England, Canada and the Great War

by L. G. Desjardins

In my French work, I strongly took issue with the views of our pacifists as expressed by their leader and their press. Addressing my French Canadian countrymen on the bounden duties of all loyal British subjects, it was my ardent purpose to tell them the plain truth. Writing, as I did, in 1916, I was then, as I had been from the very beginning, firmly convinced that the conflict would be of long duration, that it was very wrong—even criminal if disloyally inspired—for any one to delude them by vain hopes, or deceive them by false charges.

Having some knowledge of military strategy and tactics, I saw with the clear light of noon day that, despite the gigantic efforts put forth by the Allies, and the admirable heroism of their armies—our Canadian force brilliantly playing its part—final victory would be attained only by indomitable perseverance, both of the millions of fighting men and of the whole Allied nations backing them to the last with their moral and material support. That profound conviction of mine I was very anxious to strongly impress on the minds of my French-Canadian readers, imploring them not to be carried away by the "Nationalist" erroneous pretentions that peace could easily be obtained, if the Allies would only agree to negotiate. I told them plainly, what was absolutely true, that the war aims of Germany were so well known and inadmissible that there was not the least shadow of hope that peace negotiations could lead to a reasonable understanding realizing the two imperious conditions of Justice and Durability in a settlement to which all the Allies were in honour pledged. I explained to them that it was no use whatever to be deluded by expectations, however tempting they might appear, because under the then conditions of the military situation—time and events have since brought no favourable change but quite the reverse—there was not the slightest chance of an opening for a successful consideration of the questions to be debated and settled before the complete cessation of the conflict. There was only one conclusion to be drawn from the circumstances of the case, and, however sad to acknowledge, it was that the fight must be carried on to a final victorious issue, any weakening of determination and purpose being sure to bring about humiliating defeat.

The Only Possible Peace Conditions.

Whenever representatives of the belligerents shall meet to negotiate for peace, there will of course be many questions of first class importance to consider and discuss. But the one which must overshadow any other and of necessity carry the day, is that peace must be restored under conditions that will, if not forever, at least for many long years, protect Humanity and Civilization against a recurrence of such a calamity as ambitious and cruel Germany has criminally imposed upon the world. I urged my French Canadian readers to consider seriously how peace due to a compromise, accepted out of sheer discouragement, would soon develop into a still more trying ordeal than the one Canada had willingly and deliberately undertaken to fight out with the Allies. I forcibly explained to them that if the present war did not result in an international agreement to put an end to the extravagant and ruinous militarism which, under Prussian terrorism, was proving to be the curse of almost the whole universe, all the sacrifices of so many millions of lives, heroically given, of untold sufferings, of so much treasures, would have been made in vain if Germany was allowed to continue a permanent menace to general tranquillity.

It was a wonder to me that any one could fail to understand that an armed peace would be only a truce during which militarism would be spreading with increased vigour and strength. It was evident—and still daily becoming more and more so—that Germany would only consent to it with the determination to renew, on a still much larger scale, her military organization with the purpose of a more gigantic effort at universal domination.

Then was it not plain that labouring under the inevitable necessity of such an international situation, the Allied nations,—the British Empire as much as France, the United States and Italy—would by force be obliged to make the sacrifices required to maintain their military systems in such a state of efficiency as to be always ready to face their ambitious foe with good prospects of success. Such being the undeniable case, I affirmed—I am sure with the best of reasons—that Great Britain could not return to her ante-war policy of the enlistment of only a small standing territorial army, trusting as formerly to her Naval strength for her defence and the safe maintenance of her prestige and power. Like all the continental nations, England would have to incur the very heavy cost of keeping millions of men always fully armed.

I firmly told my French Canadian countrymen that it was no use deluding themselves with the "Nationalist" notion that peace being restored under the above mentioned circumstances, the British Colonies would not be called upon to share, with England, the burdens of the extensive military preparations necessitated for their own safety as well as for that of Great Britain and the whole Empire. The very reasons which had prompted Canada and all her sister Dominions to intervene in the present war, would surely induce them to cooperate with the Mother Country to maintain a highly and costly state of military preparedness in order to be ever ready for any critical emergency.

Could it be believed that after the sad experience of the actual conflict, the Allied nations—Great Britain perhaps more than any other—would blindly once again run the risk of being caught napping and deceived by an unscrupulous and hypocritical enemy, unsufficiently prepared to at once rise in their might to fight for their very national existence and the safety of Mankind against tyrannical absolutism. If such abominable pages of History as those that for the last four years are written with the blood of millions of heroes defending Human Freedom were, by fear of new sacrifices, allowed to be repeated, shame would be on the supposed civilized world having fallen so low as to bow to the dictates of barbarism. Let all truly hearted men hope and pray that no such dark days shall again be the fearful lot of Humanity. Let them all resolve that if the world can at last emerge free from the present hurricane, they will not permit, out of weakness and despondency, the sweeping waves of teutonism to submerge Civilization and destroy the monuments of the work of centuries of the Christian Art.

After showing the dark side of the picture, and what would be the fearful consequences of a German victory, or of an armed peace pending the renewal, with still much increased vigour and resources, of the conflict only suspended, I explained to my French Canadian readers the great advantages to be derived by all, Germany included, from the restoration of peace carrying with it the untold benefits to be derived from the cessation of extravagant military organization, yearly destroying the capital created by hard work and the saving of the millions of the working populations. If an international agreement could be arrived at by which militarism would be reduced to the requirements of the maintenance of interior order and the safeguarding of conventional peace amongst the Powers, then many long years of material prosperity, in all its diversity of beneficial development, would surely follow. Canada, like the other British Colonies, would not have to incur any very large expenditure for military purposes, devoting all her energies to the intelligent building of the grand future which her immense territorial resources would certainly make, not only possible, but sure.

How much could material development be conducive to intellectual, moral and religious progress, if the Nations of the Earth would only sincerely and permanently abide by the Divine teachings of Christianity.