — after 
so  many  others — to  express  here  our  most  sincere,  our 
most  heartfelt  thanks  towards  your  compatriots.  In 
no  other  country  in  the  world  has  the  heart  of  the 
people  responded  more  strongly  to  the  extreme  anguish 
that  we  are  now  suffering.  In  no  other  country 
in  the  world  has  so  much  been  done,  materially,  for 
the  Allies.  The  heaps  of  gold  that  the  Americans 
have  poured  into  Belgium  almost  equal  the  heaps 
of  slain  that  the  war  is  raising  on  her  plains.  At 
the  moment  of  writing  it  is  a  loan  of  $500,000,000 
that  you  are  subscribing  for  us  with  enthusiasm — I 
might  almost  say  frenzy ;  for  if  the  English  Tommies, 
who  at  first  despatched  their  enemies  with  perfect 

100 


THE  AUTHORS  PLEA   $0R   UNCLE  SAM    101 

equanimity,  charge  them  now,  with  foaming  lips,  to 
the  furious  cry  of  Lusitania  ! — I  wager  that  each  one 
of  your  bankers  mutters  under  his  breath  those  very 
syllables  when  subscribing  his  part  of  the  loan.  Is 
not  that  a  practical  and  sure  way  to  avenge  the 
murder  of  your  women  and  children  ?  And  are  you 
not  aware  that  your  ambulances,  sir,  placed  at  the 
service  of  the  French  wounded,  are  palaces  where  pain 
is  received  with  royal  honours  ?  And  your  volunteers 
who  have  joined  our  ranks  ?  How  many  of  your 
fellow-citizens  have  they  had  facing  them  in  the 
German  army?104  And  the  daily  bread  assured  by 
you  to  the  Belgians  who  are  prisoners  in  their  own 
land,  can  you  speak  so  lightly  of  that  ?  It  is  all 
very  well,  no  doubt,  to  raise  shouts  of  admiration 
for  Belgium,  as  is  done  so  lavishly  in  every  civilised 
country,  and  I  think  even  in  savage  ones,  but  "a 
hungry  belly  has  no  ears  "  for  those  fine  shouts  of 
encouragement.  With  your  usual  practical  sense 
it  has  been  your  particular  care  to  think  of  the 
bellies,  of  the  pinched,  starved  bellies  of  these  heroes, 
and  your  active  admiration  has  prevented  those  who 
did  not  die  by  the  sword  from  dying  of  hunger. 
What  a  scathing  lesson  for  the  Barbarians  to  see  your 
Fraternity  leap  over  their  electric  wire  barriers  and 
penetrate  into  the  midst  of  the  gaol  to  save  their 
victims  from  their  clutches  !  I  assure  you  that  along 
with  the  English,  with  whom  you  are  preparing  in 
Belgium  the  work  of  final  deliverance,  you  are  indeed 
the  people  in  the  world  that  the  Germans  hate  the 
most. 

Therefore,    what   History   will   say,    sir,    speaking 
rather  in  the  manner  of  your  Mark  Twain,  is  that  the 


102  OPEN  LETTERS 

trials  ot  the  Allies  have  rilled  the  hearts  and  emptied 
the  pockets  of  the  generous  American  people.105 

But  our  gratitude  will  be  still  greater  when  we 
come  to  consider  wrhat  magnificent  moral  support  you 
have  given  to  our  cause.  Do  you  know,  sir,  that  the 
mere  enumeration  of  a  part  of  the  books  and  articles 
written  by  the  flower  of  your  intellectuals  to  the  glory 
of  our  good  Right,  is  enough  to  fill  two  pamphlets 
compiled  by  my  publisher  ? 10<J  From  the  book  by 
Mr.  Charles  Elliott,  a  former  President  of  Harvard,107 
to  that  by  Mr.  James  M.  Beck,  a  former  Attorney- 
General,  108  to  quote  only  one  of  the  first  and  one 
of  the  last  in  date,  it  is  such  an  uninterrupted 
and  abundant  production  of  indictments  against 
Germany  that,  to  house  all  these  volumes,  would 
require  nothing  less  than  one  of  the  new  rooms  of  our 
National  Library.  It  is  not  likely  that  the  Imperial 
Library  of  Berlin  will  devote  one  of  its  gala  rooms  to 
show  off  in  fine  style  the  evidence  of  the  American 
opposition.  It  will  content  itself  with  leaving  to 
moulder  in  its  garrets  the  very  extensive,  yet,  when 
it  comes  to  results,  very  limited  collection  of  your 
newspapers  subsidised  by  Messrs.  Dernburg,  Bern- 
storff,  Dumba  &  Co. 

There,  sir,  of  all  the  benefits  which  reach  us  from 
America,  during  the  war,  there  is  the  one  by  which 
Frenchmen,  sons  of  Minerva,  like  the  Athenians,  are 
most  touched  and  which  they  most  jealously  prize. 
As  she  has  given  us  her  heart,  America  gives  her  brain 
to  us  and  her  conscience  to  Truth.  The  judgment  of 
History  has  been  pronounced  ;  it  is  America  who 
has  pronounced  it.  It  is  in  America  that  the  tribunal 
of  the  modern  conscience  holds  its  court;  and  Ger- 


THE  AUTHORS  PLEA  FOR   UNCLE  SAM    103 

many  will  no  more  recover  from  that  spiritual  defeat 
inflicted  by  you  than  she  will  from  the  military 
defeat  which  we  forced  upon  her  on  the  Marne. 

Is  it  not  enough  to  say  that  we  are  Allies  ? 

Salut  done  et  fraternity  ! 


XXII 

A  YANKEE  AGAIN  OBJECTS  TO  DR.  WILSON 

Second  Letter  from  Mr.  Whilbey  Warring,  American 

Citizen 

Chicago, 
6th  November  1915. 
Sir, 

Your  reply  is  in  my  hands.  It  confirms  the 
amiable  qualities  that  we  recognise  in  the  French 
people :  "  A  kindly  feeling  unto  all  the  world,"  to 
quote  the  poet,  and  a  particular  affection  for  the 
Great  Republic  which  is  your  daughter.  I  will  add 
that  in  return  for  the  simple  help  of  charity  which 
some  American  individuals,  grouped  or  not  into 
associations,  have  sent  to  your  brothers  in  distress,  the 
gratitude  that  you  express  is  evidently  very  sincere. 
But  that's  not  to  the  point,  sir.  It  is  a  question  of 
justice  and  not  of  charity.  You  declare  that,  even  in 
this  respect,  by  the  moral  defence  of  your  cause,  the 
American  people  have  done  all  their  duty  by  you,  and 
that,  even  before  the  Peace  Congress,  the  United 
States  have  presided  over  the  congress  of  the  modern 
conscience  and  returned  a  verdict  in  your  favour.  All 
this  I  have  myself  told  you.  All  that  does  not  amount 
to  a  row  of  pins.  Why  try  to  dodge  my  arguments  by 
a  misconception  of  my  purport  ? 

104 


A  YANKEE  AGAIN  OBJECTS  TO  DR.  WILSON  105 

Since  by  borrowing  the  style  of  Mark  Twain  I  have 
not  been  fortunate  enough  to  convince  you,  I'll  have 
a  try  at  the  style  of  Bancroft,  our  great  defunct 
historian  : 

"  The  infamous  war  having  begun,  in  the  month 
of  August  1914,  by  the  dastardly  raping  of  Belgium, 
the  United  States  Government  did  not  hesitate.  In 
a  Note  drawn  up  by  Mr.  Bryan,  in  a  tone  as  moderate 
as  the  expressions  used  in  it  were  firm,  the  Great 
Republic  protested,  in  the  face  of  Germany  and  of 
the  whole  world,  against  this  abominable  crime  com- 
mitted at  the  expense  of  a  little  people  in  whom,  at 
the  same  time,  a  blow  was  aimed  at  the  entire  Society 
of  Nations. 

"  The  effect  of  this  Note  was  stupendous.  Neutrals 
in  the  political  sense,  all  the  smallest  non-belligerent 
States  ranged  themselves  at  once,  morally,  on  the  side 
of  the  armies  of  Right.  The  trial  of  Germany,  which 
the  conscience  of  nations  would  have  taken  months  to 
hear,  was  judged  within  twenty- four  hours,  the 
sentence  passed  without  appeal.  An  overwhelming 
weight  of  universal  reprobation  crushed  the  Kaiser's 
pride  to  the  ground,  and  his  most  devoted  Socialists 
discovered  in  themselves  a  sudden  compunction  about 
approving  of  this  war  of  aggression  as  they  were 
tempted  to  do.  Thus,  from  the  very  entry  into 
Belgium,  the  moral  force,  if  one  may  say  ?%  of  the 
invader  was  broken.  From  that  hour  not  a  day  passed 
without  increasing  the  uneasiness,  the  smothered  anger, 
and  soon  the  clear  protest  of  the  honest  and  better 
Germany  against  an  enterprise  of  rapine.  The  war 
monster  was  pregnant  with  revolution,  with  liberation 
for   the    aggressors    themselves.     The  paths    of  the 


106  OPEN  LETTERS 

future  were  opened  wide  to  the  Federation  of  the 
Peoples. 

"  Immediately,  following  in  the  footsteps  of  Wood- 
row  Wilson,  Pope  Benedict  himself  felt  spurred  to 
the  same  magnanimous  feat.  Jealous  at  seeing  a 
Puritan  clerk  despoil  him,  the  Vicar  of  Christ,  of  the 
honour  of  defending  the  cause  of  Justice,  the  Pope 
defined  the  cause  at  once,  for  all  the  consciences  of 
his  faithful  ones  ;  he  too  stood  up  nobly  against  the 
violation  of  a  little  people  among  whom  he  counted 
his  choicest  flock ;  he  inveighed  against  the  im- 
prisonment of  one  of  his  cardinals,  an  heroic  soul, 
worthy  of  the  martyrs  of  the  Neronian  epoch,  and 
branded  in  burning  words  the  assassination  of  Belgian 
priests  by  troops  composed  for  the  most  part  of  a 
soldiery  of  his  faith. 

"  This  time  the  effect  was  enormous.  For  sixty 
millions  of  Austro-Germans,  submissive  sons  of  the 
Holy  Church,  it  was  Almighty  God's  own  utterance. 
Dissension  arose  in  their  armies,  then  disorder,  then 
mutiny  :  the  artillerymen  of  von  Heiringen,  Bavarians, 
refused  to  fire  on  the  sanctuary  of  Rheims.  Priests, 
women,  children  themselves  were  spared  ;  the  ambu- 
lances protected  by  the  Cross,  red  with  Christ's  ever- 
flowing  blood  streaming  from  out  those  million  gashes, 
the  ambulances  were  respected.  Manifestly,  in  the 
eyes  of  the  world,  admiring  this  prodigy  through  tears 
of  joy,  the  savagery  of  the  Huns  was  disconcerted, 
their  power  shook,  staggered,  and  fell  before  a  force 
unknown  to  them,  more  efficacious  than  their  war 
chemistry,  more  terrible  than  electricity — a  strange 
magnetic  emanation  from  the  skull  of  civilised  man. 
To  check   the  rush  of  ten  million  brutes,  to  silence 


A  YANKEE  AGAIN  OBJECTS  TO  DR.  WILSON    107 

the  mouths  of  a  hundred  thousand  cannon,  all  that 
was  needed  was  a  dip  of  ink  at  the  end  of  two  pens 
and  two  little  scraps  of  paper  ! 

"  Now,  all  this  was  the  work  of  President  Woodrow 
Wilson,  who  had  drawn  the  Pope  of  Rome  into  the 
straight  and  smooth  path  of  Justice.  And  both  of 
them,  those  twin  faces  with  one  fair  soul,  will  be  linked 
together  for  ages  to  come  in  the  blessings  of  mankind. 

"  Yet  Germany  gathered  herself  together.  The 
Catholic  troops  of  Bavaria  and  Austria  were  dis- 
banded, brought  back  into  the  ranks  by  blows  or 
shot  in  extreme  cases ;  Attila's  fist  was  clenched 
more  firmly  on  the  steel  glaive  ;  the  Beast  put  up  her 
back  doggedly  and  dared  the  world  with  foaming 
mouth  :   the  Lusitania  was  sunk. 

"  Immediately,  within  twenty-four  hours,  before 
the  bodies  of  our  martyrs  stank,  the  United  States 
declared  war  on  Germany. 

"  It  did  not  cost  them  a  single  boat  more,  nor  the 
equipment  of  a  single  soldier,  nor  the  shedding  of  a 
drop  of  blood.  Out  of  their  ten  million  Teuton  sub- 
jects, at  the  most  half  a  score  of  individuals  raised 
for  an  instant  a  murmur  against  the  sovereignty  of 
the  Union  ;  they  were  hanged  to  the  nearest  lamp- 
posts, and  the  9,999,990  other  Teutons  applauded  this 
capital  punishment,  evinced  more  zeal  than  any  one 
else  in  the  holy  struggle  of  Democracy  against  that 
odious  Prussian  despotism  from  which  they  had  fled 
across  the  ocean. 

"  What  a  glorious  sight  for  all  the  world  !  Gratui- 
tously, this  time,  and  with  might  and  main,  America 
turned  herself  into  the  factory  of  the  Allies,  the  plains 
of  Texas  made  themselves  their  granary,  the  soul  of 


108  OPEN    LETTERS 

the  noble  Republic  became  the  soul  of  the  sublime 
crusade.  The  stars  of  our  banner  flashed  from  the 
stripes  with  winged  swiftness  over  the  seas,  and  soared, 
a  dazzling  constellation,  amidst  the  fumes  of  the  great 
furnace  in  which  the  world's  future  was  seething. 
The  French  bullets  of  Rochambeau,  sown  in  the  field 
of  our  Independence,  sprang  up  into  a  harvest  of  steel. 
We  saw  them  heaped  up  in  their  thousands  of  vessels, 
and  this  Armada  of  Deliverance  set  sail  from  the  port 
of  New  York  to  the  flaming  of  the  statue  of  Liberty 
of  Bartholdi,  who  turned  her  torch  against  the  Bar- 
barian, a  monument  with  an  enduring  significance,  a 
light  turned  to  scourging  fire. 

"  To  you,  Nations  of  the  new  Europe,  who  struggle 
so  magnificently  for  the  very  ideals  for  which  we 
breathe  ;  to  you,  valiant  ones,  saviours  of  the  world  in 
self-defence  ;  to  you,  generous  ones,  who  trample 
down  your  enemies  to  raise  them  up — to  you  these 
arms  in  default  of  armies  of  which  our  innocence 
deprived  us,  to  you  this  bread  of  the  pure  and  the 
strong,  kneaded  with  the  substance  of  a  free  people, 
for  Her  Ladyship  the  Republic's  table ;  to  you, 
above  all,  to  you  our  souls,  our  hopes  and  our  anguish, 
our  joys  and  our  ardour  :  see  the  invisible  legion  which 
is  on  the  march  to  reinforce  your  cohorts !  And  to 
thee,  France,  to  thee,  Republic,  mother  of  our  own, 
nurse  of  Nations,  to  thee  the  dearest  fondness  of  our 
hearts  !  We  are  not  paying  thee  a  debt  for  the 
chivalrous  aid  of  thy  La  Fayette.  As  if  it  were  for 
some  few  boisterous  tea  merchants109  that  he  came 
here  to  fight  his  gallant  fight  I  As  if  it  were  not 
for  Justice,  the  sole  sovereign  in  all  places  of  the 
world  1    To  Her   alone   do  we  pay  our  debt.     To 


A  YANKEE  A  GAIN  OBJECTS  TO  DR.  WILSON    109 

Her  alone,  in  you,  we  give  ourselves,  in  order  to 
prevent,  through  our  default,  the  greatest  epic  of 
all  times  falling  short  of  its  crowning  glory ;  in 
order  that  the  E  pluribus  unum  of  our  national 
motto  should  expand  into  its  universal  meaning ! 

...  Thus,  standing  on  the  shore,  thus  the 
immortal  shades  of  history  sang  their  blessing  to  the 
fleet  departing  under  the  lightning's  flashes  ;  and 
Washington,  Lincoln,  Garfield  swelled  with  pride  for 
their  sons  in  wishing  them  God  speed  ! 

"  This  entrance  into  the  lists  was  decisive.  Italy, 
already  resolved,  hastened  her  assistance  by  several 
months,  jealous  at  seeing  another  likely  to  bear  away 
the  palm ;  the  Balkans  flamed  up  like  a  single  train 
of  powder ;  Greece,  Bulgaria,  and  Roumania  found 
themselves  fighting,  they  scarce  know  how,  at  your 
side ;  the  Scandinavians  even,  under  their  snows, 
yielded  to  the  infectious,  burning  enthusiasm ;  even 
Holland  peeped  out  of  her  tulip  to  inquire  what  had 
become  of  her  sister  Belgium. 

"  Destiny  turned  her  hour-glass,  to  stop  the  era  of 
massacres  and  begin  the  history  of  the  world  afresh. 
Under  the  concentrated  blows  of  all  races  of  Men  the 
Barbarians  were  annihilated.  The  war  had  lasted 
six  months." 

I  hope,  sir,  that  you  are  now  satisfied.  Is  not  this 
a  grand  reality,  and  does  it  not  dispel  the  frightful 
nightmare  which  my  first  letter  had  given  you  ?  Admit 
that  if  our  Bancroft  could  have  lived  until  these  sub- 
lime times  he  would  have  found,  better  than  I  can, 
matter  for  an  immortal  page. 

Yours  truly, 

Whilbey  Warring. 


110  OPEN  LETTERS 

P.S. — In  a  postscript  to  your  letter  you  ask  me 
who  I  am.  A  man  who  is  no  longer  young,  sir,  who 
has  the  ridiculous  privilege  of  being,  like  you,  an 
enthusiast  (which  has  made  him  appreciate  your 
Lettres)  and  has  the  unflinching  purpose  of  living 
a  morally  clean  life,  whatever  happens,  until  the  end. 
No,  sir,  I  have  never  written  for  the  public ;  this 
great  war  alone,  under  your  auspices,  was  fated  to 
make  me  abandon  my  utter  contempt  for  publicity.  I 
must  add  that,  for  the  last  twenty  years,  my  favourite 
book  is  Victor  Hugo's  Les  Chdtiments,  of  which  it 
is  regrettable  that  the  grim  hero  cannot  be  changed 
into  William  II. 

W.  W. 


XXIII 

THE    AUTHOR    PLEADS    AGAIN    FOR 
UNCLE    SAM 

Second  Reply  to  Mr.  Whilbey  Warring 

28th  November  1915. 
I  see  quite  clearly,  sir,  that  we  shall  not  understand 
each  other.  You  praise  the  attitude  of  the  American 
people  during  the  war;  I  do  the  same.  You  make 
more  and  more  insinuations  against  their  government ; 
I  protest. 

I  protest  because  I  am  French ;  I  protest  because 
President  Wilson,  the  head  of  the  Great  Republic, 
morally  allied  to  ours,  is,  beyond  question,  a  man  of 
true  integrity ;  I  protest  because  he  has  inflicted  on 
Germany,  at  least  diplomatically,  a  bitter  mortifica- 
tion ;  I  protest  because  he  is,  certainly,  the  man  whom 
Germany  holds  most  in  execration.110 

But  you  deserve  a  second  reproof.  In  your  cow- 
boy's gallop  across  the  diplomatic  savannah — whose 
creepers  are  so  matted  and  yet  so  brittle  that  they 
can  only  be  disentangled  by  a  reverent  hand — you 
catch  in  the  same  noose  of  your  irony's  lasso  another 
power,  which  is  purely  spiritual.  And  here,  sir,  I 
not  only  protest ;    I  marvel.111 

ill 


112  OPEN  LETTERS 

It  certainly  seems  clear  that  if  you  have  often 
visited  France — and  your  letters  induce  me  to  think  so 
— you  have  not  been  there  since  the  war.  You  would 
no  longer  have  recognised  that  country,  too  long  the 
scene  of  political  wrangling  and  squabbling.  The 
"  sacred  union  "  has  been  formed  there,  sir  ;  we  want 
it  to  be  true  and  strong,  dressed  in  the  robe  of  la 
Patrie,  spotless  and  untorn.  I  who  am  addressing 
you,  and  who  am  a  freethinker,  have  in  the  field 
clinked  glasses  with  priests,  and,  like  everybody  else, 
I  am  glad  that  Monsieur  Briand,  moved  by  the  idea 
of  a  great  national  pacification  which  in  war-time 
has  won  universal  approbation,  should  have  caused 
MM.  Emile  Combes  and  Denys  Cochin  to  partake  of 
bread  and  wine  at  the  same  table.112  In  short,  sir, 
if  I  was  able,  formerly,  to  oppose  the  idea  of  M. 
Paul  Deroutede,  who  wished  to  hasten  Destiny,  I 
have  never  found  anything  more  true  or  beautiful 
than  his  saying,  which  I  venture  to  paraphrase : 
Catholic,  Protestant,  Freethinker,  and  Jew;  these  are 
but  names  prefixed  to  the  family  name  :  the  only 
surname  is  Frenchman.  It  is  thus,  sir,  that,  in  the 
face  of  the  enemy,  all  Frenchmen  have  but  one 
mother,  and  she  is  Republican  France.  Do  not 
speak  to  us  of  anything  else. 

One  point,  however,  I  admit,  I  should  like,  as  I 
have  the  right,  to  discuss  with  you ;  here  the  field 
is  no  longer  restricted,  since  your  Mr.  Bryan  is  no 
longer  Mr.  Wilson's  assistant.  But  it  would  carry 
me,  no  doubt,  too  far  to  deal  with  this  philosophical 
question,  whether  practical  Christianity  is  compatible 
with  war.118 

I  shall,   therefore,   confine  myself  to  this  simple 


AUTHOR  PLEADS  AGAIN  FOR  UNCLE  SAM    113 

statement  of  fact :  that  only  two  men — out  of  how 
many  millions  of  Christians  ? — have  refused  to  serve 
during  the  war,  invoking  the  Gospel.  One  is  the 
teacher  Baudraz  in  the  Vaud  canton,  who,  mobilised 
eight  months  ago,  the  Swiss  army  being  on  a  war- 
footing,  suddenly  declared,  his  conscience  being  awa- 
kened :  "I  cannot  take  upon  myself  to  kill,  even  for 
my  country's  sake."  Baudraz,  on  this  account,  was 
condemned  by  the  military  tribunal  of  Porrentruy  to 
four  months'  imprisonment,  a  year's  forfeiture  of 
political  rights,  and  to  pay  the  costs.  Surely,  all  the 
Christians  who  are  at  the  front,  and  who  do  not 
share  his  convictions,  will  doff  their  caps  to  this  act  of 
deep  sincerity.  But  has  Sergeant  Baudraz  reflected 
that,  if  all  his  compatriots  had  followed  his  example, 
Switzerland  would  at  this  hour  be  under  the  heel  of 
the  same  invader,  suffering  the  same  awful  fate  as 
Belgium  ? 

The  other  man  is  your  Mr.  Bryan.  As  a  politician, 
who  is  always  the  presidential  candidate  of  your 
German- Americans,  his  conscience  may  appear  a  little 
less  clear.  Let  us  take  it,  however,  on  his  own 
showing.  He  pleaded  the  delicacy  of  his  Christian  faith 
as  a  reason  for  resigning  his  position  in  the  Cabinet, 
lest  he  should  be  obliged  to  demand  satisfaction 
from  the  assassins  for  the  murder  of  the  1,200 
victims  of  the  Lusitania.  Is  it  not  beyond  all  question, 
that,  but  for  the  President's  revolt,  Mr.  Bryan's  Nazarene 
politics  would  have  led  directly,  under  the  pretext  of 
hatred  of  war,  to  the  approval  and  to  the  support  of 
Germany's  war-power,  of  all  the  horrors  and  all  the 
crimes  of  her  bellicose  barbarism  ? 

With  these  reflections,  which  at  length  bring  us  to 
8 


114  OPEN  LETTERS 

an  agreement,  I  will  conclude.  And  it  only  remains 
for  me  to  thank  you  for  having  given  me  the  oppor- 
tunity, in  this  war  of  the  greatest  Independence, 
gratefully  to  salute  the  fraternal  flag  of  the  Union  : 
the  stars  of  idealism  above  the  stripes  of  reality.114 


XXIV 

IN   THE   LIGHT   OF   JUSTICE 

To  Jean  Guewrenoff,  Bulgarian  Aviator 

10th  December  1915. 
Over  and  over  again,  Jean  Guewrenoff,  have  I 
searched  for  the  postcard,  which  one  day,  in  1912, 
during  the  splendid  Balkan  war,  you  flung  down  to 
me  from  your  aeroplane  just  soaring  high  and  dart- 
ing up  towrards  the  Turkish  lines,  in  all  the  thrill 
of  an  azure  sky  dappled  with  shrapnel,  in  all  the 
exaltation  of  your  faith  in  the  liberation  of  peoples. 

There  it  is  at  last,  your  pasteboard.  I  hold  it  in 
my  hands,  all  smudged  and  blurred,  shrivelled  and 
shrunk  like  a  forger  abashed  who  hides  his  face  in 
his  hands,  sable  and  mournful  as  if  it  announced  a 
bereavement.  Not  the  death  of  Serbia,  but  the 
death-blow  to  the  honour  of  Bulgaria. 

Be  witness  here  then  (to  the  shame  of  your  Hos- 
podar,  that  fox  bloated  with  heavy  Teuton  blood),  for 
the  satisfaction  of  the  majority  of  your  compatriots 
who  have  stifled  the  rage  with  which  they  were 
shaking,  and  for  the  glory  of  the  minority  who  pre- 
ferred to  be  exiled  or  shot  rather  than  be  accomplices 
in  the  crime  ;  be  witness  too,  in  the  name  of  all  Slavs 
and  in  the  name  of  humanity,  of  the  deathless 
nobility  of  your  Serbian  brothers  and  of  the  ever- 
lasting blot  on  your  Bulgarian  brothers'  name. 

115 


116  OPEN  LETTERS 

At  any  rate,  do  not  claim  that  the  revolver-shot 
of  Sarajevo  set  off  the  guns  which  exploded  the 
powder  factory  of  armed  peace.  If  it  was  a  Serb 
who  struck  down  an  archduke,  it  was  an  emperor 
who  first,  cynically,  in  the  name  of  all  his  people 
and  in  presence  of  consentient  Europe,  raped  two 
Serbian  provinces  in  order  to  gratify  his  own  passion 
and  to  keep  them  under  lock  and  key  in  the  lap  of 
his  Austro-Hungarian  Empire,  that  harem  of  subject 
races.115  Weigh  both  sins  in  the  same  balance,  and 
in  face  of  the  earlier  crime,  which  led  straight  to  the 
subsequent  one  and  which  was  not  merely  an  assault 
on  a  monarch  of  flesh  and  blood,  but  an  attempt  on 
the  very  sovereignty  of  Right,  wrenching  as  it  did 
from  a  people  a  bit  of  their  own  flesh,  opening  a 
living  gash  in  their  side,  say,  what  was  the  attitude 
of  Serbia  ?  She  kept  silence,  she  endured  and  pain- 
fully covered  her  bleeding  sore,  just  as  France  dealt 
with  the  wound  inflicted  so  near  her  heart  forty 
years  ago.  Then,  suddenly,  when  Austria,  with  un- 
satiated  lust  for  crime,  exulting  in  the  murder  of 
her  royal  son,  whom  she  abandoned  to  a  dog's 
burial, lu  sprang  right  at  Serbia's  throat,  handing 
to  her  victim  her  own  death-warrant  to  sign, 
without  a  trial,  without  the  respite  of  a  few  hours, 
but  with  the  pistol  pointed  at  her  temple,  and 
the  offer  of  no  alternative  save  execution  or  suicide 
— what  was  then,  what  again  was  the  attitude 
of  Serbia?117  Fearless,  undismayed,  unangered  even 
by  the  outrage,  only  conscious  of  the  deadly  gravity 
of  the  hour  for  the  world's  peace  for  which  she  held 
herself  accountable,  Serbia  dropped  all  arrogance, 
all  rancour,  all  vanity,  astounding  friends  and  foes 


IN  THE  LIGHT  OF  JUSTICE  117 

alike  by  her  magnanimous  compliance  with  the  most 
insolent  behest  that  a  small  people  had  ever  re- 
ceived from  a  great  one  .  .  .  and  upright  and  pure 
in  the  sight  of  history  she  consented  for  the  safety 
of  all  to  sacrifice  every  one  of  her  ambitions  save 
only  the  pride  of  her  independence.  "  Let  me 
breathe,  a  free  man,  the  free  air  of  heaven."  Sublime 
example  of  submission  without  loss  of  honour,  of 
nakedness  without  loss  of  modesty.  That  was  the 
bandits'  greatest  fear,  so  they  hurled  themselves  on 
tiny  Serbia  to  chastise  her  innocence,  which  threw  a 
lurid  light  on  their  own  infamy. 

Thereupon,  mighty  Serbia  awoke ;  mighty  to  de- 
fend before  all  other  nations  the  sublime  cause  which 
was  soon  to  fling  all  the  free  peoples  of  the  world 
into  the  conflict ;  mighty  to  multiply  in  her  sons  the 
exhaustible  strength  of  numbers  by  inexhaustible 
strength  of  heart  for  the  most  virile  determination 
ever  shown  by  a  people  since  the  Spartans  ;  mighty 
to  prove  to  Fate,  with  tranquil  smile,  that  the  essen- 
tial thing  for  man  is  not  to  live  but  to  deserve  to 
have  lived.  So  the  Haiduks  118  sprang  up  from  the 
rocks,  the  Guslars 119  kindled  and  thrilled  men's  souls, 
and  the  supreme  epic  Pesme120  was  chanted,  for  the 
Martyr  Lazarus  121  appealed  for  the  hundredth  time 
to  Marko  the  Liberator.122 

Surpassing  wonder  of  this  first  duel,  wherein  the 
pygmy  stood  up  to  the  giant,  and  because  the  giant 
was  Number  and  the  Pygmy  Right,  the  pygmy  tumbled 
the  giant  head  over  heels,  planted  his  own  foot  on 
the  nape  of  his  neck,  snatched  away  his  arms  and  his 
conceit,  and  with  a  scornful  kick  sent  him  rolling 
back  into  his  den,  rubbing  his  sides  and  groaning 


118  OPEN  LETTERS 

aloud.  .  .  .  For  more  than  a  whole  year,  much  to 
the  rage  of  a  hundred  million  Teutons  aghast — to 
the  too  easy-going  joy  of  the  rest  of  an  absent- 
minded  world — the  heroic  little  militia  of  Serbia  was 
seen  to  crush  twice  over  the  imperial  troops,  to 
take  fifty  thousand  prisoners,  to  capture  two  hundred 
field-pieces,  one  hundred  maxims,  five  thousand  cases 
of  ammunition,  and,  alone  among  the  Allied  armies, 
to  liberate  the  soil  of  their  fatherland,128  incontestably 
victorious  to  the  end,  although  the  capital  of  their 
puny  kingdom  seemed  as  it  were  lashed  to  the  hostile 
cannon's  mouth  ;  m  although  a  quarter  of  a  million 
out  of  four  million  subjects  were  a  prey  to  all  those 
calamities  which  follow  in  the  wake  of  war, 125  as 
gleaners  follow  in  the  wake  of  harvest ;  and  although 
help  in  troops  was  not  forthcoming  from  their  big 
brothers  in  arms.188 

The  brilliant  truimph  of  so  great  a  cause,  thus 
assured  by  such  a  small  people,  was  too  burning  a 
mortification  for  immense  Austro-Germany :  the 
poison  rankled  in  her  wounded  pride.  The  Chief 
Brigand,  so  as  to  give  him  new  courage,  in  view  of  a 
more  secure  aggression — though  he  was  on  crutches 
and  with  bandaged  eye  after  his  rough  handling — 
set  about  recruiting  other  brigands.  At  last  the 
Allies  began  to  bestir  themselves  about  what  was 
taking  place  in  those  mountains.  They  trembled  for 
their  little  David,  whose  slender,  solitary  figure  was 
outlined  high  up  against  the  flame-red  sky,  like  a 
sentinel  before  the  barbarians.  To  meet  this  plot 
of  brigandage,  which  to  the  knowledge  of  all  Europe 
was  being  spun  to  annihilate  the  indomitable,  they 
long  dreamed  of  founding  a  league  of  Right  among 


IN  THE  LIGHT  OF  JUSTICE  119 

the  neighbours  of  Serbia,  and  urged,  as  first  step, 
the  conquerors  of  Bregalnitza  in  1913  and  of  Tser 
and  Roudnik  in  1915  to  relinquish  ungrudgingly  in 
favour  of  beaten  and  traitorous  Bulgaria  a  disputed 
portion  of  Macedonia  reconquered  by  the  Serbians 
at  the  point  of  the  sword 

Miracle  followed  miracle  ;  ever  increasing  was  the 
moral  marvel!  The  Serbians,  through  loyalty  to- 
wards the  Allies  and  through  self-denial  towards  the 
cause — the  motto  of  which  inscribed  on  our  standards 
was  "  the  pacification  of  all  hatreds  by  the  autonomy 
of  all  peoples  " — these  conquerors,  I  say,  were  seen 
to  capitulate  a  second  time  and  to  consent  to  the 
sacrifice  imposed  upon  them. 

But,  with  a  sneer  of  scorn  which  turned  up  the 
bristles  of  their  moustaches  over  their  sharp  teeth, 
the  Bulgarians  refused,  actually  refused  what  they 
exacted,  just  as  their  confederates  of  Vienna  a  little 
while  before,  when  they  laughed  in  their  sleeve  at 
the  ultimatum  they  had  presented.  War  at  all  cost, 
the  whole  of  the  booty,  Shylock's  "  pound  of  flesh  " 
cut  from  the  very  heart — that  was  what  their  ferocity 
claimed.  Accordingly,  under  the  very  eyes  of  the 
Allies,  who,  infatuated  with  their  ideal  of  legality, 
continued  to  indulge  in  inconclusive  negotiations, 
and  thereby  were  wasting  time  and  losing  their 
bearings,  the  Bulgarians  got  ready  to  deal  their  blow. 
One  single  loophole  of  safety  remained  to  little  Serbia, 
namely,  to  hurl  herself  against  the  traitors  before  they 
were  ready,  to  catch  the  brigand  unawares  in  his 
den  and  fell  him  to  the  ground  while  in  the  act  of 
whetting  his  cutlass. 

Unhappy  Serbia  !     Her  unyielding  rectitude  urged 


120  OPEN  LETTERS 

her  to  ask  for  the  assent  of  her  mighty  Allies,  which 
assent  was  denied,  because  it  is  written  in  this  war 
that  we,  champions  and  victims  of  our  ideals,  will 
not  allow  a  speck  of  dust  on  our  ermine.  la7  So 
again,  for  the  third  time,  Serbia  was  seen  to 
sacrifice  herself  on  the  immaculate  altar.  Straight- 
way, at  the  trysted  hour,  the  brigands,  re-equipped, 
rushed  forward  from  three  points  of  the  horizon, 
enveloping  her :  Austria  and  Germany,  arm  in 
arm,  supporting  mutually  their  tottering  weight, 
with  pockets  crammed  full  of  huge  guns  and  their 
mouths  full  of  noisome  gases,  while,  in  the  rear, 
crafty  Bulgaria  dealt  into  Serbia's  back  the  un- 
erring stab  of  her  knife. 

Desperate  struggle  this  time,  in  which  heroism 
grew  appalling  in  its  aspiration  after  nothing  but 
Death  ;  in  which  Right  exulted  in  being  crushed  and 
in  remaining  Right  even  though  crushed  ;  in  which  a 
whole  people  were  seized  with  the  madness  of  ex- 
termination, with  the  frenzy  of  ravage,  affording  the 
supreme  vision  of  little  Serbia  in  a  great  halo  of  blood, 
arrayed  in  lofty  pride,  as  it  were  in  the  midst  of  the 
imperial  arena,  falling,  a  virgin,  into  the  jaws  of  the 
wild  beasts.  "  Peace  ?  "  whispered  the  three  assassins 
in  voices  of  mock  pity.  "  Honour,"  replied  that 
wraith  of  a  people, 128  while  soldiers,  civilians,  old 
men  and  women  contested  inch  by  inch  every  stone 
of  Belgrade, l29  every  sod  in  the  plain,  every  rock  in 
the  ravine.  It  was  not  enough  to  hack  them  to 
death  on  the  spot,  they  had  to  be  torn  from  the 
soil  as  a  forest  is  uprooted ;  nor  was  it  enough  to 
cut  down  a  man,  it  was  necessary  also  to  drive  away 
his   ghost,    which    with    rapture   stepped    into    the 


IN  THE   LIGHT  OF  JUSTICE  121 

dead  man's  place.  So  from  valley  to  valley,  from 
mountain  to  mountain,  from  peak  to  peak,  through 
mist  and  haze,  now  here  now  farther  off,  the 
Serbians  fell  back — aloof  alike  from  each  other, 
aloof  from  us,  aloof  from  the  whole  world,  alone, 
aghast,  yet  transfigured  in  the  midst  of  this  mag- 
nificent nightmare.  Before  the  sheet  of  fire  which 
pursued  them  like  a  water-spout,  they  lost  men,  they 
never  lost  heart.  They  kept  intact  their  invisible 
strength,  closing  their  ranks  with  the  quick  and  the 
dead.  It  was  the  whole  soul  of  the  vanquished 
nation  making  head  against  the  triumphant  inferno. 
.  .  .  That  lasted  an  eternity,  in  which  time  was  no 
longer  counted  by  human  hours  13°  taking  place  in 
nameless  regions  beyond  the  confines  of  space, 
somewhere  high  up  in  the  absolute,  away  towards 
the  summit,  supreme  and  impregnable,  where  Right 
takes  refuge  in  the  eternal. 13i 

Oh,  why  cannot  God  be  prevailed  upon  to  bear 
witness  to  the  grandeur  of  man  ?  Who  is  there  to 
relate  these  things  to  the  crack  of  doom  and  to  re- 
ceive the  relics  of  these  immortals  ?  You,  at  least, 
peoples  of  the  whole  earth  :  Allies,  who  fight  else- 
where for  the  same  immanent  holy  cause,  and  you, 
distant  peoples,  who  think  yourselves  unspotted  by 
the  splash  of  carnage,  quite  aloof  from  the  conflict 
for  Right — all  of  you  who  heap  up  well-earned  laurels 
around  the  scaffold  of  martyred  Belgium — if  there 
grow  flowers  of  remorse  anywhere  in  the  world,  bring 
them  in  sheaves  here  to  strew  them  on  the  corpse 
of  Serbia.  Come,  gather  yourselves  together  around 
this  desert  where  was  once  a  people,  and  just  as  the 
victorious   Serbian   soldiers,    a   little   while   ago,    in 


122  OPEN  LETTERS 

treading  afresh  after  four  centuries  the  field  of  their 
national  disaster,  spontaneously  presented  arms  to 
their  ancestor  Lazarus  the  Martyr,  and  made,  like 
one  man,  the  sign  of  the  cross ; ls2  so  you,  peoples  of 
the  whole  earth,  do  honour  to  the  holocaust  of  Serbia, 
bare  your  heads  and  fall  on  your  knees. l3S 

At  the  present  moment  the  whole  country  is 
nothing  more  than  one  immense  charnel-house,  still 
smouldering  with  the  last  embers  of  the  auto~da-f£9 
and  smoking  ominously  to  heaven  like  an  altar  of  old 
after  a  hecatomb  .  .  .  not  a  heap  of  cinders  uncon- 
quered,  not  a  single  Serbian  soldier  on  Serbian  soil, 
and  the  aged  king  himself,  broken  by  fate,  wander- 
ing along  the  banks  of  the  Amarissime,  searching,  in 
a  crazy  dream,  for  the  phantom  of  what  yesterday 
was  Serbia,  like  Lear  who  has  seen  the  death  of 
Cordelia. m  And  you  are  exultant,  Bulgars  of 
Sofia,  Vienna,  Berlin,  Byzantium,  and  Athens  !  .  .  . 
What  an  illusion  !   What  folly  !    What  chastisement ! 

Our  cause  was  never  more  splendid  than  when 
our  ordeal  was  at  its  worst.  Belgium !  Serbia  I 
Two  crosses  erect  amid  the  desolation  of  ruin,  two 
nations  without  reproach,  tortured  and  left,  in  the 
hour  of  their  agony,  with  no  breath  of  life  in  their 
lips  but  a  sigh  sent  up  to  Justice.  .  .  .  These  are  our 
witnesses  at  the  bar  of  history,  these  our  martyrs 136 
who  ratify,  establish,  and  seal  with  their  blood  the 
sanctity  of  the  cause  of  France,  the  cause  of  the 
Allies,  and  the  cause  of  Right :  soldiers  of  Caesar, 
you  are  well  aware  that  the  Crucified  conquered 
the  world.  Let  the  two  causes  be  judged  together 
in  the  light  shed  by  these  martyrs  in  the  gloom  of 
their  Golgotha.     Judge  of  them  by  the  soldiers  of  the 


IN  THE  LIGHT  OF  JUSTICE  123 

two  camps  who  meet  at  the  foot  of  the  gibbet — the 
apostles  who  have  drawn  the  sword,  the  butchers 
who  gamble  for  the  spoil. 

Yes,  after  seventeen  months  of  a  war  in  which 
some  still  dare  to  maintain  that  all  the  ideals  in- 
volved are  of  equal  value,  and  that  the  acts  of  pillage 
on  either  side  are  indistinguishable,  m  draw  up  the 
combatants  in  line  face  to  face,  ask  them  to  show 
their  hands,  to  show  their  work,  and  then  see  which 
of  them  has  justified  the  profession  of  faith  which 
he  made  the  first  day  of  the  war. 

First  we  have  the  picture  of  Germany  deemed 
triumphant  and  puffed  up  with  her  hollow  conquests, 
making  the  Allies  bend  under  her  iron  rod,  a  reeling 
giant  astride  Europe,  crushing  Belgium  with  one  boot 
and  Serbia  with  the  other,  demonstrating  in  this  way 
to  all  peoples  that  she  is  defending,  like  us,  their 
integrity.  Next,  Austria,  putrid  and  pestilential, 
the  hot-bed  of  every  filthy  infection,  serving  to  in- 
tensify her  virulence :  Austria,  devourer  of  peoples, 
monster  all  throat  and  no  head,  on  the  point  of 
bursting,  but  bent  on  gobbling  up  to  the  last 
moment.  Then,  criminal  Bulgaria,  still  warm  from 
the  womb  of  her  mother  Russia,  but  stabbing  her 
in  repayment  for  her  heroic  travail,137  stabbing  her 
race  and  her  religion,  denying  her  past,  staining  her 
future,  dashing  to  the  ground  all  hope  of  agreement 
amongst  the  Slavs  and  turning  round  in  her  cradle 
to  strangle  her  twin-sister  Serbia.  Then,  the  accom- 
plice of  the  eleventh  hour,  anti-Grecian  Greece  of 
the  Kaiser,  maker  of  revolutions  contrary  to  the 
wishes  of  the  Greeks,  the  enemy  of  Bulgaria,  the 
enemy  of  Turkey,  ally  of  her  Serbian  brothers   in 


124  OPEN  LETTERS 

the  event  of  danger — what  do  I  say,  oh  traitorous 
Athena  under  the  pointed  helmet  ?  More  than 
that,  the  god-daughter  of  France,  of  England,  and 
of  Russia,  baptised  a  second  time  with  glory  at 
Navarino,  idolised  by  all  the  West,  as  no  nation  in 
the  world  ever  was,  for  the  sake  of  her  tatters  which 
we  took  to  be  holy  remnants  of  her  divine  raiment 
of  antiquity  :  Greece,  with  the  advent  of  danger, 
sending  to  Russia,  to  England,  to  France,  and  to 
her  Serbian  brothers,  instead  of  a  force  of  two 
hundred  thousand  men  a  scrap  of  paper  torn  into 
four,  in  German  fashion,  and  slipped  discreetly  into 
an  envelope  bearing  the  imperial  seal  of  her  Prussian 
queen.  Finally,  to  complete  the  gallery,  the  dusky 
Asiatic  harpy  which  for  four  centuries  has  kept  its 
claws  dug  in  the  heel  of  Europe,  retarding  all  progress, 
and  which  Bulgarians,  Serbians,  and  Greeks  had 
sworn  in  their  holy  crusade  for  the  deliverance  of 
history  to  throw  into  the  Bosphorus  :  Turkey  in- 
vited by  Slavs,  by  the  victors  of  Kirkilisse  to  the 
butchery  of  Slav  allies;  provided  by  the  Germany 
of  Luther  with  plenary  absolution  for  the  massacre 
of  a  million  Christians,138  entrusted  by  Prussia,  her 
patron,  with  the  mission  of  opening  the  road  to 
the  establishment  of  a  vast  Tartaro  -  Borussian 
Empire,  stretching  from  Hamburg  to  Bagdad  on  the 
ruins  of  Aryan  Europe.  What  an  incarnation  of  the 
epic  dream  of  Charlemagne,  heir  of  Rome  and 
conciliator  of  hostile  races,  who  desired  to  control 
the  world's  destinies !  By  this  fearful  perversion  of 
the  fate  of  the  West  it  is  the  Turkey  of  that  ad- 
venturer139 Enver  Pasha,  who,  avenging  Xerxes 
twenty-five  centuries   after  Salamis,    is   making   the 


IN  THE  LIGHT  OF  JUSTICE  125 

blood-stained  tidal-wave  of  Asia  flow  back  over 
Europe,  and  it  is  the  Turkey  of  the  Young  Turks,  old 
pimp  of  Stamboul,  painted  up  like  a  vestal  of  Liberty 
— it  is  this  bastard,  fathered  by  Auguste  Comte, 
mothered  by  the  Marseillaise,  who  comes  chanting 
penitential  psalms  before  the  prison  door  of  her  victim, 
the  great  misunderstood,  the  great  slandered  one, 
foremost  ally  of  Kultur,  true  prophet  of  the  prodigi- 
ous butchery,  whose  red  kiss  imprinted  on  the  Kaiser's 
cheek  has  infected  all  Germany !  Open  the  dungeon  of 
Abdul-Hamid  and  let  him  at  length  contemplate  the 
world  of  his  dreams  as  realised  by  his  disciple  !  Let 
his  last  looks  feast  on  the  sight  of  it !  Let  his  thin 
nostrils  dilate  with  the  stench  of  all  these  dead, 
giaours  massacred  by  giaours,  Armenians  piled  upon 
Armenians,  and  let  the  four  Sultans — Abdul  delivered 
and  clinging  to  the  arm  of  William,  and  Joseph,  in 
rags,  arm  in  arm  with  Ferdinand — scale  together  this 
pyramid  of  millions  upon  millions  of  corpses  in  order 
to  kiss  one  another  on  the  summit  in  the  apotheosis 
of  Germany!  That  is  what  Kultur  is,  that  is  its 
work,  those  are  the  pledges  of  its  noble  cause.  Tell 
me  if,  for  the  production  of  so  brave  a  show,  history 
has  ever  witnessed  an  assemblage  of  felonies  like 
that?uo 

And  now  we  come  to  the  Allies  of  Right !  In  the 
first  place  we  have  republican  France,  who,  true  to  her 
dream  of  universal  brotherhood,  rushed  into  the  war  de- 
liberately to  defend  not  only  her  own  soil,  but  also  the 
survival  of  her  ideal  and  the  inheritance  of  humanity  ; 
next  democratic  England,  immutable  menace  to 
every  tyrant,  perpetual  safeguard  of  the  continent 
by  reason  of  her  command  of  the  seas,   island  of 


126  OPEN  LETTERS 

"  sacred  egoism,"  teaching  the  world  the  discipline 
of  complete  moral  freedom ;  next  also,  in  a  mar- 
vellous way,  plebeian  Italy,  who  all  but  declared  war 
in  advance  of  her  own  ministers,  and  who,  of  her 
own  free  will  and  with  full  knowledge  of  her  risks  and 
of  all  the  horrors  of  carnage,  rallied  to  the  ideal  of 
Justice  in  pursuit  of  a  greater  "  risorgimento  "  ;  last, 
but  not  least,  Russia,  integral  and  national,  the  Russia 
of  the  Duma  and  the  Zemstvos,  of  the  moujiks  and 
anarchists,  the  Russia  of  Bourtzeff  and  of  Kro- 
potkin,  the  magnificent  Russia  of  to-morrow  of 
which  this  war  is  the  blood-stained  cradle.145 

You  flatter  yourselves,  Teutons,  and  you,  neutrals 
of  little  faith,  are  afraid  that  such  peoples,  whose 
strength  is  in  their  numbers,  in  the  unanimity  of  their 
will,  and  in  the  great  cause  by  which  they  are  up- 
lifted and  revealed  to  themselves,  can  be  overcome 
by  that  force  which  is  in  the  service  of  force  alone. 
...  Be  ready,  in  that  case,  to  record  that  the  whole 
history  of  humanity  is  bankrupt,  and  that  the  whole 
of  evolution  is  reversed,  bringing  us  back  to  cave-life, 
and  that  the  cosmos,  from  beginning  to  end,  is 
nothing  but  a  reeling  nebula,  all  because  the  Kaiser 
is  drunk  with  blood  ! 

As  for  us,  we  stand  erect  in  the  heart  of  the 
whirlwind  which  he  has  let  loose;  we  remain  clear- 
headed in  presence  of  his  madness,  holding  fast  by 
reason  and  spitting  out  the  blood  in  which  he 
drowns  us. 

To  the  monstrous  claim  of  Germany  that  she  is 
continuing  the  order  of  Nature,  and  is  accom- 
plishing her  masterpiece  by  elaborate  refinements 
of   colossal    bestiality,   we  oppose  a  loftier  mission 


IN  THE  LIGHT  OF  JUSTICE  127 

which  we  ask  of  none  but  ourselves,  and  we  re- 
pudiate Nature  in  order  to  have  the  right  to  call 
ourselves  men. 

We  deny  that  it  is  brute-force  which  always 
triumphs  in  the  struggle ;  we  hold  rather  that  the 
victors  are  the  worthiest  and  the  noblest,  whose 
spirit  nerves  their  feeble  arms,  since  man  has  driven 
away  the  wild  beasts,  and  since  France  will  tame 
Germany. 

We  pity  the  Teutons  for  their  ideal  which  unites 
them  to  the  plesiosaurus  and  fetters  them  to  the 
prehistoric,  and  we  rise  higher  and  higher  without 
them ;  we  laugh  at  their  coarse,  short-sighted 
Kultur  which  does  not  see  man  in  the  universe, 
and  which  is  blind  to  the  soul  in  man ;  we  laugh 
at  their  thick  heads,  insensible  to  the  vibrations — at 
present  so  faint,  but  yet  so  certain — of  the  invisible 
star  which  draws  nearer  and  nearer. 

They,  fanatics  of  the  "  Old  German  God,"  are 
atheists  because  of  their  baseness ;  with  all  their 
heavy  genius,  they  sink,  while  we,  zealots  of 
sovereign  Reason,  ascend  with  all  the  force  of  our 
wings  and  believe  with  every  fibre  of  our  being. 

We  believe  in  the  new  law  which  is  evolving  out 
of  the  chaos  of  living  creatures,  to  manifest  itself  in 
man,  and  we  believe  that  man  only  rises  at 
length  above  himself  by  trampling  no  more  upon 
his  fellow-creatures,  and  that  the  whole  world  is  con- 
verging and  making  for  Justice  by  means  of  Man, 
whose  duty  it  is  to  justify  the  world  of  which  he  is 
but  the  remorse,  the  effort,  and,  as  it  were,  the 
supreme  redemption. 

Thus  it  is  that  in  the  midst  of  this  dismal  night- 


128  OPEN  LETTERS 

mare,  we  have  confidence  in  life  for  which  we  create 
a  purpose ;  we  set  up  this  law  against  fate ;  we 
launch  this  sun  into  the  darkness;  we  perform  the 
great  act  of  faith  in  the  evolution  of  evolution  and 
in  the  transformation  of  the  world  ;  we  swear  that 
the  old  law  of  murder,  which  has  already  ceased  to 
govern  fellow-citizens,  will  one  day  cease  to  govern 
peoples,  and  that  the  everlasting  creative  struggle 
will  be  resolved,  without  catastrophe,  into  a  rivalry 
free  of  hate. 

No  !  we  do  not  admit  for  an  instant,  we  have 
no  right  to  admit — on  the  contrary,  we  reject  as  a 
crime  against  the  spirit,  with  all  the  indignation  of 
our  conscience,  stronger,  if  need  be,  than  our  reason — 
the  prophecy  that  wars  of  hell  will  follow  one  after 
another  to  the  end  of  time  through  centuries  of 
hallucination  in  the  heart  of  a  monstrous  universe. 
.  .  .  Better  nothingness  than  this  abomination, 
better  to  strangle  our  little  children  in  their  cradles 
than  to  bring  them  up  for  this  orgy  of  assassins  ! 

No  !  we  do  not  tolerate  the  blasphemy  that 
war  can  be  an  ideal,  for  that  dare  only  be  said  in 
German. 

No  !  we  do  not  absolve  war  on  account  of  all  the 
heroism  it  begets,  because  at  the  same  time  it 
multiplies  crime,  and  whoever  has  seen  these  things 
once,  his  eyes  are  defiled  by  the  sight  of  them  for  the 
rest  of  his  life,  so  that  he  blushes  to  raise  them  to 
the  sky. 

But  must  we  cry  out  again  so  that  the  very  stones 
can  hear  us  ? 

Who  is  there  who  does  not  feel  that  our  fervour 
for  this  war  is  nothing  less  than  our  horror  of  all 


IN  THE  LIGHT  OF  JUSTICE  129 

War,  and  that  our  Peace  has  only  put  its  hand  to  the 
sword  in  order  to  kill  the  crime  of  war  ?  Who 
does  not  see  that  the  indignation  of  the  just  is  but 
their  pity  in  revolt,  and  what  kind  of  pity  is  it  which 
whimpers  and  yet  does  not  cry  to  Justice  for  help  ? 
Who,  finally,  does  not  see  and  understand  that 
our  execration  of  Germany  is  but  the  shame  we  feel 
at  being  compelled  by  her  to  fight  her  with  her 
own  weapons,  and  to  resemble  her,  if  only  for  an 
hour,  under  the  cowl  she  makes  us  wear  in  order  to 
preserve  the  light  of  our  countenance  ? 

What  is  the  "  militarism  of  every  country "  ? 
Only  a  feeble  insignificant  imitation  of  Prussian 
militarism,  built  up  and  maintained  by  it.  And 
the  "  unity  of  the  human  mind  "  ?  What  would 
be  left  of  it  under  Kultur  ?  As  little  of  it  as 
Attila  left  of  flowers  in  the  meadow  through  which 
he  galloped.  If  we  were  to  waver  for  a  second,  the 
Brute  would  be  uppermost  for  centuries ;  if  we 
were  to  relax  a  single  muscle,  Humanity  would  be 
struck  down. 

Do  not  say  then  that  Europe  is  "  mad,"  but 
rather  that  Germany  is  infuriated  ;  do  not  say  that 
this  war  was  "  fated,"  for  that  would  justify  Prussia, 
who  alone  wished  for  it  and  perpetrated  it  with  all 
her  ponderous  will,  tumbling  down  with  her  shells 
the  lofty  column  of  better  times  which  had  been 
raised  by  a  century  of  human  exertions  ;  but  say 
that  this  war  is  necessary  in  face  of  this  challenge 
on  the  part  of  sinister  force  ;  say  that  it  is  clear 
and  logical,  the  most  humane  of  any,  the  most 
deliberate  the  world  has  ever  seen  ;  say  that  not- 
withstanding its  millions  of  mourners  and  all  its 
9 


130  OPEN  ^LETTERS 

miseries  and  anguish,  it  was,  in  its  calm  acceptance 
of  horrors,  the  most  holy  of  wars  for  France,  a  war 
"  with  clean  hands  and  pure  heart,"  a  war  of  the 
serene  Republic,  who  thereby  is  covering  herself 
before  history  with  a  glory  stainless  and  more 
dazzling  than  the  purple  in  which  the  master  of 
massacres  will  be  smothered. 

This,  then,  is  the  cause  of  France,  which  all  her 
Allies  have  adopted;  this  is  the  instinct  which  has 
united  them  according  to  diplomatic  agreements,  or, 
if  need  be,  in  spite  of  them ;  and  this  is  the  meaning 
of  our  future  victory,  which  none  of  us  must  either 
sully  or  lessen,  for  we  are  drawn  into  the  conflict  by 
principles  greater  than  ourselves  :  Democracy  against 
Despotism,  the  extension  of  the  Revolution,  dis- 
armament by  the  conquerors,  harmony  against  hege- 
mony, the  free  unity  of  the  human  mind  and  the  free 
federation  of  peoples,  including  Germany  herself 
when,  in  the  hour  of  her  defeat,  she  shall  have  re- 
ceived republican  baptism  by  the  generous  blood 
of  the  sons  of  France. 

What  matter  if  this  dream  appears  too  fair  ? 
Something  of  it  will  survive  in  the  reality  of  to- 
morrow. What  matter  if  men's  infirmities  have  con- 
tributed to  the  grandeur  of  events  ?  What  matter 
if  the  sowers  in  furrows  which  flow  with  blood, 
blinded  by  the  red  fumes,  do  not  all  see  the  seed 
they  scatter  on  the  wind  of  the  shots  which  whistle 
by  bringing  freedom  in  their  train  ?  And  what  matter 
if,  on  the  morrow  of  the  war,  the  babel  of  all  those 
voices  which  have  been  hushed  for  a  time  allows  its 
confusion  to  ascend  to  heaven  ?  What  matter  if  such 
and  such  a  deed  is  disclosed,  if  a  man  here  and  there 


IN  THE  LIGHT  OF  JUSTICE  131 

is  at  fault  ?  From  the  first  day  of  all,  Germany  has 
sanctified  the  splendour  of  the  cause  of  France  by 
her  infamous  aggression,  and  already  the  noblest  of 
her  sons,  one  by  one,  are  bowing  to  the  truth. 

That  is  why,  with  all  things  shaking  around  me, 
I  claim  at  least  this  supreme  joy,  the  loftiest  of  the 
thinking  mind,  of  being  able  to  embrace  a  certainty — 
that  the  dreadful  crime  of  Germany  will  be  engraved 
on  the  rock  for  ever. 

And  that  is  why,  in  writing  this  book,  I  experience 
only  one  regret,  and  that  is  that  it  has  been  written 
by  a  Frenchman.  Fain  would  I  have  been  a  foreigner 
and  a  neutral,  free  to  give  my  love  to  whom  I  chose, 
that  I  might  rush  to  France,  who  makes  her  bruised 
breast  a  shield  for  all  nations,  that  I  might  acclaim 
her  Queen  of  Humanity,  kiss  her  feet  in  the  blood- 
stained mire,  and  cling  close  to  her  heart,  in  which 
beats  the  everlasting  rhythm  of  Right. 


PART    II 

THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND   CASE,    1914-1916 

To  serve  as  an  explanation  of  the  volume 
"Above  the  Battle" 


N.B. — All  references  to  Romain  Rolland's  book, 
Above  the  Battle,  are  to  the  English  transla- 
tion by  C.  K.  Ogden  (George  Allen  &  Unwin, 
London,  1916). 


133 


I.    A   CRITICISM   OF   ROMAIN   ROLLAND 

To  Marie  Milliet,111  Geneva,  on  the  article  "  Abovj 
the  Battle  " 

1st  December  1914. 
My  dear  Marie  Milliet, 

What  a  feeling  of  surprise  and  sadness  does 
your  letter  stir  in  me  !  Can  it  be  that  Romain  Rolland 
is  in  Switzerland  when  the  enemy  is  in  France  ?  Does 
he  not  even  feel  the  compelling  impulse  to  watch 
with  us  through  these  nights  of  anguish,  on  a  soil 
still  hot  with  battle,  shaken  by  the  roaring  of  the 
cannon,  and  trembling  with  the  heavy  tramp  of 
marching  hordes  ?  Had  he  but  stolen  away  in  silence, 
hiding  heaven  knows  what  reasons  in  his  breast !  But 
no ;  he  has  slammed  the  door  in  going  forth,  and 
shaken  off  the  dust  of  his  feet  as  he  passed  the  thresh- 
old. He  has  given  the  impression  that  he  fled  from 
France  as  from  an  ungodly  land,  stained  like  others 
with  a  share  of  the  great  crime.142  Had  not  you  been 
so  cruel  as  to  send  me  his  own  article,  I  would  have 
spurned  the  rumour  of  his  departure  as  a  base  and 
vulgar  calumny  of  envious  rivals,  stung  to  the  quick 
by  his  rapid  rise  to  fame.  What  can  be  his  purpose  ? 
What  madness  leads  him  astray  ?  Whither  can  he 
go,  when  the  many  needs  of  France  call  for  all  ser- 

135 


136  THE  ROMAIN  ROLL  AND   CASE 

vices,  when  thousands  of  civil  ambulances — where  he 
might  have  tended  Germans  too — demand  the  best 
efforts  of  the  most  willing  men  ;  when,  above  all,  poets 
like  him  ought  to  face  the  noble  task  of  urging  the  souls 
of  France  to  moral  conscription,  of  keeping  vigil  before 
the  altar  of  faith  and  guarding  its  holy  fire  against  the 
gusts  of  panic  or  the  breath  of  perfidy  ?  lii  True,  he 
is  taking  his  part  in  an  institution  quite  praiseworthy 
in  itself,  working  as  it  does  in  Switzerland  and  under 
Swiss  direction,  but  one  which,  as  an  "International 
Agency  for  Prisoners  of  War  " — that  is,  bound,  in 
point  of  fact,  to  aid  either  army  impartially — 
allows  him  also,  the  Bard  of  the  Revolution,  to 
advertise  the  world  that  he  takes  his  place  among  the 
neutrals.  Nay,  in  that  work  he  rubs  shoulders  every 
day  with  Germans;  and,  you  tell  me,  he  assures 
these  very  Germans  that  he  holds  Germany  "  incap- 
able of  carrying  on  the  savage  war  of  which  she  is 
accused."  Ah,  my  friend,  if  you  did  not  assure  me 
on  your  honour  that  you  had  heard  these  words  from 
the  lips  of  Romain  Rolland,  and  if  I  did  not  know 
you,  as  all  your  acquaintance  know  you,  for  the  soul 
of  truth,  I  should  cry  shame  on  the  monstrous  false- 
hood. Do  you  hear  me,  Milliet,  I  should  cry  shame 
on  the  monstrous  falsehood  ! 

Alas,  I  have  read  his  article !  What  a  distorted 
logic  is  there  !  What  a  clash  of  contradictions  !  Most 
astonishing  of  all  are  the  sentences  with  which  he 
opens  his  subject,  in  which,  with  tears  of  admiration 
dripping  from  his  pen,  he  transcribes  the  sublime 
letters  of  two  of  his  young  French  friends  departing 
for  the  great  crusade. 

M  The   armies   of    the   Republic   will    secure   the 


A   CRITICISM  OF  ROMAIN  ROLLAND    137 

triumph  of  democracy  in  Europe  and  complete  the 
work  of  the  Convention.  .  .  .  An  enthusiasm,  like  an 
outburst  of  Marseillaise,  thrills  them ;  heroic,  earnest 
and  even  religious.  .  .  .  We  are  opening  a  new  era 
in  the  world.  We  are  dispelling  the  nightmare  of  the 
materialism  of  a  mailed  Germany  and  of  armed  peace. 
It  will  fade  like  a  phantom  before  us.  .  .  .  Reassure 
your  Viennese  friend,  France  is  not  about  to  die ;  it 
is  her  resurrection  which  we  see.  For  throughout 
history — Bouvines,  the  Crusades,  Cathedrals,  the 
Revolution — we  remain  the  same,  the  knights-errant 
of  the  world,  the  paladins  of  God." 

Well  done  !  proud  and  living  words,  as  of  prophets 
who  in  their  exultation  are  clear-sighted,  as  of  French- 
men who  intuitively  have  perceived  the  meaning  of 
this  war  from  the  first  moment !  Sad  that  it  is  but  a 
quotation,  that  the  master  who  received  these  letters 
has  not  learnt  from  his  pupils,  and  that  in  reassuring 
his  Viennese  friend  he  has  lost  assurance  himself  !  On 
the  same  page,  on  the  same  column,  some  twenty  lines 
before,  to  this  confession  of  faith,  which  he  admires 
and  places  in  the  forefront  of  his  articles,  he  preludes 
a  greeting,  dithyrambic  after  his  fashion,  to  all  the 
youth  of  the  world,  including  the  German  youth,  "  whom 
a  common  ideal  has  tragically  brought  into  conflict  " 
with  our  own  !  You  wonder  ?  I  repeat,  "a  common 
ideal,"  the  very  words  of  Romain  Rolland.  To  violate 
the  neutrality  of  Belgium  and  to  rush  to  its  defence — 
the  same  ideal  1  To  kindle  the  flames  that  consume 
the  Library  of  Louvain,  and  to  throw  ourselves  into  the 
fire  in  order  to  smother  it — the  same  ideal  I  To  shoot 
by  scores  women  and  children,  old  men  and  priests, 
and  to  dare  the  executioner  in  order  to  save  them — 


138  THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND  CASE 

the  same  ideal!  To  pillage,  sack,  destroy,  to  fling 
oneself  upon  the  world  in  order  to  enthrall  its  ruins ; 
and  to  rise  in  arms  to  defend  our  Western  inherit- 
ance and  the  safety  of  humanity — the  same  ideal! 
Even  so,  doubtless,  the  two  armies  in  either  camp  in 
the  plains  of  the  Marne  and  of  Marathon  were  inspired 
by  the  same  lofty  purpose  ! 144 

Nor  does  he  stop  there,  poor  man !  The  same  young 
friends  whose  Credo  he  allowed  us  to  hear  as  they 
were  chanting  it  before  battle,  like  the  paean  of  a 
soul  inspired  with  the  nobility  of  its  cause,  he  speaks 
of  in  the  next  column :  he  speaks  of  them  as  herds 
driven  to  the  slaughter.  Was  there  ever  Gordian 
knot  more  tangled  ?  As  for  the  epic  of  the  war,  it  is 
to  him  but  "  monstrous  "  ;  for,  mind  you,  he  speaks 
of  the  French  people  in  the  same  breath  as  if  it  were 
entitled  to  the  same  place  as  the  German  people  : 

"  Again  the  venerable  refrain  is  heard  :  c  The  fatality 
of  war  is  stronger  than  our  wills.'  The  old  refrain  of 
the  herd  that  makes  a  god  of  its  feebleness  and  bows 
down  before  him.  .  .  .  The  most  striking  feature  in  this 
monstrous  epic,  the  fact  without  precedent,  is  the 
unanimity  for  war  in  each  of  the  nations  engaged." 

You  hear  it,  heroic  youths  "  who  set  forth  to  open 
a  new  era  in  history  "  ;  who  enter  the  furnace  pale, 
not  with  terror,  but  with  frenzy,  who  bare  your 
breasts  to  the  storm  of  bullet  and  shell,  so  that  the 
blood-stains  may  spurt  upwards,  high  above  you 
and  fashion  a  diadem  to  Justice,  and  that  your 
nameless  Deaths  may  give  birth  to  supreme  reality. 
This  faith  which  puts  you  into  ecstasy  is  but  vain, 
this  splendour  is  but  "  monstrous."  You  are  merely 
the  victims  and  the  dupes  of  a  pitiful  illusion,  and 


A   CRITICISM  OF  ROMAIN  ROLLAND    139 

the  utmost  your  friend  can  do  for  you  is  "  not  to 
disturb  your  joy  "  (sic).  You  fancied  that  this  hell 
was  let  loose  because  Germany's  will  for  war  was 
stronger  than  France's  will  for  peace  ?  Illusion,  I  tell 
you,  all  illusion !  So  soon  as  the  aggressor,  like  you, 
lays  claim  to  right,  it  follows  that  no  one  can  be 
in  the  wrong.  You  may  try  to  disentangle  the  web  in 
order  to  find  Truth,  you  may  sift  the  arguments  in 
order  to  discover  Justice.  Vain  Cartesian  objectivity ! 
Childish  and  empty  play  of  words,  how  feeble  when 
compared  with  the  subjectivity  of  Kant !  To  examine 
facts,  to  study  documents,  the  very  confessions  of  the 
criminals,  and  the  universal  judgment  of  the  nations  ? 
All  quibbling  and  hair-splitting !  How  much  deeper 
and  truer  that  dark  Hegelian  confusion,  that  blending 
of  opposites,  in  which  your  friend  delights  !  At  length, 
so  tangled  becomes  the  thread  of  his  thoughts  that 
he  breaks  the  skein,  refuting,  so  to  say,  his  own  re- 
futations and  contradicting  his  own  contradictions  : 
1 '  There  is  not  one  amongst  the  leaders  of  thought  in 
each  country  who  does  not  proclaim  with  conviction 
that  the  cause  of  his  people  is  the  cause  of  God,  the 
cause  of  liberty  and  of  human  progress.  And  I,  too, 
proclaim  it." 

What  ?  that  he  too  believes  in  the  just  cause  of 
France,  that  he  does  not  hold  that  her  cause  and  that 
of  Germany  should  be  flung  into  the  same  sack  and 
hurled  together  into  Sheol  ?  Praised  be  the  gods  for 
this  late  repentance  ;  for  we  had  almost  come  to 
believe  that  this  impartial  judge,  in  his  innermost 
soul,  had  decided  against  France,  and  that  only  a 
remnant  of  cowardly  shame  hindered  him  from  pro- 
nouncing a  clear,  logical,  and  open  sentence  !  .  .  . 


140  THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND  CASE 

But  since  it  is  not  so,  since  he  "  proclaims  "  that 
"  the  cause  of  France  is  that  of  liberty  and  of  human 
progress,"  then  surely  it  was  hardly  worth  the  trouble 
to  daub  the  pages  with  nearly  five  hundred  lines  of 
insinuation  of  the  opposite ;  and  what  about  the 
"  monstrous  epic,"  what  about  the  "  herds,"  the 
"  common  ideal  setting  two  nations  at  issue  "  ? — But 
mercy  !    mercy  on  us  ! 

After  such  a  deplorable  muddle  one  might  well 
hope  for  a  Finis.  Not  at  all ;  Romain  Holland  has 
by  no  means  completed  his  self-destruction.  The 
Journal  de  Geneve  contains  yet  stronger  stuff ;  a  mania 
so  acute  must  of  necessity  lead  to  a  transport  of 
frenzy,  and  upset  the  whole  equilibrium  of  the 
brain. 

Like  his  "  Viennese  friend,"  doubtless,  and  like 
all  the  German  intellectuals,  Romain  Rolland  is 
obsessed  with  the  Russian  peril.  He  sets  side  by 
side,  in  the  same  phrase,  the  German  invasion 
of  Belgium  and  the  Russian  threat  against  East 
Prussia.  He  pits  the  provocation  against  the  reply, 
an  outrage  on  justice  against  an  act  of  war.148 
From  this  astounding  performance,  had  one  no  other 
knowledge,  one  would  gather  that  the  attack  came 
simultaneously  from  all  sides,  that  the  "  torrent  of 
Cossack  cavalry "  was  let  loose  upon  Konigsberg, 
"  the  city  of  Kant,"  at  the  very  moment  in  which 
the  Uhlan  bands  were  flung  upon  Liege.  And  on 
the  "devouring  Tsarism  "  Romain  Rolland  is  never 
weary  of  dilating.  It  is  no  purpose  of  mine  to 
discuss  here  the  internal  politics  of  our  Allies  during 
the  years  before  the  war.  But  I  have  every  reason 
to  suppose,  from  this  very  article,  that  the  sympa- 


A   CRITICISM  OF  ROMAIN  ROLLAND     141 

thies   of    its    author    must    have   been    with   liberal 
Russia,    and   every  right   to   conclude   that  if  ever 
there  took  place  a  demonstration  in  France  in  favour 
of  that  Russia,  Rolland  had  hastened  to  support  it. 
Now  you  remember,  dear  friend,  that,  in  the  spring 
of  1911,  the  paper  I  had  recently  founded  took  the 
initiative  in  a  commemoration  of  Tolstoi,  who  had  just 
died.     A  committee  was  formed,  which  included   the 
greatest  names  in  our  world  of  letters,  Maeterlinck  at 
their  head.     The  vast  amphitheatre  of  the  Sorbonne 
was    thronged    with    an    enthusiastic    crowd,     and 
thousands  of  people,  unable  to  gain  a  place,  surged 
outside  its  doors.     In  turn,  Frederic  Passy,  Anatole 
France,  Severine,  declaimed  words  to  the  glory  of  the 
Russian  apostle  who  summed  up  in  his  person  his 
whole  suffering  nation.     On  the  platform,   in  their 
national  costumes,  proscribed  Russian  students  uttered 
their  plaintive  chants,  full  of  longing  for  their  home. 
It  was  a  moving  spectacle,  never  forgotten  by  any 
of  those  who  were  present ;    it  was  a  manifestation 
which,  in  those  surroundings,  assumed  a  resounding 
importance.     One    man,    in    a    formal    letter,    had 
refused  me  his  countenance  and  even  the  use  of  his 
name.     That  man  was  Romain  Rolland. 
Here  endeth  the  first  lesson  ! 

But  there  is  another  case  of  forgetfulness,  still  more 
amazing.  In  the  same  article  I  read  :  "  Let  us  be 
bold  and  proclaim  the  truth  to  the  elders  of  these 
young  men,  to  their  moral  guides,  to  their  religious 
and  secular  leaders,  to  the  Churches,  the  great  thinkers, 
the  leaders  of  Socialism ;  these  living  riches,  these 
treasures  of  heroism  you  held  in  your  hands,  for  what 
are  you  squandering  them  ?    What  ideal  have  you 


142  THE  ROMAIN  HOLLAND  CASE 

held  up  to  the  devotion  of  these  youths,  so  eager 
to  sacrifice  themselves  ?  .  .  .  Granted  that  the 
Churches,  the  leaders  of  the  labouring  classes,  the 
intellectual  chiefs,  did  not  will  the  war :  what  have 
they  done  to  prevent  it  ?  "  Forsooth,  this  passes  the 
lawful  limits  of  amnesia  !  Is  it  the  French  or  the 
Germans  that  Romain  Rolland  is  reproaching  ?  Must 
we  really  teach  him  the  history  of  the  last  ten  years, 
of  which  he  seems  to  have  no  glimmering  notion — 
those  years  fretted  by  vain  efforts,  saturated  with 
our  useless  sweat  ?  .  .  .  What  has  the  French  Labour 
Party  done  to  prevent  the  war  ?  All — more  than  all ; 
at  times  a  little  too  much.  Who,  pray,  were  the 
Herveists  of  Herve's  first  phase  ?  Who  were  those 
who  vaunted  the  idea  of  a  general  strike  in  case  of  war, 
without  ever  securing  a  similar  assurance  from  the 
Socialists  beyond  the  frontier  ?  Were  they  French  or 
Germans  ?  And  from  which  country  came  those 
Parliamentarians  who,  feeling  the  lowering  thunder- 
bolt impending  over  Europe,  hurried,  in  the  hope  of 
averting  it,  to  the  Berne  conference  in  numbers  thrice, 
nay,  five  times  as  great  as  those  of  the  opposite 
Parliament  ?  Was  it  from  Germany  or  from  France, 
that  throng  of  simple-hearted,  well-wishing  people  ? 
I  advise  Romain  Rolland  to  consult  his  doctor  about 
amnesia  and  the  best  cure  for  it.  But,  even  if  our 
endeavours  to  further  peace  had  fallen  short  of  what 
they  should  be,  is  the  accuser  properly  qualified  to  hurl 
censure  at  us  ?  At  the  time  when,  according  to  our 
Lime  Jaune  (article  6,  report  of  M.  Jules  Cambon), 
the  "  manifestations  of  certain  excited  spirits  or  of 
unscrupulous  intriguers  " — manifestations  far  from 
expressing  the  feelings  of  the  nation — began  in  France 


A    CRITICISM  OF  ROMAIN  ROLLAND     143 

their  hullabaloo  in  reply  to  the  discordant  uproar  of 
Pangermanism,  who  opposed  them,  by  pen  or  in 
speech,  in  the  street  or  in  the  meeting-hall,  despite 
insult  and  bodily  assault  ?  Was  it  M.  Holland  or  those 
he  chides  that  supported  Ruyssen  at  the  Manage 
du  Pantheon  ?  u9  M.  Rolland  was  sitting  comfortably 
at  home  preening  and  pruning  the  revised  proofs  of 
his  Jean  Christophe.  Finally,  on  the  31st  July  1914, 
when  the  storm-cloud  big  with  lightning,  on  the  point 
of  bursting,  hung  muttering  thunder  over  Europe, 
in  those  tragic  and  supreme  hours  which  seemed  to  us 
to  condense  centuries,  and  to  hold  in  suspense  the 
destinies  of  the  world,  but  in  which  we  were  all  com- 
forted by  the  absolute  evidence  that  France  at  least 
was  without  blame — who  then  tried  a  last  effort,  after 
all  possible  effort  had  been  spent,  still  to  stay  the  deluge 
of  blood,  to  deprive  German  crime  of  every  pretext ; 
who  then  strained  his  last  breath  to  beg  for  the  removal 
of  the  French  troops — as,  in  fact,  they  were  removed — 
ten  kilometres  from  the  burning  line,  even  though  the 
Uhlan  horses  were  already  neighing  on  the  frontier 
posts  ?  wTho  but  the  grandest  of  these  "  Socialist 
tribunes  "  anathematised  by  Romain  Rolland  ?  And, 
while  Rolland  was  loafing  in  Switzerland,  Jaur6s  was 
dying  for  the  honour  of  France. 

I  had  all  but  forgotten  the  note  of  buffoonery 
which  Dante  strikes  every  now  and  then  in  the  midst 
Inferno, 14  7  by  way  of  finishing  a  canto.  I  do  not  know, 
in  fact,  what  instrument  Romain  Rolland  employs  to 
trumpet  out  his  invectives  against  the  intellectuals 
"  who  did  nothing,  before  the  war,  to  prevent  it."  He 
has  the  face  to  pretend  that  no  nation  had  the  courage 
to  oppose  Chauvinism.     But  what  I  know  pertinently 


144  THE  ROMAIN  HOLLAND   CASE 

is  that  in  June  1912,  in  the  ever-haunting  sense  of 
danger,  which  we  combated  with  all  the  more  obstinacy 
as  we  felt  it  more  imminent,  it  was  certain  Frenchmen 
— Frenchmen  again  ! — who  formed  the  idea  of  inviting 
the  Germans  to  found  with  them  a  committee  of 
Intellectual  Agreement,  the  motto  for  which,  not 
without  reason,  was  "  Pour  mieux  se  connaitre  "  (To 
know  each  other  better).148  Speedily  there  sprang  up 
on  both  sides  a  lively  eagerness,  which  in  the  French 
was  not  devoid  of  merit  and  of  courage  to  boot, 
since  they  resolved  inwardly  to  check  any  rancour, 
however  just,  and  outwardly  to  defy  all  outrage,  how- 
ever vile.  Now,  among  the  French  portion  of  the 
committee  were  these  names  :  Louis  Havet,  Gabriel 
Compayre,  Gabriel  Seailles,  E.  Durkheim,  Levy-Bruhl, 
Leopold  Mabileau,  Victor  Margueritte,  Edouard 
Herriot,  J.-H.  Rosny  the  elder,  Maurice  Maeterlinck, 
Emile  Verhaeren. 

But  wThat  name  is  missing,  amid  all  these  others  ? 
Is  it  possible,  is  it  believable,  that  he  was  not  requested 
to  join  ?  Not  so  ;  for  the  General  Secretary  of  this 
committee  of  Agreement  among  intellectuals  who 
made  no  sincere  effort  to  prevent  this  impious  war, 
was  no  other  than  the  present  narrator.149  Yes,  the 
writer  who,  by  his  affinities,  by  his  friendships,  even  by 
the  moral  canvass  and  the  character  of  his  novels 
and  his  reputation  for  nobility,  seemed  marked 
out  to  figure  in  the  list  where  his  name  is  now 
conspicuous  by  its  absence — this  writer  was  urged, 
strongly  urged,  to  join  us  ;  and,  in  a  formal  letter, 
that  writer  refused  his  consent.  His  name  was 
Romain  Holland.150 

Here  endeth  the  second  lesson! 


A   CRITICISM  OF  ROMAIN  ROLLAND      145 

Alas  !  the  spectacle  is  no  doubt  amusing  ;  a  man- 
darin, yesterday  so  prudent,  to-day  playing  the  part 
of  an  Ezekiel,  and  imputing  to  others  the  shortcomings 
which  he  alone  exemplified  when  those  whom  now 
he  assails  summoned  him  to  action  !  But  it  is  a 
heart-breaking  spectacle  nevertheless — the  collapse 
of  an  intelligence,  the  downfall  of  a  moral  power,  the 
discrowning  of  a  poet.  Such  is  the  fate  of  him  who 
claims  to  outsoar  "  mad  "  humanity,  to  be  "above  the 
battle,"  in  his  words — in  ours  to  shun  the  ranks  of 
heroes ;  such  is  the  fate  of  him  who  flatters  himself 
with  the  hope  of  being,  in  twenty  years,  when  the 
storm  has  passed,  the  One  and  Only  who  shall  have 
been  right  by  taking  no  side  ;  such  is  the  fate  of 
him  who,  by  failing  to  confess  the  Right,  has  con- 
doned the  Crime,  has  found  but  a  sigh  for  the  vio- 
lation of  Belgium,151  instead  of  that  great  indignant 
outcry  by  which  the  Humane  know  each  other 
throughout  the  world  and  mark  themselves  off  for 
ever  from  the  horde  of  the  Impure ;  and  thus  it  is 
that  in  spite  of  himself  he  has  allowed  a  name 
honoured  in  France  to  be  turned  against  France 152 ; 
thus  it  is,  further,  that,  to  the  scandal  of  the  humble 
folks  and  the  joy  of  the  malicious,  he  has  cast  upon 
the  noble  humanitarian  ideas,  of  which  he  passed 
as  a  representative,  the  unjustest  of  suspicions  (as 
if  the  temple  were  shaken  by  the  fall  of  a  false 
god's  statue,  as  if  it  were  not  these  very  ideas,  born 
of  the  Revolution,  that  inspire  the  strength  of  France 
in  the  trenches  against  the  barbarian) ;  thus  it  is, 
finally,  that,  scanning  the  poor  "  herds  "  from  the 
height  of  his  lofty  pity,  he  has  no  inkling  of  the  true 
meaning  of  the  sublimest  epic  in  the  records  of  history, 
10 


146  THE  ROMAIN  HOLLAND  CASE 

that  he  sees  not  in  this  welter  of  blood  principles 
warring  over  the  corpses  for  the  supremacy  of  con- 
sciences and  for  the  destiny  of  Humanity,  and  that 
he  remains,  in  fact,  a  blindfolded  watcher  perched 
on  a  pinnacle. 


II.  PREFACE  TO  THE  APPEAL  TO  ROMAIN 
HOLLAND 

The  following  article  appeared  in  La  Revue  of 
the  1st  and  15th  November,  1915.15S  The  incident 
with  which  it  deals  might  well  have  been  left  in  its 
insignificance,  and  has,  in  fact,  no  other  meaning 
than  that  it  points  to  a  certain  mental  twist.  It 
will  be  recalled  how  the  Temps  of  7th  July,  1915, 
announced  that  the  name  of  Romain  Rolland 
appeared  on  the  list  of  a  German  league,  the  New 
Fatherland.  At  a  time  of  war,  and  by  reason  of 
the  dubious  attitude  taken  up  by  him  in  Switzer- 
land during  the  war,  a  Frenchman  like  Romain 
Rolland  assuredly  owed  an  immediate  explanation 
to  the  most  important  paper  of  his  own  country.  Of 
three  things  one.  Either  his  name  had  been  stolen 
by  the  League,  and  he  ought  at  once  to  have  raised  a 
vigorous  protest.  Or,  his  name  had  been  lent  to  the 
list  in  a  moment  of  inadvertent  complaisance,  and 
now,  instructed  by  the  Temps  as  to  the  consequences 
of  his  folly,  Romain  Rolland  ought  publicly  to  have 
withdrawn  his  name,  while  pleading  the  purity  of  his 
motives.  Or,  finally,  he  had  given  his  name  in  full 
knowledge  of  the  state  of  affairs  and  in  accordance 
with  his  principles  ;  if  so,  he  ought  to  keep  it  on 
the  list  and  openly  vindicate  his  adhesion.  On  each 
of  these  suppositions,  an  explanation  is  due.  It  is 
vain  to  din  in  my  ears,  as  is  being  ceaselessly  done, 

147 


148  THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND  CASE 

that  Holland  never  defends  himself.  It  is  not  true. 
Under  the  pressure  of  my  Revue  article,  he  gave,  in  the 
Hommes  du  Jour,  a  personal  declaration  on  this  point, 
but  only  on  the  27th  of  November,  namely,  a  hundred 
and  forty-three  days  after  the  statement  in  the 
Temps. ni  Further,  with  reference  to  his  connection 
with  this  same  German  league,  he  had  addressed  a 
long  defence  to  the  Bernese  paper  Der  Bund  of  the 
18th  February,  1915.155  Now,  how  much  simpler  and 
how  much  more  convenient  for  all,  if  he  had  ex- 
plained himself  already  in  July,  in  the  Temps  ! 
Instead  of  that,  what  do  we  see  ?  The  numbers 
of  the  Bulletin  of  the  League  which  contained 
the  name  of  Romain  Holland  were  suddenly  re- 
printed, and  in  this  new  edition  his  name  was 
silently  omitted.  Straightway  his  maladroit  friends, 
breaking  the  seal  of  silence,  tumble  over  one  another 
in  their  eagerness  to  announce  that  he  had  never 
"  taken  part  "  in  the  league,  never  been  a  "  member  " 
of  it.  Nor  had  I  ever  asserted  that  he  was  a 
member.  I  said  that  his  name  appeared  on  the  lists. 
But  of  these  lists  scarcely  a  mention  is  made,  and 
by  the  most  interested  party  less  than  by  anybody ; 
or  only  in  veiled  words,  such  as  to  throw  a  discreet 
pall  over  the  facts,  and  to  cast  on  my  statement 
a  suspicion  of  calumny.  This  word  "  calumny " 
having  indeed  been  used  in  the  French  press,  and 
this  very  accusation  having  been  made  against 
me  (by  M.  Paul  Seippel  in  the  Journal  de  Geneve, 
28th  November),  I  publish  a  facsimile  of  the  Bulletin 
of  the  League,  which  will  prove  my  good  faith.  What 
should  we  deduce  from  this  incident  ?  First,  that 
this  debate  ought  to  have  remained  a  moral  debate, 


PREFACE  TO  THE  APPEAL  149 

carried  on  aboveboard,  in  open  day,  resting  as  it 
did  on  such  serious  principles  ;  and  ought  not  to 
have  degenerated  into  quibblings  by  the  fault  of  my 
opponents.  Secondly,  that,  if  the  majority  of  the 
founders  of  this  league  rank  among  the  most  liberal 
of  Germans  (?),  it  is  not  less  true  that  many  names  of 
Pangermans  adorn  the  list,  and  this,  doubtless,  not 
without  design.  Finally,  that  this  "  New  Father- 
land," with  which  the  league  concerns  itself,  is  a  new 
German  Fatherland,  and  that,  while  hoping  to  see  it 
one  day  set  to  work  to  expiate  the  villainies  of  the 
old,  a  Frenchman,  in  time  of  war,  can  greet  it  with  but 
a  cautious  interest.  We  doubt  not  the  innocence  of 
Rolland's  intent  when  he  inscribed,  had  inscribed,  or 
found  inscribed,  without  loud  protest,  his  name  among 
these  other  names.  The  incident  shows  to  what 
aberrations  of  judgment  his  neutralist  doctrines  can 
lead  him.  We  do  not  cry  out  treason.  We  do  not 
cry  out  shame.  We  simply  note  a  want  of  tact  in  his 
dealings  with  France.  That  is  all :  and  that  is  too 
much. 


* 


The  following  letter  was  twice  sent,  registered,  to 
Romain  Holland  at  Geneva,  on  1st  January  and  3rd 
February,  1916.  The  second  time  the  receipt  proves 
that  it  was  delivered. 

My  dear  Rolland, 

Let  us  throw  to  the  winds  our  self-esteem. 
Noblesse  oblige  for  both  of  us.  Let  us  rise  to  the  level 
of  these  tragic  events. 

Starting  from  the  same  principles — horror  of  war 


150         THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND  CASE 

and  an  ardent  desire  of  Justice — we  have  practically- 
arrived  at  two  absolute  antipodes.  Yet  each  of  us 
is  convinced  that  he  is  right.  And  neither  of  us,  it  is 
certain,  is  capable  of  despising  the  other. 

In  the  name  of  our  old  friendship,  compounded  of 
affection  on  your  side  and  of  admiration  on  mine,  let 
the  beautiful  letter  that  you  wrote  me  on  the  death 
of  my  father  inspire  us ;  and  above  our  differences, 
"  let  us  turn  to  God  Who  will  conquer,  by  our  arms  or 
by  others  ;   Who  will  conquer." 

In  order  to  eliminate  the  most  painful  part  of  my 
polemic,  I  make  a  last  appeal ;  I  do  not  ask  you  to 
recant ;  I  merely  ask  you  to  acknowledge  facts. 
Here  is  my  suggestion : 

Everything  156  that  I  am  about  to  reprint  concerning 
your  relations  with  the  "  League  of  the  New  Father- 
land "  will  be  suppressed — the  volume  is  ready  and 
only  awaits  my  authorisation  for  its  issue — and  re- 
placed by  the  following   declaration : 

"Romain  Holland,  who  was  not  a  member  of  the 
1  League  of  the  New  Fatherland  '  and  consequently 
did  not  belong  to  it,157  acknowledges  that  his  name 
appeared  in  six  numbers  of  the  Bulletin  of  the  League 
in  the  list  of  persons  who  supported  the  League, 
and  he  declares  that  he  has  withdrawn  his  name 
from  it. 

"Paul  Hyacinthe  Loyson,  on  his  side,  paying 
respect  to  Romain  Rolland's  loyalty,  gladly  sup- 
presses everything  in  this  volume  that  referred  to 
the  incident  now  closed.  This  has  been  done  in 
the  thought  of  a  sacred  union  in  front  of  the 
enemy. 

"Signed:    Romain  Rolland;  P.  H.  L." 


PREFACE  TO  THE  APPEAL  151 

Do  you  accept,  my  dear  Holland  ?  We  should  offer 
a  fruitful  example,  and  should  be  worthy  of  our 
France. 

P.  H.  L. 

Romain  Rolland  did  not  reply. 


III.  APPEAL  TO  ROMAIN  HOLLAND 

25th  October  1915. 
At  the  present  moment  a  petition  is  being  circulated 
among  men  of  letters,  journalists,  primary  teachers, 
and  the  like,  soliciting  their  signatures  with  a  view 
to  a  public  celebration  in  honour  of  Romain 
Rolland.  The  character  of  this  petition  is  clear  from 
the  following  passage :  "  It  has  been  said  that 
Romain  Rolland  represents  nobody  but  himself. 
But  hear  the  facts.  c  I  speak,5  he  writes,  '  to  relieve 
my  own  conscience,  and  I  am  sure  that  at  the  same 
time  I  shall  relieve  that  of  thousands  of  others  who, 
in  all  countries,  cannot  or  dare  not  speak.' "  We 
may  say  that  there  are,  not  thousands,  but  millions 
of  Frenchmen  who,  like  Rolland,  feel  pity  for  the 
frightful  woes  inflicted  on  the  human  race  by  this  war. 
If  such  is  the  meaning  of  the  address,  this  feeling  is  too 
much  in  accordance  with  the  traditions  of  French 
humanity  to  prevent  any  of  our  fellow-citizens  from 
signing  it  with  alacrity. 

But  the  real  question  is  whether,  in  the  minds  of 
the  promoters  of  this  homage  to  the  fine  writer  of  Jean 
Christophe,  there  may  not  lurk  in  the  petition  an  idea 
of  committing  those  who  sign  it  to  approval  of  the 
doctrine  of  Above  the  Battle — to  approval,  that  is  to 
say,  of  that  view  which  assigns  the  responsibility  for 

162 


APPEAL  TO  ROMAIN  ROLLAND         153 

the  war  in  equal  shares  to  Germany  and  France. 
11  Both  parties,"  writes  the  author  of  that  pamphlet, 
41  have  alike  sought  for  pretexts  to  justify  their 
crimes  " — a  sentence  which  deprives  every  signatory 
of  this  plebiscite  of  all  excuse  for  doing  so  in  ignorance. 

Were  this  but  the  comparatively  trifling  affair  of 
one  man's  conscience,  we  should  spend  no  words  upon 
it.  But  when  there  are  men  who  struggle  to  enlarge 
it  into  a  question  of  national  conscience,  it  becomes 
dangerous  ;  and  here  a  circumstance,  revealed  by  the 
Temps  on  7th  July  last,  assumes  considerable  import- 
ance. That  article,  fully  supported  by  documents,  was 
as  follows  :  "  From  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  German 
propagandists  have  conformed  themselves,  with  great 
adroitness,  to  the  military  situation  of  the  Empire.  .  . 
After  the  victory  on  the  Marne  .  .  .  the  Imperial 
Government,  perceiving  that  the  war  would  be  long, 
and  that  there  was  no  more  any  hope  of  a  crushing 
triumph,  sought  allies  abroad,  and  even  in  the  camp 
of  its  foes.  .  .  .  No  longer  expecting  to  conquer, 
Germany  none  the  less  seeks  auxiliaries  among  the 
pacificists  of  all  nations." 

It  is  in  this  manner  that  the  article  informs  us  of 
the  foundation  of  a  German  league,  "  The  New  Father- 
land "  (Bund  Neues  Vaterland),  "  the  list  of  whose 
members  and  correspondents  is  very  instructive,  with 
its  curious  mixture  of  professors  and  politicians,  of 
ambiguous  publicists  and  dreamers,"  among  whom 
we  find  four  notorious  intellectuals,  signatories  of  the 
manifesto  of  the  Ninety-three  professors.  Further, 
the  Bund  announced  that  it  is  in  "  constant  re- 
lations" with  certain  ambiguous  foreign  societies, 
such  as  the  Netherlands  Aflti-War  League,  which  has 


154         THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND  CASE 

never  protested  aganst  the  violation  of  Belgium  ;  the 
London  Union  of  Democratic  Control,  which  is  still 
circulating,  after  thirteen  months,  a  pamphlet  with 
German  sympathies,  issued  on  17th  September,  1914, 
before  the  publication  of  the  most  important  docu- 
ments ;  the  Spanish  Committee  of  Friends  of  Euro- 
pean Moral  Unity,  which  has  refused  to  make  a 
choice  between  the  belligerents  or  to  pronounce  on 
the  question  of  right ;  Dr.  Broda's  Austrian  League 
of  Human  Progress ;  and  the  Committee  for  the 
Attainment  of  a  Lasting  Peace,  which  sprang  from 
the  abortive  Berne  congress,  and  whose  German  bias 
is  plainly  visible.158  "  How,"  asks  the  Temps,  "  could 
the  German  members  of  the  Bund  bring  themselves 
to  this  painful  alliance  with  the  enemy  ?  "  And  it 
answers,  "  If  they  can  serve  the  cause  of  Germany, 
they  will  not  hesitate  to  clasp  the  hand  of  a  man 
whom,  if  he  arose  in  their  own  country,  they  would 
call  a  traitor."  Note,  however,  that  not  one  of  the 
members  of  the  British  Union  of  Democratic  Control 
has  dared  to  give  his  personal  adhesion  to  the  German 
League. 

The  Temps  adds :  "  On  the  list  of  the  adherents  of 
the  ■  League '  there  is  found  no  English  name.  But  a 
French  name  does  occur,  that  of  M.  Romain  Holland, 
of  Geneva."  It  concludes  :  "  Despite  appearances,  the 
6  League  '  is  nothing  but  a  German  engine  of  war." 

Against  this  assertion  of  the  Temps,  Holland 
uttered  not  a  word  of  protest. 

Trusting  in  the  good  faith  of  a  great  paper,  so 
justly  renowned  for  its  accuracy,  and  acting  under 
the  impulse  of  a  natural  indignation,  the  author  of 
an  article  attacking  Rolland's  views,  which  was  about 


APPEAL  TO  ROMAIN  ROLLAND         155 

to  appear  in  La  Revue,  took  the  opportunity  of  adding 
some  touches  to  his  work ;  he  impressed  on  it,  while 
giving  this  passage  from  the  Temps,  a  stamp  of  con- 
siderable asperity,  but  at  the  same  time  he  avowed 
himself  ready,  should  the  information  prove  incorrect, 
for  a  public  apology.169 

Some  days  after  this  number  of  La  Revue  reached 
Geneva,  the  war-residence  of  Holland,  the  Temps  of 
3rd  September  returned  to  the  point.  "  One  of  our 
Geneva  friends  writes  to  us  that  he  has  procured  the 
list  of  adherents160  of  the  German  Bund.  I  assert, 
says  he,  that  on  this  list,  the  last  published,  the 
name  of  M.  Romain  Rolland  does  not  appear,  and  I 
know,  from  a  sure  source,  that  he  has  never  been  a 
member"  (the  italics  are  our  own).161  The  Temps 
inserted,  without  comment,  this  correction  of  its  July 
article,  belated  and  ambiguous  as  it  was ;  and  M. 
Rolland  still  kept  silence. 

Not  till  the  10th  October  did  he  break  it.  On  that 
day,  in  a  Paris  evening  daily,  he  addressed  an  open 
letter  to  one  of  his  followers,  who,  ten  days  before, 
had  declared  in  the  same  paper  that  Above  the  Battle 
belongs  to  history  as  certainly  as  "la  bataille  des 
Eparges"  (sic) — in  which  thousands  of  Frenchmen 
died  to  deliver  their  country  and  to  defend  the  Right. 
(The  pen  of  the  disciple  seems  to  have  played  him 
false ;  he  must  have  meant  to  write  that  Above  the 
Battle  is  immortal  by  the  same  title  as  the  Battle  of 
the  Marne.)  Not  even  this  amazing  assertion  ex- 
torted any  protest  from  Rolland  ;  it  shows,  however, 
clearly  enough,  the  lengths  to  which  enthusiasm  can 
lead  the  men  who  desire  to  do  him  homage.  The  letter 
of  the  master  having  appeared,  the  disciple  (who  is 


156  THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND  CASE 

characterised  as  "a  dear  friend  ")  returns  to  the  charge, 
and  reasserts  that  "Rolland  has  never  been,  is  not,  and 
never  will  be,  a  member  of  any  association  :  he  him- 
self has  said  so."  And  Rolland  did  not  contradict 
him. 

Three  days  after  this  second,  and  categorical 
denial  by  a  friend,  on  the  13th  October,  there  came 
to  light  in  the  war-archives  of  an  allied  nation,  a 
document  beyond  dispute,  the  first  list  of  adherents 
of  the  German  League.  The  Temps  of  7th  July  had 
made  no  mistake :  the  name  of  Romain  Rolland  was 
there.  On  the  last  page,  line  28,  between  those  of 
Rudolph  Goldscheid,  Vienna,  and  Bjornson,  tem- 
porarily at  Berlin  (z.  Zt.  Berlin),  it  runs  thus :  "  Ro- 
main Rolland,  Genf."  162  It  is  to  be  found  in  five  of  the 
first  six  Bulletins,  the  only  ones,  as  far  as  my  latest 
information  goes,  that  have  certainly  been  published. 
In  one  number  (the  second,  entitled  What  would 
Bismarck  do? — Was  thate  Bismarck?)  it  is  suppressed ; 
and  if  the  omission  is  not  accidental,  it  is  fitting  to 
give  a  Frenchman  the  benefit  of  this  short-lived 
exhibition  of  shame.  Immediately  afterwards,  from 
the  third  number  onwards,  the  name  reappears  in 
its  old  position.163 

But  now  let  us  examine  the  spirit  of  the  League — 
an  interesting  question  and  one  which  may  tend  to 
raise  the  level  of  the  discussion.  That  spirit  is,  in 
a  word,  for  Germans  liberal,  for  Frenchmen,  the 
victims  of  German  aggression,  atrocious.  There  is  in 
it  a  minimum  of  liberalism,  which,  in  any  other 
country,  would  be  a  maximum  of  nationalism; 
and  even  that  minimum  appears  exclusively  in  a 
lengthy  manifesto  against  annexationist  designs  whose 


APPEAL  TO  ROMAIN  ROLLAND         15? 

authors  the  Berlin  Government  prosecutes  for  high 
treason.  [In  this  connection  we  may  recall  that  a 
similar  manifesto,  addressed  by  eight  hundred  com- 
batants and  officers  of  the  German  Social  Democratic 
party  to  its  executive  committee  {V  or  stand),  met  with 
all  the  rigours  of  martial  law,  although  the  Imperial 
Government  took  care  to  communicate  its  entire  text 
by  wireless  to  all  the  countries  of  the  world  as  a 
proof  of  the  good  feeling  which  sways  the  German 
nation.]  In  the  League's  manifesto  occur  the  follow- 
ing passages  (the  complete  translation  may  be  found 
in  VHumaniU,  from  22nd  to  30th  September) : 

"  The  propagation  of  this  piece  of  folly  "  (the  an- 
nexationist) "is  perilous,  as  rendering  difficult  the 
conclusion  of  a  peace  such  as  we  require.  So  far 
from  dividing  our  enemies,  we  thus  cement  their 
union.  .  .  .  Nothing  could  be  more  insane,  or  more 
harmful  to  German  interests.  Is  the  annexation  of 
Belgium  desirable  or  fatal  for  Germany  ?  Should  we 
aim,  at  the  conclusion  of  peace,  at  keeping  the  country, 
or  treat  it  as  a  pledge  to  extort  advantages  elsewhere  ? 
— All  the  aims  of  Germans  interested  in  the  Belgian 
railways  can  easily  be  attained  by  certain  arrangements 
in  the  treaty.  .  .  .  Freed  from  the  annexationist 
menace,  the  English  will  probably,  after  the  war, 
retain  sufficient  dislike  for  compulsory  service  to 
crush  all  designs  for  its  permanent  retention.  ...  It 
is  quite  otherwise  with  trifling  rectifications  of  the 
Franco-German  frontier,  particularly  in  the  Vosges, 
which  may  well  be  of  great  military  importance  in  a 
defensive  sense.  .  .  .  The  violation  of  Belgian  neu- 
trality has  given  almost  everywhere  the  impression 
of  an  appalling  catastrophe,  especially  deplorable  in  its 


158  THE  ROMAIN  HOLLAND  CASE 

effect  upon  neutral  opinion.  .  .  .  They  "  (the  German 
Swiss)  "recognise,  in  the  necessities  of  lawful  defence, 
extenuating  circumstances.  .  .  .Necessity  is  gradually 
producing  an  agreement,  conformable  to  the  military 
situation,  and,  let  us  hope,  to  a  future  situation  as 
favourable  as  that  of  to-day.  .  .  .  Let  us  not  trouble 
ourselves  about  others,  who,  after  sacrifices  as  great 
as  our  own,  may  well  be  consumed  with  rage.  .  .  . 
Let  us  think  only  of  ourselves.  We  must  have  effective 
guarantees,  to  secure  our  position  as  a  great  Power, 
and  we  must  therefore  utilise  as  pledges  the  territories 
now  occupied  by  our  troops.  .  .  .  Naturally  enough, 
we  have  in  view  colonial  acquisitions,  frontier  guaran- 
tees, war  indemnities  ;  possibly  also  naval  bases  and 
coaling  stations."     (The  italics  are  ours.) 164 

When  "  the  most  liberal "  of  Germans  can  rise  to 
such  heights  of  magnanimity,  there  is  no  need  for 
wonder  or  praise  beyond  measure.  Their  mouths 
are  full  of  "  interests  "  ;  never  a  word  for  justice. 
But  what  ought  a  Frenchman  to  think  of  it  ? 
Romain  Rolland  is  no  niggard  of  pen  and  ink.  Yet 
has  he  ever  protested  publicly  against  these  demands 
of  his  former  colleagues  ? 

As  for  certain  of  these  co-signatories,  what  of  the 
famous  manifesto  of  the  Ninety-three  to  which  they 
put  their  hand  ?  It  is  precisely  the  immortal  works 
that  suffer  oblivion,  for  we  dispense  ourselves  from  re- 
reading them. 

"  The  just  and  noble  cause  of  Germany.  ...  It 
is  not  true  that  Germany  provoked  the  war.  .  .  It 
is  not  true  that  our  soldiers  have  ever  attacked  the 
life  or  property  of  a  single  Belgian  citizen,  save  when 
compelled  by  the  hard  necessity  of  a  lawful  defence  " 


Plate  I 


S>er  -  §  3  ber  Gafjungen  bc«i  limbed  „9foued  93aterfanb" 
bcfa^t  atfdbrudttcfy,  baft  ber  ^3unb  cine  n>irflid)e  9lrt>cif^gc- 
m  e  i  n  f  cfy  a  f  t  barftellen  foil,  b.  9.  bic  9ttifgliebfcfyaft  toirb  nic^t 
baburd)  erworben,  bafj  jemanb  ben  oorgefebenen  ^itgjiebdbeitraa, 
bejaftft,  ed  toirb  oiefmeftr  oon  jebem  orbentlidjen  ^DZitglieb  on» 
bauernbe-  unb  nacfybriidlicfye  Sttitarbeit  fur  bie  3iele  bed  33unbcd 
enoartet.  Sinter  biefer  SJoraudfefjun:*  erfolgt  bie  Slufnaljme,  bet 
ber  auc$  enrfprecfyenb  ben  (Satjungen  oon  ber  3a^lung  bed  ^eitraged 
abgefetyen  toerben  fann. 

©ie  OTitgtieber  unb  ftreunbe  bee  33unbed  nxrben  ftanbig  burdj 
9tonbfc§reiben  uber  bie  §atigfeit  be*  *3unbed  in  $enntnid  geje^t- 

<ct\t  ber  S$egrunbung  bed  <23unbes  im  ^ooember  1914  ift  ber 
3tanb  miteiner  D^cit>c  oon  (Sciebrtcn  unb  GcfyriftfieUern  in  23erbinbun3 
gerreten,  bic  im  Ginnc  feiner  33cfrrcbungcn  fid)  gan$  ober  tciltoeife 
fibereingefjejjb  gefiufjert  baben.  <co  u.a.:  £ujo  ^rentano,  5ran5  oon 
gifal  Otfrieb  Ottppofb,  Cammafcb  Gatyburg,  oon  £cala-';5nndbrud, 
£and  SWbrtid-'SeHin,  Albert  Offcrrietb  Berlin,  ^Bift^cr  eluding- 
Warburg*),  Sand  ^Be^berg-'SujTdborf,  Serbinanb  ^onnied^iel, 
Lie.  6iegmunb-<cd>ul$e*),  9\id)arb  (£ahocr  Berlin,  Herbert  (fu!en« 
berg*),  ^Ucranber  Sreifjerr  oon  (£lcid)en  ?\ufnourm#),  t£rnit  Sd)Ul^e= 
TSroTjborftel,.  £>einrid>  9\oefcfer'3ranffurt  a-  3S--'>#  SSeUmfctb  oon 
©erlacty*),  ^otfebafter  a.  1\  ®ra?  Simon  oon  -Kent*,  ©e* 
fanbter  a.  <£V  3$ir!t.  ©eb  Xat  ©raf  oon  £cobcn,  ©cbcimrat  21m » 
bolb  Ttedben*),  (frnft  Giepcr  9?iuncb*n-),  £copolb  oon  ^Biefe* 
fc'oln,  (Savl  Vamprccbt-  I'cimia.,  Sttar  IVifoir,  Albert  (finftein* 
^erfin'),  paul  'Scui|cn  tttel,  (<arl  73rodbau*cn«38iea,  3Bifye(m 
ftenog,  IQaHfyv  Jebern  C'Ster  bfterreicfyrfcfyc  Q3olfdroirf)f  9Subolf 
©obKtyeib-SiHen*),  9vomgin  ?vo((anb  ©enf,  'Bjbrnfon  5.  3t  Berlin, 
T>rof.  Opet  fticl*),  iaron  oon  cduieiber -^und)en'),  ^prof.  Quibbe* 
3ftund>en#),  'Sireftor  2lrd)enI)olb  Sreproto'),  &onfu(  a.  3).  3)r. 
£d)lieben,  ©efjeimrat  2too(f  Gdjmibt^otdbam  (^rof.  ber  2ljtro» 
nomie)  u.  a. 

U.  a.  jinb  bie  mit  •)  bc&eicbn«ten  banner  9ftitglieber  bed 
33unbee. 

Qer  ^orftftenbe  bee  33un!*ee  ift  9ttrtmeifter  a.  S>.  5\iirt  oon 
pepper-  £adfi,  ber  jiteUoertrcten>e  SSorftyenbe  ift  Sngenieur  ©raf 
(^eorg  oon  SIrco. 

2lUe  'Srieffenbungen  bitte  nur  on  bie  ©efefyaftdftefle  bed 
^3unbed  o^ne  9}amen*nenmma,  ju  ric^ten:  ^unb  w^eued  Q3oter' 
lanb".  Berlin  W.  50,  ^auen^ienftr.  9  (€precbftunben  9-1  Ubr). 


(For  Translation  see  overleaf.) 

158] 


Plate  I 

The   Names   of   Romain   Rolland   and   of   Four   of   the 
"Ninety-three  " 

Statute  3  of  the  League  u  New  Fatherland  "  (Neues  Vater~ 
land)  expressly  provides  that  the  League  shall  be  a  real 
association  of  workers,  that  is,  that  membership  shall  not 
be  obtainable  by  payment  of  the  statutory  subscription,  but 
every  ordinary  member  shall  be  expected  to  co-operate 
steadily  and  earnestly  towards  the  objects  of  the  League. 
Election  takes  place  on  that  condition,  and  in  accordance 
with  the  statutes  the  payment  of  the  subscription  may  be 
remitted.  The  members  and  friends  of  the  League  are  kept 
constantly  informed  of  the  activity  of  the  League  by  means 
of  circulars. 

Since  the  foundation  of  the  League  in  1914,  the  League 
has  entered  into  relations  with  a  number  of  scholars  and 
writers,  who  have  expressed  themselves  wholly  or  partially 
in  sympathy  with  its  aims.  For  example,  Lujo  Brentano, 
Franz  von  Liszt,  Otfried  Nippold,  Lammasch  (Salzburg),  von 
Sfcala  (Innsbruck),  Hans  Delbriick  (Berlin),  Alberth  Osterrieth 
(Berlin),  Walther  Schiicking*  (Marburg),  Hans  Wehberg 
(Diisseldorf),  Ferdinand  Tonnies  (Kiel),  Lie.  Siegmund* 
(Schultze),  Richard  Calwer  (Berlin),  Herbert  Eulenberg,* 
Alexander  Freiherr  von  Gleichen*  (Russwurm),  Ernst  Schultze 
(Grossborstel),  Heinrich  Roessler  (Frankfort  on  Maine),  Hell- 
muth  von  Gerlach*,  the  former  Ambassador  Count  Anton  von 
Monts,  the  former  Envoy  Privy  Councillor  Count  von  Leyden, 
Privy  Councillor  Arnhold*  (Dresden),  Ernst  Sieper*  (Munich), 
Leopold  von  Wiese  (Cologne),  Carl  Lamprecht  (Leipsic),  Max 
Dessoir,  Albert  Einstein*  (Berlin),  Paul  Deussen  (Kiel),  Carl 
Brockhausen  (Vienna),  Wilhelm  Herzog,  Walther  Federn 
("  Der  osterreichische  Volkswirt"),  Rudolf  Goldscheid* 
(Vienna),  Romain  Rolland  (Geneva),  Bjornson  (temporarily  at 
Berlin),  Prof.  Opet*  (Kiel),  Baron  von  Schneider*  (Munich), 
Prof.  Quidde  (Munich),  Director  Archenhold*  (Treptow),  the 
former  consul  Dr.  Schlieben,  Privy  Councillor  Adolf  Schmidt 
(Potsdam,  Professor  of  Astronomy),  etc. 

Names  marked  with  *  are  those  of  members  of  the  League. 

The  President  of  the  League  is  Captain  (retired)  Kurt  von 
Tepper-Laski,  the  Vice-President  is  Engineer  Count  Georg 
von  Arco. 

Please  address  all  letters  only  to  the  office  of  the  League, 
without  mentioning  names :  League  "  New  Fatherland," 
Berlin,  W.,  50,  Tauentzienstrasse  9  (hours  of  consultation  9-1). 

[159 


APPEAL   TO  ROMAIN  HOLLAND  159 

(Louvain  Library  burnt ;  total  of  Belgian  civilians 
massacred,  as  officially  reported  up  to  date,  more  than 
five  thousand).  "...  The  atrocities  of  these  mur- 
derers and  highwaymen"  (lest  the  reader  make  a 
mistake,  we  may  mention  that  the  reference  is  to 
Belgian  civilians).  "...  It  is  not  true  that  we 
criminally  violated  the  neutrality  of  Belgium.  .  .  . 
It  is  not  true  that  we  have  made  war  in  defiance  of 
the  Law  of  Nations."  (The  Lusitania  and  her  1,200 
victims.)  "The  German  army  and  the  German 
people  are  but  one." 
Signed  : 

Lujo  Brentano,  professor  of  National  Economy 

in  the  University  of  Munich ; 
Herbert  Eulenberg,  man  of  letters  ; 
Karl  Lamprecht,  professor  of  History  in  the 

University  of  Leipzig  ; 
Franz  von  Listz,  professor  of  Criminal  Law  in 
the  University  of  Berlin. 

All  these  are  officially  associated  with  Romain  Hol- 
land on  the  list  of  the  "  New  Fatherland  League."  lw 
(See  Plate  I) 

Let  us  note  (1)  that  "Above  the  Battle"  was  published 
three  days  after  the  first  bombardment  of  Rheims  cathedral, 
but  no  postscript  touches  upon  that  crime  ; 166  (2)  that  the 
Manifesto  of  the  Intellectuals  is  fourteen  days  later  than 
that  bombardment ;  (3)  that  Romain  Rolland's  adhesion 
to  the  League  came  a  month  later  than  this  Manifesto ; 18? 
(4)  that  Lujo  Brentano  professes  a  M  national  economy  " 
which  is  admirably  put  into  practice  by  his  compatriots 
in  Belgium  and  Northern  France ;  (5)  that  as  for  Herbert 
Eulenberg,  we  have  already  paid  his  score ; u*  (6)  that 


160  THE  ROMAIN  HOLLAND  CASE 

Karl  Lamprecht,  who  died  just  after  consummating  his 
shame,  on  the  11th  May  last,  was  the  flunkey-historian  of 
the  Kaiser,  whom  he  compared  to  Charlemagne  on  the 
one  hand  and  to  Kant  on  the  other,  calling  him  the  "in- 
carnation of  idealism,  set,  by  the  express  nomination  of 
Providence,  and  for  the  happiness  of  the  human  race,  on 
the  first  throne  of  the  world.  The  Leipzig  professor,  in  his 
visionary  frenzy,  descries  the  halo  of  sainthood  around  the 
helmet  of  the  evil  creature  who  has  profaned  the  churches 
of  Belgium  and  bombarded  the  cathedral  of  Rheims" 
{Temps,  16th  May).  Nay,  Romain  Rolland  himself,  in  his 
article  of  22nd  September  (column  3),  branded  with  infamy 
the  unbridled  Pangermanism  of  this  same  Karl  Lamprecht, 
whose  colleague  he  was  to  become  a  few  weeks  later.169 
Lastly,  Franz  von  Listz,  whose  lectures  in  criminal  law 
are  as  thoroughly  applied  by  the  German  troops  in  this 
war  as  the  economic  lessons  of  Brentano,  is  the  man  who, 
in  August  1914,  preached  a  federation  of  European  States 
M  under  the  hegemony  of  Germany." 

Such  are  the  four  men  among  whose  names  was 
inscribed  that  of  Romain  Rolland. 


O  Romain  Rolland,  against  you  we  will  appeal  to 
yourself.  Every  man  is  abject  and  august,  every  man 
is  mystery  and  confusion  ;  but  we  may  endeavour 
to  explain  what  we  cannot  excuse,  and  while  we  con- 
demn the  sin  we  may  be  gentle  to  the  sinner.  On  the 
first  day,  without  your  knowledge,  in  all  sincerity,  you 
surrendered  yourself  to  generosity,  to  zeal  for  that 
ideal  which  we  shared  before  the  war,  and  which  we 
shall  share  again  on  the  morrow  of  peace — provided 


APPEAL   TO  ROMAIN  ROLLAND  161 

William  of  Hohenzollern  finds  his  St.  Helena  or  his 
Place  de  la  Revolution.  Yes,  it  is  due  to  you  to  own 
that  the  hell  in  which  humanity  is  plunged  is  paved 
with  your  good  intentions.  But  the  smoke  of 
slaughter  has  blinded  the  eyes  of  your  mind.  Carried 
away  by  the  frenzy  of  pacificism,  recalcitrant  against 
all  censure,  spurred  by  some  demon,  you  failed  to  see 
that,  in  your  path  to  deliverance,  you  were  shedding 
one  by  one  your  principles,  that  you  were  holding 
them  up  with  your  own  hand  to  the  treacherous 
stabs  of  their  enemies,  and  that  your  apostleship 
was  turning  against  your  own  divinities.  Thus  it 
is  that,  while  writing  very  noble  things  upon  the  war, 
you  blend  them  with  absurdities,  and  that  thence 
results  a  farrago  as  repugnant  to  reason  as  to  con- 
science, which  yet  may  do  much  harm  if  it  finds 
adherents. 

For,  while  France  was  struggling  for  Justice,  you 
were  not  at  her  side ;  to  defend  yourself  from  filial 
feelings,  you  dwell  far  from  the  home.  And,  from  this 
strange  exile,  you  have,  in  the  eyes  of  the  whole 
world,  flung  an  intolerable  suspicion  on  the  French 
cause — that  is,  on  the  cause  of  Humanity.  And  on 
our  side  of  the  frontier,  within  France,  thanks  to  the 
willing  aid  of  that  handful  of  incendiaries  who  are  its 
bane,  and  from  whom  before  the  war  you  stood  sternly 
aloof,  you  have  done  all  that  in  you  lay  to  trouble  the 
faith  of  feeble  minds  and  to  dull  the  edge  of  the 
sword  drawn  for  the  victory  of  Right. 

Then,  when  the  stunning  revelation  of  Kultur  flashed 

on  your  eyes  also,  when  your  fundamental  mistake 

— the  misunderstanding  of  this  war— dawned  before 

you,  you  thought  it  too  late  to  repair  it  altogether. 

11 


162  TEE  ROMAIN  HOLLAND  CASE 

Perhaps,  even,  you  were  frightened  at  your  responsi- 
bility. Thenceforward — like  der  Geist  der  stets  verneint 
— you  have  not  blotted  your  lines,  but  overloaded 
them ;  you  own  that  the  Germans  have  betrayed 
your  confidence,  not  that  your  judgment  has  been 
deceived ;  you  have  scarified  the  barbarians,  not 
glorified  the  heroes.170  And  at  last,  as  the  contro- 
versy grew  in  bitterness  and  truth  pressed  you  hard, 
you  took  refuge  in  devices  of  silence  and  of  vicarious 
denial  which  are  hardly  worthy  of  the  biographer  of 
Michael  Angelo,  of  Beethoven,  of  Tolstoi.171 

All  this  is  human,  too  human.  Many  others,  who 
like  you  have  entangled  themselves  in  an  untenable 
position,  have  in  their  extremity  yielded  to  a  like 
temptation.  The  sting  to  your  pride  may  well  be  a 
sufficient  punishment ;  it  is  not  our  desire  to  humiliate 
you,  or  to  drive  you  back  upon  the  defences  of  your 
own  obstinacy.  Our  aim  is  the  triumph,  through  you, 
of  the  holiest  cause  which  has  ever  ennobled  infamous 
war ;  it  is  our  wish  that  you  may  return  to  the  recog- 
nition of  the  honesty  of  the  French  purpose,  and  thus 
aid  in  the  necessary  work  of  renewing  the  communion 
of  souls  in  this  sacred  faith.  You  must  be  conscious 
that  here  is  no  wretched  controversy  between  one 
penman  and  another,  no  conflict  of  personal  pride. 
You  must  be  conscious  that  our  severe  and  just  re- 
proaches have  nothing  in  common  with  underhand 
and  base  attacks  on  your  private  character.  It  is  in 
the  name  of  your  own  principles,  misunderstood 
by  yourself  in  the  thick  of  the  fray,  that  we  have 
assailed  you.  The  clash  is  between  our  two  thoughts. 
We  have  the  war,  and  we  have  France,  before  us 
It    is   a  question   of  our   honour,    of  strengthening 


APPEAL   TO  ROMAIN  HOLLAND  163 

those  who  fight,  of  giving  a  benediction  to  those  who 
fall.  Be  sure,  however,  that  if  you  stiffen  yourself  in 
your  Manfred  attitude,  we  shall  maintain,  despite  all, 
your  right  of  error  and  of  blasphemy,172  and  that  after 
the  war  we  shall  award  our  erring  brother  no  punish- 
ment but  that  of  silence  and  of  moral  loneliness.  Be 
sure,  too,  that,  at  the  least  sign  of  a  hand  raised 
against  you,  we  should  make  of  our  bodies  a  rampart 
to  defend  you,  remembering  Res  sacra  miser. 

But,  when  you  are  about  to  assume  a  definite  re- 
sponsibility, we  expect  a  more  virile  endeavour  on  the 
part  of  your  awakened  conscience.  The  great-souled 
Luther  of  old — who  had  no  prevision  of  a  Harnack, 
the  helmeted  chaplain  of  Kultur — uttered  the  saying, 
" Sin  greatly,  and  then  repent  greatly/'  Now  in 
accepting,  without  wincing,  the  comradeship  of 
four  Pangermans,  deadly  enemies  of  France,  and 
that  in  the  full  tide  of  war,  you  committed,  with  the 
simplicity  of  a  child,  a  serious  fault.  Confess  it,  and 
you  are  forgiven.  It  will  avail  nothing  to  defend  your- 
self or  seek  refuge  in  flight.  No  excuse,  no  humilia- 
tion, but  no  subterfuge  either.  Confess  honestly 
that  you  have  "  sinned  greatly."  The  fault  was 
public,  and  the  amends  must  be  public.  Your  yea 
must  be  yea,  and  your  nay  nay.  And  then  tear  your 
article  "  Above  the  Battle,"  have  no  mercy  on  a  word 
here  or  a  word  there ;  rend  it  from  top  to  bottom 
like  the  veil  of  an  accursed  temple.  Do  this,  Holland, 
and  the  article  in  La  Revue  shall  be  torn,  and  this 
article  also  shall  be  torn — I  need  not  say  with  what 
joy  and  what  relief ! 

Brother,  prodigal  brother,  the  effort  is  hard,  harder 
than  to  submit  yourself  to  death.     For  that  very 


164  THE  ROMAIN  HOLLAND  CASE 

reason  it  is  worthy  of  you.  If  your  nobility  is  of  the 
same  order  as  the  reverence  you  profess  for  heroes, 
you  will  prove  yourself  of  their  blood  ;  and  we,  feeling 
our  littleness  in  comparison,  will  bend  low  to  unloose 
the  latchet  of  your  shoes.  Do  this,  Holland,  and  you 
shall  breast  with  us  the  storm ;  you  shall  take  your 
place  once  more  at  the  tragic  hearth  of  France  ;  you 
shall  find  with  us  the  Humanity  which  you  sought 
among  the  Germans.  Do  this,  Holland,  we  urge  you, 
and  Frenchmen  of  every  party,  one-souled  in  this 
holy  war,  will  vie  to  clasp  you  to  their  breasts,  will 
honour  you  from  the  bottom  of  their  hearts,  will 
decree  you  a  triumph  as  to  the  highest  of  their  heroes. 
That  would  indeed  be  a  "  crowded  hour  of  glorious  life." 
Let  the  very  impossibility  of  the  task  be  your  temp- 
tation ;   show  yourself  magnificent,-  heroic,  great !  173 


IV.    A   NOTE   TO   NEUTRALS 

If  after  having  devoted  two  articles  to  the  "  Romain 
Rolland  Case  and  Thesis  "  I  collect  here  in  the  sequel 
a  whole  series  of  relevant  documents,  it  is  not  because 
either  the  distinguished  author  or  his  work,  very 
inferior  to  his  work  before  the  war,  deserved  in  them- 
selves so  much  interest. 

It  would  be  no  less  an  error  to  seek  the  cause  of 
this  exposition  in  a  personal  resentment.  I  must 
own  it  was  with  reluctance  that  I  sent  these  pages 
to  the  printer.  In  spite  of  the  facts  which  I  have 
reported  and  which  show  frequently  our  grave  diver- 
gence in  action,  I  still  maintained  before  the  war 
fraternal  relations  with  Rolland.  In  his  last  note, 
which  I  have  found,  he  addresses  me  by  my  Christian 
name  and  signs  himself  "  Your  friend."  His  Jean- 
Christophe  was  a  household  work  in  my  family.  His 
Beethoven  was  what  I  chose,  among  a  thousand  books, 
as  the  most  beautiful  gospel  of  faith  to  console  my 
father  on  his  deathbed.  I  desire  to  say,  finally,  at  a 
moment  when  Rolland  is  unjustly  depreciated,  that 
I  attributed,  and  still  attribute,  to  him  something 
more  than  talent,  a  genius  coruscating  like  lightning 
in  a  haze.  The  following  are,  in  fact,  the  terms  in 
which  he  was  spoken  of  in  my  paper :    "  The  man 

165 


166  THE  ROMAIN  HOLLAND   CASE 

who  resuscitated  the  strong  and  pure  Beethoven  and 
enabled  a  world  dying  of  moral  asphyxia  to  breathe 
again  the  breath  of  heroes,  is  for  us  much  more  than 
a  great  writer,  even  than  a  thinker ;  he  was  for  us 
at  a  decisive  moment  a  guiding  soul,  a  friend."174 

But  in  the  very  name  of  the  confidence  I  reposed 
in  him,  but  reposed  in  vain,  it  was  my  duty  to  speak 
bluntly  to  him  when  he  failed  to  answer  to  the  call 
of  the  Right,  because  I  could  perhaps  better  than 
another  appreciate  the  effect  produced  abroad  by 
this  aberrant  French  thought,  and  estimate  its 
responsibility  by  the  gravity  of  the  events  and  the 
sanctity  of  the  principle  involved.  At  such  a  crisis 
of  history  we  may  not  hesitate  to  sacrifice  a  friend, 
we  may  not  stay  to  mourn  for  an  admiration  that 
is  gone.  The  greater  the  mind,  the  greater  the 
culpability. 

Should  my  disavowal  have  been  tacit,  under  the 
pretext  that  Rolland  was  exposed  to  the  attacks, 
sometimes  malicious  and  often  extravagant,  of 
Frenchmen  who  in  time  of  peace  are  "  political 
adversaries "  ?  Amongst  the  reproaches  which  I 
have  to  make  him  not  the  least  of  all  is  that  he  has 
risked  discrediting  the  noblest  ideal  of  democrats  by 
burlesquing  it  in  the  attempt  to  defend  it,  and  that 
he  has  tricked  himself  out  in  our  principles  in  order 
to  play  the  part  of  a  Sabine  woman  sighing  between 
us  and  the  invader,  that  is  to  say,  between  the  Right 
and  the  Wrong.  As  for  submitting  our  judgment 
to  the  whim  of  former  "adversaries,"  by  adopting 
exactly  the  opposite  of  their  opinions,  whatever  they 
say  and  even  though  they  should  speak  the  truth, 
that   is   an   honour   which   no   independent  thinker 


A  NOTE  TO  NEUTRALS  167 

ought  to  do  to  any  man ;  it  is  an  insult  to  Truth, 
for  Truth  bids  us  follow  her  alone  through  thick  and 
thin ;  it  is  a  mode  of  progression  backwards  which 
borders  on  absurdity. 

Let  neutrals  then  be  satisfied,  on  the  faith  of  a 
Republican,  that  the  theories  of  Romain  Rolland  are 
unanimously  reprobated  in  France  by  men  of  all 
parties,  because  the  debate  is  not  political  or  even 
national,  but  moral.  They  will  find  the  proof  here 
in  extracts  from  several  articles  signed  by  men  who 
are  not  "  chauvinists."  The  efforts  which  certain 
young  men  made  to  give  Rolland  a  factitious  import- 
ance for  their  own  sinister  ends  miscarried  com- 
pletely. The  French  Socialist  Congress  did  justice 
to  the  attempt  once  for  all  by  the  crushing  majority 
with  which  they  blotted  out  the  little  clique  of  Zim- 
merwaldians,  and  by  the  splendid  manifesto  which 
proved  that  proletariat  France  rose  up  like  one  man 
with  the  same  impulse  as  at  the  first  hour  of  aggres- 
sion, as  if  the  great  soul  of  Jaur&s  steeled  her,  stern 
and  stubborn,  with  her  back  to  the  Right  and  her 
face  to  the  Foe.175 

But  the  apotheosis  which  failed  in  France  is  still 
being  manoeuvred  abroad/under  the  oddest  pretexts — 
musical  "  festivals  "  in  Switzerland  and  "  lectures  " 
in  England,  where  we  are  told  that  Rolland  is  going 
to  hold  forth  on  Shakespeare  (sic),  in  the  midst  of  a 
living  tragedy  too  deep  for  the  genius  of  Shakespeare 
himself.  Therefore,  outside  of  France  Rolland  is 
somebody  and  his  thought  counts  for  something — 
the  manna  of  all  those  who  partake  of  the  insipid 
sacrament  of  neutrality,  lacking  the  teeth  to  bite 
into  the  black  bread  of  outraged  Right.     There  is  no 


168  THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND   CASE 

exaggeration  even — extravagant  as  it  might  seem — 
in  asserting  that  in  certain  countries  Holland  repre- 
sents during  the  war  the  most  sublime  incarnation 
of  French  idealism,  and  that  he  has  become  literally 
a  sort  of  sacred  being,  not  to  be  approached  without 
gestures  of  veneration.178  Thus  it  is  a  sacrilege 
which  we  are  about  to  commit  in  publishing  the 
texts  which  follow ;  it  is  a  bold  act  to  attack  such  a 
power.177 

But  it  is  high  time,  with  all  due  deference,  to  let 
these  foreign  zealots  know  how  deeply  the  plaudits 
they  bestow  on  the  apostle  of  Above  the  Battle  offend 
France  in  the  midst  of  her  battle,  her  limbs  crushed 
by  the  invasion.  It  is  time  to  make  them  see  that 
the  gospel  they  exalt  to  the  skies  is  nothing  short  of 
the  implicit  denial  of  the  cause  of  France  and  of  her 
Allies,  which  is  that  of  Right  and  Humanity.  It  is 
time,  finally,  to  rouse  them  to  a  sense  of  what  is 
equivocal  in  an  attitude,  incoherent  in  a  doctrine, 
and  artificial  in  a  fine  book. 

This  testimony  will  not  be  open  to  suspicion, 
coming  as  it  does  from  one  who  avows,  but  for  different 
reasons,  all  the  detestation  which  Holland  himself 
professes  for  the  horrors  of  war,  who  does  not  relin- 
quish any  more  than  he  does,  the  bruised  but  still 
living  dream  of  universal  brotherhood,  when  the 
Teutons  shall  become  men  again,  and  who  cannot 
be  accused  of  personal  enmity,  literary  detraction, 
or  political  hostility  towards  the  poet  of  Jean- 
Christophe.     Such  is  the  object  of  the  following  pages. 

In  certain  temples  of  antiquity  the  statue  of  the 
god  on  occasions  took  to  speaking  in  order  to  utter 
vague  oracles,  much  to  the  admiration  of  the  faithful. 


A  NOTE  TO  NEUTRALS  169 

How  many  in  the  kneeling  crowd  were  aware  that 
the  effigy  was  hollow,  and  that  it  was  the  voice  of  a 
mortal,  of  a  simple  and  very  fallible  mortal,  who  had 
crept  from  behind  into  the  interior  of  the  divinity  ? 
I  have  shown  the  aperture  in  the  hollow  statue.178 


V.     THE  "IMMANENT"  CONTRADICTIONS179 

"  My  ideas  have  never  varied.*' 

Romain  Rolland,  15th  March,  1915. 

"  The  armies  of  the  Republic  will  ensure  the  triumph 
of  democracy  in  Europe  and  complete  the  work  of 
the  Convention.  We  are  opening  a  new  era  in  the 
world.  We  are  dispelling  the  nightmare  of  the 
materialism  of  a  mailed  Germany  and  of  armed 
peace.  For  throughout  history — Bouvines,  the  Cru- 
sades, cathedrals,  the  Revolution — we  remain  the 
same,  the  knights-errant  of  the  world,  the  paladins 
of  God.  ...  A  splendid  thing  it  is  to  fight  with  clean 
hands  and  a  pure  heart  and  to  dispense  divine  justice 
with  one's  life."  (Words  quoted  admiringly  by 
Romain  Holland  in  the  "Journal  de  Geneve"  22nd- 
23rd  September,  1914.) 

"  Fatality  of  war  stronger  than  our  wills,  the  old 
refrain  of  the  herd  that  makes  a  god  of  its  feebleness, 
and  bows  down  before  him.  The  most  striking 
feature  in  this  monstrous  epic  .  .  .  (the  same  epic  that 
is  praised  above.  And  how  can  clean  hands  execute 
a  monstrous  divine  justice  ?)  "  (Same  article  in  the 
"  Journal  de  Geneve"  22nd-28rd  September,  1914.) 

"  You  choose  to  say,  like  many  writers  of  to-day 

170 


THE  "IMMANENT"  CONTRADICTIONS     171 

who  sound  the  loud  trump,  that  this  war  dates  a  new 
era  in  the  history  of  mankind.  That  is  always  the 
language  of  passion.  Passion  passes  away.  Reason 
remains."  (It  is  the  same  passion  admired  above, 
the  same  new  era  greeted  by  Romain  Rolland.) 
("  Journal  de  Geneve"  15th  March,  1915.) 

* 

"  There  is  not  one  amongst  the  leaders  of  thought 
in  each  country  who  does  not  proclaim  with  conviction 
that  the  cause  of  his  people  is  the  cause  of  God,  the 
cause  of  liberty  and  of  human  progress.  And  I,  too, 
proclaim  it."     (Ibid.) 

(If  the  cause  of  France  is  for  Romain  Rolland  that 
of  "  liberty  and  human  progress,"  how  can  the 
defence  of  that  cause  be  synonymous  with  a  "  mon- 
strous epic "  ?  What  becomes  of  the  herd  that 
makes  a  god  of  its  weakness  ? — with  a  small  g  it  is 
true.     And  how  is  the  following  to  be  explained): 

"  The  efforts  of  both  parties  engaged  in  war " 
(Triple  Alliance  and  Triple  Entente)  "  to  justify 
their  own  crimes  "  ?  (We  are  waiting  until  Romain 
Rolland  is  pleased  to  tell  us  how  the  "  crimes  "  of  the 
Triple  Entente  serve  the  "  cause  of  human  progress)." 

(Ibid.) 

*  * 
* 

"Could  you  not  (French  and  Germans)  have  learned, 
if  not  to  love  one  another,  at  least  to  tolerate  the 
great  virtues  and  great  vices  of  the  other  ?  "     (Ibid.) 

"  A  certain  number  of  good  citizens,  French  and 
Germans,  have  joined  together  with  a  view  to  dis- 
covering practical  means  whereby  the  warlike  current 
which  has  again  seized  old  Europe  can  be  stemmed." 


172  THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND   CASE 

(Appeal  of  the  Franco-German  Committee  (1912),  to 

which  Romain  Rolland  refused  to  belong.) 

*  ,* 
* 

"  The  phrase  in  your  circular  to  which  I  made 
special  allusion  is  that  in  which  you  say  that 4  having 
become  enemies  for  the  sake  of  Alsace-Lorraine, 
France  and  Germany  ought  to  be  reconciled  by  Alsace- 
Lorraine.'  It  is  Alsace-Lorraine's  right  to  speak 
like  that.  But  France  cannot.  Even  were  France 
and  Germany  reconciled,  and  were  centuries  of  peace 
to  pass  over  them,  the  crime  committed  by  Germany 
against  a  people  of  our  family  would  still  survive. 
We  may  suffer  a  crime.  We  cannot  say  that  the 
crime  will  ever  reunite  the  victim  and  the  oppressor." 
(Letter  of  Romain  Rolland  to  the  President  of  the 
Franco-German  Reconciliation  Committee,  "  To  know 
one  another  better"  published  by  Romain  Rolland  in 
the  "  Bonnet  Rouge"  10th  October,  1915.) 

"  My  German  brethren,  here  are  our  hands  !  In 
spite  of  all  the  lies,  in  spite  of  all  the  hatreds,  we  shall 
not  be  separated.  We  have  need  of  you,  you  have 
need  of  us,  for  the  greatness  of  our  mind  and  of  our 
races.  We  are  the  two  wings  of  the  West.  He  who 
breaks  one  breaks  the  flight  of  the  other.  Let  war 
come  !  It  will  not  unclasp  our  hands."  (If  the 
"  victim  and  the  oppressor  "  ought  not  at  any  price  to 
be  united  during  peace,  how  can  their  hands  remain 
"  clasped  "  fraternally  during  war  ?)  (Extract  from 
"  Jean-Christophe,"  quoted  by  Romain  Rolland  in  the 
same  article  in  the  "  Bonnet  Rouge"  10th  October,  1915.) 

"  My  experience  of  committees  long  ago  led  me 


THE  "IMMANENT"  CONTRADICTIONS     173 

to  decide  never  to  belong  to  any.  A  committee  is  a 
beast  with  ten,  twenty,  or  fifty  heads  :  you  never 
know  where  it  may  lead  you."  {From  the  same 
letter  of  Romain  Rolland  to  the  Committee  (French) 
"  To  know  one  another  better,"  with  his  refusal  to 
join  it.) 

The  Committee  of  patrons  of  the  "  New  Father- 
land "  (German)  includes  about  forty  names,  and 
Romain  Rolland  gave  them  permission  to  use  his 
name.  When  a  Committee  is  German,  would  it  be 
an  insult  to  compare  it  to  a  many-headed  beast  like 
a  vulgar  French  Committee  ?  (See  the  photograph 
annexed.) 

* 

"  I  am  not,  Gerhardt  Hauptmann,  one  of  those 
Frenchmen  who  regard  Germany  as  a  nation  of  bar- 
barians."    (Letter  to  G.  Hauptmann.) 

"  A  telegram  from  Berlin  has  just  announced  that 
the  old  town  of  Louvain,  rich  in  works  of  art,  exists 
no  longer.  .  .  .  What  are  you  then,  Hauptmann,  and 
by  what  name  do  you  want  us  to  call  you  now,  since 
you  repudiate  the  title  of  barbarians  !  "  (Rolland 
also  then  regards  them  as  barbarians.)     (Same  letter.) 

* 
"  Not  one  of  those  who  constitute  the  moral  and 
intellectual  ilite  of  Germany,  not  one  really  suspects 
the  crimes  of  his  Government,  or  (one  can  safely 
wager)  the  voluntary  devastations  of  the  towns  of 
Belgium  and  the  ruin  of  Rheims."  ("  Cahiers  Vau- 
dois  "  sur  Louvain,  Reims,  vol.  i.,  p.  15.) 

"  The  letter  which  I  wrote  to  one  of  them  "    (a 
member  of  the  intellectual  Mite  of  Germany)  "the 


174  THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND   CASE 

day  after  the  brutal  voice  of  Wolff's  agency  pom- 
pously proclaimed  that  there  remained  of  Louvain 
no  more  than  a  heap  of  ashes,  was  received  by  the 
entire  Mite  of  Germany  in  a  spirit  of  enmity.  It  is 
you  (the  German  intellectuals)  who,  the  day  after 
the  destruction  of  Rheims,  boasted  of  it  in  imbecile 
pride  instead  of  trying  to  clear  yourselves."  (How 
could  they  boast  of  it  if  they  did  not  suspect  it  ?) 
("  Cahiers  Vaudois,"  same  article,  pp.  16,  18.) 

*  * 
* 

"  Artists  of  Germany,  I  do  not  doubt  your  sin- 
cerity, but  you  are  no  longer  capable  of  seeing  the 
truth."     {"Cahiers  Vaudois,"  same  article,  p.  20.) 

44  The  conquered  Belgians  have  robbed  you  of  your 
glory.  You  know  it.  You  are  enraged  because  you 
know  it.  What  is  the  good  of  vainly  trying  to  deceive 
yourselves  ?  "  (If  they  do  not  u  see  "  the  truth, 
how  can  they  "  know  "  it  ?  If  they  are  "  sincere," 
how  can  they  "  try  to  deceive  themselves "  ? 
("  Cahiers  Vaudois,"  same  article,  p.  22.) 

* 
"  My  German  friends,  if  by  some  evil  fate  this 
spirit "  (Prussian  militarism)  "  were  to  triumph  with 
you  in  Europe,  I  would  leave  Europe  for  ever.  To 
live  there  would  be  disgusting  to  me."  (Romain 
Rolland,  in  "  Journal  de  Geneve"  12th  October,  1914.) 

"  No,  my  dear  friend,  I  shall  never  get  enraged  like 
the  rest,  even  if  I  saw  victorious  Germany  abuse  her 
victory.  If  German  imperialism  gets  the  upper  hand, 
I  shall  remain  an  exile  who  accepts  no  other  law  than 
that  of  his  conscience."  (If  Romain  Rolland,  "  dis- 
gusted "  but  not  "  enraged  "  by  Germany's  triumph, 


THE  "IMMANENT"  CONTRADICTIONS     175 

is  "to  remain  an  exile  "  in  Switzerland,  and  yet  to 
"  leave  Europe,"  whither  will  he  transport  Switzer- 
land ?  (Romain  Rolland,  in  "  Journal  de  Geneve" 
4th  October,  1915.) 

" 1  am  convinced  to-day,  as  I  was  a  year  ago,  that 
war  is  a  European  suicide,  a  crime  against  civilisa- 
tion, and  that  the  peoples  who  are  taking  part  in  it 
will,  later,  condemn  it  even  more  energetically  than 
I  do."  (Thus  France  must  also  be  committing  suicide, 
and  be  similarly  a  party  to  the  crime,  since  she  is  a 
portion  of  the  Europe  at  war?)  (Romain  Rolland, 
in  "  Hornmes  du  Jour"  21st  August,  1915.) 

"  I  do  not  admit  that  a  nation  "  (France)  "  which 
fights  heroically  for  liberty  ..."  (If  France,  in  de- 
fending herself,  is  committing  suicide,  if  she  commits 
a  crime  in  making  war,  how  the  devil  is  her  fight- 
ing heroic,  and  how  is  she  fighting  for  liberty  ?) 
("  Hommes  du  Jour"  same  number.) 

"  European  society  .  .  .  will  be  realised  anew.  The 
war  of  to-day  is  its  baptism  of  blood  !  "  (At  the  same 
time  as  its  suicide  ?  It  is  the  first  time  a  new-born 
infant  has  been  known  to  attempt  its  own  life  at  the 
baptismal  font.)     ("  Above  the  Battle"  p.  151.) 

"  Lack  of  comprehension  wearies  me,  puts  me  out 
of  gear.  It  is  more  than  I  can  bear.  I  retire  worn 
out  by  the  blind  confusion  of  the  struggle  in  which 
the  combatants  will  listen  to  nothing  but  the  voice 
of  their  own  passions."  (Romain  Rolland,  in  "  Inter" 
nationale  Rundschau"  a  Germanophile  review  pub- 
lished in  Zurich,  20th  July,  1915.) 


176  THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND  CASE 

"  I  am  neither  discouraged  nor  disappointed,  as  so 
many  good  apostles  keep  repeating,  who  would  be 
very  glad  if  I  were."  (Romain  Rolland,  in  "  Hommes 
du  Jour,"  21st  August,  1915.) 

* 
"  Who  among  us  would  have  the  heart  to  write  a 
play  or  a  novel  whilst  his  country  is  in  danger  and 
his   brothers  are  dying?"     ("Journal  de  Geneve," 
19th  April,  1915.) 

" 1  return  to  my  art,  the  only  sanctuary  that 
remains  inviolate."  (Is  not  Romain  Holland's  art  the 
writing  of  plays  and  novels  ?)  (Letter  to  the  "Inter- 
nationale Rundschau,"  20th  July,  1915.) 

#  ,* 
* 

"  I  have  changed  nothing  (in  my  articles).  The 
reader  will  notice,  in  the  stress  of  events,  certain  con- 
tradictions and  hasty  judgments  which  I  would  modify 
to-day."  (It  is  to  be  observed  that  it  is  in  the  article 
"  Above  the  Battle  "  that  we  have  exposed  these  con- 
tradictions :  see  this  volume,  pp.  136,  137,  etc.) 
(Preface  to  "  Above  the  Battle,"  English  Translation, 
p.  17,  note.) 

"  As  to  the  article  '  Above  the  Battle,'  not  only 
do  I  adhere  to  all  the  statements,  without  expressing 
or  weakening  any  one  of  them,  but  if  I  had  not 
already  written  it,  I  would  write  it  to-day,  even  more 
emphatically."  (How  can  a  writer  modify  his  state- 
ments without  suppressing  or  weakening  a  single  one 
of  them  ?)  (Romain  Rolland,  in  "  Hommes  du  Jour". 
27th  November,  1915.)180 


VI.    THE    FRANCO-GERMAN    COMMITTEE 

Through  M.  J.  M.  Renaitour's  lively  attack  in  the 
Bonnet  Rouge,  8th  September,  1915,  in  which  he  pro- 
tested against  our  criticism  of  Romain  Rolland  in 
the  "  Letter  to  Marie  Milliet,"  a  controversy  was 
started  in  that  paper  between  M.  Renaitour  on  the 
one  side  and  M.  St^phane  Servant  on  the  other. 
Conducted  with  perfect  courtesy,  it  was  remarkable 
for  placing  two  republican  opinions  in  opposition  to 
each  other.181 

In  the  following  letter,  Rolland,  replying  to  one  of 
our  reproaches,  intervened  in  the  discussion.  The 
beginning  of  the  article  is  by  M.  Renaitour : 

"  Why  did  not  Romain  Rolland  in  1912  become  a 
member  of  the  Committee  of  the  Franco-German 
Reconciliation,  as  he  was  invited  ?  He  did  not  do  so, 
said  P.  H.  Loyson  in  substance,  whose  point  of  view 
M.  Servant  defended  :  he  was  then  too  prudent ;  he 
sent  a  formal  refusal  to  our  invitation  and  now  finds 
himself  somewhat  disqualified  for  adopting  the 
fraternal  attitude  he  has  assumed.  M.  Servant  even 
added  in  the  Bonnet  Rouge :  '  This  is  the  most  astound- 
ing of  all  the  facts  noted  and  authenticated  by  La 
Revue,  Why  did  not  M.  Romain  Rolland  notice  it 
in  reply  to  M.  Seailles  ?  183  Why  did  M.  Renaitour 
also  make  no  sign  ?  And  how  can  he  pretend,  that 
12  177 


178  THE  ROMAIN  HOLLAND  CASE 

of  all  the  grievances  formulated  by  P.  H.  L.  (with 
the  exception  of  that  referring  to  Jaur£s)  not  one 
could  be  substantiated  ?  '  " 

I  then  wrote  to  Holland  himself,  and  received  the 
following  reply  : 

Wednesday,  29th  September  1915. 
My  dear  Friend, 

You  ask  me  why  I  did  not  join  the  Committee 
of  the  Franco-German  intellectual  Reconciliation  in 
1912.  I  can  best  reply  by  sending  you  a  copy  of  my 
letter  of  29th  February,  1912,  to  J.  Grand-Carteret, 
who  initiated  the  association.  (It  is  a  regrettable 
thing  for  my  adversaries  that  I  preserved  a  copy  of 
this  document.) 

29th  February  1912. 
Sir, 

I  beg  to  thank  you  for  the  letter  you  have  been 
kind  enough  to  send  me.  In  my  writings  I  have 
always  worked  to  bring  Frenchmen  and  Germans 
together,  and  many  of  my  most  lasting  and  most 
faithful  friendships  are  in  Germany.  I  can  thus  only 
approve  the  idea  of  the  reconciliation  that  you  are 
recommending  between  the  two  countries  (except  per- 
haps certain  points  in  your  circular  that  I  should  like 
to  talk  over  with  you).*  But  I  regret  I  am  not  able 
to  join  your  committee.  My  experience  of  com- 
mittees determined  me  long  ago  never  to  join  any, 
except  where  it  concerned  work  of  a  professional  or 
technical  kind.  A  committee  is  a  ten-,  twenty-,  or 
fifty-headed  beast ;  you  never  know  where  it  will 
lead  you,  and  it  does  not  know  itself.     Individual 


THE  FRANCO-GERMAN  COMMITTEE     179 

thought  is  always  distorted  by  it.  I  cannot  bring 
myself  into  line  with  it.  I  must  fight  outside  the 
army.  I  am  a  franc-tireur,  and  I  cannot  abandon  that 
r61e.  I  feel  I  can  in  that  way  render  better  service 
to  your  cause  than  in  joining  your  committee. 

ROMAIN   ROLLAND. 

*  P.S. — The  phrase  in  your  circular  to  which  I 
make  special  allusion  is  that  in  which  you  say  that 
"  having  become  enemies  for  Alsace-Lorraine,  France 
and  Germany  ought  to  be  reconciled  by  Alsace-Lor- 
raine." Alsace-Lorraine  has  the  right  to  say  that, 
but  France  cannot,  without  stooping  morally  as  well 
as  politically.  Even  should  France  and  Germany  be 
reconciled  and  enjoy  centuries  of  peace,  it  would  still 
be  true  that  Germany  had  committed  a  crime  against 
a  people  of  our  family.  A  crime  can  be  endured, 
reparation  for  one  crime  by  another  can  be  refused, 
but  a  crime  cannot  be  endorsed,  nor  can  it  be  said 
that  a  crime  can  reconcile  the  victim  and  the  oppres- 
sor. I  have  already  expressed  my  thoughts  on  the 
subject  in  a  volume  of  my  Jean-Christophe  :  Dans  la 
Maison.  I  have  never  concealed  them  from  my 
German  friends. 

(N.B. — The  passages  in  Jean-Christophe  to  which  I 
refer  are  in  the  last  part  of  Dans  la  Maison  ;  discus- 
sions between  Christophe  and  Olivier  concerning 
Alsace.) 

I  have  not  changed  my  opinion,  and  to  say  that  is 
enough  to  show  how  wrong  it  is  to  call  my  French 
feelings  in  question.  I  do  not  admit  that  a  sponge 
can  efface  a  permanent  crime,  an  iniquity  of  which 
a  people  is  still  the  victim ;    and  the  annexation  of 


180  THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND  CASE 

Alsace-Lorraine  against  the  will  of  the  inhabitants  is 
one  of  those  iniquities.183 

But  if  I  think  that  reparation  should  be  made  for 
the  injustice,  I  have  always  meant  that  it  should  be 
by  other  means  than  by  war,  which  is  supreme  injus- 
tice ;  and  such  reparation  would  have  been  the  part 
of  an  honest,  skilful,  and  humane  policy.  While  I 
refuse  to  say  at  this  moment  what  I  think  of  that 
policy  of  which  we  see  the  effects  to-day  ( Jaur&s  said 
it  for  us — Jaur6s  who  foresaw  those  results  fifteen 
years  ago),  I  believe  that  a  European  policy,  honest, 
skilful,  and  humane,  should  have  and  would  have 
sought,  outside  Europe,  the  elements  of  a  solution  of 
the  Alsace-Lorraine  question  and  of  a  European 
peace.  But  it  sought  there — and  found — just  the 
contrary. 

To  return  to  the  grievance  that  I  did  not  belong  to 
the  League  for  a  Franco-German  reconciliation,  it  is 
absurd  to  reproach  the  author  of  Jean-Christophe, 
the  French  writer  who,  for  twenty  years,  has  done 
most  for  the  intellectual  reconciliation  of  France  and 
Germany  (and  all  the  German  critics  have  acknow- 
ledged it),  for  not  taking  part  in  some  of  those 
oratorical  banquets  that  have  always  inspired  me 
with  insurmountable  aversion  ;  an  aversion  of  which 
I  am  by  no  means  cured,  for  events  have  shown  me 
only  too  well  what  becomes  of  the  professions  of  faith 
of  these  after-dinner  speakers  when  tragic  reality 
puts  their  international  faith  to  the  test. 

While  they  were  discussing  the  fraternity  of 
nations,  I  was  writing  these  lines  (see  last  volume 
of  Jean-Christophe,  1912  :  The  end  of  the  Voyage, 
part  3. — 2V.J3.  I  quote  from  memory) : lu 


THE  FRANCO-GERMAN  COMMITTEE     181 

"  Who  among  us  doubts  the  strong  sympathy  that 
draws  so  many  hearts  in  the  neighbouring  country 
towards  France  ?  So  many  faithful  hands  are  held 
out  which  are  not  responsible  for  the  crimes  of  policy  ! 
And  you,  also,  my  German  brothers,  you  do  not  see 
us  ;  us  who  say  to  you  :  '  Here  are  our  hands.'  In 
spite  of  all  the  lies  and  the  hatreds,  we  shall  not  be 
separated.  We  have  need  of  you,  you  have  need  of 
us,  for  the  greatness  of  our  mind  and  our  race.  We 
are  the  two  wings  of  the  West.  He  is  who  breaks 
one,  breaks  the  flight  of  the  other.  Let  war  come  ! 
It  will  not  unclasp  our  hands,  it  will  not  check  the 
impulse  of  our  fraternal  souls." 

The  war  came.  I  kept  my  promise.  Have  the 
members  of  the  Committee  of  the  Franco-German 
Reconciliation  kept  theirs  ? 

With  regard  to  the  contradictions  in  my  articles 
for  which  I  am  blamed,  who  does  not  see  that  I 
cannot  speak  freely  ?  We  are  in  the  midst  of  the 
combat,  and  as  a  Frenchman  I  force  myself,  in  the 
appreciation  of  ideas  and  of  men,  to  maintain  a  reserve 
that  I  shall  not  keep  after  the  peace.  It  is  sufficient 
for  me  to  say  now  that  if  I  have  not  ceased  to  denounce 
Pangermanism  and  Prussian  militarism  as  the  great 
criminals,  I  do  not  find  the  policy  of  any  State  en- 
tirely innocent,  and  my  thought  is  summed  up  in  these 
words  of  Jaur&s,  spoken  six  days  before  his  death  : 

"  Every  people  traverses  the  streets  of  Europe 
with  its  little  torch  in  its  hand,  and  now  behold  the 
conflagration." 

Lastly,  as  to  the  accusation  that  I  haughtily  oppose 
the  rest  of  the  writers  and  thinkers  of  my  country,  as 


182  TEE  BOMAIN  ROLLAND   CASE 

if  I  alone  were  exempt  from  what  I  blame  others  for, 
how  then  am  I  read  ?  Is  it  the  blindness  of  passion 
or  bad  faith  ?  Is  it  not  clear  that  in  Above  the  Battle 
I  also  confess  my  mea  culpa  ?  Do  I  not  denounce 
myself  among  those  infatuated  writers  who  are 
victims  of  the  moral  contagion  of  the  war  ? 

"  So  strong  is  the  cyclone  that  sweeps  them  all 
before  it ;  so  feeble  the  men  it  encounters  on  its 
career — and  I  am  amongst  them.  .  .  .  Come,  friends ! 
Let  us  make  a  stand  !  " 

I  am  blamed  for  not  having  fought  the  plague 
vigorously  enough  before  it  broke  out,  for  having 
withdrawn  myself  too  much  into  my  art.  That  is 
true.  I  blame  myself  also.  We  are  all  guilty,  all  the 
writers  of  Europe.  We  had  all  weakly  counted  on 
time  which  blunts  the  edge  of  hatreds.  Even  those 
of  us  who  foresaw  the  "  fire  in  the  forest  of  Europe  "  1M 
could  not  believe  in  the  immensity  of  the  disaster ; 
above  all,  we  could  not  believe  in  the  total  abdication 
of  European  reason.  Culpa  nostra,  culpa  nostra! 
But  is  that  a  motive  for  becoming  hardened  in  final 
impenitence,  and  for  not  seeking  a  way  of  escape 
from  the  abyss  of  error  ?  I  strive  to  do  so,  and  ex- 
claim :  "  My  brothers,  seek  also  a  means  of  escape  !  " 
In  this  there  is  no  trace  of  vanity.  Ah  !  my  friends, 
my  enemies,  if  you  knew  with  what  pity  I  am  touched 
by  our  human  reason  delivered  over  to  egoism,  pride, 
passion,  the  reason  of  all  of  us,  mine  as  well  as  yours 
(it  is  the  same)  !  If  any  one  of  you  will  take  the 
lead  and  show  the  way,  let  him  pass  on  !  I  will 
efface  myself  and  joyfully  follow  him.  I  am  not 
ambitious,  either  for  popularity  or  unpopularity.  I 
have  accustomed  myself  to  listen  only  to  the  voice  of 


THE  FRANCO-GERMAN  COMMITTEE      183 

my  conscience,  never  to  that  of  opinion.  My  con- 
science enjoins  me  to  speak.  I  have  done  so.  The 
rest  is  no  concern  of  mine.  You  can  blame  me  or 
praise  me,  you  cannot  prevent  me  thinking  what  I 
think  or  saying  what  I  think. 

To  conclude,  I  consider  all  discussion  of  my 
articles  vain,  so  long  as  those  articles  are  not  placed 
under  the  eyes  of  the  public.  Each  of  those  who  are 
attacking  me  only  quotes  what  he  wishes.  My 
thoughts  are  only  known  through  theirs.  It  is  the 
duty  of  all  those  of  my  adversaries  who  are  honour- 
able to  join  with  my  friends  in  order  to  obtain  for 
me  the  right  of  publishing  in  France  my  articles  as 
a  whole.  An  author  must  be  judged  by  the  integral 
text  of  his  writings,  not  by  intentional  distortions 
which  his  adversaries5  passion  (at  best)  causes  them 
to  undergo.  That  right  which  I  claim  has  hitherto 
been  refused  me.  So  long  as  I  do  not  obtain  it,  I 
shall  say  that  there  is  a  lack  of  courage  and  eveh  of 
honesty  in  attacking  a  man  who  is  forbidden  to 
defend  himself. 

Romain  Holland. 
(The  Bonnet  Rouge,  10th  October,  1915.) 

The  references,  parentheses,  N.B.'s,  and  the  sig- 
nature twice  over,  that  is  the  real  Romain  Holland ; 
we  scrupulously  reproduce  it  all,  in  order  that  we  may 
not  be  accused  of  garbling  an  adversary's  text.  His 
also  is  the  strange  quotation  made  "  from  memory  " 
from  his  own  novel  (!),  the  volumes  of  which  are  on 
sale  in  all  the  booksellers5  shops  in  Geneva. 

In  his  turn,  St^phane  Servant  gave  us  some  space 


184  THE  BOMAIN  ROLLAND  CASE 

in  the  Bonnet  Rouge.     Here  is  the  substance  of  our 
reply  : 

15th  October,  1915. 
My  dear  Servant, 

Charles  Albert  explained  the  "  Holland  Affair  " 
as  "  vanity."  The  following  sentence  from  Romain 
Holland's  own  pen  in  his  letter  to  M.  Renaitour  will 
not  weaken  this  diagnosis  :  "  The  author  of  Jean- 
Christophe,  the  French  writer  who  for  twenty  years 
has  done  most  for  the  'intellectual  reconciliation  of 
France  and  Germany.'  "  I  doubt  if  even  Victor 
Hugo,  megalomaniac  as  he  was,  would  have  dared  to 
write  :  "  The  author  of  the  Rhine,  the  French  writer 
who  did  the  most  to  establish  the  United  States  of 
Europe." 

Rolland  is  hard  on  the  members  of  the  Franco- 
German  Committee  which  he  would  not  join, 
hard  on  S6ailles,  Durkheim,  Margueritte,  Rosny, 
Herriot,  Maeterlinck,  Verhaeren  :  on  the  guests  of 
the  "  oratorical  banquets,"  on  the  "  after-dinner 
speakers."  Rolland  may  be  informed  that  the  Com- 
mittee in  question  has  only  held  one  dinner  in  over 
two  years,  but  that,  on  the  other  hand,  its  activities 
have  been  incessant,  that  in  1912  it  placed  its  office 
at  the  service  of  the  Geneva  Peace  Congress,  took 
part  in  that  year  in  the  Heidelberg  Congress  (Ver- 
band  jilr  Internationale  Verstandigung),  and  held  an 
independent  Congress  at  Ghent  in  1913,  nine  months 
before  the  invasion  of  Belgium.  What  then  did 
Rolland  wish  the  intellectuals,  whom  he  accuses  of 
having  done  nothing  and  with  whom  he  refused  to 
associate,  to  do  ?     But  the  most  extraordinary  thing 


THE  FRANCO-GERMAN  COMMITTEE    185 

in  this  new  letter  is  the  conscientious  motive  which 
Holland  puts  forward  as  the  reason  that  forbade  him 
to  join  the  Committee.  He  did  not  do  so  because 
the  manifesto  contained  the  sentence  :  "  France  and 
Germany,  having  become  enemies  through  Alsace- 
Lorraine,  ought  to  be  reconciled  through  Alsace- 
Lorraine."     He  vehemently  repudiated  that  sentence. 

In  substance,  Romain  Holland's  principle  was 
exactly  the  same  as  that  of  the  Droits  de  VHomme 
before  the  war :  no  revanche,  but  no  claim  based  on 
prescription :  the  same  principle  in  our  two  cases 
did  not  determine  the  same  effort.  But  what  follows 
is  capital ;  just  read  a  little  farther  on  in  this  same 
letter  of  Holland  : 

"  Here  are  our  hands  "  (he  said  to  the  Germans 
before  the  war).  "  In  spite  of  the  lies  and  the 
hatreds  we  shall  not  be  separated.  We  have  need 
of  you  "  (those  Germans  with  whom  he  refused  to 
co-operate  publicly),186  "  you  have  need  of  us,  for  the 
greatness  of  our  mind  and  of  our  race.  We  are  the 
two  wings  of  the  West.  He  who  breaks  one,  breaks 
the  flight  of  the  other.  Let  war  come !  It  will  not 
unclasp  our  hands,  it  will  not  check  the  impulse  of 
our  fraternal  souls  !  "  And  now  Romain  Holland 
adds :  "  The  war  has  come.  I  have  kept  my  promise. 
Have  the  members  of  the  Committee  of  the  Franco- 
German  Reconciliation  kept  theirs  ?  " 

Astonishment  on  astonishment !  During  the  peace 
the  members  of  the  said  Committee  asked  him  in 
vain  to  collaborate  with  the  Germans  ;  he  now  calls 
upon  them  to  embrace  the  Germans  during  the  war  ! 
Before  the  war  the  rights  of  Alsace-Lorraine,  which 
were  trampled  under  foot  half  a  century  ago,  pre- 


186  THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND  CASE 

vented  Holland  from  entering  into  official  relations 
with  Germans  in  order  to  bring  about  some  ameliora- 
tion of  the  fate  of  the  Alsatians  and  Lorrainers.  But 
since  the  war,  after  the  recent  violation  of  Belgium, 
after  the  numberless  atrocities  perpetrated  against 
that  little  nation — neutral,  free,  protected  by  Ger- 
many— after  outrages  in  law  and  in  fact  that  surpass 
even  the  martyrdom  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine — which, 
at  this  moment,  are  suffering  far  worse  trials  than 
during  the  peace,  since  they  are  not  yet  reconquered, 
a  fact  that  ought  to  increase  Romain  Holland's 
scruples  ;  since  the  war,  then,  the  German  crime 
being  increased  a  hundredfold,  the  violation  of  a 
nation  aggravating  the  theft  of  provinces,  Louvain 
being  added  to  Strasbourg,  the  dead  being  heaped  on 
the  captives,  and  the  executioner  this  time  gripping 
two  victims,  Rolland  boasts  of  not  loosening  his 
fraternal  hand-clasp  with  Germans  ?  Let  him  who 
can,  understand  !  The  devil  would  rack  his  brains 
in  vain.  In  fact,  of  all  the  examples  of  the  very 
ecstasy  of  contradiction  which  we  have  detected  in 
Romain  Rolland  this  is  the  most  monumental.  And 
Romain  Rolland  takes  immense  trouble  to  display  it 
to  us  with  visible  satisfaction.  "  It  is  regrettable 
for  his  adversaries  that  he  should  have  kept  a  copy 
of  that  document !  "  We  should  wish  to  be  always 
as  well  served  in  a  controversy  by  as  candid  an 
opponent.  It  is  only  M.  Renaitour  who  should  find 
it  bitter  :  had  he  been  shown  the  first  sentence  of  the 
document  (on  Alsace-Lorraine)  without  the  author's 
name,  he  would  have  sworn  it  was  written  by  Paul 
Deroulfede  ! 

Two  further  points  in  this  letter  still  deserve  atten- 


THE  FRANCO-GERMAN   COMMITTEE     187 

tion.  To  excuse  his  contradictions  the  author  alleges 
that  it  is  neither  "  brave  nor  honest  "  to  discuss  texts 
truncated  by  the  hand  of  the  censor  in  France. 
Nothing  is  more  correct.  I  myself  felt  the  same 
scruple  without  the  necessity  of  any  reminder.  The 
only  writings  of  Romain  Holland  to  which  I  referred 
are  allowed  in  France  without  any  change — his 
public  letters,  his  article  in  the  Cahiers  Vaudois,  and 
the  article,  "  Above  the  Battle,"  in  the  Journal  de 
Geneve.  It  is  true  that  that  article  is  reproduced  in 
a  pamphlet  that  I  should  blush  to  quote  here. 
That  is  why,  when  Romain  Rolland  asks  his  enemies 
to  join  with  his  friends  "  to  obtain  for  him  the  right 
to  publish  the  whole  of  his  articles  in  France,"  I 
cordially  support  his  perfectly  legitimate  request,  and 
so  far  as  I  am  concerned,  second  it  with  all  my 
might.  The  ban  does  a  much  greater  wrong  to  us 
than  to  him. 

Paul  Hyacinthe  Loyson. 

Since  printing  this  reply  in  the  Bonnet  Rouge  to 
Romain  Rolland,  his  letter  has  inspired  me  with  a 
few  further  reflections : 

1.  Romain  Rolland  desires  to  acknowledge  that  my 
reproaches  regarding  his  literary  dilettantism  before 
the  war  are  well  founded  (see  above,  p.  182),  and 
he  writes  :  "  That  is  true.  I  blame  myself  also." 
It  is  mea  culpa,  you  will  say.  Not  at  all !  For  he 
hastens  to  conclude :  "  We  are  all  guilty.  Culpa 
nostra,  culpa  nostra "  (sic).  I  say  thank  you  on 
behalf  of  all  those  who  for  ten  years — and  they  were 
legion  in  France — exhausted  themselves  in  the  teeth 
of  opposition  and  ridicule  in  trying  to  keep  off  the 


188  THE  ROMAIN  HOLLAND  CASE 

"  plague."  But  pride  is  not  to  be  disarmed  ;  pride 
does  not  like  to  be  mistaken — or  at  least  to  be  the 
only  one  mistaken :  Culpa  nostra,  culpa  nostra  1 
The  transposition  into  the  plural  is  worthy  of  the 
"  vaudeville  "  stage. 

However,  the  most  astounding  part  is  this  :  "Is 
is  not  clear,"  writes  Romain  Rolland,  "  that  in  Above 
the  Battle,  I,  also,  confess  mea  culpa  ?  Do  I  not 
denounce  myself  among  those  infatuated  writers  who 
are  victims  of  the  moral  contagion  of  the  war  ?  " 
Do  you  know  what  Romain  Rolland  "  denounces  " 
in  Above  the  Battle  ?  You  would  never  guess — his 
excess  of  French  patriotism  !  And  especially  the 
conclusion  of  the  passage  on  the  "  murderous  fury  " 
and  the  moral  "  epidemic."  "  There  is  not  one 
amongst  the  leaders  of  thought  in  each  country  who 
does  not  proclaim  with  conviction  that  the  cause  of 
his  people  is  the  cause  of  God,  the  cause  of  liberty 
and  of  human  progress.  And  I,  too,  proclaim  it " 
(see  p.  43,  English  Translation).  Yes,  those  five  little 
words,  so  doubtful,  so  shamefaced,  so  desponding, 
I  interpreted  as  an  homage,  the  unique  homage  of 
the  whole  book  to  the  cause  of  the  good  Right  of 
France  (see  p.  139  of  the  present  volume).  What  an 
error !  Rolland  blames  himself  for  this  timid 
stammering  word  in  favour  of  the  French  cause  as 
if  it  were  a  fault !  And  he  does  this  after  a  year  of 
war  {Bonnet  Rouge,  10th  October,  1915),  when  the 
most  dread  test  to  which  a  country  could  be  put  has 
shown  the  cause  of  the  Right  in  all  its  austere  beauty  ! 
Who  would  dare  to  say  that  the  "  Rolland  affair  " 
is  not  a  psychological  mystery  ? 

2.  There   is   a   problem   of  almost   equally  great 


THE  FRANCO-GERMAN  COMMITTEE     189 

importance — the  responsibility  for  the  war.  Romain 
Rolland  takes  hold  of  some  words  spoken  by  Jaur£s 
in  his  speech  at  Vaise,  25th  July  1914,  a  speech  which 
he  did  not  publish  himself.187  "  Every  people  traverses 
the  streets  of  Europe  with  its  little  torch  in  its  hand, 
and  now  behold  the  conflagration."  Does  Romain 
Rolland  imagine  that  we  shall  repudiate  those  words  ? 
Does  he  believe  us  capable  of  denying  our  ten  years 
of  struggle  against  the  war,  our  articles,  our  meetings, 
our  campaigns,  our  sacrifices,  and  always  and  every- 
where our  painful  warnings,  which  were  franker 
and  braver  than  his  silence  ?  Jaures's  metaphor  is 
welcome,  for  it  is  accurate  for  the  greater  part.  How- 
ever, from  Jaures's  own  dictation,  from  the  indis- 
putable and  overwhelming  matter  of  his  last  seven 
articles,  published  and  signed  by  himself,  including 
the  one  he  telephoned  himself  to  his  paper  the  evening 
of  his  speech  at  Vaise — from  these  texts  which  are 
unanimous,  and  from  the  dictation  which  is  impera- 
tive— we  complete  his  allegory  :  "  Yes,  every  people 
runs  through  the  streets  with  its  torch  in  its  hand. 
But  when  the  wind  rose  into  a  storm,  whirling  the 
sparks  about,  all  the  European  nations,  in  terror  of  the 
catastrophe,  reversed  their  torches  and  extinguished 
them  by  trampling  on  them — all  except  one,  the 
German  nation,  who  brandished  hers  in  the  wind, 
greeted  the  disaster  as  a  triumph,  and  set  fire  to  the 
city." 

That  is  the  "  most  monstrous  of  crimes  "  which 
Jaur&s  cursed  with  his  last  breath ;  that  is  the  most 
formidable  fact  which  has  been  brought  home  in 
France  to  all  men  of  all  parties  ;  to  all  judges  in  all 
the  nations  of  the  world  ;   to  every  thinking  man  on 


190  THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND  CASE 

this  planet.  Holland  denies  the  fact,  and  we  affirm 
it ;  there  is  the  crucial  point  of  the  discussion,  and 
it  will  not  be  changed  after  the  war.  Whatever 
additional  opinions  we  may  one  day  hold  on  the 
subject,  we  shall  never  allow  base  political  rancours 
to  prevail  over  respect  for  Truth  and  the  worship  of 
Right. 

3.  Further,  Romain  Rolland  shows  his  hand  ;  he 
declares  that  war  is  the  "  supreme  injustice,"  and 
that  to  avoid  it  "  would  have  been  the  part  of  an 
honest,  skilful,  and  humane  policy."  But  "  he  refuses 
to  say  at  this  moment  "  (1915)  "  what  he  thinks  of 
that  policy  of  which  we  see  the  effects  to-day  "  (1915). 

The  allusion  is  clear  ;  it  points  to  the  domestic 
policy  of  France  before  the  war.  Without  raising 
that  debate,  we  are  in  a  situation  to  say  to  Romain 
Rolland  :  "  After  the  war  you  will  have  no  right  to 
speak,  for  where  were  you,  and  what  civic  task  were 
you  fulfilling,  before  the  war  ?  What  protest  have 
you  uttered  against  neo-nationalism  ?  " 

Before  the  war  Romain  Rolland  confesses  that  he 
left  it  to  others  to  formulate  his  political  opinions  ; 
so  convenient !  and  he  declares  that  it  was  Jaur&s 
who  spoke  for  him  "  .  .  .  fifteen  years  ago."  Nothing 
is  more  untrue.  Rolland  was  a  nationalist.  The 
preface  of  his  Tragedies  de  la  Foi  begins  thus : 

"  Here  are  three  dramas  which  date  from  twenty 
years  ago  (about  1894).  They  illustrate  the  early 
beginnings  of  certain  currents  of  thought,  and  the 
dawning  of  passions  that  prevail  to-day  with  French 
youth  :  in  Saint  Louis,  religious  exaltation ;  in  Aert, 
national  exaltation ;  in  Triomphe,  the  intoxication 
of  reason  which  is  itself  a  faith ;    in  all  three  the 


THE  FRANCO-GERMAN  COMMITTEE     191 

ardour  of  sacrifice,  but  standing  up,  fighting  ;  the 
double  reaction  against  cowardice  of  thought  and 
cowardice  of  action,  against  scepticism,  and  against 
renunciation  of  the  great  destinies  of  the  country." 
And  the  author  concludes  :  "  We  were  then  much 
farther  from  the  goal  and  much  more  isolated  (about 
1894) :  Let  the  younger  generation  who  are  so  hard 
on  their  elders  think  of  the  severe  trials  through 
which  we  passed  and  of  the  efforts  we  made,  like  Aert, 
to  defend  our  threatened  faith  (the  national  faith). 
Like  Hugo,  the  conventionalist,  in  the  darkest  hours, 
we  asserted  :  4 1  forestalled  the  victory,  but  I  shall 
conquer.'     Now,  our  ideas  have  triumphed." 

We  recognise  these  "  ideas  "  ;  they  were  those  of 
the  young  neo-nationalist  school  of  Agathon.188  Not 
only  did  Romain  Holland  applaud  their  "  triumph," 
but  he  gave  himself  out  as  the  "forestaller  "  of  it. 
And  in  the  introduction  to  Aert,  making  direct 
political  allusions  :  "  To  bring  one's  country  to  life 
again,  to  shake  off  the  yoke  of  the  stranger,  that  is 
the  point  of  departure  of  this  piece,  born  directly 
of  the  moral  and  political  humiliations  of  these  last 
years." 

The  words  concerning  the  "  humiliations  "  of  the 
country  are  dated  1898  (note  the  period ;  it  is  that 
of  the  Dreyfus  case,  and  the  words  are  the  same  as 
those  used  by  the  reactionaries  against  the  Drey- 
fusards).  The  sentences  on  the  "  triumph  "  of  the 
"  passions  "  of  "  French  youth  "  are  dated  January 
1913  (note  the  period  and  the  events).189'  19° m 

No,  Romain  Rolland,  after  the  war  you  will  have 
no  right  to  speak,  for  during  the  war  you  have  made 
a  political  volte- face. 


192  THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND  CASE 

It  is  indeed  astounding  that  a  man  who,  a  year 
before  the  war,  preached  "  fighting  "  in  the  "  national 
exaltation  "  for  the  accomplishment  "  of  the  great 
destinies  of  the  country,"  should  have  sought  a 
refuge  in  Switzerland  when  the  very  existence  of  his 
country  was  in  mortal  danger  and  its  soil  trodden  by 
the  invader. 


VII.     BUT    "WORDS   REMAIN" 

We  have  seen  that  in  reply  to  our  "  Appeal "  (p.  152) 
Romain  Rolland  made  the  following  declaration  : 

"  With  regard  to  the  article,  Above  the  Battle,  which 
I  am  insolently  (sic)  called  upon  to  renounce,  not  only 
do  I  uphold  every  statement  in  it  without  suppress- 
ing or  attenuating  a  single  word,  but  if  I  had  not 
written  it,  I  would  write  it  to-day  in  even  stronger 
terms  "  (Les  Hommes  du  J  our,  No.  408,  27th  November 
1915,  p.  6,  col.  1,  line  40). 

Here,  then,  are  the  statements  that  Romain 
Rolland  upholds  without  suppressing  or  attenuating 
a  single  one;  written  just  after  the  battle  of  the 
Marne,  during  the  invasion  of  Belgium  and  France, 
Romain  Rolland  would  write  them  again  to-day  in 
even  stronger  terms ;  he  would  write  them  again 
to-day,  after  the  vandalisms  of  Rheims,  Ypres,  Venice, 
etc.  ;  after  the  massacres  of  the  innocents  by  bombs 
from  the  air  or  on  the  open  sea,  after  the  Lusitania, 
after  the  Ancona,  after  Miss  Cavell,  after  the  crushing 
of  Belgium,  after  the  wiping  out  of  Serbia,  after  the 
hecatombs  of  the  Armenians,  after  the  thefts,  rapes, 
assassinations,  asphyxiating  gases,  and  all  the  German 
bestialities;  after  all  that,  and  in  spite  of  all  that, 
see  what  he  formally  declares,  but  too  gently  for  his 
liking,  in  this  month  of  November  1915,  the  sixteenth 
of  Teuton  exploits : 

M  O  young  men  that  shed  your  blood  with  so 
13  iw 


194  THE  R0MA1N  ROLLAND  CASE 

generous  a  joy  for  the  starving  earth  !  0  heroism  of 
the  world  !  .  .  .  Young  men  of  all  nations,  brought 
into  conflict  by  a  common  ideal.  .  .  .  All  of  you,  march- 
ing to  your  death,  are  dear  to  me.  . .  .  Slavs  .  .  .  English- 
men .  .  .  Germans  fighting  to  defend  the  philosophy 
and  the  birthplace  of  Kant  against  the  Cossack 
avalanche ;  and  you,  above  all,  my  young  com- 
patriots. .  .  .  O  my  friends,  may  nothing  mar  your 
joy  !  .  .  .  Let  us  be  bold  and  proclaim  the  truth  to 
the  elders  of  these  young  men,  to  their  moral  guides, 
to  their  religious  and  secular  leaders,  to  the  Churches, 
the  great  thinkers,  the  leaders  of  socialism.193 . . .  What 
ideal  have  you  held  up  to  the  devotion  of  these 
youths  so  eager  to  sacrifice  themselves  ?  .  .  . 

"  And  thus  the  three  greatest  nations  of  the  West, 
the  guardians  of  civilisation,  rush  headlong  to  their 
ruin.194 . . .  Was  it  not  your  duty  to  attempt — you  have 
never  attempted  it  in  sincerity — to  settle  amicably  the 
questions  which  divided  you  ?  196  .  .  .  The  rulers  who 
are  the  criminal  authors  of  these  wars  dare  not  accept 
the  responsibility  for  them.196  Each  one  by  under- 
hand means  seeks  to  lay  the  blame  at  the  door  of 
his  adversary.197  The  peoples  who  obey  them  submis- 
sively resign  themselves  with  the  thought  that  a  power 
higher  than  mankind  has  ordered  it  thus.  Again  the 
venerable  refrain  is  heard  :  '  The  fatality  of  war  is 
stronger  than  our  wills.'  The  old  refrain  of  the 
herd 198  that  makes  a  god  of  its  feebleness  and  bows 
down  before  him.  .  .  .  The  most  striking  feature  in 
this  monstrous  epic.199 ...  A  sort  of  demoniacal  irony 
broods  over  this  conflict  of  the  nations,200  from  which, 
whatever  its  result,  only  a  mutilated  Europe  can 
emerge.  ... 


BUT   "WORDS  REMAIN'9  195 

"  The  Academy  of  Moral  Science,  in  the  person  of 
its  president  Bergson,  declares  the  struggle  under- 
taken against  Germany  to  be  '  the  struggle  of  civilisa- 
tion itself  against  barbarism,' 201  .  .  .  The  paradoxical 
scene  at  the  railway  station  at  Pisa,  where  the  Italian 
socialists  cheered  the  young  ordinands  who  were 
rejoining  their  regiments,  all  singing  the  Marseillaise 
together.302  So  strong  the  cyclone  that  sweeps  them 
all  before  it;  so  feeble  the  men  it  encounters  on  its 
career.  . .  .  Come,  friends  !  Let  us  make  a  stand.208 .  . . 
No  !  Love  of  my  country  does  not  demand  that  I  shall 
hate  and  slay  those  noble  and  faithful  souls  who  also 
love  theirs.204  ...  I  know  well,  poor  souls,205  that  many 
of  you  are  more  willing  to  offer  your  blood  than  to 
spill  that  of  others.  But  what  a  fundamental  weak- 
ness !  206  .  .  . 

"  What  did  he  [Pope  Pius  X]  do  against  those 
princes  and  those  criminal  rulers  whose  measureless 
ambition  has  given  the  world  over  to  misery  and 
death  ?  May  God  inspire  the  new  Pontiff ! 207  .  .  .As 
for  you  socialists,  who  on  both  sides  claim  to  be 
defending  liberty  against  tyranny — French  liberty 
against  the  Kaiser,  German  liberty  against  the  Tsar 
— is  it  a  question  of  defending  one  despotism  against 
another  ?  Unite  and  attack  both.  .  .  .  The  three 
great  culprits.  .  .  .  The  tortuous  policy  of  the  house 
of  Austria,  the  ravenous  greed  of  Tsarism,208  the 
brutality  of  Prussia.  The  worst  enemy  of  each  nation 
is  not  without,  but  within  its  frontiers.209  .  .  .  The 
efforts  of  both  parties  engaged  in  war.  ...  to  justify 
their  own  crimes.210  .  .  .  Humanity  is  a  symphony  of 
great  collective  souls.211  .  .  .  Young  Europe  .  .  .  when 
the  access  of  fever  has  spent  itself,  wounded  and  less 


196  THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND  CASE 

proud   of  its  voracious   heroism, 2ia  it  will   come   to 
itself  again"  (Above  the  Battle,  pp.  37-55). 

So  that  is  what  Romain  Rolland  upholds  in  the 
second  winter  of  the  war,  when  the  war  is  so  tragic 
for  the  Allies,  without  suppressing  or  attenuating  a 
single  word  of  his  statements,  and  grieved  that  he 
had  not  used  even  stronger  terms. 


VIII.     MARGINAL    NOTES    TO    ABOVE    THE 
BATTLE 

Matters  of  Fact 

It  is  permissible  to  suppose  that  the  publication  in 
France  of  Romain  Rolland's  collection  of  articles,  as 
well  as  the  "  soirees  d'honneur  "  in  Switzerland  (see 
pp.  217  seq.,  and  note  the  dates),  was  arranged  to 
coincide  with  the  award  of  the  Nobel  prize  (announced 
8th  November  1915),  and  to  amplify  the  "  apotheosis." 

According  to  a  circular  issued  by  the  firm  of  Ollen- 
dorf,  the  volume  Au-dessus  de  la  MtUe  was  to  appear 
on  15th  November  1915.  The  publication  was  delayed 
a  few  days. 

The  volume,  it  seems,  was  ready  by  the  4th  No- 
vember. In  fact,  the  Journal  de  Geneve  of  that  date 
published  the  preface,  which  contained  the  following 
sentence  in  a  note  : 21s  "  On  the  other  hand,  in  order 
that  my  thoughts  should  get  a  hearing  in  the  midst 
of  the  passions,  I  have  been  obliged  to  lay  them  under 
certain  restraints  which  I  shall  not  always  observe." 
At  the  last  moment  the  sentence  was  suppressed  in 
the  volume  (p.  IT  note,  at  the  lacuna  indicated  by 
dots).  We  demand  that  the  sentence  should  stand, 
so  that  those  who,  in  France,  write  under  the  tragic 
pressure  of  events,  some  of  them  wearing  the  soldier's 

197 


198  THE  ROMAIN  HOLLAND   CASE 

uniform,  shall  share  the  same  benefit,  while  Romain 
Rolland  writes  quite  freely  in  Switzerland,  "  a 
corner  of  the  earth  where  one  can  breathe  above 
Europe." 

Given,  besides,  that  all  ulterior  research  into  the 
secondary,  latent,  moral,  political,  or  economic  causes 
of  the  war  to  be  divided  among  the  other  countries 
cannot  in  the  least  extenuate  Germany's  responsi- 
bility, decisive,  sole,  and  total,  for  the  letting  loose  of 
the  catastrophe.214 

Also  in  the  same  note  to  the  preface  Romain 
Rolland  declares :  "I  leave  my  articles  in  their 
chronological  order."     That  is  not  accurate. 

The  article  on  the  bombardment  of  Rheims  Cathe- 
dral ("  Pro  Aris  ")  which  figures  conspicuously  in  the 
volume  (p.  23)  is  chronologically  later  than  the  article 
"  Above  the  Battle "  (September),  which  yields 
place  to  it  in  the  volume  (p.  37).  "  Pro  Aris  "  ap- 
peared in  its  entirety  in  the  Cahiers  Vaudois  later 
than  24th  October  (see  the  Cahier,  p.  69,  "  Louvain- 
Reims,"  i.).  And  Romain  Rolland  acknowledges 
this  himself  in  his  volume  (p.  36)  by  dating  the  article 
October  1914  (see  Plate  II).  How,  then,  can  he  assert 
that  he  has  "  left  his  articles  in  chronological  order," 
and  why  did  he  invert  the  order  in  that  place  ? 

I  suggest  the  following  explanation  as  extremely 
probable.  It  would  seem  that  in  the  sequence  of  his 
writings  the  author  has  sought  to  restore  the  concord 
of  his  symphony  after  the  discord  of  the  overture,  I 
mean,  to  correct  his  first  article,  "  Above  the  Battle," 
in  such  a  way  that  his  pride  should  not  consent  to 
retract  or  attenuate  any  part  of  it,  since,  on  the 
contrary,  he  announced  his  regret  not  to  be  able  to 


Plate  II 


les  pensees  des  autres  races  et  <Ten  rayonher  en 
retour  I'harmonie.  Gelle-la  n'est  pas  en  cause. 
Nous  ue  sommespas  ses  ennemis.Noiissommee 
les  ennemis  de  ceux  qui  ont  presque  ivussi  a 
faire  ouhlier  au  rnonde  qu'elle  vivait  encore. 


Edition 
lez    C.  T 


irtuhre  1914. 

des  Cafiien  Vuudvi 


,  4914,  —  Lau«! 


humaine,  dont  rainbi'lion  n  eoi.  r.^ 
le  monde  par  la  force  et  la  ruse,  mais  d'absorber 
pacifiquement  tout  ce  qu'il  y  a  de  grand*  clans 
les  pensees  des  autres  races  et  d'en  rayonrier  en 
retour  l'harmonie.  Celle-ci  n'es|  pas  en  cause. 
Nousne  sommes  pas  ses  ennemis. NoHSSommes 
les  ennemis  de  ceux  qui  out  presque  reussi  a 
faire  oublier  au  monde  qu'elljg  vivait  encore. 


How  the  Date  of  an  Article  is  Suppressed 

The  last  paragraph  of  Romain  Rolland's  article  Pro  Arts  is 
here  shown  in  the  French  text  (English  translation,  p.  36) 
according  to  two  different  editions.  It  will  be  seen  that  in 
the  second  instance,  after  the  words  "  vivait  encore"  the  date 
October  1914  and  the  source  of  publication  have  been  sup- 
pressed. 


198] 


Plate  III 


D  ailleursjene  parlepa^afindelaconvainere. 
Je  parlc  pour  soulager  ma  conscience..  Et  je 
saw  qu'en  mdme  temps  je  soulagerai  celies 
tie  milkers  d'autres  qui,  dans  lous  ies 
peuventou  nosentparler. 

Journal  de  Gene,,,  iSseptvmbre  1914. 


pays,  ne 


< 


SUPPLEMENT  AU  JOURNAL  l\  G^iFV-J  (22-23  SEPTEMBRE  1914) 


Etat,  a  la  suite  des  armies.  Dan9  relit*}  de 
ehaque  pays,  pas  un  qui  ne  proclame  it  ne 
suit  convaincu  que  la  cause  Ce  son  piep'e 
est  la  cause  de  Dieu,  la  cause  de  la  liberty 
es  humatns  Et  ie  le  .proclame 


faroehx  article  :  Dans  le  desasire 

Ies  pair  ies  iriomfihent  ?  (1).  Dirons-r 
Uii  que,  pour  comprendre  « cett 
grande  et  simple  »,  1'amour  de  la  ^ 
est  bon/il  est  sain  que  «  se  dechai 
mon  des  guerres  intemationales, 
*  smillieis d'etres?* Ainsi,  1 
"  airir  qw 


How  the  Date^of  a  Paper  is  Altered 

In  the  upper  portion  of  this  plate,  the  closing  paragraph  of 
Romain  Rolland's  article  Above  the  Battle  is  reproduced  from 
the  French  edition  (English  translation,  p.  55).  It  is  given 
by  the  author  as  being  reprinted  from  the  Journal  de  Geneve 
issued  on  September  1 5th,  1914.  The  lower  portion  of  the  plate 
shows  a  fragment  of  Romain  Rolland's  same  article  as  it 
originally  appeared  in  the  Journal  de  Oendve  issued  on  Septem- 
ber 22nd  and  23rd,  1914,  not  on  the  15th  of  that  month,  as  the 
heading  of  the  paper  makes  it  clear. 


[100 


MARGINAL  NOTES  199 

strengthen  it  (a  reply  he  made  to  me  in  the  Les 
Hommes  du  Jour),  and  since  at  the  same  time  the 
"  immanent  contradiction  "  made  him  choose  the  title 
of  that  article  to  preside  over  the  whole  volume,  like  a 
grey  flag  of  neutrality.  His  repentance,  we  have  seen, 
is  revealed  first  by  the  fact  that  this  extraordinary 
article  is  not  in  its  chronological  place,  but  as  it  were 
sheltered  under  a  false  date  (see  Plate  III),  behind  the 
ruins  of  Reims  Cathedral — I  mean,  behind  the  author's 
protest  against  Teuton  vandalism.  It  is  to  be  noted, 
however,  that  the  last  pages  of  "  Pro  Aris  "  {Above 
the  Battle,  34,  35,  36)  began  to  insinuate  those  extenu- 
ating circumstances  which  Holland  will  not  cease  to 
plead  in  favour  of  the  "  true  Germany."  Thus, 
at  one  stroke,  Jean- Christophers  indignation,  ccn- 
trary  to  chronological  order,  against  the  destroyers  of 
the  "  Ark  "  is  thrown  into  high  relief,  and  the  tran- 
sition prepared  for  the  article  "Above  the  Battle." 
How  shocking  would  have  been  the  contrast  if  the 
first  lines  of  the  article — the  dithyrambic  invocation 
to  the  "  heroic  youth  "  of  Germany  included  in  the 
"  youth  of  all  nations  " — had  immediately  followed 
the  last  implacable  lines  of  the  adjuration  to  Gerhardt 
Hauptmann  !  It  seems  that  for  once  Rolland  had 
here  a  transient  glimpse  of  the  incoherence  of  his 
thought.  But  at  what  price  did  he  seek  to  remedy 
it !  An  inversion  of  documents,  in  spite  of  the  formal 
guarantee  in  the  note  to  the  preface  (p.  17),  and 
four  dates  falsified  (pp.  55,  74,  91,  120  ).318 

Then,  further,  in  speaking  of  his  articles  in  the 
same  note  to  the  preface,  Romain  Rolland  adds : 
" 1  have  changed  nothing  in  them."  That  is  not 
accurate. 


200  THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND  CASE 

Starting  with  the  article  "  Above  the  Battle," 
as  if  to  come  into  line  with  the  unusual  system  of 
dates  inaugurated  by  that  article,  the  dates  of  the 
three  following  articles  reprinted  from  the  Journal 
de  Geneve  are  fabricated.  Without  warning  to  the 
reader,  the  author  gives  his  date  of  composition  as 
that  of  the  number  in  which  the  article  appeared. 
For  example,  Journal  de  Geneve,  15th  September 
1914,  for  Journal  de  Geneve,  22nd-23rd  September 
1914.  Then  from  1915,  but  always  without  warning, 
he  returns  to  the  common  bibliographical  method, 
which  is,  when  a  number  of  a  newspaper  is  quoted, 
to  give  the  date  of  that  number  and  not  of  the  com- 
position of  the  manuscript.218  For  the  time  elapsing 
between  the  composition  of  a  manuscript  and  its 
publication  is  very  variable,  and  may  be  sometimes 
very  long.  Especially  when,  as  in  this  case,  writings 
are  deeds,  the  date  of  publication,  which  alone  gives 
them  documentary  value,  is  not  a  point  that  can  be 
neglected.  All  this  causes  considerable  trouble  to  a 
reader  who,  accustomed  to  the  accuracy  of  modern 
criticism,  may  be  careless  enough  to  trust  to  the 
declaration  on  p.  17  of  Above  the  Battle. 

Let  us  then  rectify  the  chronology  of  the  articles 
in  the  Journal  de  Geneve,  reprinted  in  the  volume : 

I.  "  Letter  to  Gerhardt  Hauptmann,"  Journal  de 
Geneve,  Wednesday,  2nd  September  1914. 
Accurate. 
II.  "  Above  the  Battle,"  Journal  de  Genhve,  15th 
September  1914.  Inaccurate.  22nd-23rd 
September  1914.217 
III.  "  The  Lesser  of  Two  Evils,"  Journal  de  Geneve, 


MARGINAL  NOTES  201 

10th  October  1914.     Inaccurate.     12th  Octo- 
ber 1914.218 
IV.  "  Inter    Arma    Caritas,"    Journal    de    Gen  foe, 

30th  October  1914.     Inaccurate.     4th,  5th, 

6th  November  1914. 
V.  "  The  Idols,"  Journal  de  Geneve,  4th  December 

1914.     Inaccurate.     10th  December  1914. 
VI.  "  For  Europe."  manifesto  of  the  Catalonians, 

Journal    de    Gen  foe,     9th    January     1915. 

Accurate. 
VII.  "  For  Europe,"  appeal  to  Holland,  Journal  de 

Geneve,  15th  February  1915.     Accurate. 
VIII.  "  Our    Neighbour    the    Enemy,"    Journal    de 

Geneve,  15th  March  1915.     Accurate. 
IX.  "  War  Literature,"   Journal  de  Geneve,    19th 

April  1915.     Accurate. 
X,  "  The  Murder  of  the  Elite,"  Journal  de  Gen  foe, 

14th  June  1915.     Accurate. 
XI.  "  Jaur6s,"  Journal  de  Geneve,  2nd  August  1915. 

Accurate. 

In  the  advertisements  (Humaniti,  November  1915, 
February  1916),  the  volume  is  furnished  with  a  sub- 
title :  "  All  Romain  Rolland's  articles  in  extenso" 
That  is  outrageously  inaccurate,  if  it  refers  to  his 
public  writings,  to  his  letters  forming  articles,  as  the 
volume  contains  several  of  them,  and  as  the  reader 
is  induced  to  believe  it.219  It  is  indeed  regrettable 
that  nearly  half  of  Romain  Rolland's  most  im- 
portant writings,  and  one  indispensable  document, 
were  not  included  in  the  collection. 

I.  "  The  open  letter  to  Gerhardt  Hauptmann  "  (at 
the  beginning  of  the  volume,  p.  19,  English  Transla- 


202  THE  BOMAIN  ROLLAND  CASE 

tion)  is  not  sufficient  by  itself:  it  is  a  cry,  and  we 
await  the  echo.  It  is  a  cry  of  protest  both  against 
German  barbarism  and  against  the  title  of  the  book, 
Above  the  Battle,  and  as  such  it  is  a  letter  so  fine,  so 
true,  so  strong — in  spite  of  a  few  insensate  lines — that 
"  this  letter  "  (said  the  Journal  de  Geneve  in  present- 
ing it  to  the  public)  "  will  not  fail  to  make  a  great 
stir  throughout  the  civilised  world."  The  tone,  in 
fact,  was  solemn  ;  Holland  spoke  "  in  the  name  of 
our  Europe  "  (sic,  p.  21,  English  Translation),  and 
he  adjured  and  challenged  Hauptmann  to  reply  in 
the  name  of  Germany,  f*  I  am  expecting  an  answer 
from  you,  Hauptmann :  an  answer  that  may  be  an 
act.  The  opinion  of  Europe  awaits  it,  as  I  do.  Think 
about  it :  at  such  a  time  silence  itself  is  an  act."  Now 
Hauptmann  has  made  this  reply  ;  he  has  performed 
this  act  in  the  name  of  all  the  intellectuals  of  Ger- 
many, and  Romain  Holland  published  Hauptmann' s 
epistle  in  the  Cahiers  Vaudois  :  "  Louvain-Reims," 
ii.  p.  126.  Ought  not  that  reply  from  the  German 
necessarily,  as  a  simple  matter  of  honesty,  to  follow, 
in  the  volume,  the  Frenchman's  challenge  ?  The 
historical  moment  when  the  souls  of  the  two  races 
faced  each  other  should  have  been  marked.  Not  to 
have  done  so  is  also  "  an  act."  22° 

We  are  aware  that  the  rejoinder  of  the  famous  Ger- 
man socialist  poet  showed  a  more  insolent  contempt 
than  his  silence  would  have  done  :  "  You  publicly 
address  to  me,  M.  Holland,  words  of  sorrow  for  the 
war  (a  war  imposed  by  Russia,  England,  and  France), 
sorrow  for  the  dangers  incurred  by  European  culture. 
I  do  not  consent  to  make  the  reply  that  you  dictate 
to   me,   in   some   sort,   in  advance.      I  know  that 


MARGINAL  NOTES  208 

German  blood  flows  in  your  veins.  Your  fine  Jean- 
Christophe  will  always  remain  living  for  us  Germans 
by  the  side  of  Wilhelm  Meister  and  Der  grilne  Hein- 
rich.  France  became  your  country  by  adoption. 
You  see  our  country  and  our  people  with  French 
eyes." 

Truly,  outrageous  insults,  but  all  to  the  honour  of 
the  Frenchman,  since  he  had  provoked  them  by  his 
challenge  to  the  barbarian.  Holland  took  them  up 
with  a  master  hand  in  a  letter  to  the  Journal  de  Geneve. 
"  Gerhard t  Hauptmann  annexes  me  to  Germany,  just 
as  if  I  were  a  mere  Belgium.  But  neither  she  nor 
I  will  permit  such  a  thing,  I  have  not  a  drop  of 
German  blood  in  my  veins — unless  of  course  we  go 
back  perhaps  to  the  great  invasions,  whose  modes  of 
warfare  '  the  magnificent  Landwehr,'  as  Hauptmann 
says,  reproduce  with  success.  He  prefers  to  call  the 
German  conquerors  '  sons  of  Attila '  than  to  wTrite 
1  sons  of  Goethe  *  on  the  tomb  of  defeated  Germans. 
What  will  he  say  if  '  sons  of  Attila '  is  inscribed  on 
that  tomb  ?  Poor  Germany !  Betrayed  by  your 
masters  of  thought  as  by  those  of  action  !  "  (Cahicrs 
Vaudois,  p.  128). 

I  repeat  that  this  exchange  of  letters  did  Holland 
the  greatest  honour,  and  that  their  inclusion  in  his 
bock  was  indispensable.  It  is  true  that  had  he  printed 
them  there,  the  author  would  have  signed  with  his 
own  hand  the  liquidation  in  bankruptcy  of  all  the 
articles  which  were  to  follow,  and  of  the  whole  cam- 
paign he  was  to  undertake,  in  spite  of  Hauptmann's 
cynical  answer,  for  the  purpose  of  pleading  the  cause 
of  German  "  thought."  Refusing  Hauptmann,  whom 
he  had  adjured  to  reply,  a  place  in  his  book,  Romain 


204  THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND  CASE 

Holland  gives  it  to  a  Russian  writer,  who  fills  eighteen 
pages  on  Russian  problems  (pp.  56-74,  English  Trans- 
lation). 

II.  Letters  to  the  German  "  New  Fatherland  "  (Der 
Bund,  Berne,  10th,  18th  February  1915),  and  the  first 
of  the  two  restored  in  its  integrity,  would  not  have 
been  less  memorable  as  documentary  evidence  of  the 
"  restoration  of  spiritual  relations  between  the  belli- 
gerents "  (a  phrase  in  the  Berne  paper).  That  first 
step,  due  to  French  initiative,  preceded  the  Zimmer- 
wald  meeting  by  eight  months.221 

III.  The  appeal  to  the  International  Congress  of 
Women  at  the  Hague  (28th  April— 1st  May  1915) 
also  marked  an  historical  event — the  first  official 
meeting  between  members  of  the  nations  at  war, 
the  French  women  having  stayed  away.  It  is  to  be 
regretted  that  this  letter,  as  noble  as  it  is  untimely, 
should  be  consigned  to  irrevocable  oblivion  in  a 
chance  publication,  while  letters  of  far  less  value  are 
preserved  in  the  volume.222  When  "  the  women  of 
the  world  "  (sic)  are  addressed,  it  is  scarcely  gallant 
afterwards  to  renounce  their  company. 

IV.  The  letter  to  M.  Marius  Andr£,  the  French  Vice- 
Consul  entrusted  with  a  mission  to  Spain  (published 
in  HumaniU,  26th  March  1915),  was  also  a  document 
that  should  have  been  retained.  That  consular 
official  told  M.  Aulard,  professor  at  the  Sorbonne, 
what  fatal  weapons  Rolland  had  furnished  to  the 
pro-Germans  in  Spain  by  his  striking  adhesion  to  the 
manifesto  of  the  neutral  writers  and  thinkers  of  Cata- 


MARGINAL  NOTES  205 

Ionia.  The  consul's  tidings  led  M.  Aulard  to  write 
an  article  (Information,  6th  March).  Holland  ad- 
dressed an  open  letter  to  M.  Andr£,  which  contained, 
as  usual,  many  fine  things  and  strong  expressions  of 
his  French  feelings.  The  incident  showed,  none  the 
less,  how  Holland's  influence  abroad,  in  spite  of  him- 
self, thwarts  the  mission  of  the  representatives  of 
France.223 

V.  If  the  letter  to  the  Internationale  Rundschau 
(20th  July  1915)  had  been  included  in  the  volume,  it 
would  have  fixed  a  psychological  moment  in  the 
apostolate  of  Holland  during  the  war.  It  is  nothing 
but  a  long,  dismal  complaint,  a  purposeful,  detailed 
confession  of  the  failure  of  all  his  efforts  after  eleven 
months  to  convert  either  the  Germans  or  the  French 
to  the  harmony  of  Above  the  Battle.  The  letter  begins 
with  these  words  :  "  For  a  year  I  have  sacrificed  my 
repose,  my  literary  success  "  (sic),  "  my  friendships  to 
the  duty  of  combating  unreason  and  hatred."  And  it 
concludes  with  these  :  "  I  withdraw  into  my  art, 
which  remains  the  inviolable  refuge,  and  I  there  await 
the  termination  of  the  world's  madness."  That 
letter  ought  to  have  been  included. 

VI.  Romain  Holland's  letter  to  Georges  Pioch224 
(Hommes  du  Jour,  21st  August  1915)  was  the  logical 
outcome  of  the  letter  to  the  Internationale  Rundschau, 
because  it  sets  forth  diametrically  opposite  senti- 
ments (see  above,  p.  176).  This  extremely  curious 
document  ought  not  to  have  been  left  buried  in  a 
mere  illustrated  paper. 

VII.  The  letter  to  the  journal  of  the  Ecole  de  la 


206  THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND   CASE 

Federation  (Syndicates  of  masters  and  mistresses  in 
public  schools,  9th  October,  1915)  has  all  the  unpre- 
meditated vivacity  of  an  amateur  instantaneous 
photograph  showing  the  recent  prophet  of  the 
"  national  exaltation  "  (1913)  holding  out  the  hand 
across  the  frontier  to  a  little  group  of  "  Zimmer- 
waldians."  The  photograph  should  have  been  in- 
cluded. 

VIII.  The  two  letters  to  M.  Seippel  (Journal  de 
Geneve,  4th  October,  25th  November  1915)  should 
also  have  been  preserved  and  their  complete  text 
restored,  because  they  elucidate  the  reasons  which 
decided  and  might  indefinitely  prolong  Rolland's 
stay  in  Switzerland  :  one  explained  to  us  that  he 
sought  that  asylum  as  "  a  man  proscribed,"  and  the 
other  confided  to  us  that  in  the  event  of  victory  for 
Germany  he  would  remain  in  Switzerland  as  an 
"  exile." 225  Rolland's  book,  being  the  work  of  an 
apostle,  should  illustrate  everything  that  throws  light 
on  his  apostolic  mission. 

IX.  The  letter  to  M.  J.  M.  Renaitour  (above, 
p.  177)  would  have  been  more  logically  in  its  place 
in  Rolland's  book  than  in  mine.  I  thought  it  my 
duty  to  rescue  the  document,  because  it  reveals  what 
the  author  had  in  the  back  of  his  mind,  much  better 
than  the  book,  and  because,  alone,  it  demonstrates 
Rolland's  attitude  to  the  Germans  before  the  war. 

X.  Romain  Rolland's  letter  to  Gabriel  Seailles, 
professor  at  the  Sorbonne  (dated  Geneva-Champel, 
15th  January  1915),  ought  to  be  included  by  Romain 


MARGINAL  NOTES  207 

Rolland  in  a  new  edition  of  his  book  after  the  war. 
This  very  long,  unpublished  letter  forms  the  secret 
reply  to  M.  Seailles's  article,  "  Open  Letter  to  Romain 
Rolland,"  which  appeared  in  the  Guerre  Sociale 
(9th  January  1915),226  and  to  which  it  is  surprising 
not  to  find  a  reply  from  Rolland.  We  may  say, 
without  betraying  anybody  or  revealing  its  contents, 
that  the  letter  is  a  frank  confession  of  all  Rolland's 
opinions,  of  all  his  sympathies  and  antipathies  re- 
garding the  war,  as  well  as  a  statement  of  the  part 
he  plays  in  Switzerland,  points  which  would  render 
the  publication  extremely  valuable.  The  author 
himself  forbade  M.  Seailles,  to  whom  the  letter  was 
addressed,  to  publish  it,  but  M.  Seailles  did  reveal  one 
sentence  in  the  Bonnet  Rouge  (29th  October  1915). 
"  I  shall  ask  you  not  to  publish  this  letter  for  the 
moment,  but  kindly  to  keep  it ;  it  may  some  day  be 
of  use  to  me  as  a  defence."  227 

What  precautions  then  must  Rolland  observe  during 
the  war,  writing  freely  enough  in  Switzerland,  where, 
according  to  Gabriel  Seailles,  he  has  caught  a  "  neutral 
mentality  "  ?  And  what  still  more  regrettable  pages 
is  he  reserving  for  after  the  peace  ?  We  have  a 
special  right  here  to  invite  Rolland  to  produce  some 
day  this  document,  which  does  no  wrong  to  his 
honour,  but  reveals  more  than  ever  a  crazed  intellect. 
In  fact,  on  the  occasion  of  a  press  incident  we  were 
"charged"  (sic),  on  11th  October  1915,  by  M. 
Gabriel  Seailles  to  publish  in  his  name  the  letter, 
the  terms  of  which  he  had  forgotten.  We  had  that 
letter  in  our  hands  for  three  days,  and  we  did  not 
publish  it;  we  refused  to  do  so,  because  it  was  not 
for  us  to  overwhelm  Rolland  with  his  own  weapons 


208  THE  ROMAIN   ROLLAND  CASE 

which  a  mere  chance  had  delivered  into  our  hands, 
because  throughout  this  discussion  we  have  desired 
to  make  use  only  of  public  documents — and  for  other 
reasons  besides.328  Will  the  poet  of  so  many  ennobling 
pages,  the  man  whom  we  loved  and  admired  before 
his  actual  "  error,"  fatal  to  the  cause  of  his  country, 
recognise  that  our  discretion  was  simply  the  act  of 
an  honest  man — and  of  a  good  Frenchman  ?  Anyway 
he  will  concede  that  he  is  not  from  his  point  of  view 
bound  to  preserve  the  same  secrecy,  and  that  if  he 
never  publishes  the  letter,  it  is  because  his  book  no 
longer  allows  him  to  do  so. 

Such,  then,  are  some  "  additions  "  for  the  future 
complete  edition  of  Holland's  writings  on  the  war. 

Moral  Considerations 

The  preface  to  the  volume  Above  the  Battle  is 
preceded  by  a  dedication  to  eight  of  the  author's 
defenders.  In  the  course  of  the  present  book  (Part  II) 
will  be  found  the  opinions  of  four  of  them  on  the  war, 
according  to  their  own  writings.  Birds  of  a  feather 
flock  together. 

Having  pointed  out  the  deliberate  omission  of  most 
important  texts,  it  would  remain  to  draw  up  a  list  of 
all  the  historical  omissions.  In  the  volume  Above  the 
Battle9where  is  the  article,  where  is  even  the  page  on  the 
ultimatum  to  Serbia,  on  Germany's  premeditation,  on 
German  methods  of  warfare  (Zeppelin  raids,  Lusitania, 
asphyxiating  gas),  on  the  crushing  of  Serbia,  on  the 
massacre  of  Armenians,  on  the  loyalty  of  England, 
and  on  the  nobility  of  Italy,  rallying  to  the  cause 
of  liberty  ?    That  enumeration  alone  demonstrates 


MARGINAL  NOTES  209 

that  Rolland's  book  is  not  even  a  mirror  distorting 
the  war,  but  a  tiny  pocket  looking-glass  only  big 
enough  to  reflect  his  preferences  and  prejudices.  The 
situation  was  summed  up  by  one  of  his  former  col- 
leagues m  at  the  Sorbonne  :  "  He  is  condemned  by 
what  he  does  not  say." 

But  if  I  did  not  fear  to  go  beyond  the  scope  of  this 
work,  what  ought  to  be  especially  noted  are  the  in- 
accuracies of  fact  which  are  connected  with  the  moral 
heresy.  In  the  notes  to  this  volume  I  have  pinned 
down  many  specimens,  but  I  add  here  a  few  more 
instances. 

1.  Holland  never  decides  to  proclaim  German  mili- 
tarism to  be,  in  itself,  the  worst  of  all,  that  is  to  say, 
militarism  incarnate  :  he  has  always  been  careful  to 
emphasise  that  the  scourge  is  only  such  "  for  us," 
or  "in  our  eyes  "  (sic,  letter  to  the  German  "  New 
Fatherland,"  Der  Bund,  Berne,  18th  February  1915, 
and  Above  the  Battle,  passim).  The  caution  and  the 
delicacy  of  the  distinction  are  clear. 

2.  All  the  whimperings  of  young  Germany  over  the 
abomination  of  the  war,  of  which  Rolland  has  for  the 
French  constituted  himself  the  soft-hearted  and  enthu- 
siastic interpreter,  are  later  than  the  drubbing  of  the 
Marne.  Suppose  we  had  lost  the  battle,  there  is  not 
one  of  these  amiable  fellows  who  would  not  have 
played  the  Hun  in  France,  and  applauded  and  taken 
part  in  blowing  up  Notre  Dame,  as  in  the  burning 
of  the  Library  of  Louvain  and  the  bombardment  of 
Rheims  Cathedral  (Above  the  Battle,  "  War  Litera- 
ture," pp.  153,  154,  155,  etc.).  The  dates  should 
be  noted. 

3.  Rolland    informs    us    that    his    friend    Richard 

14 


210  THE  ROMAIN  HOLLAND  CASE 

Dehmel,  the  German  poet,  "  took  up  arms  against  the 
Russians  at  the  age  of  fifty-one,"  implying  that 
he  did  so  in  order  to  fight  the  famous  "  devouring 
Tsarism  "  (Above  the  Battle,  p.  153).  Now  Dehmel,  a 
famous  Teuton  socialist  and  man  of  letters,  came  to 
fight  on  the  French  front  against  the  soldiers  of  the 
Revolution,  or,  at  least,  he  sent  his  muse  there  to  try 
and  debauch  our  men  : 

"  To  the  brave  soldiers  of  France  ! 

"  You  are  shedding  your  blood  uselessly  for  a  few 
English  hypocrites  who  are  deceiving  the  whole  world. 
They  abandon  France  to  butchery,  and  there  you 
will  remain,  dying  of  hunger.  They  let  Belgium  be 
crushed.  We  have  taken  Antwerp,  we  have  made 
prisoners  over  three  hundred  thousand  Russians,  we 
are  victorious  all  along  the  line  ;  that  is  the  real  truth 
despite  all  the  English  lies. 

"  If  you  come  over  to  us  you  will  be  treated  cor- 
dially, you  will  be  fed,  and  you  will  have  nothing  to 
fear  on  our  part.  We  Germans  pity  you  deeply. 
You  do  not  know  that  our  munitions  and  our  food 
will  last  for  years.  All  who  within  the  next  two  days 
will  come  over  to  us  carrying  a  white  handkerchief 
and  unarmed  will  be  most  cordially  welcomed.  I 
give  you  my  word  of  honour. 

"  Signed :   Richard  Dehmel,  Poet"  23° 

This  letter  was  thrown  into  the  French  trenches 
in  November  1915  (communicated  from  Bale  to  the 
Secolo9  Milan,  6th  November  1915. 

To  which  one  of  our  French  Tommies  replied  by 
return  of  post : 


MARGINAL  NOTES  211 

M  According  to  you  the  English  lie*  because  they 
are  fighting  bravely  by  our  side  to  defend  the  liberty 
of  the  oppressed  nations.  Those  who  tell  you  we 
are  starving,  are  lying.  You  do  not  know  the  great 
resources  of  France.  You  are  lost.  The  whole  of 
Europe  is  against  Germany.  We  are  certain  that  we 
shall  win  in  order  to  give  liberty  to  all  the  nations, 
even  to  you  Germans,  who  are  slaves.  Your  emperor 
must  perish  and  your  empire  be  destroyed. 

"  Signed :  A  French  Soldier  who  knows  Ger- 
man students  and  desires  to  free  them 
from  the  Imperial  yoke" 

One  more  lost  illusion  for  the  admirer  of  the  flower 
of  Germany  at  war,  fighting  "  heroically  for  the  same 
ideal "  as  the  French. 

4.  Rolland  dares  to  state  (Above  the  Battle,  pp.  79, 
80)  that  everything  that  has  been  told  about  the 
maltreatment  and  cruelty  inflicted  on  prisoners  of 
war  on  both  sides  is  "  hateful  legend  "  and  "  a 
falsehood  on  both  sides."  On  the  side  of  the  Allies, 
I  believe  and  know  from  experience  that  it  is  false. 
But  if  Rolland,  instead  of  offering  his  services  in 
Switzerland,  had  reserved  them  for  his  own  country, 
he  would  have  met  there  English  soldiers  and  learned 
from  them,  by  irrefutable  testimony,  the  shocking 
outrages,  the  abominable  tortures  that  their  unfortu- 
nate fellow  countrymen  had  to  undergo  in  Germany 
during  the  early  months  of  the  campaign.  Reports 
on  the  matter  are  accessible  ;  it  is  to  be  hoped  that 
Rolland's  delicacy  will  allow  him  to  study  them. 
In  the  spring  of  1915,  Canadian  troops  found  in  a 
German  trench  they  took  one  of  their  captive  com- 


212  THE  BOMAIN  ROLLAND  CASE 

rades  crucified ;  and  French  troops,  in  the  same  cir- 
cumstances, found  naked  women  bound  and  violated. 
As  regards  the  rule  in  the  camps  I  refer  Holland  to 
Vlllustration  (15th  January  1916),  where  he  will  see 
a  sketch  from  life,  or  rather  from  death,  by  Jacques 
Touchet,  repatriated  from  Germany,  of  an  "  English- 
man dead  on  the  gallows  "  in  the  camp  at  Gustrov, 
Mecklenburg.  The  survival  of  these  cruelties  and  of 
this  bestial  hatred  of  England  is  still  shown  to-day, 
though  under  a  milder  form,  by  the  fact  that  in  the 
German  camps  the  most  degrading  jobs  are  always 
allotted  to  the  English  (on  the  testimony  of  my  friend, 
Edmond  Bloch,  who,  severely  wounded,  has  returned 
from  the  camp  at  Celle,  Hanover).  Lastly,  the  in- 
famous scandals  of  the  camps  at  Wittenberg  (where 
in  April  1916  hundreds  of  English  prisoners  were 
abandoned  to  typhus)  and  at  Ruhleben  have  put  the 
finishing  touches  to  Holland's  authority  in  the  matter. 
"  In  that  country "  (Germany)  "  efforts  are  being 
made  to  reconcile  the  ideals  of  humanity  with  the 
exigencies  of  war  "  {Above  the  Battle,  p.  80).  Let  us 
remark  that  the  noble  German,  Liebknecht,  denounced 
in  the  Reichstag  (7th  April  1916)  the  treatment  which, 
contrary  to  international  law,  was  inflicted  on  English 
prisoners,  while  the  deplorable  Frenchman,  Rolland, 
attached  to  the  International  Agency  of  Prisoners  in 
Geneva,  manifestly  deceived  the  allied  public  by  this 
passage  of  his  book  about  the  treatment  of  allied 
prisoners.  After  the  revelations  of  the  atrocities  at 
Wittenberg  and  Ruhleben,  as  after  the  abductions  of 
women  and  girls  in  the  north  of  France,  Romain 
Rolland  has  held  his  tongue. 

5.  As  to  what  I  call  Rolland's  moral  heresy,  the 


MARGINAL  NOTES  216 

result  of  his  intellectual  aberration,  it  stands  forth 
everywhere  in  his  book.  Here  are  two  examples 
among  a  thousand  : 

"  You  think  of  victory.  I  think  of  the  peace  which 
will  follow." 

As  if  the  nature  of  the  peace  which  will  follow  does 
not  depend  upon  the  character  of  the  victory  !  As  if 
Germanism,  left  intact,  would  not  prepare  for  us  fresh 
butcheries  !  As  if  the  victory  of  the  Allies,  and  that 
alone,  were  not  the  only  means  to  bring  us  peace  ! 

And  this :  "  War  is  made  on  a  State,  not  on  a 
people." 

As  if  Germany  and  her  Allies  had  not  made  war  on 
the  Belgian  people,  the  Serbian  people,  the  Monte- 
negrin people,  the  Armenian  people,  on  all  the  civil 
populations  shot,  hanged,  burnt  alive  !  And  as  if — 
reprisals  apart — duty  did  not  compel  us  to  wage  war 
with  the  German  people,  incarnate  in  the  German 
army  ! a31 

Every  apophthegm  is  a  sophism  tricked  out  with 
an  air  of  moral  grandeur,  but  so  thin  that  a  child 
could  burst  it,  like  a  soap-bubble,  with  his  breath. 

6.  I  have  kept  for  the  end  an  instance  of  contra- 
diction which  might  have  been  included  in  chapter  v 
of  this  Part,  but  which  seemed  to  me  to  deserve  a 
place  of  honour  to  itself,  because  it  gives  the  key  to 
Holland's  method  in  the  composition  of  his  book. 

Holland  has  latterly  endeavoured  by  every  sort  of 
means  to  rectify  the  unfortunate  statements  in  his 
first  article.  Thus  the  article  "  The  Lesser  of  Two 
Evils  :  Pangermanism,  Panslavism  "  (p.  56),  followed 
by  the  protest  of  a  Russian  (p.  64),  is  manifestly 
intended   to   redeem   the   passages   in   "  Above   the 


214  THE  ROMAIN  HOLLAND   CASE 

Battle,"  directed  against  Russia,  which  Rolland  had 
wholly  confused  with  Tsarism  (see  passim).  Similarly, 
the  tardy  article  on  Jaur&s,  faded  flowers  presented 
to  the  dead  man  (p.  180),  was  evidently  written  in 
answer  to  the  complaints  of  the  socialists  for  the 
purpose  of  excusing  the  anathema  which,  launched 
at  the  International  indiscriminately,  hit  among  the 
rest  the  French  "  tribune,"  the  hero  and  martyr  of 
Peace. 

I  conclude  with  a  quotation  which  shows  to  the  full 
the  efforts  he  makes  to  correct  himself,  and  the  self- 
contradictions  into  which  he  inevitably  falls.  My 
great  reproach,  as  the  reader  knows,  is  that  he  has 
not  seen  the  splendour  of  the  Right  and  the  enormity 
of  the  Crime.  Nevertheless,  he  once  bore  witness  to 
both  of  them  in  words  which  leave  nothing  to  be 
desired : 

"  From  the  depths  of  the  battlefield,  these  voices  of 
a  sacrificed  minority  "  (the  German  6lite)  "  rise  up 
as  a  vengeful  condemnation  of  the  oppressors.  To 
the  accusations  drawn  up  against  predatory  empires 
and  their  inhuman  pride,  in  the  name  of  violated 
right,  of  outraged  humanity  by  the  victim  peoples 
and  by  the  combatants,  is  added  the  cry  of  pain  of 
the  nobler  souls  of  their  own  people  whom  the  bad 
shepherds  who  let  loose  this  war  have  led  and  con- 
strained into  murder  and  madness."  ("  The  Murder 
of  the  Elite,"  p.  178  of  Above  the  Battle.) 

Bravo,  at  last !  That  is  the  page  we  called  for  1 
There  stands  Rolland  as  champion  of  the  right  of  the 
Allies !  I  have  only  to  tear  up  all  my  criticisms  and 
to  make  a  handsome  apology.  Yes,  but — these  lines 
are  dated  14th  June  1915,  exactly  nine  months  after 


MARGINAL  NOTES  215 

his  article  "  Above  the  Battle."  If  Holland  required 
a  year  to  learn  the  death  of  Jaur&s,  it  took  him  the 
period  of  pregnancy  to  be  delivered  of  the  truth 
concerning  the  cause,  the  meaning,  and  the  grandeur 
of  this  war  of  Democracy.  And  so  I  put  the  question  : 
How  are  these  lines,  so  clear,  so  fine,  so  strong,  to  be 
reconciled  with  those  in  the  same  volume  which  the 
author  declares  he  preserves  intact  without  the  modi- 
fication of  a  single  word  :  "  Heroic  youth  of  the 
world  .  .  .  common  ideal  .  .  .  Frenchmen  .  .  .  may 
nothing  mar  your  joy  !  .  .  .  the  three  greatest  nations 
of  the  West  rush  headlong  to  their  ruin  .  .  .  these 
wars  .  .  .  the  rulers  who  are  the  criminal  authors  .  .  . 
each  one  by  underhand  means  seeks  to  lay  the  blame 
at  the  door  of  his  adversary  .  .  .  the  old  refrain  of 
the  herd  .  .  .  monstrous  epic  .  .  .  whatever  be  the 
result  .  .  .  demoniacal  irony  .  .  .  poor  souls !  .  .  .  what 
a  fundamental  weakness  .  .  .  unite  .  .  .  the  ravenous 
greed  of  Tsarism  .  .  .  two  parties  at  grips  ...  to  justify 
their  crimes  .  .  .  young  Europe  *  .  .  access  of  fever  .  .  . 
voracious  heroism  "  ?  (Above  the  Battle,  pp.  37-55 
passim ;  published  in  the  Journal  de  Geneve,  22nd 
September,  written  15th  September  1915  ;  "  ener- 
getically "  confirmed  in  the  Hommes  du  Jour,  25th 
November  1915.) 

I  shall  wait  to  consider  Holland's  book  seriously 
until  the  author  has  made  a  choice  between  these  two 
texts.333 


IX.    WORKING  THE  ORACLE 

The  Nobel  Prize 

Stockholm,  8th  November  1915. 

The  award  of  the  Nobel  prizes  will  be  made  next 
week.  Romain  Rolland  is  just  in  the  running  for  the 
prize  of  literature.  (French  newspapers  of  9th  Novem- 
ber 1915  ;   taken  from  the  "  New  York  Herald") 

Stockholm,  9th  November  1915. 

The  Swedish  Academy  will  not  announce  the 
winner  of  the  Nobel  Prize  for  Literature  until  the  first 
fortnight  in  December.  (French  newspapers,  12th 
November  1915.) 

The  Nobel  Prize  for  Literature  will  not  be  awarded 
this  year.     (French  newspapers,  end  of  December  1915.) 

The  Gazette  des  Ardennes,  the  official  organ  of  the 
German  propaganda  in  the  invaded  departments, 
bitterly  regrets  that  the  prize  has  not  fallen  to  M, 
Romain  Rolland233  (''Excelsior,"  5th  January  1916). 

216 


WORKING  THE  ORACLE  217 

War  Serenades 

On  Thursday,  11th  November,  at  8.30,  a  soiree 
devoted  to  Romain  Holland  will  be  held  at  the  Salle 
Centrale  for  the  benefit  of  prisoners  of  war.234  M. 
Henri  Guilbeaux,  the  well-known  young  French 
author  and  publicist,  is  to  speak  of  Romain  Rolland. 
The  lecture  will  be  illustrated  (sic)  by  music,  with 
the  assistance  of,  etc.  ("  Journal  de  Geneve"  9th 
November  1915.) 

Since  the  great  voice  of  Tolstoy  was  silenced, 
Rolland  has  dominated  the  whole  of  French  litera- 
ture, the  whole  of  European  literature.  He  is  a 
Frenchman  who  has  incarnated  his  ideal  of  life  in  the 
inward  (sic)  music  of  Germany  and  her  intuition  of 
nature.  A  colossal  novel  (Jean-Christophe),  the  hero 
of  which  is  a  German,  proves  his  robust  flow  of  genius. 
He  has  shown  himself  a  true  Frenchman,  a  good 
European,  and  more  than  that — a  Man,  a  Mensch 
(sic,  in  German  in  the  original).  ("  Tribune  de  Geneve" 
13th  November  1915,  report  of  M.  Guilbeaux *s  lecture.235) 

"  It  did  not  prevent  a  large  gathering  of  the  intel- 
lectual public  at  the  soirie  devoted  to  the  only  neutral 
Frenchman  (sic,  with  approval) — and  the  Romand 
intellectualism  is  purely  French  modified  by  the  calm 
good  sense  of  the  Swiss.  The  audience  testified  its 
thorough  enjoyment  of  Henri  Guilbeaux's  biting 
criticisms  of  those  who  have  constituted  themselves 
Rolland's  Catos."  (The  "  Avanti,"  Milan,  2lst 
November  1915. 236) 


218  THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND  CASE 

Zurich,  23rd  November. 

Romain  Rolland  has  been  honoured  with  an  evening 
at  the  Hottingen  Reading  Circle.  M.  Seippel  gave  a 
lecture  on  him  which  was  a  great  success.  M.  Seippel 
read  a  very  beautiful  letter  from  Rolland.  To  con- 
clude the  proceedings  we  had  the  pleasure  of  listening 
to  Mile.  Laveter,  who  with  her  perfect  elocution 
recited  fragments  of  Jean-Christophe,  a  music  which 
serves  as  preface  to  the  New  Day,  the  description  of 
sensations,  etc.  ("  Journal  de  Geneve"  23rd  November 
1915.) 

Contrasts 

Two  evenings  were  devoted  at  Geneva  (7th  and 
9th  October)  to  the  great  Swiss  poet,  Carl  Spitteler, 
whose  language  is  German,  and  yet  who  courageously 
declared  himself  on  the  side  of  the  Right  against 
Germany.  At  the  banquet,  at  which  the  old  poet 
was  present,  the  homage  of  many  French  and  Belgian 
authors  was  read  :  Henri  Bergson,  Emile  Verhaeren, 
Edmond  Rostand,  Maurice  Maeterlinck,  Emile 
Boutroux,  Ernest  Lavisse,  Jean  Finot,  Charles  Richet, 
Alfred  and  Maurice  Croiset,  Paul  Margueritte,  Georges 
Lecombe,  etc.  Romain  Rolland,  who  was  in  Geneva, 
abstained  from  giving  any  sign  of  sympathy.  (See 
"  Carl  Spittler  at  Geneva"  Supplement  to  "  Pages 
d'Art"  published  by  Sonor,  48  rue  du  Stand.) 

In  December  1915,  on  the  initiative  of  the  Rappel 
newspaper,  a  great  manifestation  of  gratitude  was 
organised  at  Paris  in  honour  of  the  Dutchman,  Louis 
Raemaekers,  a  drawing  by  whom  adorns  the  cover 


WORKING  THE  ORACLE  219 

of  this  volume.  A  noble  impulse  of  "  sacred  union" 
caused  authors  and  publications  of  all  shades  of 
opinion  to  fraternise :  Bergson,  Baudrillart,  France, 
Barr6s,  Verhaeren,  Richepin,  Maeterlinck,  Donnay, 
Buisson,  Mme.  Adam,  Brieux,  De  Regnier,  Hermann- 
Paul,  Forain,  Hansi,  Rodin,  Rostand,  Brulat, 
Hollande,  P61adan,  Mile.  Frantz-Jourdain,  Barthou, 
Seailles,  Margueritte,  Croiset,  Severine,  P.  Hamp,  V. 
Snell,  Henri-Robert,  Liard,  E.  Perrier,  Herriot, 
Mithouard,  A.  Dubost,  P.  Deschanel ;  VHumaniU, 
the  Libre-Parole,  the  Lanterne,  the  Croix,  the  Guerre 
Sociale,  the  Echo  de  Paris,  the  Bonnet  Rouge,  the 
Figaro,  the  Radical,  the  Action  Francaise,  the  Bataille 
(syndicalist),  the  Gaulois,  the  Homme  Enchaine,  the 
Debats,  the  Journal,  the  Matin,  the  Petit  Parisien, 
etc.  ;  then  all  the  Reviews,  the  Weeklies,  the  Press 
Associations,  the  Provincial  Press,  the  foreign  news- 
papers (Holland,  Switzerland,  Italy,  South  America, 
etc.).  Among  these  hundreds  of  testimonies  to  the 
valiant  neutral,  Raemaekers,  who  fights  for  the  Right 
with  his  pencil,  neither  the  name  of  Romain  Rol- 
land  nor  that  of  his  organ,  the  Hommes  du  Jour, 
figures.  (See  the  "  Rappel,"  December  1915— February 
1916.) 

The  German  poet  Dauthenbey  had  undertaken  a 
voyage  round  the  world.  War  broke  out  when  he 
was  in  the  Molucca  Islands.  The  English  would  not 
permit  him  to  return  to  Germany.  So  a  protest  was 
made  by  a  number  of  authors  said  to  be  neutrals, 
and  at  the  head  of  the  list  was  the  name  of  Romain 
Rolland.  (See,  among  other  papers,  the  "  Liberti" 
9th  November  1915.) 


220  THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND  CASE 

"  ZlMMERWALD-ROLLAND  " 

""  On  Sunday,  the  friends  and  admirers  of  Romain 
Rolland  held  a  private  meeting,  at  the  conclusion  of 
which  a  resolution  of  congratulation  to  the  author  of 
Jean-Christophe  was  passed.  Mile.  Marcelle  Capy,  one 
of  our  most  distinguished  colleagues,  wTho  is  extremely 
syndicalist,  and  withal  of  most  pleasing  appearance, 
spoke.  And  after  herr  the  publisher  of  Jean-Chris- 
tophe. He  compared  the  meeting  of  Rolland's 
friends  to  those  of  the  early  Christians  in  the  cata- 
combs. Doubtless  it  is  not  displeasing  to  Rolland 
to  be  on  the  same  footing  as  Jesus  Christ."  (The 
"  Steele,"  24th  November  1915.) 

"  A  lecture  which  promises  to  be  interesting  will  be 
delivered  to-morrow,  Sunday,  at  100  rue  de  Paris, 
Montreuil,  at  2.30  p.m. 

"  Under  the  auspices  of  the  People's  University  of 
Montreuil,  Mme.  Marcelle  Capy  will  speak  of '  Romain 
Rolland  and  Youth,'  and  Citizen  Merrheim  will  speak 
of  the  Zimmerwald  International  Conference,  in 
which  he  took  part. 

"  It  is  the  first  time  that  Rolland's  disciples  in 
France,  those  who  have  adopted  his  views  on  the 
present  war,  will  publicly  come  into  contact  with 
pacifist  working  men,  of  whom  Merrheim  is  the  most 
authorised  representative. 

"  Much  has  been  said  about  Romain  Rolland.  But 
with  the  exception  of  the  articles  published  by  the 
Bonnet  Rouge  and  the  Hommes  du  Jour,  he  has  been 
everywhere  attacked. 

"  In  like  manner  the  Zimmerwald  Conference  has 


WORKING  THE  ORACLE  221 

been  universally  the  object  of  hostile  comment. 
To-morrow  for  the  first  time  it  will  be  spoken  of  with 
sympathy. 

"  That  is  why  to-morrow's  meeting  marks  a  signifi- 
cant date."  ("  Bonnet  Rouge"  5th  December  1915,  under 
the  title  of  "  Romain  Rolland  and  Zimmerwald") 

"  The  Montreuil  meeting  has  been  forbidden,  and 
the  decree  has  caused  no  incident."  (The  "  Journal" 
6th  December  1915.) 

Socialist  Disclaimers 

The  Permanent  Administrative  Committee  of  the 
Socialist  Party  (S.F.I.O.)  has  just  passed  the  follow- 
ing motion  : 

"  In  view  of  the  efforts  made  by  two  citizens  to 
spread  in  the  Federation  of  the  Seine  a  propaganda 
founded  on  the  resolutions  of  a  meeting  held  at 
Zimmerwald  in  Switzerland,  which  they  attended 
without  any  mandate  from  the  Party,  to  confer  there 
on  the  question  of  peace  with  other  socialists  from 
neutral  or  belligerent  countries,  themselves  for  the 
most  part  without  mandate  : 

"  The  P.A.C.  invites  all  the  Federations  and  their 
sections  to  avoid  even  the  appearance  of  any  participa- 
tion in  a  propaganda  contrary  to  the  interests  of  the 
national  defence  and  the  national  and  international 
organisation  of  the  socialism  which  it  is  our  aim  to 
consolidate." 

Let  us  remind  foreigners  who  are  neutrals  that  besides 
the  energetic  disclaimer  of  the  Permanent  Administra- 
tive Committee  of  the  Socialist  Party  just  quoted,  the 
National  Congress  of  the  Party,  on  80th  December  1915, 


222  THE  ROMAIN  HOLLAND  CASE 

definitely  quashed  the  insignificant  group  "  Zimmer- 
wald-Rolland  "  by  2,736  votes  to  76. 

Feminist  Disclaimers 

"  A  scandal  has  just  come  to  light,  of  the  origin 
and  bearing  of  which  it  is  our  duty  to  give  accurate 
explanation.  A  pacificist  pamphlet  with  the  title  An 
Urgent  Duty  for  Women,  distributed  in  large  numbers 
throughout  France,  has  raised  such  protests  that  the 
military  authorities  have  had  to  step  in.  .  .  .  The 
pamphlet  is  clear  propaganda,  although  perfidiously 
disguised,  for  the  cessation  of  hostilities.  .  .  .  We  should 
like  to  believe  in  the  sincere  patriotism  of  these 
imprudent  pacificists,  among  whom  is  Mile.  Made- 
leine Rolland,  sister  of  Romain  Rolland."  ("  La 
Francaise"  11th  December  1915,  under  the  signature 
of  its  Editor,  Mme.  Jane  Misme ;  there  follow  the 
official  "  disclaimers  "  of  the  "  Ligue  Francaise  pour 
le  Droit  des  Femmes"  signed  Maria  Verone,  and  of 
the  "  Union  Francaise  pour  le  Suffrage  des  Femmes" 
signed  Mmes.  de  Witt-Schlumberger  and  Leon  Brun- 
schvigg.) 


X.    ALTERNATIVES 

While   the   Fighting   Proceeds237 

"  Romain  Rolland,  who  is  going  to  give  a  series 
of  lectures  on  Shakespeare  in  London  (sic),  is  not  a 
stranger  to  England."  ("  Le  Bonnet  Rouge"  20th 
December  1905.) 

"  The  steamship  Ville-de-la-Ciotat,  of  the  Message- 
ries  Maritimes,  which  was  carrying  no  combatants, 
was  torpedoed  yesterday  in  the  Mediterranean ; 
eighty-six  lives  were  lost."  (The  newspapers  of  25th 
December  1915.) 

"  De  profundis  damans,  out  of  the  abyss  of  hatreds, 
towards  thee,  O  divine  Peace,  I  will  lift  up  my  song. 

M  The  shouts  of  the  armies  will  not  drown  it.  In 
vain  do  I  see  surging  the  seas  of  blood  which  bear  the 
mangled  corse  of  beautiful  Europe,  and  I  hear  the 
raging  wind  which  stirs  men's  souls. 

"  I  am  the  brother  of  all.  I  love  you  all,  ye  men 
who  live  but  for  an  hour,  an  hour  stolen  from  Death. 

"  Oh  that  from  my  heart  on  the  holy  hill,  where  the 
cicadas  sing  in  the  sun,  there  might  grow  an  olive 
tree  high  above  the  groves  of  laurels  and  of  oaks, 
whose  leaves  are  plucked  to  twine  the  victor's  wreath ! 

"  Thy  fair  maternal  arms  (of  Peace)  clasp  tenderly 


224  THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND   CASE 

thine  enemy  children,   and  thou  smilest,   watching 
them  bite  thy  swelling  milky  breast. 

"  Thou  art  the  faithful  comrade  who  welcomest 
the  weary  fighters  on  their  return.  Victors  and  van- 
quished, they  are  equal  in  thy  love.  Brothers,  let  us 
join  together. 

"  Like  the  cricket  which  sings  in  the  fields.  The 
storm  comes,  the  rain  pours  in  torrents,  it  drowns 
the  furrows  and  the  singing.  But  scarcely  has  the 
turmoil  passed  away  when  the  obstinate  little  musician 
begins  again. 

"  So  in  the  vaporous  East,  hardly  has  the  clatter 
of  the  Four  Horsemen's  galloping  hoofs  died  away 
in  the  distance  on  the  trampled  earth,  than  I,  too, 
lift  my  head  and  resume  my  song,  my  sorry  but  in- 
sistent song.  (The  "  Bonnet  Rouge"  28th  December 
1915,  Hymn  to  Peace,  by  Romain  Rolland,  entitled 
"  Ara  Pads.") 

"  The  steamship  Persia,  of  the  P.  &  O.  Line,  carry- 
ing no  combatants,  was  torpedoed  yesterday  in  the 
Mediterranean.  Three  hundred  and  thirty-three  lives 
were  lost."     (The  newspapers,  31st  December  1915.) 

"  Yesterday,  1st  January,  the  first  morning  of  the 
New  Year,  some  large  long-distance  bombs  fell  on 
the  town  of  Nancy.  Two  persons  were  killed  :  little 
Bernadette,  a  baby  girl  fifteen  months,  and  a  workman 
aged  fifty-five ;  eight  persons  were  injured,  all 
civilians.  .  .  .  Our  dear  victims  will  be  avenged,  and 
the  vengeance  will  sadden  the  poor  gentlemen  who 
claim  to  hover  '  above  the  battle ' ;  it  is  required  of 
the  nation,  and  will  satisfy  its  conscience."     (Pro- 


ALTERNATIVES  225 

clamation  issued  by  Mirman,  Prefect  of  Meurthe-et- 
Moselle  ;  the  newspapers,  Uh  January  1916.) 

"  Romain  Holland  deserves  to  be  remembered  in 
Germany  also,233  on  this  day  when  he  celebrates  his 
fiftieth  birthday."     ("  Vorwaerts,"  7th  February  1916.) 

"  Berne,  9th  February. 
"  According  to  the  Vossische  Zeitung,  the  People's 
Theatre  at  Vienna  gave,  on  7th  February,  the  first 
performance  of  Romain  Rolland's  play  Les  Loups"  %z% 
("  Le  Temps;'  11th  February  1916.) 

Romain  Roll  and  on  the  Holy  War840 

Aert.  "  I  was  so  afraid  of  war,  for  so  many  years, 
so  many  years  !  Even  now,  I  am  not  wholly  free 
from  that  dread  ;  it  was  a  nightmare  to  me,  it  poisoned 
my  childhood.  .  .  .  Then  those  who  surrounded  me, 
those  who  had  care  of  me,  all  brought  me  up  in  that 
cowardice.  ...  I  understood  it  one  day  ...  I,  so 
weak,  so  cowardly,  I  was  the  incarnation  of  war,  the 
heir  of  bloody  reprisals.  I  reflected  on  all  that.  I  have 
an  old  philosopher  friend  841  who  often  talks  to  me 
of  the  happiness  of  mankind.  For  him,  as  for  so 
many  others,  peace  is  the  first  good,  the  condition 
of  all  progress,  the  foundation  of  new  eras ;  and 
in  order  to  pave  the  way  for  this  blessing  of  God, 
universal  peace,  he  submits  with  ease,  and  desires 
that  all  should  submit,  to  an  unjust  victory,  to  a  crime 
accomplished,842  to  a  comfortable  security  under  the 
shelter  of  tyranny.  ...  I  saw  there  was  more  egoism 
than  kindness  in  them.  .  .  .  With  them,  don't  you 
15 


226  THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND  CASE 

see,  love  of  mankind  is  love  of  self,  and  love  of  peace 
is  fear  of  action.  ...  I  come  to  your  help.  .  .  .  Are 
you  not  ashamed  of  the  price  you  pay  for  this  well- 
being  ?  .  .  .  Your  whole  life  is  nothing  but  a  pact  with 
an  injustice  that  dishonours  you.  .  .  .  Whatever  be  the 
cost,  let  us  be  free.  And  if  war  is  the  only  means,  well, 
then  come  war !  Do  not  fear.  The  blood  which  flows 
for  justice'  sake  will  bring  forth  joyful  harvests.  .  .  . 
For  myself,  I  feel  that  my  faith  elevates  me.  I  must 
communicate  it  to  those  who  need  it.  I  will  rouse 
my  people,  I  will  be  their  spur,  I  will  stir  up 
heroism  at  the  risk  of  unchaining  the  tempest. 
And  let  life  burn  and  devour  me  afterwards,  pro- 
vided I  shall  have  rekindled  it  in  others  and  in 
myself !  " 

Lia  (moved).  "  O  be  calm,  be  calm.  O,  my 
dearest,  how  these  storms  will  sweep  away  your  little 
bones."     ("  Aert,"  Act  ii.,  pp.  155-161.     1898.) 


XL    CRITICISMS 

From  Articles  by  A.  Aulard  24S  in  the  Matin  (23rd 
October  1914),  and  Information,  16th  January, 
1915. 

Until  the  other  day,  M.  Romain  Rolland  was  a 
professor  at  the  Sorbonne,  and  outside  France  it 
must  not  be  believed  that  his  views  and  impressions 
are  those  of  his  former  colleagues  of  the  University  of 
Paris.  ...  Is  M.  Rolland  quite  sure  that  among  his 
M  German  friends  "  there  are  none  who  have  murdered 
defenceless  Frenchmen  ?  But  whatever  crime  they 
commit,  our  compatriot  loves  these  amiable  "  Boches  " 
too  much  to  desist  from  loving  them.  .  .  .  Standing 
on  the  Jungfrau,  above  our  quarrels  ...  he  reproaches 
us  with  shaking  the  pillars  of  civilisation  by 
employing  native  troops.  He  would  have  preferred 
that  France  should  perish  rather  than  that  she 
should  be  saved  by  such  allies.  That  disgust  must 
have  enchanted  the  people  of  Berlin.  .  .  .  But  here  is 
the  prettiest  turn  of  all:  "Germans,"  he  exclaims, 
"  who  are  fighting  to  defend  the  philosophy  and  the 
birthplace  of  Kant  against  the  Cossack  avalanche." 
The  philosophy  of  Kant !  Why,  it  is  the  noblest 
and  most  intelligent  pacifism  !  The  great  philosopher 
had  a  horror  of  war.  ...  In  theory  he  organised 
the  United  States  of  Europe.     The  tyrannical  nations 

227 


228         THE  ROMAIN  HOLLAND  CASE 

which  crushed  weak  nations  he  threatened  with  ven- 
geance to  be  inflicted  by  a  coalition  of  the  other  weak 
nations.  He  greeted  the  dawn  of  the  French  Revo- 
lution with  joy.  Everything  that  he  wrote  on  inter- 
national law,  on  universal  peace,  is  by  anticipation 
a  keen  satire  on  the  German  ideal  of  to-day.  Kant, 
if  he  were  still  alive,  would  blush  to  be  a  Prussian. 

From  the  Article  by  Gabriel  Seailles  :  "  An  Open 
Letter  to  Romain  Rolland  "  {La  Guerre  Sociale, 
9th  January  1915. 244 

It  has  been  your  misfortune,  I  think,  not  to  be 
here,  not  to  have  been  plunged  into  and  swept  along 
by  the  wave  of  our  people  the  day  of  departure  for 
the  front,  not  to  have  felt  the  beneficent  contagion 
of  the  national  spirit.  Writing  in  Switzerland,  you 
have  contracted  a  neutral  mentality  ?  245  .  .  .  And  to 
mark  your  impartiality,  you  have  treated  the  French 
thinkers  with  the  same  severity,  the  same  contempt 
as  the  German  thinkers.  .  .  .  But,  if  Right  is  to  be 
restored,  it  must  be  because  it  has  been  violated,  and 
who  then  is  the  culprit  ?  That  is  the  point  on  which 
one  must  speak  out  and  take  a  side.  Which  is  the 
nation  that  desired,  prepared  for  and  let  loose  the 
war,  which  erected  frightfulness  into  a  method  and  a 
system,  brought  back  the  traditions  of  the  old  bar- 
barian empires,  struck  down  the  innocent  for  the 
guilty,  deported  the  civil  populations  wholesale  ? 
The  French  thinkers  have  indeed  reason  to  complain. 
Is  it  just  to  put  on  the  same  plane,  to  include  in 
the  same  disdain,  those  who  justify  the  violation 
of  Belgian  neutrality,  the  burning  of  Louvain,  the 
assassination  of  the  martyr  towns,  the  irreparable 


CRITICISMS  229 

destruction  of  the  masterpieces  of  art,  the  fires,  the 
pillage,  the  murders,  and  those  who  are  unable  to 
find  words  strong  enough  to  express  the  indignation 
that  these  acts  evoke  ?  The  anger  aroused  by  these 
crimes  must  not  be  accounted  unrighteous ;  it  is 
rather  to  be  accounted  legitimate  and  generous  :  it  is 
the  revolt  of  that  sentiment  of  humanity  which  you 
invoke,  without,  however,  perceiving  that  first  and 
foremost,  as  a  condition  of  love  itself,  it  implies  the 
respect  and  the  desire  for  justice. 

The  war  shocks  your  intellect  as  much  as  it  wounds 
your  heart.  Its  stupidity  disconcerts  you  as  much 
as  its  horror.  Europe  is  divided  into  two  camps  ;  she 
is  smiting  and  rending  herself  without  seeing  the  new 
powers  that  are  rising  on  the  horizon.  Do  you  not 
think  that  it  is  a  little  late  to  warn  her  of  them  ?  I 
am  of  those  who  would  have  wished  to  spare  Europe 
this  fratricidal  war.  At  our  risk  and  peril,  under  no 
great  illusion,  at  a  time  when  at  least  it  was  still 
permissible  to  hope,  we  advocated  a  policy  of  Franco- 
German  reconciliation.  I  do  not  remember  to  have 
read  your  name  among  the  names  of  the  men  who 
made  that  desperate  effort  to  avert  the  calamity  which 
you  deplore. 

From  articles  by  Charles  Albert :  "  Depressing 
Thought,"  in  the  Bataille  Syndicaliste,  31st  August 
1915,  "  Above  the  Battle  "  in  the  Bataille,  18th 
February  1916.246 

What  I  especially  reproach  Rolland  for  is  his 
letter  to  the  Internationale  Rundschau.  I  confess 
it  amazed  me. 

Let  us  read  it  once  again. 


230  THE  ROMA1N  ROLLAND    CASE 

"  For  a  year  I  have  sacrificed  my  peace,  my 
literary  success,  my  friendships  to  combat  madness 
and  hatred." 

"  I  have  sacrificed  my  peace,  my  literary  success, 
my  friendships."     Have  I  read  aright  ? 

Romain  Holland's  peace,  literary  success,  friend- 
ships !  Ah  !  how  petty  and  negligible  is  all  that 
amid  the  great  hurricane  !  If  Romain  Rolland  still 
attaches  the  least  importance  to  these  trifles,  I  am  no 
longer  surprised  that  he  understands  so  ill  the  time 
in  which  we  live.  If  he  is  surprised  that  in  spite  of 
such  sacrifices  nobody  will  listen  to  him,  it  is  because 
he  has  not  grasped  the  measure  of  the  vast  drama. 
.  .  .  An  author's  puerile  vanity  !  a47 

Romain  Rolland  has  much  to  say  to  us — and  he 
says  it  eloquently — of  the  obligations  of  thought,  of 
the  duties  of  the  spirit.  Is  it  enough  to  talk  of  them  ? 
Thought  has  nothing  to  do  with  shades  of  literary 
improvisation,  nor  with  the  graces  of  style. 

To  think  of  an  event  as  terrible  as  this  war,  is  to 
keep  in  view  a  multitude  of  facts,  to  classify  them, 
afterwards  to  estimate  the  series  according  to  their 
importance,  then  to  arrange  them  in  a  hierarchy, 
and  to  organise  them  into  a  whole.  .  .  . 

Much  might  be  said  about  the  opinion  of  an  author 
who  imagines  that  he  sees  things  from  a  higher  level 
because  he  looks  down  on  them  from  the  mountains 
of  Switzerland.  I  have,  however,  said  enough  to 
show  that  his  opinion,  in  which  some  would  like  us 
to  find  all  the  wisdom  of  the  hour,  is,  in  fact,  little 
studied,  little  considered,  little  "  thought,"  how  it 
continually  hesitates,  shuffles,  and  contradicts  itself. 
To  contradict  oneself  under  present  circumstances  is 


CRITICISMS  231 

not  only  to  deceive  oneself,  but  to  lead  astray  and 
discourage  human  reason  at  a  moment  when  every 
one  has  more  need  than  ever  to  keep  a  level  head  and 
a  courageous  outlook. 

And  that  is  the  serious  part.  Therein  lies,  to  my 
thinking,  the  whole  "  Romain  Holland  case."  In  order 
to  cross  the  trembling  bridge  over  which  Humanity 
to-day  is  seeking  to  make  its  way,  I  have  need  of  all 
my  reason,  and  I  defend  it.  I  defend  it  against  the 
Barreses  who  claim  to  subject  it  to  the  ancestral 
forces  of  instinct,  and  against  the  Rollands  who,  by 
an  unhealthy  need  of  increasing  our  misery  which  is 
already  so  great,  of  enlarging  wounds  already  so  deep, 
would  have  us  admit  that  man's  reason  is  on  the  point 
of  foundering,  and  who,  doubtless  the  better  to  con- 
vince us,  devote  themselves  to  talking  nonsense.  .  .  . 

All  is  in  order  because  it  is  ordained  that  every- 
thing shall  be  turned  upside-down  after  a  nation, 
holding  in  Europe  the  place  of  Germany,  has  for  forty 
years,  by  denying  the  essential  principles  of  demo- 
cracy, violated  the  laws  of  modern  society.  .  .  .  The 
bitterness  of  the  drama  is  that  it  is  logical,  implac- 
ably logical.     The  best  informed  foresaw  it.  .  .  . 

To  understand  is  the  safeguard  and  the  strength 
of  man.  Do  not  hinder  yourself  from  understanding. 
Do  not  put  into  men's  heads  more  trouble  than  there 
is  in  the  world. 

From  articles  by  Th.  Ruyssen,  entitled  "  In  the 
Battle,"  Le  Bonnet  Rouge,  11th,  13th  and  14th 
December  1915. 348 

Ah  !  if  I  could  take  away  eight  or  ten  pages,  and 
add  the  same  quantity,  with  what  joy  should  I  close 


232         THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND   CASE 

it  with  the  words  :  6C  it  is  one  of  the  finest  and  noblest 
books  called  forth  by  the  war  "  !  .  .  .  For  Romain 
Rolland  is  right  in  thinking  that  "  a  great  nation 
assailed  by  war  has  not  only  its  frontiers  to  protect  " 
but  also  "  its  reason."  With  him  we  detest  the 
"  cries  of  hatred  of  the  yelping  newspapers,"  the 
writers  who  shout  War  !  without  taking  active  part 
in  it,  and  cry  "Kill!  kill!"  from  the  depths  of  a 
comfortable  armchair.  Like  him  we  "  leave  to  our 
Prussian  enemies  the  motto  :  Oderint,  dum  metuant  !  " 
And  we  wish  "  France  to  be  loved,  to  be  victorious 
not  only  by  force,  not  only  by  virtue  of  the  right 
(that  would  be  still  too  cold),  but  by  the  superiority 
of  her  large  and  generous  heart." 

Whence  comes  it,  then,  that  we  cannot  close  the 
book — certain  pages  of  which,  of  perfect  beauty, 
have  given  us  the  joy  of  not  despairing  of  humanity 
— without  profound  regret  and  inward  perturbation  ? 
First,  because  it  contains  flagrant  errors,  a  source  of 
grave  injustice.  Yes,  Rolland  is  mistaken,  he  does 
not  render  justice  to  his  own  country  when  he  takes 
up  his  position  so  high  "  above  the  battle  "  that  he 
no  longer  sees  any  distinction  between  the  thinkers  of 
France  and  of  Germany,  between  the  socialists  of  the 
two  countries.  .  .  .  I  do  not  know  that  he  has  ever  with- 
drawn or  modified  his  unjust  and  foolish  criticism 2" 
of  the  efforts  of  his  fellow-countrymen  to  organise  a 
lasting  and  just  peace.  ...  He  loved,  he  continues 
to  love,  the  Germany  of  philosophers,  poets,  and 
musicians.  .  .  .  Doubtless  he  loves  France  equally,  his 
little  Nivernais  country,  and  the  great  country  the 
cause  of  which  seems  to  him  to  be  "  that  of  freedom 
and    human   progress."      Torn   between   these    two 


CRITICISMS  283 

loves,  he  cannot  or  will  not  make  up  his  mind  to 
the  dolorous  necessity  of  taking  sides.250  So  he 
rises  "  above  the  battle,"  to  such  a  height  that 
the  physiognomy  of  nations  is  blurred,  both  their 
deformities  and  their  beauties,  and  sinks  in  his 
sight  into  one  dead  level.  Thence  results  the 
strange  balancing  which,  in  accordance  with  a 
sort  of  mechanical  rhythm,  adjudges  to  the  adver- 
saries an  equal  share  of  praise  and  blame. 
"  Heroic  youth "  of  the  two  countries,  thinkers, 
socialists,  heads  of  religious  communities,  receive 
turn  by  turn  the  laurel  wreath  or  the  birch. 
I  willingly  admit  that  the  motive  of  this  attitude 
is  a  regard  for  lofty  and  rigid  justice.  But  the 
misfortune  is  that  this  theoretical  justice  results 
in  crying  injustice.  Summum  jus,  summa  injuria  ! 
For  this  sort  of  justice  sets  up  no  difference  between 
the  nation  which  attacks  and  the  nation  which 
defends  ;  it  sees  no  shade  of  distinction  between  the 
"  unanimity  for  war  "  of  violated  Belgium,  of  attacked 
France,  and  the  unanimity  of  the  people  which  ranges 
itself  with  the  aggressive  governments.  I  do  not 
know  if  that  is  the  fact  as  seen  from  Sirius ;  but 
Geneva  is  not  Sirius.  It  is  known  at  Geneva  who 
wanted  the  war,  who  hurried  it  on  when  it  could  have 
been  avoided,  who  formulated  the  theory  of  the 
"  scrap  of  paper  "  and  that  of  "  absolute  war  "  ; 
it  is  known  which  army  forced  women  and  children 
to  march  in  front  of  its  battalions,  who  deported 
civilians  by  tens  of  thousands,  torpedoed  passenger 
ships  carrying  innocent  lives,  murdered  Miss  Cavell. 
All  that  is  known  at  Geneva  and  elsewhere,  and  it  is 
astonishing  that  Romain  Holland  alone  seems  to  be 


234         THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND  CASE 

ignorant  of  it.  Even  those  who  disdain  the  vile 
weapon  of  insult  cannot  help  thinking  with  bitter- 
ness that  in  regard  to  his  own  country  Romain  Rolland 
has  shown  himself  less  well  informed  and  less  just 
than  the  greater  number  of  neutrals. 


POSTSCRIPT   TO    NEUTRALS 

The  foregoing  documents  have  been  compiled  to 
undeceive  foreign  neutrals  who  see  in  Romain  Rol- 
land's  writings  the  highest  expression  of  French 
thought  during  the  war.  Henceforth  they  will  know 
that  this  inconsistent  doctrine,  fitted  to  unsettle  the 
reason  and  unnerve  the  heart,  has  been  denounced 
in  France  by  French  republicans.  It  depends  on 
neutrals  in  their  turn  to  do  justice  abroad  to  the 
honour  of  an  heroic  nation  basely  attacked  in  time 
of  peace.  Whoever  might  have  been  the  author  of 
a  work  so  doubly  pernicious,  since  it  renders  a  cause 
suspect  both  by  its  defenders  and  its  judges  ;  had  he 
possessed  the  greatest  reputation,  had  he  been  my 
nearest  relative,  I  should  equally  have  believed  it 
my  duty  to  combat  its  influence  and  bring  the  writer 
of  it  to  confusion.  On  the  earth  wet  with  blood  on 
which  Rolland  has  cast  this  seed,  so  far  only  one 
harvest  has  been  reaped,  that  of  amazement,  which 
any  other  famous  Frenchman  might  have  reaped 
by  similar  means.  For  every  solitary  exception  is 
certain  to  excite  curiosity  and  surprise ;  it  is  not  a 
sign  of  truth  ;  it  may  be  one  of  aberration,  and  this 
exception  has  proved  the  rule.     But  since  125,000 

235 


236         THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND    CASE 

copies  of  Romain  Holland's  book  are  spread  through 
the  world,  it  has  not  seemed  useless  to  mark  each 
of  those  false  coins  ;  scrape  it  with  a  penknife  and 
the  lead  is  revealed,  but  French  silver  is  always 
sterling. 

Since  these  closing  lines  were  written  for  the  French  edition 
of  this  book,  the  Nobel  Prize  for  Literature  has  been  awarded 
to  Romain  Holland  in  November,  1916.  It  should  be  noticed 
that  this  prize  was  that  of  1915  postponed  one  year.  French 
opinion  had  exhausted  its  protestation.  That  Romain  Rolland 
received  this  distinction  for  his  book  Above  the  Battle,  there  is 
no  doubt,  since  he  himself,  in  an  official  note  to  the  French 
press  concerning  the  prize,  terms  himself  "  author  of  Jean 
Christophe  and  of  Above  the  Battle  "  (Temps,  17th  November). 
Thus  the  case  is  clear — and  gloomy.  The  award  goes  to  a 
French  neutral  who  has  placed  Right  and  Crime  on  a  level. — 
Author's  Note. 


PART    III 
NOTES 


NOTES 

PART  I— OPEN   LETTERS 


1  La  Bdgigue  sanglante.  Title  of  a  war  book  on  the  martyr- 
dom of  Belgium,  by  Emile  Verhaeren.  Several  Belgian 
authors,  among  them  MM.  Wilmotte  and  Dumont-Wilden, 
claimed  for  the  poet,  so  faithful  to  the  cause  of  Humanity, 
the  Nobel  prize  for  1915.  The  Crown  of  Thorns  renders  him 
greater. 

2  La  Bdgigue  sanglante,  Dedication. 

3  The  German  edition  of  the  last  dramatic  work  of  the 
author  was  published  a  few  weeks  before  the  war.  The 
translation  by  Lichtenberger-Metcalfe  was  the  outcome  of  an 
old  friendship  ;  the  preface  was  by  Bertha  von  Suttner,  the 
well-known  Austrian  pacifist,  who  was  spared  the  torture  of 
witnessing  her  country's  crime. 

4  La  Belgique  sanglante, 

*  Omitted  in  the  English  translation. 

6  Jules  Cambon,  in  the  Yellow  Book  VI. 

7  Confession  of  Maximilian  Harden  after  the  French  elections 
of  May  1914  (see  Letter  to  Harden,  p.  59). 

8  On  8th  August  1914  I  found  the  following  words  inscribed 
on  a  fir  tree,  in  the  Vosges:  "  Down  with  war  !  Long  live 
France  !  Long  live  Alsace  !  "  The  words  represented  the 
feeling  of  the  entire  French  nation. 

•  "  Become  what  you  are."     Nietzsche. 

10  The  words  of  M.  Aristide  Briand,  president  of  the  National 
Defence. 

11  The  German  social  democrats.  "  The  decision  depends  on 
William  II  "  ( Vorivdrts,  30th  July  1914).     In  a  series  of  articles 

239 


240  NOTES 

published  on  the  eve  of  the  war,  the  Vorwdrts  declared  for  the 
entire  responsibility  of  Austria  and  Germany. 

12  Proof  of  these  atrocities  has  only  been  furnished  in  Serbia 
or  on  the  Eastern  front.  Professor  Reiss  of  Lausanne  has 
published  photographs  of  breasts  cut  off  (see  his  pamphlet, 
Armand  Colin,  p.  35).  I  leave  aside  the  imputation  of  "  hands 
cut  off  M  for  lack  of  absolute  proof.  There  is  no  need  to 
enhance  the  Germanic  tale  of  crime  ;  the  French  cause  and 
the  truth  are  one. 

13  "The  German  army  and  the  German  people  are  one" 
(Manifesto  of  the  Intellectuals).  And  after  all  these  abomina- 
tions :  "a  good,  open  clean  wound  will  heal ;  but  do  not 
poison  it "  (Eomain  Rolland,  "  Above  the  Battle"  p.  104). 

14  Since  in  1915  these  words  were  written,  Mr.  Asquith,  in 
August  1916,  has  taken  the  same  pledge. 

15  Inscription  over  the  entrance  :  Dem  deutschen  Volk  (To 
the  German  people).     (1915.) 

16  These  pages  on  the  difference  between  Hate  and  Hate 
were  read  aloud  at  the  front  to  the  soldiers  of  the  Third  Army 
Corps,  by  Etienne  Giran  (Protestant  Minister  at  Amsterdam), 
French  Chaplain  to  the  Troops. 

17  To  conclude  this  letter  on  Belgium's  martyrdom,  let  us 
place  the  name  of  another  judge  by  the  side  of  that  of  Victor 
Hugo  :  "  When  I  see  a  platoon  of  their  soldiers  marching 
through  the  streets,  straight  as  a  poker,  with  resolute  glance, 
in  perfect  step,  my  heart  is  oppressed.  And  if  you  come  upon 
one  of  them  on  sentry  duty,  he  looks  at  you  as  if  he  wished 
to  see  through  your  skin.  They  look  so  stiff,  so  hard,  that 
it  seems  as  if,  at  every  step,  you  are  meeting  a  gaoler.  .  .  . 
You  scarcely  dare  to  breathe  !  Brussels  resembles  a  place 
where  a  storm  is  threatening  on  the  horizon.  Not  a  bird  to 
be  seen,  not  an  animal  about  except  those  who,  terrified,  seek 
shelter.  ...  Liberty  walks  in  front  of  me,  her  feet  dyed  with 
blood,  her  flowing  draperies  soiled  with  blood.  .  .  .  That 
blood  will  not  have  been  shed  in  vain.  March  on,  brave 
people !  The  victorious  goddess  leads  you.  As  the  sea 
breaks  through  the  dykes,  tyrants  must  be  brought  low,  and 
thrust  out  of  the  countries  they  arrogantly  usurp  "  (Goethe  ; 
Egmont). 


OPEN  LETTERS  241 

II 

18  Revelation  xiii.  and  xiv. 

19  English  Pacificist  League.     See  p.  154. 

20  The  Hague,  28th  April,  1st  May  1915. 

21  At  that  period,  the  author  of  these  letters  dedicated  a 
little  pacifist  play,  The  Gospel  of  Blood,  to  Miss  Hobhouse. 
It  was  performed  at  the  Theatre  des  Escholiers,"  Paris,  in 
1902. 

22  Towards  Permanent  Peace,  2nd  edition.     London. 

23  A  German,  Frau  Ida  Boe,  replied  to  Miss  Hobhouse 
publicly  in  these  words  :  "  There  exists  not  only  a  sacred  love 
but  a  sacred  hatred  (against  England).  That  hatred  affords  a 
sort  of  satisfaction  to  German  mothers  and  wives,  for  without 
it  we  could  not  endure  such  terrible  suffering.  We  wish  to 
carry  this  wild  hatred  in  our  hearts,  and  we  reject  all  verbiage 
about  humanity." 

24  "To  talk  of  peace  now  would  be  as  intelligent  as  to  pour 
milk  into  the  jaws  of  a  wild  beast "  (Karl  Spitteler). 

25  I  found  the  same  comparison  illustrated  in  one  of  Rae- 
maekers'  drawings.  The  coincidence  is,  in  my  opinion,  no 
slight  sign  of  truth. 

26  Miss  Amy  Lillington  suddenly  rose  to  proclaim  the  great 
truth,  that  the  assertions  she  had  listened  to  were  all  "  plati- 
tudes. "  And  roundly  reprimanding  her  neutral  colleagues, 
the  Suffragette  exclaimed  :  "  You  believe  that  our  women  are 
against  the  war.  I  tell  you  that  the  women  are  as  much  for 
the  war  as  the  men  are.  For  every  woman  in  England  who 
desires  peace,  there  are  a  thousand  who  would  like  to  go  and 
fight  in  France  if  it  were  possible.  That  is  what  Englishwomen 
think,  that  is  what  English  Suffragettes  feel."  There  was  an 
uproar  in  the  hall,  and  the  member  of  the  Congress  officially 
deputed  to  translate  Miss  Amy  Lillington' s  speech  into  German, 
refused  to  repeat  her  strong  expressions  in  the  language  of 
Goethe  {he  Temps,  4th  May  1915). 

27  In  these  circumstances  it  is  natural  that  the  Englishwomen 
should  have  asked  Romain  Rolland,  whom  they  substituted 
for  Frenchwomen,  to  announce  in  their  name  "  that  they  made 
no  distinction  between  enemy  brothers  who  were  suffering' ■ 

16 


242  NOTES 

(Dedicatory  epistle  to  the  pamphlet,  Towards  Permanent 
Peace).  And  it  must  be  noted  that  it  was  not  a  question  of 
supporting  any  Red  Cross  organisation,  but  of  sending  a 
contribution  to  an  assembly  that  was  seeking  conditions  of 
peace. 

Ill 

28  In  August  1916  this  hope  was  justified.  (See  also  Table 
of  Contents,  p.  237  of  French  original). 

29  Carmen  Sylva,  Queen  of  Roumania,  whose  death  occurred 
this  year  (1916),  had  sent  the  author  of  this  book  a  telegram 
expressing  her  sympathy  on  the  death  of  his  father,  9th 
February  1912. 

IV 

30  A  theatre  at  Rome. 

31  Luigi  Campolonghi,  for  years  correspondent  of  the  Milan 
Secolo,  was  one  of  the  most  active  workers  in  the  propaganda 
for  war  in  Italy.  He  was  taken  prisoner  by  the  Germans  at 
Brussels,  and  has  just  published  his  reminiscences.  They 
contain  an  account  of  this  meeting.  The  volume  is  called 
In  the  Storm. 

32  They  were  to  enlist  soon  afterwards  in  the  Garibaldi 
Legion. 


33  Vamarissimo  mare,  the  Adriatic  (D'Annunzio). 

34  Speech  at  Quarto. 

35  Nietzsche,  celebrated  by  D'Annunzio,  Ode  to  a  Destroyer. 

36  Poi&t&s,  from  poiein,  to  make. 

37  D'Annunzio  had  retired  to  Arcachon,  refusing  to  return 
to  Italy. 

38  Bulow  conquered  by  D'Annunzio.  In  regard  to  the 
necessary  intervention  of  Italy,  by  the  side  of  France,  in  a 
future  war,  the  author  wrote  in  the  Aurore,  28th  April  1909, 
five  years  before  the  present  war  : 

"  Italy's  interest  seems  to  me  to  be  not  to  leave  the 
Triple  Alliance  till  her  military  forces  are  greater  than  those 


OPEN  LETTERS  243 

of  Austria.  So  a  man  continues  to  clasp  the  hand  of  a  false 
friend  to  prevent  him  drawing  the  dagger  concealed  in  his 
sleeve. 

"  Whence  I  conclude  with  this  paradoxical  solution  :  Italy- 
ought  to  be  the  glacial  ally  of  the  Germans  and  the  ardent 
friend  of  the  Latins.  On  the  side  of  Austria  and  Germany, 
so  long  as  peace  endures  and  in  order  that  it  may  endure  ; 
but  if  war  comes,  on  the  side  of  France  and  England,  and  as 
soon  as  it  begins.' ' 


VI 

39*En  answer  to  this  letter  the  author  of  this  book  received 
from  Maurice  Maeterlinck  The  Wrack  of  the  Storm,  where 
it  can  be  seen  that  the  great  Belgian  philosopher  sides  strongly 
in  the  Romain  Holland  case  with  his  compatriot  Emile  Ver- 
haeren  and  with  P.  Hyacinthe  Loyson,  and  says,  "  I  tried  to 
lift  myself  *  above  the  battle,'  but  in  rejecting  Hatred  I  should 
have  shown  myself  a  traitor  to  Love." 


VII 

40  The  son  of  the  great  Norwegian  poet  was  during  peace 
time  a  theatrical  manager  in  Germany,  and  during  the  war  has 
enlisted  in  the  service  of  Kultur.  Telegram  from  Copenhagen  to 
the  Telegraph  Exchange,  London,  12th  July  :  "  Bjornson,  who 
has  now  left  the  propaganda  agency  with  a  fat  pension,  intends 
to  give  a  lecture  in  the  University  of  Christiania.  The  Nor- 
wegian students  received  the  news  with  indignation,  and  intend 
to  make  a  lively  protest  if  Bjornson  carries  out  his  project. 
A  well-known  author  would  have  taken  the  initiative  in  the  in- 
tended protest.  Bjornson  also  meant  to  speak  at  Copenhagen, 
but  on  the  advice  of  his  friends  he  gave  up  the  project."  Later, 
however,  he  put  it  into  execution,  and  was  loudly  hooted  by 
the  Danes. 

41  Bjorn,  bear. 

42  In  Hamburg. 


244  NOTES 


VIII 


43  Congress  of  Progressive  Christianity  and  Free-Belief,  Berlin, 
6-10th  August  1910.  The  author  attended  it  as  representative 
of  the  Paris  "  Union  des  Libres-Penseurs  et  des  Libres- 
Croyants,"  of  which  Ferdinand  Buisson  was  president.  A 
detail  may  be  noted  :  the  Kaiser  apologised  to  the  Pope  for 
giving  hospitality  to  "  liberals  "  in  his  capital. 

44  Swiss  newspapers  have  reproached  me  for  this  passage. 
Is  it  necessary  to  say  that  merely  believing  in  the  historical 
existence  of  the  Nazarene,  I  used  His  name  there  as  a  symbol 
— the  "Word,"  acting,  emanating  from  the  "Being,"  for  the 
accomplishing  of  "  Justice  "  ? 

46  Title  of  the  fine  speech  of  M.  Wilfred  Monod,  published  by 
Fischbacher.  The  same  idea  inspires  the  pamphlet  against 
"Moral  Neutrality"  of  our  friend  Etienne  Giran,  who  is 
prosecuting  a  valiant  campaign  for  Justice  in  the  Amsterdam 
Telegraafm 

IX 

48  Dr.  Broda,  an  Austrian  subject  who  edited  at  Paris  the 
Documents  du  Progres,  and  founded  during  the  war  the  Voix  de 
VHumaniti  at  Lausanne,  asked  the  author  of  these  Letters  to 
declare  publicly  if  he  thought  the  conditions  of  the  future  peace 
ought  to  include  territorial  annexations  against  the  will  of 
the  people. 

47  Till  the  end  of  time. 

48  Dr.  Broda's  replies  to  these  Letters  will  be  found  in  the 
numbers  of  La  Revue  from  15th  August  to  1st  September,  and 
1st  November  1915.  On  the  publication  of  this  Letter,  MM. 
Emile  Vandervelde,  head  of  the  International  Socialist  Bureau 
and  a  Belgian  Minister  of  State,  Magalhaes  Lima,  senator  and 
former  Minister  of  the  Portuguese  Republic,  Ferdinand  Buisson, 
President  of  the  Ligue  des  Droits  de  V Homme,  and  Emile  Corra, 
director  of  the  French  Positivist  Society,  all  resigned  from 
the  Voix  de  VHumanite,  two  of  them  informing  us  that  it  was 
contrary  to  their  intentions  that  their  patronage  was  taken 
advantage  of.     MM.  Paul  Deschanel,  President  of  the  Chamber 


OPEN  LETTERS  245 

of  Deputies,  Marcel  Sembat,  Albert  Metin,  and  Justin  Godart, 
Ministers  and  Under-Secretaries  of  State,  were  also  warned 
by  the  author  of  this  book  of  the  impertinent  abuse  of  their 
names  by  Dr.  Broda,  and  they  addressed  a  strong  protest  to 
him.  We  owe  it  to  the  truth  to  state  that  under  the  sub-title 
of  the  Voix  de  VHumanite,  Emile  Vandervelde's  name  has  been 
replaced  by  that  of  Jean  Longuet,  deputy  for  the  Seine. 


49  Two  grandsons  of  Frederic  Passy  were  killed  at  the  front 
for  the  defence  of  the  Right.  Also  his  eldest  son,  Paul  Passy, 
professor  at  the  Sorbonne,  who  practises  Christian  Socialism 
even  to  its  strictest  issues,  writes  in  the  Geneva  Essor, 
2nd  October  1915,  as  follows  : 

"  For  me,  until  the  new  order  of  things,  I  think  with  Vander- 
velde,  Guesde,  Henderson,  and  Bourtseff,  that  when  a  cause  is 
just,  it  must  be  defended  without  seeking  to  discover  if  its  other 
defenders  are  worthy  of  it  or  not ;  and  that  here  we  must,  above 
all,  crush  Prussian  Csesarism  while  holding  out  the  hand  of 
fraternity  to  the  proletariat  it  has  deceived. 

"  When  my  son  went  away  for  his  military  service,  I  said  to 
him  :  *  If  you  are  sent  against  strikers  demanding  their  rights, 
or  against  the  natives  of  Morocco  defending  their  independence, 
be  shot  rather  than  obey.  But  if  it  is  to  defend  France  against 
attack,  obey  with  all  your  heart.'  He  did  so,  and  I  have  every 
reason  to  fear  that  he  lost  his  life.  I  say  that  he  fell  as  a  soldier 
of  the  Eighty  and  so  as  a  soldier  of  God." 


XI 

50  Peace  by  Right. 

51  See  my  letter  to  the  Anti-Oorlog  Road,  p.  47. 

52  Inquiry  of  the  Documents  du  Progress  on  the  same  subject. 
April  1915. 

68  Inscription  on  the  badge  of  the  League,  worn  in  the  button- 
hole :   "  Do  not  speak  of  the  war  !  " 
54  Manifesto  of  the  Intellectuals. 


246  NOTES 


XII 


66  The  neutral  Brandes  has  devoted  a  dithyramb  to  Rolland. 
(Politiken,  24th  November  1914.) 

68  Mrae.  Marthe  Brandes  of  the  Gomedie  Francaise. 

87  If  Georg  Brandes  is  dead,  we  shall  console  ourselves 
for  his  loss  by  reading  the  fine  book  that  the  Danish  poet, 
Johannes  Joergensen,  has  just  written  to  the  glory  of  Belgium, 
entitled  The  Bell  of  Roland,  a  bell  that  is  still  sound,  that  of 
the  belfry  of  Ghent. 

XIII 

58  "  The  French  Republic  desires  a  pacific  and  urbane  foreign 
policy,  tending  essentially  to  a  dignified  understanding,  with 
Germany  ;  that  is,  in  short,  for  us  the  most  important  result 
of  the  electoral  contest.  France  wishes  to  avoid  war  so  far 
as  the  dignity  of  the  nation  allows.  France  desires  peace  be- 
cause she  cannot  do  otherwise.  Such  is  the  meaning  of  the 
recent  elections,  and  in  that  way  they  are  an  international 
event.  We  do  not  aspire  to  deprive  France  of  the  smallest 
hamlet,  or  a  square  inch  of  land.  .  .  .  The  world  would  be  the 
poorer  if  the  Gallic  genius  lost  its  brilliance,  if  the  voice  of 
France  died  in  a  timorous  whisper.  Who  would  profit  by  a 
measure  (war)  which  could  only  serve  an  end  that  is  not  de- 
sired ?  An  attempt !  .  .  .  Then  do  not  scoff  at  the  recent  elec- 
tions ;  do  not  grumble.  Restrain  your  tongue  !  This  summer 
will  be  a  decisive  period  "  (Zukunft,  16th  May  1914,  translated 
in  the  Droits  de  V Homme,  30th  May). 

59  '  *  In  one  of  the  last  numbers  of  Zukunft  Maximilian  Harden 
writes  that  from  July  he  warned  Austria  of  what  would  happen 
and  of  her  illusions  concerning  Serbia.  "  I  warned  her|"  he 
says,  "  as  clearly  as  I  could,  before  the  result  of  the  agreement 
in  regard  to  the  Note  to  be  sent  to  Serbia  was  known  " 
(Le  Temps,  14th  January  1915). 

60  To  the  Day  !  Toast  of  German  officers  before  the  war. 

61  "  On  which  side  is  Right  ?  Yes,  if  there  was  no  other 
question  we  might  be  content  to  follow  the  advice  of  fools  and 
to  drag  the  great  international  controversies  before  the  Supreme 


OPEN  LETTERS  247 

Tribunal  of  Europe.  But  reason  in  this  case  is  only  madness. 
Ask  the  beech-tree  who  gave  it  the  right  to  lift  its  top  higher 
than  that  of  the  pine,  the  fir,  the  birch,  or  the  palm.  Bring 
the  matter  before  the  tribunal  presided  over  by  toothless  and 
pedantic  old  men.  Like  a  storm  there  would  resound  through 
the  foliage  of  the  beech  :  *  My  might  is  my  right  !  '  The  right 
to  live,  to  develop,  to  push  skyward,  that  each  nation  receives 
at  its  birth,  does  not  depend  on  any  judge.  On  which  side 
is  right  ?  On  the  side  of  might  !  Right  or  not,  we  shall  hold 
firm.  ...  It  is  our  will  to  conquer.  It  is  vain  for  spectacled 
diplomatists  in  frock-coats  to  descant,  to  demonstrate  that 
we  are  honest  folk  of  a  pacific  temper.  Cecil  Rhodes  said 
once  :  '  This  war  is  just  because  it  is  useful  to  my  people.' 
Let  us  hammer  that  maxim  into  all  hearts.  It  will  prevail 
over  hundreds  of  White  Books.  The  enemy  hordes  wish  to  do 
us  to  death.  The  bastard  (French)  plumes  himself  with  the 
foolish  illusion  that  he  can  crush  the  grandson  of  the  great 
Conqueror.  Let  us  draw  our  swords  and  kill  him  !  History 
will  not  ask  for  our  reasons.  This  war  has  not  been  imposed 
upon  us  as  a  surprise.  We  willed  it ;  we  ought  to  have  willed 
it.  Germany  does  not  wage  this  war  to  punish  the  guilty  or 
to  liberate  nations.  What  Germany  desires  ...  is  to  hoist  the 
storm  flag  of  the  Empire  on  the  shores  of  the  narrow  strait 
that  is  the  gate  of  the  Atlantic.  She  will  ask  nothing  more, 
not  even  an  indemnity  for  her  war  expenses.  She  will  obtain 
payment  in  the  general  terror  spread  by  her  victories.  The 
Germans  will  remain  in  Belgium,  and  will  add  a  narrow  strip 
of  territory  to  extend  the  coast-line  to  Calais  "  (Zukunft, 
just  after  the  outbreak  of  war.  It  should  be  compared  with 
the  preceding  text,  p.  246,  note  58). 

Since  then  Harden  has,  however,  again  changed  his  tune  : 
"  While  the  government  and  its  press  are  actively  employed  in 
convincing  the  German  nation  that  victory  is  virtually  won, 
the  truth  is  that  no  decisive  victory  has  been  gained,  and  that 
Germany  has  still  to  carry  on  a  terrible  struggle  for  her  very 
existence.  Bismarck  would  have  put  off  the  declaration  of  war 
until  he  was  perfectly  sure  that  he  would  not  have  to  face  an 
overwhelming  enemy  coalition  "  (Zukunft,  December  1915. 
The  number  was  seized  and  the  publication  of  the  periodical 


248  NOTES 

suspended).  Expiation  is  beginning,  and  here  again  the 
passage  should  be  compared  with  the  preceding  text.  The 
second  confession  that  Germany  provoked  the  war  should  be 
noted. 

83  Seen  by  the  writer. 

63  Harden,  pseudonym  rightly  derived  from  hart,  hard. 

XIV 

64  Haeckel's  thesis  was  repeated  and  officially  proclaimed  by 
the  King  of  Bavaria  in  June  1915  after  ten  months  of  war. 
Admirable  discipline  in  the  carrying  out  of  a  word  of  com- 
mand !     Truth  always  makes  its  way. 

There  is  only  one  other  more  extraordinary  example  of 
Germanic  impudence.  It  is  furnished  by  the  distinguished 
Professor  Traub,  a  Prussian  Protestant  theologian,  in  his 
description  of  the  sitting  of  the  Reichstag  (4th  August  1914), 
when  the  Chancellor  himself  confessed  the  outrage  done 
to  international  law  by  the  violation  of  Belgium.  "  At  that 
moment,"  wrote  Traub,  "  Right,  with  head  aloft,  traversed 
the  hemicycle,  and  Justice  saluted  our  people  "  (Christliche 
Freiheit,  16th  August  1914). 

XV 

65  It  is  with  regard  to  this  letter,  doubtless,  that  Romain 
Rolland  reproached  me  with  M  denying "  my  friendships 
(Pour  Romain  Rolland,  p.  50,  Jeheber,  Geneva).  Romain 
Rolland  is  free  to  remain,  unconditionally,  the  friend  of 
those  who  approve  the  violation  of  Belgium.  For  my  part, 
I  do  not  desire  friendship  with  those  whose  hands  are  red 
with  blood.     My  friendship  is  a  communion. 

XVT 

66  Zola  when  he  came  to  London. 

67  As  did,  in  1789,  Camille  Desmoulins  at  the  Palais  Royal 
in  Paris,  rising  on  his  chair  and  taking  up  the  green  cockade. 

63  This  glory  has  been  earned  by  two  other  Germans : 
the  courageous  Hermann  Fernau,  who  published  a  similar 


OPEN  LETTERS  249 

book  at  Zurich  under  his  own  name,  with  the  title,  Because 
I  am  a  German  (Fussli)  ;  and  the  heroic  Hermann  Roese- 
meyer,  who  resigned  the  editorship  of  the  Berliner  Morgen- 
post,  arrived  at  the  Swiss  frontier  holding  by  the  hand  his 
wife  and  children,  like  an  outcast,  after  eighteen  months' 
efforts  to  escape,  and  declared  that  he  had  quitted  Germany 
"  in  order  to  remain  a  man." 


XVII 

69  Grutli,  1291. 

70  Inaugural  speech  at  the  twenty-third  session  of  the  Federal 
Chambers  at  Berne.  And  these  words,  spoken  by  M.  Motta, 
President  of  the  Confederation,  at  the  banquet  of  the  "  Cen- 
tenary of  Natural  Sciences  "  (September  1915) :  "  Each  race 
has  its  qualities  and  its  defects.  By  a  decree  of  nature  the 
government  of  the  world  has  not  fallen  to  the  share  of  any 
one  of  them."  What  other  head  of  a  greater  State  dared  so 
clearly  to  reprobate  the  Pan-German  pretensions  ? 

71  Spitze,  point,  summit. 

72  Might  he  be  a  relation  of  M.  Fuglister,  a  Swiss  who 
delivered  a  series  of  lectures  in  France  on  the  burning  of 
Louvain  ? 

73  Since  this  letter  was  written  the  affair  of  the  two  Swiss 
colonels  of  the  Headquarters  Staff  (February  1916)  and  that 
of  Colonel  de  Loys  (August  1916)  have  strikingly  confirmed 
the  Author's  hints. 

XVIII 

74  At  the  time  of  the  disembarkation  of  the  Allies,  one  of  the 
first  engagements  took  place  near  the  tomb  of  Achilles. 

75  Conquest  of  Greece  by  the  Romans,  143  B.C. 

76  Capture  of  Byzantium  by  the  Turks,  1453  a.d. 

77  Since  this  Letter  was  written,  "  Venizelos  the  Great  "  has 
been  dismissed  a  second  time  by  the  "  good  king."  The 
cries  of  thousands  of  massacred  Greeks  have  died  away  into 
silence.  And  the  French  troops  land,  lonely,  m  Salonika. 
Differing  from   the  "  Greek   child  "    who   wanted  "  powder 


250  NOTES 

and  shot,"  certain  elderly  Greeks,  in  their  second  childhood, 
would  only  ask  one  thing,  how  they  can  avoid  the  need  of  them. 

M  Veux-tu,  pour  me  sourire,  un  bel  oiseau  des  bois, 
Qui  chante,  avec  un  chant  plus  doux  que  le  hautbois, 

Plus  eclatant  que  les  cymbales  ? 
Que  veux-tu  ?    fleur,  beau  fruit,  ou  l'oiseau  merveilleux  ? 
— *  Ami,'  dit  l'enfant  grec,  dit  Tenfant  aux  yeux  bleus, 
'  Je  veux  de  la  poudre  et  des  balles.'  " 

Victok  Hugo,  Les  Orientales,  1828. 

"  O  crime  !  O  shame  !  Unhappy  Greece,  thou  didst  remain 
a  calm  spectator  of  a  war  waged  on  thy  frontiers  ;  thy  feeble 
policy  waited  on  events  to  make  a  decision.5 ' 

Tasso,  Jerusalem  Delivered,  1575. 


XIX 

78  Dr.  Carus  had  the  fairness  to  insert  this  letter  in  the 
number  for  October  1915. 

79  "  Another  [French  Military  Airman]  has  dropped  bombs 
on  the  railroad  near  Karlsruhe  and  Nuremberg.  According  to 
my  instructions,  I  have  the  honour  of  informing  your  Excel- 
lency that,  owing  to  these  aggressions,  the  German  Empire 
considers  itself  to  be  in  a  state  of  war  with  France,  the  re- 
sponsibility lying  with  the  latter." — Letterhanded  on  August  3rd, 
1914,  at  ISh.  45,  to  M.  Rene  Viviani,  President  of  the  French 
Cabinet,  by  Herr  von  Schcen,  German  Ambassador  in  Paris. 

"Rotterdam,  May  27th,  1916. 
"  Professor  Schwalbe  in  the  Deutsche  Medizinische  Wochen- 
schrift  publishes  a  letter  by  the  burgomaster  of  Nuremberg 
in  which  the  latter  confesses  to  the  falsity  of  the  rumours 
concerning  the  bombs  which  French  airmen  were  supposed 
to  have  dropped  on  the  railroad  at  Nuremberg  before  the 
declaration  of  war.  The  burgomaster  goes  on  to  say  that  the 
general  in  command  of  the  3rd  Bavarian  Corps  has  moreover 
declared  that  he  only  heard  of  this  attack  through  the  papers 
issued  on  August  2nd,  1914." 

The  Temps,  May  28th,  1916. 


OPEN  LETTERS  251 

80  Since  this  letter  was  written  the  list  of  these  proofs  has  been 
lengthened  still  more.  The  new  Belgian  Grey  Book  (August 
1915)  has  demonstrated  that,  several  years  before  the  war, 
Germany  had  cynically  proposed  to  France  that  they  should 
share  the  Belgian  Congo  and  assume  a  joint  protectorate  over 
Belgium.  Finally,  several  enemy  publications  now  admit 
the  German  aggression.  I  will  quote  two  of  them  as  examples. 
In  a  collection  of  ana  for  German  soldiers,  Deutsche  Kriegs- 
schwdnke  1914  (published  at  Weimar),  p.  100,  occurs  this 
ironical  sentence]  borrowed  from  the  Tagliche  Rundschau  : 
*'  Can  one  conceive  the  impudence  of  these  Germans  who 
began  the  present  war  without  first  asking  the  English  whether 
they  wished  it  to  take  place  on  land  or  on  sea  !  "  And  in  the 
Viennese  journal,  the  Reichspost :  "  It  is  Germany  who  pro- 
voked the  war  because  the  policy  of  England  tended  towards 
the  isolation  of  Germany"  (Gazette  de  Lausanne,  12th  Sept. 
1915). 

81  The  surplus  booty  sold  in  neutral  countries  ;  announce- 
ments in  Georg  Brandes'  journal,  the  Politiken,  of  Copen- 
hagen (May  1915),  and  in  the  press  of  German  Switzerland, 
cynically  set  out  at  length. 

82  Inquiry  on  the  spot,  by  M.  Reiss,  professor  at  Lausanne 
University  (Armand  Colin,  publisher).  See  this  hideous  sight 
photographed  in  Le  Miroir  of  7th  February  1915. 

83  These  massacres  by  hundreds  of  thousands,  the  veritable 
extermination  of  a  race,  are  formally  approved  by  the  German 
press  as  "just  repressive  measures  against  rebels"  (Count 
Reventlow,  Deutsche  Tageszeitung).  Two  instances  taken  at 
random :  one  Armenian  archbishop  "  burnt  alive  by  the 
Turks  "  (Journal  de  Geneve,  4th  November  1915),  and  one 
Armenian  bishop,  whose  feet  were  shod  like  those  of  a  horse, 
under  the  pretext  that  "  such  a  high  personage  could  not  walk 
barefooted."  This  horrible  butchery,  to  which  the  world  has 
shown  itself  indifferent,  has  not  only  enjoyed  the  approval 
of  the  German  press,  but  also  the  complicity  of  German  officers. 
"  At  Mush  the  principal  inhabitants  were  mutilated,  and 
their  wives  and  daughters  outraged  before  their  eyes.  The 
population  had  entrenched  themselves  in  the  houses,  and,  pro- 
vided  with   rifles,   offered   a   stubborn  resistance.     But   the 


252  NOTES 

Turkish  artillery,  handled  by  German  officers,  made  short 
work  of  these  positions.  All  persons  caught  with  arms  in 
their  hands  were  killed  ;  the  rest  were  deported.  At  the 
date  of  December  1915  it  was  estimated  that,  out  of  a  popula- 
tion of  two  million  Armenians,  nearly  a  million  were  killed, 
burnt  alive,  or  died  from  sickness  or  hunger  "  (Report  of  the 
American  Inquiry  Commission,  communicated  by  Lord  Bryce). 
Commentary — A  letter  from  Bismarck  to  William  I, 
11th  August  1877:  "  It  is  difficult  to  preserve  a  diplomatic 
calmness  in  the  face  of  such  barbarity,  and  I  think  indignation  is 
general  amongst  all  Christian  States.  .  .  .  These  events  are 
evidence,  for  the  Russians,  that  they  are,  in  this  war,  the  true 
champions  of  Christian  civilisation  against  barbarism  let  loose." 
These  remarks  refer  to  the  first  massacres  of  Armenians  by  the 
future  allies  of  Germany.     Kultur  has  since  made  progress. 

84  On  the  foreheads  of  the  governing  classes  in  Germany,  and 
of  all  those  who  still  dare  to  defend  her  cause,  is  branded  this 
memorial  name  :  Edith  Cavell  (October  1915).  And  to  all 
those  who  persist  against  the  weight  of  evidence  in  looking 
for  guilt  among  the  Triple  Entente  with  regard  to  the  beginning 
of  war /we  commend  the  following  as  a  subject  for  meditation  : 
Let  us  reverse  the  facts  and  suppose  the  absurd,  the  provocation 
of  Germany  by  the  Entente  ;  even  in  that  case  the  German  atrocities 
alone  would  transfer  Right  into  the  Allies'*  camp. 

85  Alas  !    (December   1915). 

86  This  list  also  has  been  since  extended :  The  attempted 
assassination  of  the  millionaire  Morgan,  the  sinking  of  the  Arabic, 
Hyperion,  etc.,  and  the  organisation  of  civil  war,  resulting  in  the 
expulsion  of  Herr  Dumba,  the  Austrian  ambassador,  the 
famous  action  against  the  Kaiser's  bandits,  dismissal  of  the 
German  attaches,  and  quarrel  with  feeble  Austria  and  later 
with  powerful  Germany. 

87  In  the  course  of  the  winter  of  1915-16  Dr.  Cams  took 
great  pains  to  send  us,  on  many  occasions,  evidences  of  his 
great  pity  for  France  and  at  the  same  time  suggestions  for 
hatred  against  England  and  indulgence  towards  Germany. 
Having  noticed  that  these  letters  strangely  coincided  with 
overtures  for  a  "  German  peace,"  we  returned  to  him  the 
generous  mite  mentioned  above. 


PLATE    IV 

ROMAIN   ROLTLAND    IN   THE   HANDS    OF   THE    PliO-C  ERMANS 


ABOVE  the  BATTLE 

By  ROMAIN  ROLLAND 

Crown  8vo.     Cloth.  PBESS  NOTES  Pric&  net  $uo° 

THE  LONDON  TIMES  LITERARY  SUPPLEMENT: —They  strike  the  note 

deep  and  sweet,  and  sounding    .    .    .    these  golden  pages        .    .    speaks 

the  finest  spirit  of  modern  France. 

LONDON  DAILY  NEWS  AND  LEADER:— Is  worth  going  without  a  meal 

to  buy. 

DR.   CLIFFORD:— Of  all  the  books   I  have   read   on  the  war  this  is 

surely  the  best. 

THE  BOOK  REVIEW  DIGEST:— While  some  of  the  intellectual  leaders 

of  his  own  and  other  countries  nave  lost  their  balance  in  the  light  of 

national  hatreds,  he  has  remained  sane. 

NEW  YORK  TIMES:— Mr.  Rolland's  heart  is  ravaged  and  his  grief  and 

shame  and   indignation   find   vent  in   glowing:  words   whose   force   and 

eloquence  and  burden  of  emotion  are  Tery  moving. 

The  Open  Court  Publishing  Company 

122  S.  Michigan  Avenue,  Chicago,  ill. 


Advertisement  from  an  American  newspaper  of  the  American 
edition  of  Above  the  Battle,  published  by  the  Open  Court  of  Dr. 
Cams.  Unaware  of  this  circumstance,  the  Rollandist  pacificist 
review  Ccenobium  gives  this  definition  of  Romain  Rolland's 
American  editor  :  "  Paul  Cams,  editor  of  the  Open  Court  in 
Chicago,  is  an  ardent  partisan  of  German  imperialism.  .  .  .  He 
offers  an  apology  for  (i.e.  a  panegyric  of)  the  Emperor  William, 
whom  he  depicts  as  honest,  just,  and  a  lover  of  peace  "  (Cceno- 
bium, August,  191G,  pp.  161,  165). 


OPEN  LETTERS  253 

88  Since  the  French  Edition  of  this  book  was  published, 
Romain  Holland  has  entrusted  M.  Paul  Cams,  one  of  the 
leading  agents  of  the  Kaiser  in  America,  with  the  task  of 
editing  in  that  country  his  volume  (Above  the  Battle :  Romain 
Rolland,  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Company — Editor,  Paul 
Cams.  Price  net,  $1.00  ;  122  S.  Michigan  Avenue,  Chicago,  II.). 
See  Plate  IV. 


XX 

89  Letter  received  15th  October  from  an  unknown  corre- 
spondent. Invited  to  publish  these  pages,  we  do  it  with  all 
reserve,  as  will  be  seen  farther  on. 

90  Mr.  William  White,  an  American,  is  head  of  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania's  Surgical  Mission  to  the  American  Ambulance 
at  the  Lycee  Pasteur,  Neuilly-sur-Seine.  My  correspondent 
here  refers,  I  think,  to  Mr.  White's  article  which  he  has  prob- 
ably read  in  the  same  number  of  La  Revue  (15th  September) 
in  which  my  last  letters  appeared. 

91  We  find  the  same  opinion  from  the  lips  of  the  former 
American  Minister,  Mr.  Root,  quoted  by  Le  Temps. 

92  Hyphenated  Americans  :  German- Americans. 

93  Paraphrase  of  the  words  of  the  American  song  Yankee 
Doodle : 

"  He  stuck  a  feather  in  his  hat,  and  called  it  macaroni.' - 

94  Mr.  Morgan. 

95  Sensational  disclosures  in  the  New  York  World. 

96  An  historical  fact. 

97  My  correspondent  is  not  mistaken  as  to  the  sense  of  this 
expression,  but  as  to  its  form.  We  say  :  monter  un  bateau  a 
quelqu'un,  my  dear  confrere.  But  I  respect  the  incorrectness 
of  your  variant,  which  is  singularly  happy. 

98  The  arms  of  the  City  of  Paris  are  a  boat  with  the  motto 
Fluctuat  nee  mergitur. 

99  Roosevelt. 

ioo  Mr.  Vanderbilt. 

101  Falaba,  101  deaths  ;  Wayfarer,  5  deaths  ;  Lusitania,  1,198 
deaths  ;  Armenian,  12  deaths  ;  Iberian,  7  deaths  ;  Christiania, 
11  deaths ;  Arabic,  39  deaths ;  Hesperian,  32  deaths ;  Ancona, 


254  NOTES 

208  deaths  ;  Ville-de-la-Ciotat,  86  deaths  ;  Persia,  323  deaths. 
(To  be  continued.)  The  formula  with  regard  to  other  neutrals, 
Scandinavians,  for  instance,  undergoes  a  slight  variation  : 
each  time  that  Germany  sinks  one  of  their  boats,  these  neutrals 
protest,  Germany  apologises,  swears  that  she  did  not  do  it  on 
purpose,  and  begins  again.  We  thus  have  the  "  conjuga- 
tion ":  torpedoing,  protest,  apology;  torpedoing,  protest, 
apology;  torpedoing,  protest,  apology  .  .  .  and  so  on,  until 
the  complete  destruction  of  the  merchant  fleet  of  these  little 
neutrals.  The  United  States,  great  neutrals,  deserved  more 
consideration  :  the  torpedoings  are  multiplied  without  the 
expression  of  any  apology.     (Note  by  Mr.  Whilbey  Warring.) 

102  "  Too  proud  to  fight  "  and  M  neutral  even  in  thought," 
words  of  our  President.     (Note  by  Mr.  Whilbey  Warring.) 

103  Actual  events. 

XXI 

104  The  volunteers  of  all  foreign  countries  enrolled  in  our 
ranks  in  the  service  of  Right  equal  the  strength  of  an  army 
corps.  (Consult  the  Berger-Levrault  pamphlet  on  this  subject.) 
If  there  are  any  who  have  taken  up  arms  for  Germany,  they 
do  not  amount  to  more  than  a  squad. 

105  "  I  omit  the  manufacturers,"  Mark  would  add  with  a 
wink. 

io6  Yoix  americaines  sur  la  guerre  de  1914  (American  voices 
on  the  war  of  1914).     Berger-Levrault. 

107  The  Road  towards  Peace. 

108  The  Proof  (French  translation  published  by  Georges 
Cres). 

XXII 

109  A  cargo  of  English  tea  thrown  into  the  sea  by  the 
Americans  was  the  occasion  of  the  War  of  Independence 
(1775). 

XXIII 

no  "  i«ile  oniy  thing  that  has  caused  us  serious  anxiety  within 
our  borders  during  the  last  months,  has  been  the  voices  raised 
in  America,  claiming  to  be  those  of  Americans,  but  in  reality 


OPEN   LETTERS  255 

expressing  foreign  sympathies.  It  is  time  that  the  people 
should  demand  their  punishment"  (Speech  of  President 
Wilson,  quoted  by  Le  Temps,  6th  November  1915). 

111  Allusion  to  the  war  policy  of  the  Pope. 

112  M.  Combes,  the  leader  of  the  French  free-thinkers,  M. 
Cochin,  a  firm  Catholic,  both  members  of  the  Coalition  Cabinet. 

113  See  Alfred  Loisy,  Guerre  et  Religion  (Nourrit). 

114  Later  events  have  shown  Mr.  Warring  that  the  most 
pacifist  of  Presidents  can  get  angry  (February  1916). 


XXIV 

115  Annexation  of  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  in  1908. 

116  The  coffin  was  abandoned  in  the  pouring  rain  by  its  escort. 
A  more  serious  suspicion  may  even  be  permitted. 

117  The  Austrian  minister  left  Belgrade  a  few  hours  after  the 
delivery  of  the  very  conciliatory  Serbian  reply,  without  ad- 
mitting any  discussion.     The  cannon  were  already  loaded. 

118  Serbian  insurgents  at  the  time  of  the  Turkish  domination. 

119  Ancient  poets  of  Serbia. 

120  Epic  songs  of  Serbia. 

121  The  defeated  hero  of  the  battle  of  Kosovo  (1389),  whence 
dates  the  Serbian  servitude  prolonged  until  1804. 

122  The  legendary  hero  of  Serbia. 

123  At  the  battles  of  Tser  and  Roudnik.  These  exploits  of 
the  Serbians  relieved  the  French  front  in  Lorraine  (Le  Temps, 
6th  December  1915). 

124  Belgrade  under  fire  from  the  Austrian  bank  of  the  Danube. 
126  Especially  typhus  fever,  which    Anglo-French  sanitary 

missions  went  to  combat  and  to  check  on  the  spot. 

126  The  French  shells  were  able  to  arrive  at  the  last  moment 
before  the  destruction  of  the  bridge  of  Strumnitza  by  the 
Bulgarian  hordes. 

127  "  Serbia  was  prevented  from  profiting  by  the  chance  offered 
her  of  fighting  the  Bulgarians  before  their  mobilisation  was 
complete,  because  the  Allies,  etc."  (Le  Temps,  leading  article, 
6th  December,  1915).  "  The  Serbian  Government  had  to  ask 
the  approval  of  the  Allies.  It  was  refused"  (Le  Journal: 
11  How  Serbia  was  crushed,"  28th  December  1915). 


256  NOTES 

128  The  young  Prince  Alexander  of  Serbia  had  the  immortal 
glory  of  making  this  reply  to  William  II , 

129  A  fact. 

130  Scarcely  two  months. 

131  •  t  w e  gnan  fan  back  from  mountain  to  mountain . ' '  These 
are  the  words  of  the  King  of  Montenegro.  The  brave  little 
Montenegrin  people  has  a  right  to  be  included  in  the  funeral 
panegyric  of  Serbia. 

132  At  the  battle  of  Kosovo.  See  E.  Denis,  La  Grande  Serbie 
(Delagrave). 

133  «  No  one  can  henceforth  prevent  the  Serbians  from  being 
the  greatest  nation  of  Eastern  Europe.  No  one  can  hence- 
forth prevent  the  Serbians  from  definitely  passing  out  of  the 
rank  of  the  little  nations,  tolerated  by  the  great  nations  on 
account  of  the  balance  of  power,  to  that  of  a  real  and  important 
factor  in  the  history  of  humanity"  (The  Roumania  of  Bukha- 
rest,  20th  December  1915,  after  the  crushing  of  Serbia). 

134  King  Peter  reached  the  shores  of  the  Adriatic,  where  he 
embarked,  in  a  state  of  extreme  weakness,  on  an  Italian 
torpedo  boat  for  Caserta,  where  a  palace  had  been  prepared 
for  his  reception.  On  the  way  the  old  king  ordered  the 
captain  of  the  vessel  to  retrace  his  course  to  Albania,  and  was 
obeyed.  From  there  he  rejoined  the  Allies  at  Salonika,  so  as 
to  remain  fighting  to  the  end  and  "  to  be  nearer  his  native  land 
in  case  of  death." 

135  Martyr,  in  Greek  =  witness. 

138  Romain  Holland,  Above  the  Battle,  passim,  "  Germans, 
the  hour  is  terrible  ;  your  country,  like  ours,  is  fighting  for 
existence." 

137  The  deliverance  of  the  Bulgarians  from  the  Ottoman  yoke 
by  Russia. 

138  The  Armenians  in  1915. 

139  Enver  Pasha,  who  inverts  history. 

140  Romain  Roll  and  has  completely  forgotten  that  old  alliance 
between  a  European  and  an  Asiatic  nation.  His  sagacity  is 
thus  at  fault  when  he  charges  all  the  European  nations  with 
importing  " bodies  of  all  colours"  into  the  present  war  (Above 
the  Battle,  p.  41).  On  the  other  hand,  we  venture  to  remind 
him  that  the  native  troops  of  the  Allies  fight  in  their  ranks 


OPEN  LETTERS  25? 

of  their  own  free  will,  and  with  so  much  enthusiasm  that  all 
the  attempts  of  the  Germans  to  entice  them  away  have  been 
vain.  Hindoo  soldiers,  who  were  taken  prisoner,  escaped 
from  Germany  to  rejoin  their  regiments.  The  most  touching 
testimony  of  gratitude  to  England  was  given  by  the  Canadian 
Red  Indians.  "The  chiefs  Tire-des-deux-C6tes  and  Chevaux- 
d'Hermene  of  the  Blood  Indians  sent  £200  levied  on  the 
treasure  of  their  tribes  as  the  tangible  expression  of  their 
desire  that  England  should  ever  remain  the  protector  of  the 
weak,  and  the  arbiter  of  the  peace  of  the  world."  The  Indians 
of  the  Island  of  Manitoulin  sent  £400  to  help  to  pay  the 
enormous  expenses  of  the  war  in  which  "our  august  father, 
the  King,"  is  actually  engaged.  The  "Six  Nations  "  declare 
that  their  gift  of  £300  proves  "  the  alliance  between  the 
Indians  of  the  Six  Nations  and  the  British  Crown."  The  band 
of  "Blackfoots"  sent  £240  "for  our  country  and  her  Allies." 
The  chief  Gros- Ventre  and  the  councillor  Gros-Loup  of  the 
Sarcees  sent  £100.  The  band  of  Temiskaming  sent  £200  "to 
help  to  alleviate  the  misery  caused  by  the  European  conflict, 
particularly  in  Belgium"  (quoted  from  Canadian  newspapers 
by  the  Quotidien  du  Midi,  Avignon,  30th  December,  1916). 
That  is  the  result  of  the  civilisation  of  the  Allies,  who  know 
how  to  win  the  affection  of  the  races  they  conquer.  It 
would  be  well  to  compare  this  state  of  things  with  the  result 
of  the  Kultur  practised  in  Belgium,  Serbia,  and  Armenia.  A 
man  may  possess  only  "a  soul  of  colour,"  as  Romain  Rolland 
puts  it,  and  be  thousands  of  miles  away  from  the  "  battle  " 
without  wishing  to  be  "  above  "  it.  He  may  be  only  a  poor 
"  savage,"  and  yet  feel  himself  to  be  at  the  heart  of  humanity 
for  the  defence  of  the  Right.  The  story  of  Blanche tte  will 
furnish  a  final  proof.  A  humble  Senegalese,  black  as  his 
name,  was  dying  of  pneumonia  in  hospital  at  Hanover. 
When  he  felt  his  last  hour  at  hand,  he  asked  the  German 
authorities  to  send  to  his  bedside  the  two  French  officers  of 
highest  rank,  also  prisoners,  a  major  and  a  captain.  They 
came.  Blanchette  sat  up,  saluted,  and  asked  them  to  transmit 
the  salute  to  all  the  other  interned  officers.  Then,  to  the 
amazement  of  the  Germans  present,  the  major  and  the 
captain  embraced  Blanchette.    Next,  Blanchette  summoned 

17 


258  NOTES 

the  two  non-commissioned  officers  of  highest  rank,  an  adju- 
tant and  a  sergeant,  went  through  the  same  ceremony,  en- 
trusted them  with  the  same  commission  for  all  the  French 
non-commissioned  officers,  and  received  their  embraces. 
Then  Blanche tte  lay  down  and  died.  The  amazement  of 
the  Germans  forms  the  revenge  of  France.  (Related  by  my 
friend,  Edmond  Bloch,  interned  at  the  Reserve-Lazarett, 
Kriegsschule,  Hanover.) 


PART   II— THE    ROMAIN   ROLLAND    CASE 


141  Formerly  editorial  secretary  of  the  newspaper  which 
the  author  edited  in  Paris.  Swiss  by  nationality,  she  has 
been  employed  during  the  war  at  the  "  Agence  des  prisonniers," 
Geneva. — This  letter  is  a  reply  exclusively  to  the  article 
Above  the  Battle  (Au-dessus  de  la  Milie),  Rolland's  main  article, 
which  expounds  the  whole  of  his  doctrine  and  gives  its  name 
to  his  volume  ;  it  is  the  baneful  article  which  was  destined 
to  give  birth  to  the  first  French  propaganda  in  favour  of 
"  peace  at  any  price,"  in  harmony  with  the  wishes  of  Germany. 
The  article  Above  the  Battle  appeared  in  the  Journal  de  Genive 
on  the  date  22nd-23rd  September,  1914,  and  not  on  the  date 
15th  September,  as  printed  in  the  French  edition  of  Ollendorf 
(p.  38),  and  in  the  English  translation  by  C.  K.  Ogden  (p.  55). 
— The  elements  of  the  present  letter  were  furnished  to  the 
author  in  December  1914,  but  publication  was  long  deferred 
and  only  took  place  in  La  Revue  of  15th  August,  1915,  under 
the  strong  impression  produced  by  an  article  in  the  Temps 
(7th  July,  1915),  which  informed  the  French  public  that  the 
name  of  Romain  Rolland  figured  in  the  lists  of  a  German 
League,  among  the  names  of  several  of  the  "  intellectuals  " 
who  signed  the  "  Manifesto  of  the  Ninety- three."  Never- 
theless the  author  did  not  think  himself  justified  in  making 
use  of  this  information  until  after  the  original  documents  came 
into  his  hands. 

148  The  original  text  of  this  article  (published  15th  August, 


THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND   CASE  259 

1915,  see  the  preceding  note)  implied  that  Romain  Rolland's 
exodus  dated  from  the  invasion,  as  is  commonly  believed. 
Nevertheless  the  Hommes  du  Jour  (13th  November,  1915), 
Rolland's  official  newspaper  in  France,  seems  to  imply  on  his 
part  that  at  the  time  of  the  declaration  of  war  he  had  already 
been  "  two  months  "  in  Switzerland.  On  the  other  hand,  M. 
Paul  Seippel,  his  appointed  spokesman  in  Switzerland,  at  a 
"  Soiree  de  Romain  Rolland,"  held  at  Zurich  at  the  Lesezirkel 
oVHottingen  in  November  1915,  read  a  declaration  from  his 
friend  :  "  I  have  honoured  in  this  land  of  refuge  the  illustrious 
proscribed  of  the  whole  of  Europe,  from  the  Reformation  of  the 
sixteenth  century  to  the  heroes  of  the  Risorgimento  y  and  from 
Wagner  to  Courbet  and  Elisee  Reclus."  Are  we  not  tempted 
to  supply  a  fourth  name,  especially  when  M.  Seippel  adds  : 
"  Romain  Rolland,  like  his  hero,  Jean-Christophe,  when  he  was 
driven  out  of  France  (sic)  and  Germany,  has  found  a  refuge  (tic) 
in  Switzerland,  a  corner  of  the  earth  where  it  is  possible  to 
breathe  above  Europe  "  {sic:  Journal  de  Gen&ve, 2 5th  November, 
1915).  This  does  not  prevent  Rolland  from  stating  (Above 
the  Battle,  p.  49)  that  he  was  "  situated  in  the  midst  of  the 
conflict  and  able  to  look  down  from  the  high  plateaus  of 
Switzerland."  Rather  than  ask  Romain  Rolland  who  "  drove 
him  out  "  of  France,  who  "  proscribed  "  him,  let  us  give  him 
the  benefit  of  the  former  version  of  the  Hommes  du  Jour  :  he 
had  already  taken  refuge  in  Switzerland  when  "  proscription  " 
was  inflicted  on  him.  His  absence  is  thus  rendered  less 
shocking,  although  it  is  not  the  less  deplorable  :  he  has  not 
rejoined  morally.  But  why  cannot  this  historical  fact  be 
verified  after  a  year  and  a  half  ?  The  misfortune  is  that 
Romain  Rolland,  whose  actions  attract  attention  by  their 
unique  and  exceptional  character,  always  refuses  to  explain. 
In  our  opinion,  this  refusal  has  done  him  an  injury,  for  a 
public  man  ought  to  render  account  of  his  acts. 

143  The  "  breath  of  perfidy  "  is  spread  by  his  disciples. 

144  Some  one  of  high  position  in  political  circles,  but  who 
forbids  me  to  give  his  name,  wrote  me  thirty  vehement  pages 
in  defence  of  Romain  Rolland.  "Do  you  hold  that  the  ideal 
of  all  the  young  Germans  in  setting  out  for  the  war  was  to 
destroy  monuments,  violate  women,  and  commit  numerous 


260  NOTES 

deeds  of  horror  ?  "  No,  sir,  they  may  not  have  had  that  ideal 
in  setting  out  for  the  war  (1914) ;  but  they  have  it  now  (1915), 
or  they  know  that,  in  any  case,  it  is  imposed  on  them.  But 
Holland  has  deprived  himself  of  the  only  possible  excuse  for 
his  assertion,  its  date  (September  1914).  In  the  Hommes  du 
Jour,  27th  November,  1915,  in  reply  to  our  Appeal  to  Romain 
Holland  (see  below,  p.  152),  he  declares  :  "  As  to  the  article 
Above  the  Battle,  which  I  am  insolently  called  upon  to  disavow, 
not  only  do  I  uphold  all  its  statements  without  suppressing  or 
modifying  any  one  of  them,  but  if  I  had  not  already  written 
it,  I  should  write  it  to-day  even  mobe  forcibly."  So,  on 
the  faith  of  this  formal  and  precise  declaration,  after  sixteen 
months  of  the  Germanic  war,  after  all  the  crimes  and  abomi- 
nations committed  by  the  armies  of  Kultur,  all  the  terms  em- 
ployed in  Above  the  Battle  are  regarded  by  their  author  as  too 
weak.  On  the  invaded  and  devastated  soil  of  France,  Belgium, 
and  Serbia,  the  heroic  youth  of  Germany  is  fighting  for  the 
same  ideal  as  we  are  !    Comment  is  superfluous. 

145  Article  quoted,  lines  12  and  13.  Against  this  conception 
of  the  "tzarist"  war  so  dear  to  Romain  Holland  may  be  set  the 
persistent  assertion  of  my  friend  Bourtseff ,  who  returned  to  his. 
country  to  serve  it,  was  cast  into  prison  for  his  loyalty,  and 
yet,  notwithstanding,  repeats  that  this  war  is  a  war  of 
liberation  and  justice.  The  forcible  terms  of  the  appeal  ad- 
dressed  (October-November  1915)  by  the  heads  of  the  two 
divisions  (Marxist  and  Populist)  of  the  Russian  socialists 
to  the  whole  proletariat  of  the  Tzar's  Empire,  will  be 
similarly  appreciated :  "A  defeat  of  Russia  in  this  war 
against  Germany  would  be  also  a  defeat  in  her  struggle  for 
liberty.  .  .  .  Brigands  more  rapacious  and  cynical  than  the 
Germans  have  never  been  seen"  For  Romain  Rolland  there 
are  simply  "  the  atrocities  of  the  impious  war  "  which  sets 
the  nations  "  at  grips,"  and  he  is  unable  to  say  by  whom  they 
are  perpetrated.  "  The  beast  is  loose,"  he  declares ;  but  what 
beast  ?  He  who  does  not  name  it  is  a  fool.  We,  however,, 
assert  that  the  beast  is  Germany.  Again,  in  his  letter  to 
Gerhardt  Hauptmann,  otherwise  noble,  and,  apart  from  the 
immanent  contradiction,  a  fine  piece  of  writing:  "I  do  not 
reproach  you  with  our  miseries,  for  your  miseries  are  not  less.'7 


THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND   CASE  261 

What  does  he  mean  ?  The  Germans  let  loose  the  dogs  of 
war,  and  we  are  not  to  call  them  to  account  for  our  miseries  ? 
And  how  can  we  admit  this,  coming  after  a  generous  protest 
against  their  atrocities  in  Belgium  :  "  Keep  these  savageries 
for  us  Frenchmen,  your  true  enemies  M  ?  Why  should  pacific 
France  have  the  privilege  of  these  devastations,  which,  alas  ! 
she  has  not  lacked  ? 

146  Great  meeting  in  favour  of  a  Franco-German  reconcilia- 
tion (rapprochement)  held  in  the  riding-school  of  the  Pantheon 
in  May  1913.  The  French  author  of  this  book  was  on  the 
platform. 

147  Divina  Commedia. 

148  Among  the  German  intellectuals  who  were  members  of 
the  Association,  were  :  Heinrich  Morf,  member  of  the  Berlin 
Academy  of  Sciences  ;  Felix  Weingartner,  conductor  of  the 
orchestra  of  the  Berlin  opera  ;  Max  Liebermann,  painter,  of 
Berlin,  corresponding  member  of  the  Paris  Academy  of  Fine 
Arts  ;  Ernst  Haeckel,  Professor  in  the  University  of  Jena  ; 
Ludwig  Fulda,  author,  translator  of  Moliere,  Beaumarchais, 
and  Rostand ;  Gerhardt  Hauptmann,  author ;  Karl  Vol- 
moeller,  scholar,  of  Dresden  ;  Franz  von  Stuck,  Professor  at 
the  Munich  Academy  of  Fine  Arts  ;  Richard  Dehmel,  poet ; 
Herbert  Eulenberg,  author  ;  Karl  Hauptmann,  author  ;  all 
signatories,  two  years  later,  of  the  "  Manifesto  of  the  93." 
To  know  each  other  better,  indeed ;  if  these  "  colleagues  " 
have  learnt  nothing  of  us,  the  converse  does  not  follow. 

149  "  Was  it  impossible,  if  not  to  love  each  other,  at  least  to 
tolerate,  each  of  you,  the  great  virtues  and  the  great  vices 
of  the  other  ?  And  ought  you  not  to  have  set  yourselves  to 
solve  in  a  spirit  of  peace  (you  did  not  even  sincerely  attempt 
it)  the  questions  that  divided  you  ?  "  (R.  Rolland,  Journal  de 
Geneve,  22-23  September,  1914).  And  on  the  other  hand :  "  A 
certain  number  of  good  citizens,  French  and  German,  have 
joined  together  in  order  to  seek  practical  means  whereby  the 
warlike  current  that  has  lately  seized  hold  of  old  Europe  might 
be  stemmed.  And  they  thought  that  it  would  be  best  to  op- 
pose the  work  of  death,  so  scientifically  organised,  by  the 
work  of  life  resplendent  in  its  blossoming  .  .  .  that  we  should 
think  of  the  new  Humanity,  for  which,  forgetting  their  mani- 


262  NOTES 

fold  grievances,  France  and  Germany  ought  to  work,  '  the  two 
master  nations,'  according  to  Victor  Hugo,  the  two  hostile 
brothers,  dragging  behind  them  a  past  of  conflicts,  a  past  of 
which  one  still  bears  an  open  wound"  (Manifesto  of  the  Com- 
mittee, *'  To  know  each  other  better,"  published  by  the 
Droits  de  V Homme,  9th  June  1912). 

160  See  p.  178  for  Holland's  reply  on  this  point. 

161  I  have  noted  above  his  vigorous  protest,  in  his  letter  to 
Hauptmann,  against  the  atrocities  committed  in  Belgium. 
But  in  this  first  comprehensive  article  on  the  war — written  the 
day  after  the  deliverance  of  the  West  by  the  victory  of  the 
Marne,  which  is  allowed  two  lines  and  a  half — six  lines  out  of 
five  hundred  are  the  alms  doled  out  to  Belgium.  As  to  the 
"  crime  "  of  the  violation,  he  does  not  dwell  on  it:  "  I  did 
not  even  raise  my  voice  when  I  saw  your  armies  violating 
the  neutrality  of  noble  Belgium.  This  flagrant  breach  of 
honour,  which  incurs  the  contempt  of  every  upright  conscience, 
is  quite  in  the  political  traditions  of  your  Prussian  kings  :  it 
did  not  surprise  me."  Comment :  "  Is  it  not  admirable  ? 
Neither  was  the  world  surprised.  But  it  howled"  (Stephane 
Servant,  Le  Bonnet  Rouge,  21st  September,  1915). 

i5a  "  j  translate  from  the  articles  of  the  Journal  de  Gen&ve, 
especially  those  of  Romain  Holland,  for  German  reviews  and 
dailies  "  (Letters  of  a  German  woman  quoted  by  U  Opinion, 
January  1915).  "  You  see  that  my  '  Germanophilism  f 
is  of  the  same  quality  as  that  of  the  Frenchman,  Romain 
Rolland  "  (Article  by  Leo  Picard,  editor  of  the  Vlaamsche 
Post  in  Holland,  Belgian  "  traitor  "  to  Belgium,  a  term 
applied  to  him  in  the  XXe  Steele,  the  official  Belgian  news- 
paper of  Havre,  August  1915).  As  for  me,  I  have  received 
twenty  letters  from  neutrals  abroad,  who  invoke  the  example 
of  Romain  Rolland. 

II 

153  Romain  Rolland  was  then  a  candidate  for  the  Nobel 
prize.  The  author  did  not  know  that  circumstance  in  com- 
posing his  "  appeal."  The  news  was  telegraphed  from  Stock- 
holm on  8th  November  ;  the  "appeal  "  had  already  appeared. 

*?*  "J  have  never,  in  any  way,  belonged  to  the  Bund  Neues 


THE  ROMAIN  HOLLAND   CASE  263 

Vaterland"  That  is  all;  no  explanation  of  the  appearance 
of  his  name  on  six  numbers  of  the  Bulletin  of  the  League. 

155  The  two  letters  of  Rolland  of  such  capital  importance  in 
regard  to  the  German  League — published  by  Der  Bundoi  Berne, 
10th  and  18th  February — are  not  included  in  the  collection 
of  his  articles,  where  he  devotes  twelve  pages  of  praise  to 
various  foreign  neutral  associations.  It  is,  however,  the 
German  League  in  which  he  is  most  interested,  since  to  that 
alone  did  he  give  his  name.  Now  no  mention  is  made  of  this 
League  in  his  volume. 

169  Everything ;  that  is,  absolutely  everything.  The  article  on 
p.  152 ;  the  slightest  allusions  in  the  course  of  the  work — 
everything,  provided  my  good  faith  is  saved. 

187  In  regard  to  this  second  formula,  and  in  my  desire  of 
conciliation,  I  adopted  Rolland' s  views  without  discussing 
them.  The  Temps  applies  the  word  "  belong "  to  all  the 
people  on  the  list. 

Ill 

158  See  my  Letters  against  these  leagues,  pp.  17,  39,  44,  47, 
50  of  the  present  volume.  Three  of  those  leagues  are  honoured 
with  mention  by  Romain  Rolland  in  his  book  (see  pp.  121-134, 
Eng.  Trans.). 

169  This  article  is  the  preceding  Letter,  addressed  to  Marie 
Milliet.  The  letter  appeared  in  La  Revue  for  15th  August — 
1st  September,  and  was  published  in  Paris,  15th  August. 

160  Note  that  word.  In  the  opinion  even  of  the  Geneva 
friend,  if  Rolland's  name  had  appeared  in  the  early  lists  of  the 
Bulletin,  Rolland  would  have  been  an  adherent.  Now  Rol- 
land's name  does  appear  in  these  early  lists.  But  there  is  not 
a  single  reader  of  the  Temps  who  did  not,  according  to  this 
astute  note,  understand  exactly  the  contrary,  namely  that 
Rolland  had  never  had  anything  to  do  with  the  League. 
Ought  not  Romain  Rolland  to  have  prevented  his  intimate 
friend,  author  of  the  note  to  the  Temps,  from  knowingly 
deceiving  the  public  ? 

161  It  should  be  noted  that  this  anonymous  correction 
only  appeared  after  fifty-seven  days  of  silence  (7th  July — 


264  NOTES 

3rd  September),  and  that  it  coincides  with  the  reprinting  of 
the  Bulletins  without  Romain  Rolland's  name. 

182  See  the  annexed  photograph,  Plate  I.  The  Bjornson 
whose  name  is  coupled  with  that  of  Rolland  must  not  be 
confused  with  his  celebrated  father.  The  younger  Bjornson, 
in  remembrance  of  his  profession  of  theatrical  manager, 
was  the  Kaiser's  impresario  in  Scandinavian  countries,  where 
at  Copenhagen  he  was  loudly  hooted  for  his  eulogy  of 
Kultur.  See  the  Letter  to  him,  p.  37.  Bjornson  and  Rolland 
are  the  only  persons  in  the  list  not  of  Austro-German  origin  : 
Otfried  Nippold,  of  Swiss  origin,  went  to  Germany,  where  I 
knew  him  as  foreign  editor  of  the  Frankfort  Gazette. 

163  Alas !  before  writing  those  lines  inLa  Revue  of  15th  August, 
I  had  worked  on  a  defective  collection  of  six  Bulletins,  so 
difficult  is  it,  even  for  official  archives,  to  find  the  editio  princeps. 
M.  Fournol,  head  of  our  propaganda  office,  has  not  been  able 
to  procure  it  for  me,  even  in  two  months ;  and  I  hear  from 
Geneva  that  it  has  "  suddenly  disappeared."  Thus  Bulletin 
No.  2,  which  I  did  consult,  formed  part  of  the  other  collection 
of  the  same  Bulletins,  but  reprinted  without  the  name  of  Rol- 
land. Yes,  the  name  of  a  Frenchman  appears  even  in  No.  2 — 
and  consequently  in  the  whole  series — in  a  pamphlet  which 
awards  a  patent  of  liberalism  to  Bismarck.  The  discovery  did 
not  fill  me  with  a  malicious  joy :  it  caused  me  deep  distress. 
For  if  Bismarck  did  not  like  annexations  (Schleswig  and  Alsace, 
mere  trifles),  he  would  have  liked  to  finish  off  France  a  few  years 
after  1870.  And  in  the  mind  of  these  noble  Germans,  cham- 
pions of  the  principle  of  nationalities  (the  people  of  the  "New 
Fatherland  "),  it  is  assumed  that  Germany  keeps  Alsace,  since 
these  same  noble  Germans  lay  claim  to  the  passes  of  the 
Vosges  besides. 

164  No.  6  of  the  Bulletin  of  the  League  ("  England  und  der 
Krieg"  by  Lujo  Brentano)  is  only  a  long  diatribe  against 
England,  in  which  the  author  strives  to  justify  the  violation 
of  Belgian  neutrality  by  Germany  (p.  9,  line  36).  What  does 
Romain  Rolland  think  of  that,  whose  name  enhances  the  value 
of  the  pamphlet  ?  Lastly,  may  we  ask  the  Union  of  Democratic 
Control  how  it  has  allowed  this  German  League  to  put  down 
its  name  as  that  of  a  "  Sister- Association  "  ? 


THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND  CASE  265 

With  regard  to  the  spirit  of  the  League.  I  give  one  quotation 
not  suspect,  which  puts  the  hall-mark,  the  indisputable  birth- 
certificate,  on  the  rubbish  of  the  "  New  Fatherland."  It  is 
taken  from  the  morning  edition  of  the  Berliner  Tageblatt,  30th 
October,  1915:  " The  publications  of  the  'New  Fatherland' 
are  very  far  from  having  had  a  prejudicial  effect.  On  the 
contrary,  in  foreign  countries,  the  opinion  of  which  is  valuable 
for  us,  those  writings  have  produced  an  excellent  impression, 
and  one  very  favourable  to  our  cause.  We  have  received 
many  testimonies  to  this  fact."  Lastly,  the  New  Gazette  of 
Zurich,  in  a  notorious  article  inspired  by  Prince  von  Biilow, 
who  was  residing  at  Lucerne,  takes  up,  on  the  part  of  the 
"  German  Empire  "  (sic),  the  project  of  peace  put  forward  by 
the  League  of  the  New  Fatherland,  and  one  of  the  members 
of  the  League,  von  Gleichen-Russwurm  (see  the  document, 
line  20),  gives  a  lecture  on  "  liberal  Kultur  !  "  Where  ?  In 
one  of  the  rooms  of  the  Reichstag,  placed  at  his  disposal  by 
the  Berlin  Government,  a  fortnight  after  the  Zeppelin  raid  on 
Paris  !  In  spite  of  the  prosecutions  threatened,  the  filiation  is 
well  established  (see  the  Temps ,  3rd  January  and  12th  February 
1916,  on  these  last  two  facts). 

165  Among  the  other  members  of  the  League,  colleagues  of 
Romain  Rolland,  should  be  mentioned  :  Richard  Calwer, 
ex-socialist,  who  recommended  in  the  Tag  the  policy  of 
annexation  ;  Schlieben,  consul  at  Belgrade  (before  the  war, 
in  order  to  prepare  it),  and  Professor  Hans  Delbriick,  editor 
(so  liberal)  of  the  Preussische  Jahrbucher,  who,  no  later  than 
October  1915,  counted  for  the  German  victory  on  the  "  German 
moral  superiority "  (scrap  of  paper,  atrocities,  Lusitania, 
the  same  litany  as  above).  If  absolutely  necessary,  Delbriick 
would  now  be  contented  with  "  Uganda,  the  Belgian  Congo, 
the  French  Congo,  and  an  immense  war  indemnity  "  (sic)  to 
be  paid  by  perfidious  Albion  who  prevented  the  crushing  of 
France. 

168  In  answer  to  the  publication  of  this  passage  in  La  Revue, 
Romain  Rolland  has  changed  the  date  of  the  Journal  de  Gendve. 
In  fact,  the  bombardment  took  place  on  19th  September,  and 
Rolland' s  article  in  his  volume,  which  appeared  after  my 
remark,  is  dated  as  follows  :  Journal  de  Gendve,  15th  September 


266  NOTES 

1914  (p.  55,  English  translation).  Now,  the  original  article, 
the  author's  date  of  which  is  15th  September,  appeared  in 
the  Journal  de  Gen&ve  on  22nd  and  23rd  September.  We 
recommend  this  conjuring  trick  to  Romain  Holland's  ad- 
mirers.    See  Plate  III. 

167  That  this  adhesion  is  later  than  the  "Manifesto  of  the 
93  "  is  certain.  The  estimate  of  one  month,  an  estimate 
conjectured  from  the  Bulletins,  is  to  be  altered,  the  reading 
of  this  passage  in  my  article  having  provoked  an  ex- 
planation on  that  point.  In  the  Journal  de  Gen&ve  for 
28th  November,  1915,  Rolland  has  at  last  informed  us,  through 
M.  Seippel,  that  his  first  relations  with  the  League  date  from 
January  1915,  and  that  he  took  the  initiative.  "  Having  read 
some  of  the  publications  of  the  Neues  Vaterland,  he  was  greatly 
struck  by  them  and  asked  to  be  informed  of  others."  Then 
Der  Bund  (a  paper  of  Berne)  indiscreetly  published  an  extract 
from  a  letter  of  thanks  addressed  by  Holland,  on  31st  January 
to  the  directors  of  the  German  League  (the  Journal  de  Geneve 
does  not  give  this  piece  of  information).  In  that  letter,  which 
the  Berne  newspaper  regards  as  "  a  document  for  the  history 
of  the  renewal  of  spiritual  relations  between  the  belligerents," 
Holland  made  none  of  the  reserves  which  might  be  expected 
from  a  Frenchman.  So  he  was  greatly  grieved  at  the  publication 
of  his  correspondence,  and  hastened  to  write  to  the  German 
League,  once  again,  "  to  complain  that  it  should  have  published 
a  private  letter  without  his  authorisation."  In  this  new  letter, 
otherwise  entirely  cordial  and  in  no  way  making  a  breach 
between  Rolland  and  the  League,  Rolland  does  make  certain 
reserves  from  the  French  point  of  view.  * '  German  imperialism 
is  a  still  more  pressing  danger  for  us  (?)  than  Russian  imperi- 
alism." Whence  we  may  allow  ourselves  to  conclude  that, 
having  publicly  protested  against  the  publication  of  a  mere 
letter  of  his  to  the  League,  a  fortiori  he  could  also  have 
publicly  protested  against  the  permanent  presence  of  his  name 
on  six  of  the  same  League's  Bulletins  among  some  names  of 
the  "  93." 

168  See  p.  68,  the  Letter  addressed  to  him. 

189  Karl  Lamprecht  is  not  the  only  one  of  the  "  intellectuals  " 
whom  Romain  Rolland  violently  reproached  for  signing^  the 


THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND   CASE  267 

11  Manifesto  of  the  93."  On  page  61  of  his  volume  he  accuses  all 
the  signatories,  but  "confesses  that  he  could  not  read  to  the 
end  "  of  the  manifesto.  If  he  had  had  more  courage,  he  would 
have  found,  at  the  end  of  the  document,  the  signatures  of  three 
more  of  his  future  colleagues  of  the  League,  who  then  inspired 
him  with  disgust.  As  to  Lamprecht,  Holland  claims  to  have 
been  informed  by  a  letter  from  Germany,  about  the  evolution 
of  the  historian  who,  with  a  few  other  persons,  "  firmly  turned 
round  upon  the  fatal  excesses  of  the  Lassons,  Ostwalds,  etc." 
(Rolland's  letter  to  the  German  League,  31st  January;  in 
Der  Bund  of  Berne,  10th  February  1915.)  Rolland  even 
suggests  that  the  League,  in  one  of  its  pamphlets,  should  publish 
the  "  dissident "  declarations  of  Lamprecht  and  others.  There 
is  no  longer  any  reason  for  the  surprise  which  I  showed  in  La 
Revue  that  Rolland  should  have  allowed  his  name  to  appear 
in  those  pamphlets  along  with  that  of  Lamprecht,  who,  how- 
ever, has  never  disavowed  the  famous  manifesto  signed  by 
him.  From  how  many  of  these  "  liberal  "  Germans,  with  whom 
he  has  been  corresponding  for  sixteen  months,  has  Rolland 
obtained  a  public  disavowal  of  the  violation  of  Belgium  and 
of  the  German  methods  of  war  ? 

170  \ye  must  note  that  if  the  "  revelation  "  of  Kultur  caused 
Romain  Rolland  to  reprove  the  Barbarians,  he  would  refuse  to 
curse  them  even  if  they  should  be  victorious.  His  panegyrist, 
Paul  Seippel,  a  Swiss  professor,  who  has  been  able  harmoniously 
to  reconcile  admiration  for  the  death  of  Charles  Peguy,  on 
the  field  of  honour,  with  admiration  for  the  exodus  of  Romain 
Rolland  to  Geneva,  wrote  to  the  latter,  "at  a  moment  when 
things  seem  to  be  going  badly  (for  France),  that  if  Germany 
was  victorious  and  confiscated  the  liberty  of  the  world,  nothing 
would  be  left  to  them  (Rolland' s  friends)  except  to  get  furiously 
angry  like  the  rest."  Rolland  immediately  replied  :  "  No,  my 
dear  friend,  I  shall  never  get  furiously  angry  like  the  rest, 
even  if  I  saw  Germany  victorious  and  abusing  her  victory.  It 
is  not  for  conquered  (sic)  Germany  that  I  am  fighting  in- 
justice and  hatred  in  my  own  country.  If  German  Imperialism 
gain#  the  day,  I  shall  remain  an  exile,  who  accepts  no  other 
law  than  that  of  his  own  conscience."  Otherwise  put,  in  plain 
English,  even  if  Germany  kept  Belgium  and   dismembered 


268  NOTES 

France,  Romain  Holland  would  not  bear  her  any  grudge  ;  he 
would  be  content  to  remain  in  Switzerland  with  his  conscience. 
(Journal  de  Gendve,  4th  October,  1915). 

171  Romain  Holland  has  written  the  Lives  of  these  three  men. 

l7j  The  author  of  this  Appeal  himself  asked  the  censor  to 
remove  the  interdict  on  all  Romain  Holland's  writings.  This 
was  done,  and  he  was  able  to  publish  his  book  (Bonnet  Bouge, 
20th  October  1915). 

173  Romain  Rolland  has  refused  to  yield  to  this  "  insolent 
summons  "  ;  he  supports  and  reinforces  all  the  statements 
in  Above  the  Battle.  One  word  in  conclusion.  Rolland  de- 
clares that  he  does  not  doubt  the  sincerity  of  his  oppo- 
nents, and  that  he  does  not  hate  his  adversaries.  I 
believe  him  with  all  my  heart,  and  return  the  compliment. 
The  most  blissful  day  after  this  horrible  war  is  over 
would  be  that  on  which  we  should  be  united,  not  in  the 
hatred  of  any  people,  but  in  the  confession  of  Right  and 
the  vigilance  of  Duty.  Rolland,  my  Appeal  sounds  in- 
cessantly, like  a  tireless  bell  which  rings  without  end.  It  is 
our  mother  France  who  calls  you. 

IV 

174  In  1910  Frederic  Loliee,  for  the  Matin,  asked  a  few  men  of 
letters  what  authors  they  would  designate  for  the  three  chairs 
then  vacant  in  the  French  Academy.  I  replied  :  "  Maurice 
Maeterlinck,  Emile  Verhaeren,  Romain  Rolland." 

175  See  the  Manifesto  of  the  Congress  in  L'Humanite,  30th 
December,  1915.  By  way  of  preface  to  the  resolutions  of 
that  assembly  of  patriots,  the  organ  of  the  French  proletariat 
reprinted  on  December  16th,in  a  special  number,the  last  articles 
of  Jaures  on  the  responsibility  for  the  war: — "  Austria's  note 
to  Serbia  is  terribly  harsh.  It  seems  intended  either  to 
humiliate  the  Serbian  nation  to  the  depths,  or  to  crush  her. 
The  conditions  which  Austria  would  impose  on  Serbia  are 
such  that  it  may  be  asked  if  the  Austrian  clerical  and 
militarist  reactionaries  do  not  wish  for  war,  and  are  not  seeking 
to  make  it  inevitable.  That  would  be  the  most  monstrous 
of  crimes.  ...  It  may  indeed  be  asked  if  Austria,  in  forcing  the 
attack,  did  not  wish  to   render  any  preventive    action   in 


THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND   CASE  269 

Europe  impossible.  .  .  .  This  appeal  to  the  conscience  of 
Europe  and  the  offer  of  papers  would  be  the  most  outrageous 
irony,  if  Austria  invaded  the  Serbian  territory  before  the 
papers  could  be  examined  by  the  European  powers.  If 
Austria  demanded  more,  she  would  take  the  responsibility 
of  precipitating  a  crisis  which  might,  step  by  step,  throw  the 
whole  of  Europe  into  the  most  terrible  conflict  men  have  ever 
seen,  a  conflict  at  once  absurd  and  infamous.  And  the  old 
Emperor  would  be  pursued,  even  to  the  bosom  of  the  God  he 
invokes,  by  the  hatred,  fury,  and  malediction  of  the  peoples 
doomed  by  him  to  the  hell  of  war  (25th  July  1914).  If  that 
invasion  takes  place,  not  only  must  Austrian  diplomacy  be 
severely  judged,  but  German  diplomacy  as  well "  (same  date). 
"...  If  that  is  all  the  Austro-Hungarian  monarchy  wants,  an 
agreement  is  within  the  bounds  of  possibility  ;  war  would 
be  without  excuse  and  without  pretext.  The  monstrosity  of 
such  an  attack  against  the  human  race  encourages  us  to  hope 
that  they  will  hesitate  on  the  brink  of  the  crime  (28th  July). 
The  world  asks  in  amazement  if  Austria  will  dare  to  invade 
Serbia.  But  is  it  possible  that  Austria  said  nothing  (to 
Germany)  before  risking  so  serious  a  step  ?  Is  it  possible 
that  Germany  would  be  contented  with  summary  information, 
and  permit  her  Ally  irrevocably  to  draw  her  in  without  fully 
informing  her  ?  Is  it  negligence,  incapacity,  or  duplicity  ?  .  .  . 
And  then  England  announces  that  she  has  at  once  set  on  foot  a 
plan  of  mediation  between  the  four  great  powers  not  directly 
interested  in  the  Austro-Serbian  conflict — France,  England, 
Italy,  and  Germany.  Who,  in  Europe,  could,  without  mad- 
ness and  crime,  reject  this  last  chance  of  salvation  ?  What 
governments  would,  in  refusing  it,  mark  themselves  out  for 
the  anger  of  nations  and  the  revenge  of  justice  ?  "  (same  date). 
"The  declaration  of  war,  now  official,  by  Austria-Hungary 
on  Serbia,  is  unjustifiable.  The  war  is  without  excuse.  And 
*  immanent  justice,'  which  is  not  a  mere  expression,  will  one 
day  be  dealt  out  to  the  monarchy  which  forces  the  whole 
human  race  either  to  assist  in  the  wicked  abuse  of  force  or  to 
seek  a  hazardous  redress  of  the  injustice  committed,  by  letting 
loose  a  universal  war.  Imperial  Germany,  moreover,  cannot 
defend  herself  against  the  just  reproach  of  having  encouraged 


270  NOTES 

Austria  in  this  evil  course"  (29th  July  1914).  "We  ask  if  the 
most  insane  or  the  most  wicked  of  men  can  be  capable  of 
causing  such  a  convulsion  "  (30th  July  1914). — Jatjbes. 

These  last  words  had  just  been  written  when  Jaures  fell  at 
the  Caf 6  du  Croissant,  as  if  the  first  to  be  stricken  by  a  German 
bullet.  The  author  of  this  book,  who  was  there  and  who  had 
the  supreme  honour  of  being  present  at  his  end,  will  never 
cease  to  invoke  this  living  thought,  this  malediction  of  the 
great  criminals,  which  remains  written  for  ever  on  the  wall  of 
history  in  letters  of  blood.  And  it  is  to  be  regretted  that 
Romain  Holland,  who  took  a  year  to  become  aware  of  Jaures' 
death,  did  not,  even  in  that  space  of  time,  learn  its  lesson.  On 
the  exact  responsibility  for  the  "most  monstrous  of  crimes," 
which  for  Jaures  was  the  Germanic  crime,  there  is  not  a  single 
sentence,  not  a  single  line,  in  the  article  Above  the  Battle. 
That  is  my  reproach  to  Romain  Rolland. 

176  The  "beatification"  was  pronounced  by  the  Internationale 
Rundschau  (English  edition),  see  below.  Is  an  example  of 
this  "  tabooism  "  required  ?  A  foreign  newspaper  asked  the 
eminent  Belgian  critic,  Dumont-Wilden,  for  an  article  on 
Romain  Rolland.  He  sent  it.  At  the  end  of  three  weeks  the 
article  that  had  been  commissioned  was  declined  because  it 
contained  reservations,  but  the  editor  informed  the  author 
that  he  was  offering  the  manuscript  to  another  important 
newspaper  which  would  eagerly  welcome  it.  At  the  end  of 
three  more  weeks  the  other  paper  declined  it,  and  for  the  same 
reason.  The  country  which  twice  refused  the  article  was 
England. 

177  We  know  a  neutral  country  that  ordered  50,000  copies 
of  Above  the  Battle. 

178  I  have  attempted  to  separate  the  antinomies,  not  of  the 
thesis,  but  of  the  mentality  of  the  author,  in  the  following  note 
which  appeared  in  La  Revue,  15th  August : 

"  Those  who  are  interested  in  the  psychological  aspect  of  the 
case  would  be  guilty  of  gross  contempt  and  of  an  undeserved 
outrage  if  they  sought  the  explanation  in  calculated  hypocrisy. 
It  would  be,  besides,  an  untenable  hypothesis,  for  Romain 
Rolland  on  certain  points  has  told  'his  German  friends*  his  frank 
opinion.     On  the  contrary,  his  sincerity  is  manifest  and  his 


THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND   CASE  271 

courage  also  to  stand  up  alone  against  his  whole  people,  even 
in  the  service  of  a  very  bad  cause.  We  see  a  conscience  palpi- 
tating in  the  wreck  of  an  intellect.  The  key  of  the  problem 
may  perhaps  be  found  in  two  passages  in  his  articles  :  ■  Not 
less  than  you,  yourselves,  I  am  the  son  of  Beethoven,  of  Leibnitz, 
and  of  Goethe.'  And  farther  on,  quoting  himself  :  '  Single 
combats  are  being  waged  between  metaphysicians,  poets,  his- 
torians— Eucken  against  Bergson  ;  Hauptmann  against 
Maeterlinck  ;  Rolland  against  Hauptmann.  "Ah,  Lucifer!" 
I  said,  without  having  exhausted  the  list,  for  this  must 
be  added :  "I,  perhaps  alone  among  French  authors,  I 
wished.  .  .  ."  '  And  again  this  :  '  The  author  of  Jean- Chris- 
tophe,  the  French  writer  who  for  twenty  years  has  done  most 
for  the  intellectual  reconciliation  of  France  and  Germany.'  Let 
us  add  also  that  Romain  Rolland's  courage  would  not  have 
been  complete  unless  he  had  remained  in  France  to  proclaim 
his  inmost  thought  (he  reserves  that  for  after  the  war),  a 
proceeding  that  would  have  earned  him  imprisonment.  In 
that  case,  without  approving,  I  would  have  bowed  low  to  such 
sublime  madness.  But  exile  in  Geneva  has  its  solaces,  and, 
since  my  note,  even  its  serenades.  Tolstoy  would  have  been 
in  a  dungeon,  for  he  would  have  cursed  all  resistance,  and  would 
have  folded  his  arms  before  the  massacre  of  Belgian  civilians. 
More  than  twelve  years  before  this  war  the  great  Russian 
visionary  did  us  the  honour  to  enter  into  correspondence  with 
us,  and  with  all  the  force  of  the  same  principles  which  now 
inspire  our  logical  pacifism,  we  disputed  his  false  theory  of  sub- 
mission to  violence.  Romain  Rolland  is  only  a  weak  disciple, 
as  faithless  to  thorough-going  Tolstoyism  as  to  patriotism  for 
the  Right.  To  conclude  :  A  generous  heart,  a  muddled  head, 
an  uneasy  conscience  that  has  lost  its  bearings,  and  the 
marriage  of  masculine  pride  with  feminine  sincerity,  a 
marriage  in  which  the  husband  dominates  the  wife." 

V 

179  See  the  Letter  to  Marie  Milliet,  pp.  135  sqq.  In  a  note  to 
the  preface  of  his  book,  Above  the  Battle  (see  English  Translation, 
p.  17),  Romain  Rolland  states  that  certain  contradictions 
will  be  found  in  his  articles.     It  was  my  friend  Servant  and  I 


272  NOTES 

who  had  drawn  up  a  list  in  our  articles  in  the  Bonnet  Rouge 
(15th  September,  21st  October  1915),  about  a  month  before 
the  publication  of  Above  the  Battle  in  volume  form.  We  leave 
here  the  references  to  the  dates  of  the  Journal  de  Gen&ve :  the 
same  passages  will  be  found  in  Romain  Holland's  book. 
i8o  «  Before  writing,  learn  to  think"  (Boileau). 

VI 

181  At  our  suggestion  M.  Renaitour  very  loyally  consented  to 
reprint  the  controversy  as  a  pamphlet :  Above  or  at  the  Heart 
of  the  Battle  ?  (UEssor,  57  rue  Sedaine,  Paris). 

182  The  same  reproach  was  addressed  to  Romain  Rolland  by 
Gabriel  Seailles  in  an  "  open  letter  "  published  by  the  Guerre 
Sociale,  9th  January,  1915,  to  which  Rolland  did  not  reply. 
See  above,  pp.  207  sq. 

183  «« For  the  same  reasons  I  would  accept  no  peace  that  did 
not  make  complete  reparation  to  Belgium  for  the  crime  under 
which  she  is  suffering,  and  I  have  not  ceased  to  state  this  in 
my  published  Letters,  notably  in  the  Letter,  often  reprinted,  to 
Frederick  van  Eeden."     (Note  of  Romain  Rolland.) 

184  Compare  p.  183  above. 

185  "  See  the  beginning  of  the  third  part  of  the  last  volume  of 
Jean-Christophe  :  The  End  of  the  Voyage"  (Note  of  Romain 
Rolland.) 

188  By  a  relentless  irony  four  Germans  with  whorcTRolland 
refused  to  associate  himself  on  the  lists  of  the  French  Com- 
mittee in  1912  before  the  war,  he  was  fated  to  find,  in  1915, 
in  the  heat  of  the  war,  associated  with  him  in  the  lists  of  a 
German  League,  the  "New  Fatherland"  :  they  are  Herbert 
Eulenberg,  Alexander  von  Gleichen  Russwurm,  Otfried 
Nippold,  and  the  cavalry  captain,  Tepper-Laski. 

187  I  am  informed  by  Marius  Moutet,  the  socialist  deputy, 
that  the  shorthand  report  of  this  electoral  speech  seemed  to  be 
indecipherable.  The  text  was  "patched  up"  by  M.  Moutet 
from  his  personal  notes  (Avenir  Socialiste  of  Lyons,  lst-7th 
August  1914).  Jaures,  who  died  six  days  later,  did  not  see  it, 
and  literally,  the  speech  of  Vaise  is  not  from  his  pen,  as  are 
the  articles  quoted  above. 

188  French  nationalists  in  1912. 


THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND  CASE  273 

189  Les  Tragedies  de  la  Foi  (Hachette,  1913).  In  the  opinion 
of  a  former  colleague,  a  strong  republican,  of  Rolland  at  the 
Sorbonne  :  "  He  was,  before  the  war,  rather  reactionary.' ' 

190-192  At  that  time  (1912)  Romain  Rolland  was  already  fol- 
lowing in  the  wake  of  the  Jingo  revival  to  which  he  formally 
adhered  in  the  preface  to  his  Tragedies  de  la  Foi  (1913).  At 
the  same  time  M.  P.  Hyacinthe  Loyson  was  fighting  those 
tendencies  with  all  his  might  by  pen  and  speech.  At  the  elec- 
tions of  1914  he  stood  for  a  Paris  constituency  as  republican 
candidate  against  the  promoter  of  the  "  three  years  "  law. 
Among  those  who  supported  the  author  of  this  book  were 
Anatole  France,  Marcel  Sembat,  and  Paul  Painlev6,  the 
present  Cabinet  Ministers ;  Camille  Pelletan,  Ferdinand 
Buisson,  General  Percin,  etc.  The  seat  was  lost  by  some 
300  votes,  owing  to  the  maintenance  at  the  second  polling  of 
a  dissenting  republican  candidate,  who  played  the  game  of 
M.  Loyson's  opponent. 


VII 

193  «  Of  all  nations,"  therefore  of  France  :  he  does  not  sup- 
press a  single  word. 

194  The  "  ruin  "  of  France,  who  was  defending  herself  and 
desired  to  regain  what  was  left  of  the  ruins  of  the  seven 
invaded  departments. 

196  See  the  Hague  Conference,  where  all  the  refusals  came 
from  France  (?)  ;  see  the  mauvais  esprit  of  France  (?)  in  the 
cases  of  Tangier,  Casablanca,  and  Agadir;  see  the  Berne 
Inter-parliamentary  Conference,  at  which  there  were  so  few 
Frenchmen  (?) ;  see  Ruyssen's  campaigns,  the  "  Franco-German 
Reconciliation  Committee,"  etc.,  etc. 

196  All  the  rulers  without  exception  ;  see  the  President 
of  the  French  Republic's  letter  to  the  King  of  England,  in 
which  he  conjures  him  to  join  him  in  the  effort  to  avoid  war 
(31st  July  1914)  and  George  V's  hesitation  to  declare  that 
he  will  draw  the  sword  against  Germany,  even  if  France  is 
attacked. 

197  See  the  slyness  of  the  French  Yellow  Book,  and  the 
loyalty  of  the  German  White  Book. 

18 


274  NOTES 

198  The  herd  of  the  French  mobilisation,  who  showed  so 
little  enthusiasm  ! 

199  Written  three  days  after  the  battle  of  the  Marne. 

200  Demoniacal  irony  of  the  victory  of  the  Allies  which  will 
liberate  France,  Belgium,  Serbia,  and  the  world. 

201  Quoted  with  reprobation. 

202  Quoted  with  reprobation. 
303  By  the  "  German  peace." 

204  Thanks  for  the  faithful  souls  of  Louvain,  Termonde, 
Aerschot,  etc.,  etc.,  and  free  entrance  for  the  invader. 

205  The  French  "  poilus." 

206  "Tenir." 

207  The  "  German  peace."  The  war  policy  of  Pope  Benedict 
and  the  war  philosophy  of  Romain  Holland  are  twins,  in- 
distinguishable, of  the  same  neutrality.  Some  of  Romain 
Holland's  disciples  in  France,  anti-clerical  anarchists,  have 
been  greatly  puzzled  how  to  deal  with  the  case  ;  but  Cardinal 
Gaspari  has  made  the  similitude  official  by  using  the  same 
words  as  Holland  in  a  public  statement :  "  The  Vatican's 
policy  has  been  to  keep  away  from  and  above  the  Battle  "  (Le 
Journal,  31st  August  1916). 

208  See  the  ultimatum  to  Serbia,  the  refusal  of  pourparlers 
by  Germany,  and  the  Tzar's  telegram  to  the  Kaiser  (29th  July 
1914)  suggesting  the  Hague  arbitration.  Holland  is  not 
alluding  here  to  Russia's  domestic  policy  before  the  war,  but  to 
Russia's  direct  responsibility  for  the  war. 

209  «  Union  sacree." 

210  Triple  Alliance  and  Triple  Entente,  including  France. 

211  See  the  trombone  of  the  "  420  "  and  all  the  instruments 
of  Kultur. 

212  The  voracious  heroism  of  the  young  French,  Belgian, 
and  Serbian  heroes  who  die  to  regain  their  native  soil. 

VIII 

213  From  the  letter  to  the  Bonnet  Rouge,  10th  October.  See 
11  The  Franco-German  Committee,"  above,  pp.  177  sqq. 

214  The  same  note  to  the  preface  ends  with  a  quotation. 
"  *  There  is  more  than  one  war  '  (wrote  the  aged  Rodin  to  me 
on  the  1st  of  October  1914).     'What  is  happening  is  like  a 


THE  ROMAIN  HOLLAND  CASE  275 

punishment  which  falls  on  the  world.*  "  May  we  be  permitted 
to  observe  that  the  theory  of  war-punishment  has  been 
sketched  by  a  French  Catholic  chaplain  ?  At  the  front  this 
was  equivalent  to  a  fortnight's  imprisonment,  a  proceeding 
applauded  by  Holland's  friends. 

216  Since  the  preceding  lines  appeared  in  the  French  edition 
of  this  book,  Rolland  has  resorted  to  a  new  trick  in  order 
to  escape  my  reproach  on  the  subject  of  the  inversion  of 
documents.  In  fact,  in  the  editions  of  his  book  Above  the 
Battle  which  have  appeared  subsequently  to  my  book,  fites- 
vous  neutres  devant  le  Grime  ?  of  which  this  is  the  English 
version,  Rolland  has  suppressed  on  p.  20  of  "Pro  Aris"  the 
date  of  the  article,  October  1914.  Doubtless  one  of  his 
learned  friends  in  Geneva,  accustomed  to  a  respect  for  texts, 
pointed  out  to  him  that  the  free-handed  use  of  such  pro- 
ceedings— a  trick  corrected  by  another  trick — would  end  in 
a  loss  of  reputation.  Rolland  yielded  to  the  counsel  of  good 
sense  and  probity,  for  in  the  last  editions  of  his  book  he 
has  restored  the  date  on  p.  20. 

Perhaps  serious-minded  English  readers  will  find  it  difficult 
to  believe  what  I  have  exposed.  Let  them  procure  the  first 
French  edition  of  Au-dessua  de  la  Mttee,  where  the  date  figures 
on  p.  20  ;  then  the  49th  French  edition,  where  the  date  has 
disappeared;  then  the  60th  French  edition,  where  the  date 
reappears.  The  tamperings  with  the  date  of  the  article 
"  Pro  Aris,"  added  to  those  of  the  article  "  Above  the  Battle  " 
(see  p.  265,  note  l66,  of  the  present  volume),  seem  to  me,  a 
humble  author,  to  constitute  in  literature  sins  that  cannot 
be  called  venial.     See  Plates  II.  and  III. 

2i6  Thus  throughout  the  present  volume  we  have  never  given 
the  dates  of  the  letters  we  have  reprinted,  dates  which  appear 
in  La  Revue,  as  those  of  the  numbers  of  the  Revue,  We  have 
scrupulously  repeated  the  dates  of  the  first  publication  of  our 
two  articles  on  Romain  Rolland.  The  whole  of  the  text  has 
undergone  revision — announced  in  our  French  edition — and 
has,  in  the  form  of  documentary  notes,  been  largely  increased. 
The  originals  appeared  in  the  following  numbers  of  La  Revue : 
10-11,  14-15,  16-17,  18,  21-22,  XXVIth  Year. 

217  Before  the  Ollendorf  edition  in  book  form,  Amedee  Dunois, 


276  NOTES 

a  disciple  of  Romain  Rolland,  brought  out  the  article  AhoM 
the  Battle  as  a  pamphlet  without  the  publisher's  name,  and 
he  dated  it,  very  exactly,  22nd-23rd  September.  The  master 
and  his  disciple  were  not  careful  that  their  dates  should 
correspond.  On  the  other  hand,  M.  Guilbeaux,  writing  at 
Geneva  from  Romain  Rolland' s  dictation,  categorically  asserts 
what  is  false  :  "  Romain  Rolland's  article  appeared  in  the 
Journal  de  Gen&ve,  on  the  15th  of  September  1914  "  (Pamphlet, 
Pour  Romain  Holland,  p.  29). 

218  In  his  open  letter  to  M.  Marius  Andre  (see  above,  p.  204), 
Romain  Rolland,  in  referring  to  this  article,  indicates  the  true 
date,  12th  October.  The  author  has  not  taken  the  trouble  to 
make  himself  agree  with  himself. 

219  Thus  the  Antigone  Eternelle  (communication  to  the  Hague 
Congress)  is  a  public  document  and  not  a  letter.  M.  Guilbeaux 
himself  calls  the  piece  an  appeal,  and  published  it  at  Geneva 
in  his  neutral  review,  Demain  (15th  January  1916).  It  is 
not  contained  in  the  volume.  "  Romain  Rolland  writes  in 
his  preface  :  '  A  Frenchman  does  not  judge  his  adversary 
unheard.'  Agreed.  But  I  add :  A  Frenchman,  after  calling 
on  the  public  to  judge  his  case,  does  not  subtract  three 
essential  papers  from  the  documents  "  (Charles  Albert  in  La 
Bataille  (syndicalist),  13th  February  1916).  It  is  not  merely 
three  papers,  but  a  good  ten  of  them.  In  the  same  preface 
Romain  Rolland  also  writes:  "I  place  before  the  world  the 
texts  they  have  slandered.  I  shall  not  defend  them.  Let 
them  defend  themselves  !  "  Let  us  state  that  half  these  texts 
defend  themselves  by  hiding  themselves. 

220  As  for  Hauptmann's  reply,  nobody,  except  in  Switzer- 
land, knew  anything  about  it;  hence  everybody  was  taken 
in  by  Romain  Rolland's  trick.  M.  Marius  Leblond,  a  writer 
usually  well-informed,  announced  in  La  Vie,  in  order  to  glorify 
Romain  Rolland:  "Hauptmann  naturally  held  his  tongue, 
cowardly  and  ashamed."  M.  Jules  de  Gaultier,  in  the  Revue  de 
Hollande  (February  1916):  "I  can't  complain  of  Hauptmann 
for  keeping  silence."  M.  Emile  Pignot,  in  Le  Soir  (March  17, 
1916)  :  "  During  those  terrible  days,  my  high-minded  friend 
Romain  Rolland  said  to  you  all  that  a  writer  could  say.  He 
put  a  question  to  you  which  has,  I  think,  remained  unanswered. 


THE  ROMAIN  HOLLAND   CASE  277 

You  held  your  peace,  Hauptmann,  and  you  are  holding  it 
still."  And  the  Court  Journal  of  London  (8th  April,  1916): 
"  It  is  easy  to  understand  that  Gerhard t  Hauptmann  did  not 
reply  to  the  letter  that  opens  the  book."     Come  on  !   . 

221  See  p.  265,  note  167. 

222  A  reference  to  the  Antigone  Eternelle  noted  above.  With 
regard  to  this  Hague  Congress,  see  p.  241,  note  27.  "  M.  Romain 
Holland,  in  sending  this  article,  made  it  clear  that  he  was  not 
addressing  himself  to  the  Congress  at  the  Hague.  He  is  ad- 
dressing himself  to  the  women  of  the  world."  Whether  the 
want  of  logic  or  the  want  of  modesty  is  the  more  conspicuous, 
is  a  question  about  which  opinions  might  differ. 

223  a  rjy^Q  enormous  harm  that  Romain  Rolland  is  doing  to 
his  country  is  not  known  in  France,  and  will,  perhaps,  never  be 
understood.  He  has  become,  whether  he  intends  it  or  not,  the 
rampart  behind  which  in  neutral  countries  a  band  of  angry 
or  shamefaced  Pro-Germans  take  shelter"  (Letter  from  M. 
Andre  to  M.  Aulard,  Professor  at  the  Sorbonne). 

224  Included  in  the  dedication  of  the  volume  Above  the  Battle, 
Opinion  on  the  war  :  "  With  a  few  intellectuals,  patriotism 
was  sufficiently  intact  and  despotic  to  forbid  them  seeking 
means  of  rapidly  ending  the  war  "  (Hommes  du  Jour}  ...  by 
throwing  themselves  at  Germany's  feet.  Here  is  another 
opinion  on  the  war  expressed  by  another  anarchist  to  whom 
Rolland's  volume  is  dedicated,  I  mean  M.  Jacques  Mesnil : 
"  The  mental  state  of  the  belligerents  : — The  patient  experi- 
ences a  childish  admiration  for  everything  that  goes  on  in  the 
country.  In  every  soldier  he  sees  a  hero,  he  is  in  ecstasy  at  the 
greatness  of  the  leaders,  the  spirit  of  sacrifice  of  the  women, 
the  rapidity  with  which  every  one  adapts  himself  to  the  new 
situation,  etc.  .  .  .  The  cause  of  his  nation  is  the  cause  of 
civilisation,  of  justice,  of  liberty,  of  right,  of  democracy." 
On  the  other  hand,  in  a  number  of  the  Hommes  du  Jour 
there  is  an  illustration  representing  French  soldiers,  severely 
wounded,  returning  from  Germany,  with  the  legend  /'Re- 
morse for  to-morrow."  The  measure  taken  against  Romain 
Rolland's  organ  (suspension  for  six  months)  by  General 
Gallieni,  one  of  the  victors  of  the  Marne,  is  by  far  the 
most  severe  that  has  been  taken  against  any  French  paper 


278  NOTES 

since  the  beginning  of  the  war.  May  I  say  that  the  very 
abuse  which  this  paper  has  lavished  on  me  makes  it  my 
professional  duty  to  request  that  such  measures  should  be 
cancelled  ? 

*»  See  page  258,  note  142  ;  page  266,  note  170. 

116  See  the  extract  from  this  article,  above,  pp.  228  sq. 

887  Nine  months  later,  Romain  Rolland  was  forgetful  enough 
to  reproach  M.  Seailles  (or  to  allow  him  to  be  reproached) 
for  not  having  published  that  letter  !  The  reproach  was 
expressed  in  a  newspaper  article  (during  the  polemic  in  the 
Bonnet  Rouge  quoted  above,  pp.  177  sqq.)f  an  article  in 
which  Romain  Rolland  himself  collaborated  for  the  especial 
instruction  of  M.  Renaitour,  one  of  his  disciples.  Here  is 
the  passage  of  his  confidant:  "And  when  he  says"  (he  is 
Servant,  friend  of  P.  H.  L.)  "  '  M.  Romain  Rolland  disdained 
to  reply  to  S eailles ' :  What  is  the  use  of  protesting  and 
of  assuring  him  that  Rolland  replied  to  Seailles  in  a  letter 
of  twelve  pages  which  Seailles  did  not  publish  ? "  (Bonnet 
Rouge,  10th  October  1915).  We  can  imagine  that  Gabriel 
Seailles  made  an  energetic  protest.  But  Romain  Rolland  did 
not  protest. 

That  is  not  all.  The  Geneva  Semaine  Litteraire,  having 
reprinted,  6th  February  1915,  the  "open  letter"  from  Gabriel 
Seailles  "to  Romain  Rolland,"  asked  Rolland  to  reply,  and 
he  inserted  on  the  same  page  (p.  72)  a  little  note  saying  that 
he  would  not  reply  to  M.  Seailles  during  the  war.  "  I  will 
not  bring  the  discussion  before  the  public,"  he  said,  with  his 
habitual  fatuity,  as  if  he  had  not  himself  brought  the  discus- 
sion before  the  public  by  his  article  Above  the  Battle  /  As  to 
the  occult  letter  to  Seailles,  and  the  prohibition  to  publish  it, 
those  facts  are  proved  by  these  words  :  "I  have  already 
replied  to  M.  Seailles  in  a  private  letter."  Therefore  (1) 
Romain  Rolland  declares  publicly  in  Switzerland  that  he  will 
not  reply  to  S6ailles  except  in  a  "private"  letter;  (2)  In  that 
"private"  letter  Romain  Rolland  lays  stress  on  the  desire 
that  it  should  not  be  published  ;  (3)  Romain  Rolland  allows 
it  to  be  publicly  insinuated  in  France  that  Seailles  ought  to 
have  published  the  letter ;  (4)  Seailles  is  in  an  ugly  situation ; 
and  (5),  Romain  Rolland  leaves  him  there. 


THE  ROMAIN  HOLLAND  CASE  279 

»ia  "  You  have  yourself  most  loyally  recognised  all  the  ob- 
jections there  would  have  been  to  publishing  that  letter  H 
(written  attestation  of  Gabriel  S6ailles  to  the  author  of  the 
present  volume). 

228  Romain  Holland  no  longer  belongs  to  a  French  university. 
880  Victor  Hugo  was  more  modest. 

381  At  the  time  of  writing  these  lines,  I  had  just  returned  from 
the  public  funeral  of  the  victims  of  the  Zeppelin  raid  on  Paris, 
January  1916,  an  act  of  war  of  the  German  State  against  the 
French  State.  The  pupils  of  the  Berlin  schools  took  part  in 
the  ceremony  at  a  distance,  by  marching  with  flags,  past 
Count  Zeppelin's  house ;  the  crowd  shouted  with  joy ;  and  the 
Hamburg  News  wrote :  "  We  stand  in  enthusiastic  admiration 
before  the  exploits  of  our  aviators."  And  the  Tdgliche 
Rundschau:  "The  conscience  of  the  people  sanctions,  nay, 
even  exacts  these  raids." 

888  See  also,  in  confirmation  of  the  second,  Romain  Rolland's 
letter  to  the  Bonnet  Rouge,  above,  pp.  177  sqq.  It  must  be 
noted  that  this  letter  to  the  Bonnet  Rouge,  dated  10th  October, 
1915,  later  by  four  months  than  the  article,  "  The  murder  of 
the  Elite"  consequently  annuls  the  fine  passage  on  "  violated 
Right"  quoted  above  (p.  178  of  Romain  Rolland's  book,  English 
Translation),  which  was  written  on  14th  June.  Some  assert 
that  these  contradictions  of  thought  will  one  day  be  Romain 
Rolland's  glory,  because  he  understood  how  to  flatter  all 
opinions  in  view  of  the  future  reconciliation,  and  so  will  be 
the  only  one  who  was  right.  It  is  what  his  panegyrist  calls 
"  an  amazingly  developed  instinct "  (sic ;  Pour  Romain 
Rollandy  p.  73  ;  see  also  p.  145  of  this  volume).  As  for  us,  who 
in  time  of  war  do  not  think  of  our  "  literary  successes,"  we 
reject  from  to-day  the  advantage  that  accrues  from  time, 
from  the  forge tfulness  and  abdication  of  principles.  We  ask 
nothing  from  the  cowardice  of  to-morrow.  If  the  eternal 
Right  has  only  an  ephemeral  hour,  it  is  in  this  hour  of  its 
grievous  trial  that  we  place  ourselves  at  its  side.  Such  is  the 
pnly  glory  that  fits  us,  and  may  our  memory  perish  for  ever  ! 

IX 

888  Compare  Intransigeant,  15th  January  :  "In  the  Frank- 
furter   Zeitung,    Ed.    von    Bendemann    speaks    of    Romain 


280  NOTES 

Holland's  book,  Above  the  Battle.  He  begins  by  reproaching 
the  author  for  believing  in  the  German  atrocities,  a  miserable 
legend  as  every  one  knows,  but  praises  him  for  having  the 
courage  not  to  break  with  what  binds  him  to  Germany. 
'  Rolland  has  made  a  stand  against  the  last  consequences 
of  patriotism  ;  he  comes  into  collision  with  his  people,  who, 
to-day,  only  see  salvation  in  applying  themselves  with  fury 
to  fighting.'  " 

234  French  and  German  prisoners. 

235  In  the  number  for  1 6th  November,  the  Journal  de  Gen&ve, 
for  all  its  devotion  to  Romain  Rolland,  did  not  dare  to  report 
this  lecture.  It  confines  itself  to  the  musical  part  of  the  pro- 
gramme. 

Now  in  1912  the  same  M.  Guilbeaux  praised  up  the  review 
Mouvement  Anarchiste,  which  published  an  article  under 
the  title  :  "  Comment  on  sabotera  la  mobilisation  "  (see  the 
Societe  Nouvelle,  December  1912,  p.  302,  the  chronicle  signed 
Henri  Guilbeaux)  ;  and  this  very  M.  Guilbeaux  founded 
at  the  same  period,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Mouvement 
Anarchiste  (ibid.  p.  302,  and  letter  of  21st  January  1913), 
the  "  Comite  pour  la  Defense  du  Droit  d'Asile  "  (Affaire 
Gauzy-Bonnot),  a  committee  to  which,  in  spite  of  M.  Guil- 
beaux's  urgent  invitation — he  was  the  secretary — I  refused 
my  adhesion.  These  incidents  caused  a  rupture  between  us, 
provoked  by  me.  I  find  traces  of  it  in  a  letter  from  M.  Guil- 
beaux, dated  1st  December  1912,  where  he  apologises  for  the 
"  tragic  bandit,"  murderer  of  unfortunate  little  employees. 
The  bandit  referred  to  was  Bonnot,  the  man  with  the  grey 
motor-car,  who  shot  six  or  eight  employees,  and  was  finished 
off  by  French  soldiers  in  a  "  shanty  "  where  he  had  entrenched 
himself.  Guilbeaux  held  him  as  a  symbol.  He  has  changed 
him  for  Romain  Rolland  !  !  The  great  Genevese  apostle  has 
chosen  a  strange  panegyrist. 

M.  Henri  Guilbeaux  is  included  in  the  Dedication  of  Above 
the  Battle. 

The  latest  news  is  that  he  has  just  founded  at  Geneva  the 
Rollandist  review  Demain,  edited  by  the  German  Jeheber, 
a  naturalised  Swiss,  and  warmly  praised  by  the  Berliner 
Tageblatt,  27th  January  1916,  and  afterwards  by  the  same 


THE  ROMAIN  ROLLAND  CASE  281 

journal  of  22nd  July,  1916,  in  these  terms  :  "  The  fact  that 
the  review  adopts  a  more  critical  attitude  to  French  than  to 
German  affairs  proves  the  sincerity  of  the  editor."  This  is 
speaking  of  M.  Guilbeaux.  But  that  the  moral  editor  of 
that  review  is  no  other  than  Romain  Holland  himself,  is 
proved  in  the  Internationale  Rundschau  (English  edition, 
25th  February  1916,  p.  127)  :  "  M.  Guilbeaux  conducts  this 
publication  in  the  spirit  of  Rolland  himself."  Finally,  on 
15th  February,  at  the  Victoria  Hall,  Geneva,  "  thinly 
attended,"  "this  Frenchman  of  the  Romain  Rolland  class" 
spoke  in  order  to  present  the  remnants  of  the  Ford  Mission 
(sic)  before  a  small  "audience,  in  which  a  large  proportion 
consisted  of  Germans."  (The  phrases  in  inverted  commas 
are  taken  from  the  Suisse  newspaper,  16th  February  1916). 

236  It  is  known  that  the  Avanti  is  the  organ  of  the  neutral 
socialists  of  Italy,  who  opposed  with  all  their  might  the  entry 
of  their  country  into  the  war  for  the  Right,  and  refused  to  vote 
the  money.  This  resulted  in  the  creation  of  the  authentic 
socialist  newspaper,  the  Popolo  d'ltalia.  The  Avanti  awards 
high  praise  to  all  the  demonstrations  in  Romain  Rolland's 
favour.  On  30th  December  it  states  :  "  The  apostolate  of 
Romain  Rolland  has  become  sacred." 

X 

237  The  reader  is  requested  to  compare  the  dates  of  the 
following  quotations. 

238  "  Also  "  is  superfluous,  my  good  Vorwdrts  ;  not  one  of 
Romain  Rolland's  disciples  ventured  to  celebrate  his  birthday 
in  France ;  there  was  neither  meeting  nor  article.  The 
enterprise  miscarried. 

239  The  performance  was  probably  organised  to  celebrate  the 
"  anniversary."  In  a  later  number,  the  Vossische  Zeitung 
informs  us  that  H  the  agreement  not  to  perform  "  (in  Austro- 
Germany)  u  the  works  of  living  authors  belonging  to  enemy 
peoples  had  been  violated  for  this  piece."  We  are  sure  that 
Romain  Rolland  refused  to  accept  the  author's  honorarium  in 
Austrian  money  scarcely  two  months  after  the  massacreof 
Serbia  by  Austria.  But  why  did  he  not  also  refuse  to  authorise 
the  performance  of  his  play  at  Vienna  ?    When  Raoul  Toohe's 


282  NOTES 

Parfum  was  performed  at  Brussels  by  a  German  company  after 
the  occupation,  the  author's  widow  immediately  protested,  in 
a  stronly  gworded  letter,  against  such  usurpation  of  a  French 
work  by  the  enemy,  enjoining  Von  Bissing,  the  Governor,  to 
devote  the  author's  rights  to  the  relief  of  his  victims.  Must 
the  widow  of  a  "  Vaudevilliste  "  give  this  proud  lesson  to 
the  heroic  poet  of  the  Loups  / 

240  The  reader  is  requested  to  remember  that  in  the  Preface 
to  the  Tragedies  de  la  Foi  (1913),  and  in  the  Prefatory  Note 
to  Aert  (1898),  Romain  Holland  identified  himself  with  the 
aspirations  of  his  hero. 

241  Anatole  France  ? 

242  The  defeat  of  1870. 


XI 

243  M.  Aulard,  Professor  at  the  Sorbonne. 

244  Gabriel  Seailles,  professor  at  the  Sorbonne.  His  political 
opinions  are  very  republican. 

246  I  do  not  reproach  Romain  Rolland,  as  M.  Seailles  does,  for 
becoming  neutral  in  order  to  be  more  impartial  ;  but,  on  the 
contrary,  I  reproach  him  because,  having  become  neutral,  he 
did  not  in  full  liberty  rally  to  the  Right.  I  do  not  reproach 
him  for  being  a  bad  Frenchman,  but  for  being  a  bad  European. 

246  Charles  Albert  is  known  as  one  of  the  most  striking 
theorists  in  French  socialism. 

247  "Hispoace,  in  Switzerland,  when  twenty  million  men  are 
at  each  other's  throats  !  His  success  in  novel  writing,  when 
the  victory  of  the  Right  is  still  uncertain !  His  German 
friendships  when  the  Germans  are  mowing  down  the  youth 
of  France  with  their  machine  guns !  Who  would  dare  to 
assert  that  P.  H.  Loyson  has  overstepped  the  mark  in 
registering  Romain  Rolland  as  the '  wreck  of  a  moral  power '  ?  " 
(S.  Servant). 

248  Theodore  Ruyssen,  professor  in  the  University  of  Bor- 
deaux, editor  of  the  most  widely  circulated  of  French  pacificist 
reviews.  La  Paix  par  le  Droit.  This  study  fills  five  columns  of 
the  paper  ;  the  greater  part  of  the  two  first  is  devoted  to  the 
praise  of  the  noble  pages  of  Above  the  Battle,  and  to  the  justifica- 


THE  ROMAIN  HOLLAND  CASE  283 

tion  of  Romain  Holland's  sojourn  in  Switzerland  ;  the  three  last 
expound  the  criticisms  of  the  writings  and  of  the  attitude  of 
Romain  Rolland,  criticisms  not  without  analogy  with  those 
of  our  article  of  15th  August  1915  (above,  p.  135). 

249  On  the  contrary,  he  maintained  and  confirmed  it  in  Les 
Hommes  du  Jour,  27th  November  1915. 

550  To  take  sides  between  France  and  Germany  ! 


//  in  consequence  of  the  extreme  difficulty  of  procuring  docu- 
mentary evidence  in  time  of  war  any  errors  of  fact  should  have 
crept  into  this  volume,  despite  all  the  pains  that  have  been  taken 
to  ensure  exactitude,  the  Author  would  be  very  grateful  to  any 
person — even  an  enemy — who  might  be  so  good  as  to  point  them 
out  to  him.  He  would  hasten  to  correct  them.  The  first  French 
edition  of  this  volume  was  set  up  and  printed  at  Paris,  by  Albert 
Davy,  during  the  battle  of  Verdun,  in  February  and  March,  1916. 


INDEX 


Abdul-Hamid,  the  Sultan,  125 

Above  the  Battle,  Part  II.  133  sqq. 
passim;  extracts  from,  193  sqq. 

Action  Francaise,  219 

Aerschot,  13 

Agathon,  Neo-nationalist  school 
of,  191 

Albert,  Charles,  184  ;  his  criti- 
cisms of  R.  Holland,  229  sqq. 

Albert,  King,  of  Belgium,  95 

Algemeen  Nederlandsch  Verbond, 
50 

Allies  righting  for  the  neutrals,  91 

Alsace-Lorraine,  179  sq.,  185  sq. 

America,  German  outrages  in, 
95  sq. 

American  sympathy  with  the 
Allies,  90  sq.,  100  sqq.  ;  ideal- 
ism, 92  ;  help  to  Belgium,  94, 
101  ;  Notes  to  Germany,  98  ; 
war  with  Spain,  99 

Ancona,  193 

Anglo-Belgian  convention,  al- 
leged, 87 

Annexation  of  Belgium,  157 

Annunzio,  Gabriele  d',  letter  to, 
32  sqq. 

Ara  Pads,  224 

Armenian  massacres,  88,  124, 
125,  193,  208 

Athens,  81,  83 

Atrocities,  German,  13  sq.,  18, 
19,  50  sqq.,  87  sq.,  137  sq., 
186,  193,  211  sq.,  213,  228 
sq.,  233 

Attila,  14,  129 

Aulard,  A.,  his  criticisms  of  R. 
Holland,  227  sq.,  ;  referred  to, 
204 

Austria    and    Serbia,    61,    116 


sqq. ;    A.  and  Germany  make 
the  war,  86  sq. 
Avanti,  of  Milan,  217 

Bagdad  to  Hamburg,  124 

Balkan  war,  115 

Bancroft,    American    historian, 

105,  109 
Barres,  Maurice,  219 
Bataille,  La,  219 
Bataille  Syndicaliste,  La,  229 
Baudraz,  Sergeant,  113 
Beck,  James  M.,  102 
Belgium,  violation  of,  5,  8,  40, 

50,  54,  57,  65,  76,  87  sq.,  105, 

137,  157,  228,  233 
Belgrade,    Serbian    defence    of, 

120 
Benedict,  Pope,  106 
Bergson,  Henri,  195,  218,  219 
Bernhardi,  38,  86 
Bernstorfr,  102 

Bethmann  -  Hollweg's    declara- 
tion in  Reichstag,  87 
Bignami,  E.,  letter  to,  39  sqq. 
Bismarck,  11,  63 
Bjoernson,    Bjoern,    letter    to, 

37  sq, 
Blue  Book,  the  British,  87 
Bonnet  Rouge,  Le,  172,  177,  183, 

184,  188,  207,  219,  221,  223, 

224,  231 
Bornand,  Roger,  letter  to,  75  sqq. 
Boutroux,  Emile,  218 
Bowitzeff,  126 

Brandes,  Georg,  letter  to,  54  sqq. 
Brentano,  L.,  159 
Briand,  112 
Broda,     Rodolphe,     letter     to, 

44  sqq.  ;  referred  to,  154 


285 


286 


INDEX 


Brunschvigg,  Mme  Leon,  222 
Bryan,  Mr.,  92,  99,  105,  112,  113 
Bulgaria,  infamy  of,    115,    119, 

123 
Bulletin  of  the  German  League, 

"  New  Fatherland,"  148,  156 
Bulow,  von,  86,  89 
Bund,  Der,  148 
Bund  Neues  Vaterland,  147  sqq., 

153  sqq. 

Cahiers  Vaudois,  173,  174,  187, 
202,  203 

Campolonghi,  28,  30 

Canada,  projected  German  in- 
vasion ot,  95 

Carmen  Sylva,  letter  to,  27 

Carus,  Paul,  letter  to,  84  sqq. 

Catalonia,  manifesto  of  the 
neutrals  of,  204  sq, 

Charlemagne,  124 

Cavell.  Miss,  193,233 

Chicago,  89 

Choate,  Mr.,  90 

C16menceau,  Georges,  54,  55,  57 

Camobium,  39 

Combes,  Emile,  112 

Committee  for  the  Attainment  of 
a  Lasting  Peace,  154 

Committee  of  Franco-German 
Reconciliation,  144,  171  sqq., 
177  sqq. 

Committee  of  Friends  of  Euro- 
pean Moral  Unity  (Spanish), 
154 

Compayre,  G.,  144 

Conference  at  Berne,  142 

Conference,  International,  at 
Zimmerwald,  220  sqq. 

Congress  at  Berlin,  41 

Congress  at  Ghent,  184 

Congress,  French  Socialist,  167 

Congress,  International,  of 
Women  at  the  Hague,  17,  204 

Congress,  Peace,  at  Geneva,  184 

Constantine,  King,  80,  83 

Contradictions,  the  "  Imma- 
nent,"  170  sqq. 

Courrier  Europeen,  37 
Croiset,  Alfred,  218 
Croiset,  Maurice,  218 


Curtius,  33 

Czar's  efforts  for  peace,  87 

Dance  of  Death,  22,  37 
Danton,  63 

Dauthenbey,  German  poet,  219 
Dehmel,   R.,    1  ;     his  letter   to 

French  soldiers,  210 
Democracy  against  Despotism, 

130 
Deportations,  German,  88 
Dernburg,  85,  89,  102 
Deroulede,  Paul,  112,  186 
Deschanel,  P.,  219 
Dreyfus  affair,  55,  191 
Droits  de  V Homme,  185 
Duma,  the,  126 
Dumba,  102 
Durkheim,  E.,  144 

Echo  de  Paris,  219 

Ecole  de  la  Fidiration,  205  sq. 

Elliott,  Charles,  102 

England  and  the  Transvaal,  25 
sq. 

England's  declaration  of  war,  65 

English  prisoners,  their  treat- 
ment in  Germany,  212 

Enver  Pasha,  124 

Eulenberg,  Herbert,  letter  to, 
68  sqq. ;  one  of  the  Ninety- 
three,  159 

Excelsior,  216 

Falaba,  88 

Fazy,  Henri,  76 

Ferdinand,  King  of  Bulgaria, 
125 

Figaro,  219 

Finot,  Jean,  90,  218 

Flaubert,  56 

Francaise,  La,  222 

France,  Anatole,  141,  219 

France  and  Italy,  30  ;  pacificism 
of  F.,  60  ;  accused  of  making 
the  war,  85  sq.  ;  unanimity 
of,  112;  attitude  of  F.  to- 
ward the  war,  130  ;  the  shield 
of  oppressed  nations,  131 

Francis  Joseph,  125 


INDEX 


287 


Franco-German    Committee    of 
Reconciliation,    144,    171  sqq., 
177  sqq. 
Frederick  the  Great,  62 
French  Labour  Party,  142 
French  Socialists,  their  efforts  for 
peace,    142,    232  ;     denounce 
"  Zimmerwaldians,"  167 
French  soldier's  reply  to  German 

seduction,  210  sq. 
Fulistro,  77 

Gaulois,  219 

Gazette  des  Ardennes,  216 

German  peril,  4 ;  philosophy, 
5 ;  music,  5 ;  atrocities, 
13  sqq.,  18,  19,  87  sqq. ,  137 
sqq.t  186,  193,  211  sq.,  213, 
228  sq.,  233  ;  war,  60 ;  ogre, 
62  ;  liberalism,  70  ;  deporta- 
tions, 88  ;  Americans,  92,  93, 
95 ;  outrages  on  America, 
95  sqq.  ;  methods  of  warfare, 
208  ;  militarism,  209  ;  treat- 
ment of  English  prisoners,  212 

Germany,  the  older,  4  sq.  ; 
under  Prussia,  6,  43 ;  her 
Dance  of  Death,  22  ;  Prus- 
sianised, 41  ;  charges  against, 
71,  102  ;  G.  and  Austria  make 
the  war,  86  sq.  ;  declares  war 
on  Russia,  87  ;  connives  at 
Armenian  massacres,  124,  125; 
enemy  of  democracy,  231 

Giolitti,  86 

Grand-Carteret,  J.,  178 

Great  Day,  the,  61 

Greece,  accomplice  of  Germany, 
123  sq.  ;  neutrality  of,  81  sqq. 

Griinewald,  59 

Guerre  Sociale,  207 

Guewrenoff,  Jean,  letter  to, 
115  sqq. 

Guilbeaux,  Henri,  217 

Gustrov,  prisoners'  camp  at,  212 

Haeckel,  Ernest,  58  ;    letter  to, 

64  sqq. 
Hague,   International   Congress 

of  Women  at  the,  17,  204 
Hague  Tribunal,  48,  87 


Hamburg  to  Bagdad,  124 
Harden,  Maximilian,  letter  to, 

59  sqq. 
Harnack,  163 
Hate,  10  sqq.,  21 
Hauptmann,     Gerhardt,      173  ; 

letter  of  R.  Rolland  to,  201 

sqq. 
Heidelberg  Congress,  184 
Heine,  68 

Herri ot,  Edouard,  144 
Hobhouse,  Miss  Emily,  letter  to, 

17  sqq. 
Holland,  88 
Holy  War,  Romain  Rolland  on 

the,  225  sq. 
Homme  Enchaine,  219 
Hommes  du  Jour,  148,  175,  176, 

193,  205,  215 
Hottingen  Reading  Circle,  218 
Hugo,  Victor,  184 
Rumania,  La,  157,  201,  219 

International  Agency  for  Pri- 
soners of  War  (Geneva),  136, 
212 

Internationale  Rundschau,  175, 
176,205,229 

Italy,  waiting  for,  28  sqq.  ;  joins 
in  the  war,  89 

J"1  accuse,  letter  to  the  author  of, 

71  sqq. 
James,    Henry,    his    English 

naturalisation,  91 
Jaures,  143,  180,  181,  189,  214 
Jean-Christophe,   143,   152,   165, 

179,  180,217,218 
Jonescu,  Take,  23 
Journal  de  Geneve,  140,  148,  170, 

171,  174,  175,  176,  187,  197, 

200  sqq.,  206,  215,  217 
Journal  des  Debats,  219 
Journal,  Le,  219,  221 
Justice,  15,  17,  25,  27,  eto. 

Kaiser,  the,  48,  79,  94,  96,  98 
Kaiserworth,  68 
Kant,  14,  139,  140,  227  sq. 
Kluck,  von,  43 
Kropotkin,  126 


288 


INDEX 


Krupp,  43 

Kultur,  12,  13,  41,  62,  64,  65,  66, 

67,  88,  125,  127,  129,  161 
Kyriakos,  Diomedes,  letter  to, 

80  sqq. 

Lamprecht,  K.,  one  of  the 
Ninety- three,  159,  160 

Lanterne,  La,  219 

Laveter,  Mile,  218 

Lavisse,  Ernest,  218 

League  of  Neutrals,  39,  40  ; 
Dutch  L.  against  War,  47, 
153  ;  German  L.  of  the  "  New 
Fatherland,"  14:7  sqq.,  153  sqq.; 
Austrian  L.  of  Human  Pro- 
gress, 154 

Leagues,  Pacificist,  153  sq. 

L6vy-Bruhl,  144 

Liberalism  in  Germany,  70 

Libre-Parole,  219 

Liebknecht,  K.,  11  ;  denounces 
German  treatment  of  English 
prisoners,  212 

Life,  91 

Ligue  Franqaise  pour  le  Droit 
des  Femmes,  222 

Lillington,  Amy,  24 

Listz,  F.  von,  one  of  the  Ninety- 
three,  159,  160 

Loups,  Les,  225 

Louvain,  13,  53,  77,  88,  94,  137, 
159,  173,  186,  209,  228 

Lusitania,  78,  88,  97,  101,  107, 
113,  159,  193,208 

Maeterlinck,  Maurice,  letter  to, 
35  sq.  ;  referred  to,  141,  144, 
218 

Maine,  sinking  of  the,  99 

Manifesto  of  the  neutrals  of 
Catalonia,  204  sq. 

Manifesto  of  the  Ninety-three, 
58,  64,  68,  153,  158  sq. 

Margueritte,  Victor,  144,  218 

Marne,  battle  of  the,  78,  81,  103, 
138,  153,  193,  209 

Massacres,  the  Armenian,  124, 
125,  193,  208 

Matin,  Le,  219,  227 

Militarism,  German,  209 ;  Prus- 
sian, 129 


Milliet,  Marie,  letter  to,  135  sqq, 
Mirman,  Prefect  of  Meurthe-et- 

Moselle,  225 
Misme,  Mme  Jane,  222 

Nancy,  New  Year  bombs  on,  224 
Nathan,  Ernest,  letter  to,  28  sqq, 
Neo-nationalist  school,  191 
Netherlands  Anti-War  League, 

153 
Neutrality,  American  definition 

of,  91  ;   moral,  93 
Neutrals,  attitude  of,  88  ;   Note 

to,    165  sqq.  ;     Postscript    to, 

235 
Nietzsche,  9,  62 
Ninety-three,  manifesto  of  the, 

58,  64,  68,  153,  158  sq. 
Nobel  Prize,  197,  216 
North  German  Gazette,  87 
Norway,  liberals  of,  37 
Nuremberg,  85 

Open  Court,  The,  64,  84,  86 
Orange  Book,  the  Russian,  87 
Ostwald,  58 

Pacificists,  French,  9,  48 ; 
Dutch,  48  ;   fatuous,  50 

Pangermanism,  9,  93,  181 

Pangermans,  42,  149 

Paris  at  outbreak  of  war,  28  sq.  ; 
motto  of,  96 

Passy,  Frederic,  48,  141 

Peace,  dangers  of  premature, 
20  sq.  ;  conditions  of,  46, 
72  ;  the  aim  of  the  Allies, 
129 ;  German  conditions  of, 
157  sq.  ;  efforts  of  French 
Socialists  for  a  lasting,  232 

Pegasus,  32  sq. 

Persia,  224 

Petit  Parisien,  Le,  219 

PiusX,  195 

Postscript  to  Neutrals,  235  sq. 

Pro-Germans  in  Spain,  204 

Propaganda,  the  German,  50 

Prussia  and  Germany,  6,  43 ; 
barbarous  P.,  14  ;  responsible 
for  the  war,  89 


INDEX 


2S9 


Prussianisra,  22 

Prussian  militarism,  129,  174, 
181 

Quiliard,  Pierre,  57 

Radical,  219 

Raemaekers,  Louis,  218  aq. 

Rappel,  218,  219 

Renaitour,  J.  M.,  177,  184,  186 

Revue,  La,  90,  147,  155,  163 

Revue  d'Art  Dramatique,  56 

Rheims,  53,  88,  173,  174,  193, 
209 

Rhine,  the,  69 

Richet,  Charles,  218 

Rights  of  Man,  9 

Rodin,  219 

Rolland,  Mile  Madeleine,  222 

Rolland,  Romain,  the  case  of, 
133  sqq.  ;  a  criticism  of,  133 
sqq.  ;  retires  to  Switzerland, 
135  sq.  ;  author's  letter  to, 
149  aqq.  ;  appeal  to,  152  sqq.  ; 
adheres  to  German  League,  154 
aqq.  ;  his  Beethoven,  165 ; 
R.  R.  and  Shakespeare,  167, 
223  ;  refuses  to  join  Franco- 
German  Reconciliation  Com- 
mittee, 177  aqq.  ;  his  Tragediea 
de  la  Foi,  190  ;  his  treatment 
of  dates  and  documents,  200 
aqq. ;  his  letter  to  G.  Haupt- 
mann,  201  aqq.  ;  his  letters  to 
G.  Seailles,  206  8q.  ;  candi- 
date for  Nobel  Prize,  216; 
his  Hymn  to  Peace,  223  8q.  ; 
on  the  Holy  War,  225  aq.  ; 
French  criticisms  of,  227  aqq.  ; 
at  Geneva,  233 

Roosevelt, President  ("Teddy"), 
91,  98 

Rosny,  J.  H.,  144 

Rostand,  Edmond,  218,  219 

Roumania,  Queen  of,  letter  to, 
27 

Ruhleben,  atrocities  at,  212 

Ruyssen,  Th.,  143 ;  his  criti- 
cisms of  M.  Rolland,  231  aqq. 

Russia  and  the  war,  66  aq.  ;  her 
offer  to  Austria,  87  ;  deliverer 


of  Bulgaria,  123 ;  R.  and  the 
Duma,  126;  R.  Rolland's 
attitude  to,  213  aq. 

St.  Helena  for  William  II,  161 

San  Marino,  Republio  of,  de- 
clares war  on  Germany,  96 

Sarajevo,  assassination  at,  116 

Schoen,  von,  29 

"  Scrap  of  paper,"  87  ;  German 
description  of  a  treaty,  233 

Seailles,  Gabriel,  144  ;  Rolland's 
letters  to,  206  aq.  ;  his  open 
letter  to  R.  Rolland,  228  aq. 

Secolo  of  Milan,  210 

Seippel,  Paul,  148,  206,  218 

Serbia,  ultimatum  to,  61  ;  at- 
tacked by  Austria,  87 ; 
heroism  of,  116  aqq. 

Serenades  in  honour  of  R.  Rol- 
land, 217 

Servant,  Stephane,  177 ;  author's 
letter  to,  184  8qq. 

Siecle,  Le,  220 

Socialists,  French,  their  efforts 
for  peace,  142 ;  disclaim 
Zimmerwald  Conference,  221 
aq. 

Spain,  American  war  with,  99 ; 
Pro-Germans  in,  204 

Spitteler,  K.,  76,  88,218 

Switzerland,  neutrality  of,  75 
aqq. 

Temps,  Le,  147,  148,  153,  164, 

155,156,226 
Termonde,  13 
Tirpitz,  von,  98 

Tolstoi,  commemoration  of,  141 
Transatlantic  liners  torpedoed, 

96  aq. 
Transvaal,  18,  25  aq. 
Treitschke,  20 
Tribune  de  Qenlve,  217 
Turkey,  ally  of  Germany,  124  aq. 
Turks,  the  Young,  125 
Twain,  Mark,  92,  98,  101 

"Uncle  Sam,"  92  aqq. 
Union  of  Democratic  Control,  1 7, 
154 


19 


290 


INDEX 


Union  Franqaise  pour  U  Suffrage, 

dee  Femmes,  222 
Union  of  Frenchwomen,  24 
United  States,  attitude  of,  90  sqq. ; 

protest  of,  88 

Verhaeren,     Emile,     letter    to, 

1  sqq.  ;  referred  to,  144,  218 
Venizelos,  83 
Verone,  Maria,  222 
Ville-de-la-Ciotat,  223 
Vorwaert8,  225 
Vo88i8che  Zeitung,  225 
Vrede  door  Bechte,  50 

War  for  the  sake  of  lasting  peace, 
19,  12&  sq.  ;  of  liberation, 
75  sq.  ;  the  great,  made  by 
Germany  and  Austria,  86  sq.  ; 
horror  of,  128  sq.  ;  French 
attitude  towards  the,  129  sq. 

Warring,  Whilbey,  letters  of, 
90  sqq.,  104  sqq. 

Washington,  German  intrigues 
at,  93,  96 


White  Book,  the  German,  67,  87 

White  House,  the,  94,  97  §q. 

White,  William,  91 

William  II,  110 

Wilson,  Woodrow,  Yankee's  ob- 
jections to,  90  sqq.f  104  sqq.  ; 
German  hatred  of,  111 

Wittenberg,  atrocities  at,  212 

Wolff's  Agency,  77,  93,  174 

Yellow    Book,  the  French,  87, 

142 
Young  German  party,  69,  70 
Young  Turks,  125 
Ypres,  53 

Zeppelins,  88 

Zetkin,  Clara,  11 

Zimmerwald  International  Con- 
ference, 220  sqq.  ;  disclaimed 
by  French  Socialists,  221  sq. 

Zimmerwald  meeting,  204 

"  Zimmerwaldians  "  denounced 
by  French  Sociaist,s,  167 

Zimmerwald-Rollland  220  sqq. 


Printed  in  Great  Britain  by  Hmell,  Watson  <*  Viney,  Id., 
London  and  Aylesbury, 


Some  Appreciations  of 

"Etes-vous  neutres  devant  le  crime?" 
By  PAUL  HYAGINTHE  LOYSON 

Now  translated  into  English  under  the  title 

THE  GODS  IN  THE  BATTLE 

Le  Mercure  de  France  (Marcel  Rouff) : 

"  P.  H.  Loyson's  book  hunts  down  all  the  subterfuges  of  dubious 
neutralities ;  it  gives  chase  to  all  suspicious  timidities ;  it  combats 
all  the  criminal  cavils.  .  .  .  All  this  part  of  the  book  (on  Romain 
Holland)  is  really  grand  and  tragic." 

Georges  Renard  (Socialist,  Professor  at  the  College  de  France) : 

"  An  old  volunteer  of  1870,  like  myself,  cannot  admit  that  a 
Frenchman  should  lounge  in  a  foreign  country  and  hover  'above 
the  battle '  when  his  country  is  threatened  with  death,  together 
with  all  the  human  ideals  for  which  she  stands.  Therefore  I  applaud 
the  shots  fired  by  this  f ranc-tireur. " 

Le  Progres  (Athens) : 

"Among  the  innumerable  books  which  the  great  war  has  pro- 
duced at  Paris,  this  is  one  of  powerful  interest  by  a  great  French 
patriot,  who  is  at  the  same  time  a  writer  of  indisputable  superiority." 

Boston  Evening  Transcript  (Alvan  F.  Sanborn) : 

"  A  striking  contrast  between  the  sturdiness,  strenuousness,  and 
boldness  of  the  ante-bellum  pacificism  of  Loyson  and  the  equivocal- 
ness  and  timidity  of  that  of  Holland. " 

Le  Journal  des  De*bats : 

"This  masterly  lesson,  courageously  given,  will  not  be  lost." 
Le  Radical  (Eugene  Holland) : 

"Inspired  by  his  theme,  the  author  soars  to  the  heights  of  elo- 
quence, which  thus  far  had  only  been  reached  by  the  grand  lyric 
flight  of  D'Annunzio.    This  book  will  live." 

Captain  Jean  Renaud,  author  of  the  book  "  Dans  la  Tranche©"  : 

11 1  have  snatched  a  few  moments  to  read  you  between  two  volleys, 
before  starting  for  another  spot  where  firing  is  going  on.  With  all 
my  soul  and  all  my  strength,  and  with  all  those  who  in  the  army 
hold  a  pen,  I  place  myself  at  your  side.  The  book  of  Romain 
Holland  is  a  defiance  to  all  who,  in  the  full  consciousness  of  their 
acts,  thrilled  with  patriotism,  have  exi>osed  their  breasts  to  the 
rabble  let  loose." 

La  Bataille,  Syndicalist  organ  (Charles  Albert) : 

"A  good  and  beautiful  book,  just,  useful,  necessary.  A  valuable 
mine  of  documents.  The  author  has  drawn  up,  with  strict  method 
and  perfect  equity,  the  complete  indictment  of  the  *  Romain  Holland 
case.  " 

Telegraaf  (of  Amsterdam) : 

"This  book  breathes  the  immortal  enthusiasm  of  France,  which, 
as  in  the  time  of  Joan  of  Arc,  fights  against  the  invader." 


SOME  IMPORTANT  WAR  BOOKS 

ENGLAND   IN  WAR-TIME. 

By  ANDRE  CHEVRILLON. 
With  a  Preface  by  RUDYARD  KIPLING. 

A  striking,  impartial,  documented  and  highly  sympathetic  study,  by  a  French 
scholar,  well  acquainted  with  England,  of  the  internal  evolution  of  the  country 
during  the  last  two  years.  In  seven  brilliant  and  life-like  chapters,  the  author 
gives  a  vivid  sketch  of  the  initial  attitude  of  England  to  the  war,  of  the  pro- 
gressive alterations  in  her  structure  which  have  resulted  from  its  stress,  of  the 
inevitable  opposition  they  have  encountered,  and  examines  the  ultimate  causes 
alike  of  changes  and  opposition.  The  book  is  indispensable  to  all  who  wish  to 
obtain  a  clear  and  scientific  view,  undistorted  by  party  feeling,  of  the  epoch- 
making  crisis  through  which  our  country  is  passing. 

Price  5s.  net. 

HURRAH  AND  HALLELUJAH: 

The  Spirit  of  New  Germanism*    A  Documentation* 
By  J.  P.  BANG,  D.D., 

Professor  of  Theology  at  the  University  of  Copenhagen, 

"My  purpose  in  writing  this  book  is  to  describes  movement  in  Germany 
which  has  been  active  for  a  long  time,  but  which  during  the  war  has  recklessly 
cast  aside  all  considerations.  This  movement  is  twofold  :  New  Germany's  view 
of  other  nations,  and  her  valuation  of  herself  and  her  supposed  mission  in  the 
world.  My  book  takes  the  form  of  a  comprehensive  documentation  showing  the 
manifold  forms,  the  wide  scope,  and  the  strength  of  this  movement,  which,  if  its 
ideas  prevail,  will  be  of  the  most  fatal  importance  for  Germanism  and  to  the 
world  at  large." 

Price  3s.  6d.  net. 


COMRADES  IN  ARMS. 
By  CAPITAINE  PHILIPPE  MILLET. 

Capitaine  Philippe  Millet,  already  known  as  the  author  of  "Jenny  s'en 
va-t-elle  en  guerre,"  has  written  a  number  of  stories  illustrating  life  in  France 
today.  Most  of  the  stories  vividly  picture  the  actual  life  in  the  trenches  and 
the  barrack  room,  and  show  in  simple  and  direct  fashion  the  common  bond  that 
is  being  forged  between  the  soldiers  of  our  country  and  those  of  France.  These 
stories  are  a  revelation  of  the  English  Tommy  as  seen  through  the  eyes  of  a 
French  officer,  and  the  delightful  vein  of  humour  running  all  through  will  hold 
the  reader  spellbound  to  the  end.  It  is  doubtful  whether  from  any  other  source 
it  is  possible  to  obtain  such  a  series  of  realistic  impressions  of  the  English  soldier 
as  seen  by  one  of  our  Allies  in  actual  warfare. 

Priee  3s.  6d.  net. 

HODDER  AND  STOUGHTON 
ST.  PAUL'S  HOUSE,  WARWICK  SQUARE,  LONDON,  E.C. 


IMPORTANT  WAR   BOOKS  {continued). 

THE  GERMAN  FURY  IN  BELGIUM. 
By  L.  MOKVELD, 

War  Correspondent  of  "  De  Tyd." 

The  personal  experiences  of  a  Netherlands  Journalist  during 

four  months  with  the  German  Armies* 

De  Tyd,  tht  well-known  Amsterdam  paper,  has  been  extremely  well  served 
by  its'  war  correspondents,  and  it  is  generally  accepted  that  the  first  place  may 
be  rightly  given  to  Mr.  L.  Mokveld,  the  author  of  this  book.  The  volume  is  not 
in  any  way  a  rechauffi  of  his  letters  to  De  Tyd,  but  an  entirely  independent 
work,  built  out  of  the  abundance  of  his  material,  his  pity  for  the  country,  and  his 
stern  indignation  against  her  violators.  A  graphic  description  of  the  destruction 
of  Louvain,  Vise,  etc.,  is  given,  and  an  account  of  crimes  against  humanity 
committed  by  drunken  invaders,  while  the  deplorable  treatment  to  which  British 
wounded  were  subject  in  Landen  is  exposed. 

Price  3s.  6d.  net. 

BELGIUM  DURING  THE  WAR. 

By  Commandant  DE  GERLACHE, 

The  well- known  soldier  and  explorer. 

Translated  by  BERNARD  MIALL.    With  a  large  number 

of  Plates* 

Several  volumes  have  appeared  of  late  which  deal  with  the  German  atrocities 
in  Belgium  and  the  life  of  the  Belgians  under  German  rule.  This  is  a  most 
extensive  and  probably  the  most  important  of  all  such  publications,  for  it  has 
been  written  by  a  well-known  naval  officer  and  explorer  of  repute  and  is  accom- 
panied by  a  large  number  of  striking  illustrations.  There  are  chapters  on  the 
violation  of  Belgian  neutrality,  the  invasion,  the  atrocities  of  German  military 
procedure,  the  heroic  resistance  of  the  Belgian  Army  upon  the  inviolate  remnant 
of  Belgian  soil,  life  in  occupied  Belgium  and  a  full  account  of  the  various  pro- 
clamations, war  taxes,  requisitions,  extortions,  martial  laws,  death  sentences  and 
general  oppressions  and  destruction  of  priceless  monuments  which  followed  the 
German  occupation.  As  a  full  and  complete  account  of  the  whole  subject  of 
Belgium  under  German  rule,  this  volume  will  probably  stand  alone  as  the  most 
valuable  addition  to  the  literature  of  the  War. 

Price  6s.  net. 

ITALY  AND  THE  WAR. 
By  JACQUES  BAINVILLE. 

Even  those  who  believe  that  they  "  know  their  Italy  "  are  hardly  aware  of  the 
remarkable  political  and  economic  progress  which  the  country  has  made  during 
the  last  twenty  years.  And  few,  save  those  who  were  in  Italy  at  the  time,  have 
any  true  conception  of  the  greatness  and  passion  of  the  National  Drama  of  May 
1915,  when  the  Italian  people — newly  endowed  with  universal  suffrage— shat- 
tered the  Triple  Alliance  and  declared  war  on  Austria.  It  is  a  matter  for  pride 
with  the  Italians  that  they  "  willed  this  war."  They  were  not  attacked  ;  nor  did 
they  dumbly  follow  the  lead  of  their  Government. 

Price  Ss.  6d.  net. 

HODDER  AND  STOUGHTON 
ST.  PAUL'S  HOUSE,  WARWICK  SQUARE,  LONDON,  E.C. 


IMPORTANT  WAR   BOOKS  (continued). 

FALSE  WITNESS. 

The  Authorised  Translation  of  'KLOKKE  ROLAND.' 
By  JOHANNES  JORGENSEN. 

Johannes  J6rgensen's  "  Klokke  Roland,"  which  appeared  not  long  ago  in 
Copenhagen,  has  had  an  immense  success  throughout  the  Scandinavian  countries. 
It  has,  moreover,  had  a  great  success  in  Germany — that  much-desired  one  of 
being  condemned  by  the  authorities  !  It  contains  a  most  trenchant  condemnation 
of  the  German  War.  The  attack  is  directed  in  a  somewhat  different  manner 
from  the  mass  of  books  already  written  on  the  subject.  It  is  the  work  of  a  poet. 
It  is  at  the  same  time  a  reverie,  a  prophecy,  a  challenge.  Johannes  Jorgensen, 
the  student  and  man  of  letters,  had  taken  refuge  in  Siena  from  the  thought  of 
the  War.  There  his  studies  were  rudely  broken  in  upon  by  letters  from  friends 
in  Belgium  telling  of  the  devastation  of  the  German^  Invasion.  Another  docu- 
ment, "  The  Appeal  of  the  Civilized  World  "  of  the  ninety-three  Professors,  was 
sent  him  at  the  same  time.  Upon  this^  volume  he  based  a  reluctant  inquiry,  with 
the  help  of  English  and  Belgian  evidence,  till  the  truth  emerged  before  his 
horrified  eyes.     In  M  False  Witness"  we  have  this  truth  presented. 

Cloth,  3s.  6d.  net. 

PAN-GERMANISM   versus 
CHRISTENDOM. 

A  Catholic  Neutral's  Challenge  to  the  German  Centre  Party. 

The  nucleus  of  the  volume  is  an  open  letter  written  by  a  prominent  citizen 
of  Luxembourg  to  Herr  Erzberger,  one  of  the  notorious  Ninety-three.  Herr 
Erzberger  is  the  leader  of  the  party  of  the  Centre  in  the  Berlin  Reichstag, 
which  used  to  be  the  great  Catholic  party.  M.  Prum,  the  writer  of  the  letter, 
was  originally  a  Germanophile  ;  but  the  German  atrocities  in  Belgium,  and  the 
fact  that  not  a  German  Catholic  protested  against  them,  converted  him  com- 
pletely, and  impelled  him  to  write  this  letter  of  reproach  and  appeal  to  the 
leader  of  the  German  Catholics. 

Price  3s.  6d.  net. 

GERMAN  BARBARISM: 

A  Neutral's  Indictment. 

By  Dr.  LEON  MACCAS. 

With  a  Preface  by  M.  PAUL  GIRARD. 

The  interest  of  this  book  lies  not  merely  in  the  subject  but  also  in  the  fact  that 
it  is  a  reasoned  and  detailed  indictment  by  a  neutral,  who  is  as  well  known  in 
Academic  circles  of  Paris,  whither  he  went  to  continue  his  studies  in  Inter- 
national Law,  as  in  his  own  University  of  Athens,  where  he  was  a  brilliant 
student.  He  enumerates  notorious  instances  of  ill-treatment  of  officials  and 
prisoners ;  of  systematic  pillage  and  the  desecration  or  destruction  of  churches 
and  other  historic  monuments ;  of  murder,  torture  and  violation  ;  of  treachery  in 
the  field,  and  of  the  employment  of  methods  not  permitted  by  the  usages  of  war. 
A  list  of  particular  individuals  responsible  for  these  specific  acts  completes  one  of 
the  most  powerful  arraignments  of  German  militarism  that  the  war  has  produced. 
Price  2s.  6d.  net. 

HODDER  AND  STOUGHTON 
ST.  PAUL'S  HOUSE,  WARWICK  SQUARE,  LONDON,  E.C. 


IMPORTANT  WAR   BOOKS  (continued). 

BRITAIN  PREPARED. 

Letterpress  by  ARCHIBALD  HURD. 

Fully  Illustrated  with  Pictorial  Wrapper. 

A  story  of  the  development  of  our  Army  and  Navy  during  the  last  three 
centuries,  by  Archibald  Hurd,  and  the  reproduction  of  above  one  hundred  illus- 
trations from  the  magnificent  films,  by  permission  from  H.M.  Admiralty,  War 
Office,  and  Ministry  of  Munitions.  Great  care  has  been  taken  in  selecting 
these  prints  from  the  films  to  reproduce  in  perfect  order  a  truly  impressive  and 
inspiring  record  of  the  activities  of  our  Navy  and  Army  in  war  time.  ^  This  series 
will  represent  beyond  question  the  most  authentic  and  comprehensive  series  of 
war  pictures  available  to  the  public*  They  constitute  a  vivid  presentation  of  the 
driving  power  of  war,  and  reveal  in  detail  the  daily  life  of  the  soldier,  from  the 
moment  he  answers  the  appeal  of  the  recruiting  sergeant  to  the  time  when  he 
entrains  for  the  Front.  The  section  which  depicts  the  life  of  the  Navy  is,  if 
possible,  even  more  arresting.  Except  for  the  fact  that  an  actual  sea-battle  is 
not  included,  it  would  from  any  other  source  be  well-nigh  impossible  to  get  a 
better  idea  of  what  the  Fleet  is  and  does. 

Price  Is.  Sd.  net. 

THE  ROAD  TO  LIfiGE: 

The  Path  of  Crime,  August  1914. 

By  M.  GUSTAVE  SOMVILLE. 

With  a  Preface  by  HENRY  CARTON  DE  WIART, 
Minister  of  Justice. 

There  have  been  many  books  on  the  German  atrocities  in  Belgium,  and  many 
expositions  of  Germany's  policy  of  "  ^rightfulness, "  and  there  are,  of  course, 
the  voluminous  documents  of  the  War,  but  perhaps  the  most  terrible  is,  "The 
Road  to  Liege."  The  peculiar  value  of  this  book  is  that  it  deals  with  the 
atrocities  committed  just  over  the  frontier.  Von  Bissing  and  the  Emperor  have 
pretended  that  the  German  Army  was  compelled  to  enter  upon  a  campaign  of 
repression  as  the  only  means  of  subduing  a  treacherous  and  ferocious  race.  But 
the  atrocities  recorded  in  this  book  were  committed  within  a  few  miles  of  the 
frontier — within  a  few  hours  or  days  of  the  declaration  of  war.    And  all  was 

irepared— the  details  are  the  same  as  weeks  later:  the  "destruction  squads" 

ad  their  apparatus  ready. 

Price  3s.  6d.  net. 


E 


DOING  THEIR  BIT. 
By  BOYD  CABLE. 

Author  of  "Between  the  Lines." 
With  an  Introduction  by  the  Right  Hon.  D.  LLOYD  GEORGE. 

The  writer,  in  his  recent  book,  "  Between  the  Lines,"  has  in  a  series  of  realistic 
descriptions,  written  at  the  Front  to  the  people  at  home,  given  some  details  of 
the  desperate  struggle  unequally  waged  through  a  lack  of  munitions  in  the  first 
part  of  the  war.  Now,  after  a  tour  of  the  munition  factories^ at  home,  he  writes 
to  tell  the  Front  just  what  is  being  done  to  increase  the  munition  supply. 
Price  Is.   Sd.  net. 

HODDER  AND  STOUGHTON 
ST.  PAUL'S  HOUSE,  WARWICK  SQUARE,  LONDON,  E.C. 


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