‘Thank you, boys,’ said the C.O. quietly, and hurried away. He was afraid of his emotions.
Oh, we did love our dear old commandant!
CHAPTER XIV.
NOT UNDERSTOOD.
Do not believe that we of the New Army are blood-thirsty Bernhardis, always talking about offensives and what not. Not a bit of it! Ninety-nine per cent. of us loathe the whole business, and seventy-five per cent. are opponents of militarism. Indeed, I think we may rightly be described as an army of pacifists in defence of our beliefs. No decent-minded Briton desires to compete with the brutal philosophy of the Hun. The man who says he likes war is either a liar or a Shylock in the supply department. The best way to end war is for the German nation to reduce the German General Staff to the ranks, and let them suffer such a bombardment as we gave the German Tommies prior to the battle of the Somme.
Shell-fire kills militarism.
The great New Army is a successful army, because it has a cause. Its moral is largely based on our love of freedom, truth, ease, and peace at our own fireside. We are a peace-loving people. A navy we have always regarded as an expensive business, the army as a luxury, war as a d—— nuisance and a most uncomfortable affair. War interferes with our commerce, our studies, our games, and our pleasures. War kills and mangles men who have been made in the image of God. It wrecks nations, countries, and homes; brings into millions of lives suffering, poverty, anger, despair, madness, and soul-racking sorrow. It is the most foul, ghastly, ungodly thing that man ever created.
War is hell—a suffering hell, a grisly hell.