No matter now the rights and wrongs of it;
You fought us bravely and we fought you fair.
The fight is done. Grip hands! No malice bear!
We greet you, brothers, to the nobler strife
Of building up the newer, larger life!
Join hands! Join hands! Ye nations of the stock!
And make henceforth a mighty Trust for Peace;—
A great enduring peace that shall withstand
The shocks of time and circumstance; and every land
Shall rise and bless you—and shall never cease
To bless you—for that glorious gift of Peace.
Germany, if she had so willed, could have come into that hoped-for Trust for Peace.
But Germany would not. She put her own selfish interests before all else and so digs her own grave.
JOHN OXENHAM.
Belgium in Holland
THE PROMISE
"We shall never sheath the sword until Belgium recovers all, and more than all that she has sacrificed."—Mr. Asquith, 9th November, 1914.