Page:The General Strike (Haywood, ca 1911).pdf/40

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38
THE GENERAL STRIKE

the Germans are a little worse. Yet in spite of the huge campaign of lies and all the efforts of the good, respectable Christian people of England and Germany, to make the working class of each country hate the workers of the other, they have but partially succeeded. In spite of the fact that they have, to their satisfaction, succeeded in getting the workers of so many countries to slay each other, nevertheless the war furnishes some remarkable examples of a comradeship between the soldiers of enemy trenches. Is it not a proof that this comradeship has a tremendous vitality and wish to live, when we see it springing into existence and bearing fruit in such hell holes of hatred as are the battlefields?

It is more than worth while to give some examples of the friendship of German and English soldiers.

All the following quotations have been taken from letters written to friends at home and subsequently published in the Times. Many others might have been quoted, indeed these have been taken from the issue of January 2 alone. Some of those not quoted draw special attention to the fact that the truce was made by the men themselves, without the knowledge of the officers.

An officer of a Highland regiment was evidently taken by surprise by this friendly movement among his men. He says:

"I was horrified at discovering some of our men actually had gone out, imbued more with the idea of seeing the German trenches than anything else; they met half-way, and there ensued the giving of cigarettes and receiving of cigars, and they arranged (the private soldiers of one army and the private soldiers of the other) a 48-hours' armistice. It was all most irregular, but the Peninsular and other wars will furnish many such examples; eventually both sides were induced to return to their respective trenches. . . . Christmas Day was very misty, and out came those Germans to wish us 'Happy Day'; we went out, told them we were at war with them, and that really they must play the game and