organisation, and shown that when national sentiment is appealed to, governments can still count on an overwhelming response. But though that is so, the international forces are real and vital. And it is part of the tragedy of the war that it divides not only nation against nation, but in every man the national against the international mind. M. Rolland is one of the many who believe, though their voice for the moment may be silenced, that the spiritual forces that are important and ought to prevail are the international ones; that co-operation, not war, is the right destiny of nations; and that all that is valuable in each people may be maintained in and by friendly intercourse with the others. The war between these two ideals is the greater war that lies behind the present conflict. It will continue to be waged when that conflict is determined, and it will make itself felt immediately when the time comes for dis- cussing the future settlement of Europe. Hundreds and thousands of generous youths in England have gone to battle in the belief that they are going to a “war that will end war,” that they are fighting against militarism in the cause of peace. Whether, indeed, it is for that they will have risked or lost their lives, only the event can show. There are those in this country, and in all countries, very powerful, very determined, who intend, quite frankly, to destroy internationalism, and to perpetuate hatred, mistrust and war between nations. It is these men who are the enemies of M. Rolland and of all who think and feel with him. And his friends are all those in all countries who are determined in spite of this catastrophe, nay because of it, to work for permanent peace between the nations of the west, and for their co-operation in the great work of civilisation. What we are fighting, in fighting Germany, is the national spirit carried to a height of cynical unscrupulousness which shocks even the nationalists of other countries. Let us beware lest the only result of the war be to enthrone the same spirit in our own country.
- King's College,
- Cambridge.
- November, 1914.
- Cambridge.
