England, Canada and the Great War

by L. G. Desjardins

And what are the terms of this astonishing proposal? I will mention only two of them.

First: "That Belgium shall remain neutral until the end of the war."

That Germany should have decided to address such a demand to Belgium is truly inconceivable. Has she forgotten the days when Belgium was neutral, and determined to remain so, under the joint protection of England, France and Germany, bound by solemn treaty to uphold Belgian independence? Does she not realize that if Belgium has not been neutral up to this day, she has been the cause of it in tearing to pieces the scrap of paper which should have been the sacred shield of the nation she criminally martyred? After having violated Belgium's frontier, overrun her territory, destroyed her happy homes, murdered by thousands her children, her women, her mothers, her old men, ransomed her to the tune of hundreds of millions, without granting her liberty, shattered her monuments of arts, she has the impudence to ask her to betray those who hastened to her defence, and who are pledged to require the restoration of her complete independence with due reparation as one of the essential conditions of peace. A more brazen outrage cannot be imagined. It is on a par with that addressed to England whose neutrality Germany wanted to secure at the cost of her honour in betraying France.

What was the true object of Germany in making such a proposition? Was it not to protect herself against the increasing likelihood that the Allied army would soon be able to enter on German soil by passing through Belgium. But in that event, so much to be hoped for, there would be that difference that whilst Germany invaded Belgium in sheer violation of her solemn treaty obligations, France, England and the United States would honour themselves in turning the guilty invaders out of the soil they have sullied by their hideous presence and their horrible savageness.

The second German peace proposition to Belgium reads as follows:—"That Belgium shall use her good offices to secure the return of the German colonies."

And such a request is made by the Power that, in spite of the treaties it was in honour bound to respect, ordered the German army to conquer Belgium in a dastardly rush, in order to reach France at once and crush her out of the conflict before she could be helped by Great Britain and her Colonies! Incredible indeed!

Germany and Austria knew very well that their proposals would be indignantly and contemptuously rejected. But they had a twofold object in making them. First, they wanted to stir up their own peoples to further efforts in carrying on the struggle by throwing upon the Allies the apparent responsibility of refusing even a confidential and unbinding discussion of the question of the restoration of peace.

Second, they were anxious to make a strong bid for the support of the pacifists of the Allied countries.

How much will they succeed in galvanizing the enthusiasm of their peoples for another grand effort, remains to be seen.

So far as their attempt to move our pacifists to exert themselves in favour of a peace by compromise, it has already met with a complete failure. Our Nationalist pacifists are getting so few and so far between, that they will most likely once more disappear and give up the street propaganda.