War aims (1918)

Post date: Feb 03, 2014 4:1:44 PM

Extract from parish magazine of January 1918.

By the King's command Sunday, January 6th, was observed as a day of prayer and thanksgiving, with reference to the war, in all the churches throughout his dominions. In Wateringbury Church Holy Communion was celebrated at 7 a.m., at 8 and at noon. The Wateringbury Platoon of the Volunteer Force, about 50 strong, under their C.O., Captain Phillips, accompanied by the Adjutant, attended Morning Prayer. All the services were adapted for the occasion according to the forms issued by authority, the Royal Proclamation being read at 7, 11 and 6.30, followed by the National Anthem. At Mattins the Vicar in his sermon, suggesting the adoption, as a motto for the year, of the text, In quietness and confidence shall be your strength, spoke of the strain of the war upon the nerves of the people, and warned his hearers against a consequent tendency to pessimism and fault-finding, and also against gloomy and untrue reports of the condition of the British Army at the front, prompted by discontent and a wrong-headed, class-embittering kind of socialism. In the evening sermon he contrasted the war aims of the Allies, which might be summed up in the prayer Thy kingdom come, with the ambition of the Prussian autocracy, which aimed at world-power by hacking a way to the east through the numerous nationalities, great and small, that stood in the way.

The Royal Proclamation in a few words accurately describes the present position and defines our duty :—

The world-wide struggle for the triumph of right and liberty is entering upon its last and most difficult phase. The enemy is striving by desperate assault and subtle intrigue to perpetuate the wrongs already committed and stem the tide of a free civilization. We have yet to complete the great task to which, more than three years ago. we dedicated ourselves.

The Proclamation, therefore, calls upon us to pray :—

That we may have the clear-sightedness and strength necessary to the victory of our cause. This victory will be gained only if we steadfastly remember the responsibility which rests upon us. ... Let us seek to be enlightened in our understanding and fortified in our courage in facing the sacrifices we may yet have to make before our work is done.

Yes, it is probable that with the New Year we are entering upon the most difficult phase of the struggle, and that the next six months will subject us, as a nation, to a severe test of courage and endurance.

It is probable also that the difficulty will lie more with us at home than with the armies in the field. During the last year the British forces have abundantly proved their superiority. With two comparatively trifling exceptions their skill and bravery have carried them everywhere to success; in Salonika, where from the nature of the country only an 'offensive defensive' is possible, in Mesopotamia, Palestine and on the western front, where all along the line they have captured the high ground from an enemy that has always been numerically stronger. It may be that on that front also our armies, in view of an accession of strength to the enemy, will be compelled to act for a time in an 'offensive defensive,' awaiting the assembling of reinforcements from America, but we have no fear of their ability to hold their own in the meantime if we keep them well supplied with men and materials. The danger, if any, lies with us at home. The complete success of German intrigue in Russia, its partial success in Italy and its threatening aspect in France; the consequent failure of our hope to finish the war six months ago the uncertainty of the submarine campaign and its effect upon our food-supplies: coupled with the possibility of a long continuance of the struggle—these things have tended to make some few of our people wonder whether it is worth while to persevere in the task we undertook three years ago, involving so much misery and loss of life. Perhaps this tendency, signs of which began to appear in the closing months of last year, would not have deserved serious consideration but for the fact that it was fostered by doubts entertained in certain quarters with regard to the nature of our "war aims." Perhaps, also, these doubts have been dissipated for the time being by the recent declarations of Mr. Lloyd George and President Wilson. But the ignorance on which doubts and tendencies towards a weakening of our perseverance rested still prevails to a very large extent in spite of those declarations, and they constitute a real danger to the success of our cause. It is ignorance of the political conditions that caused the war; lack of knowledge of the real war aims of the Prussian autocracy—war aims which the enemy cunningly refrain from publishing to the world now, but which they did not hesitate to disseminate among their own peoples by lectures and literature in preparation for the struggle. Our own education has been sadly defective. If we understood the aims of Prussian ambition we should not for one moment entertain the idea of peace without complete victory. We should see the true inwardness of German peace-traps. We should know that even if Germany gave up all the territory she has over-run in Belgium, France, Italy and Russia, she would now stand to gain almost all she has been aiming at if we consented to a premature peace. She would be left in a stronger position than she enjoyed in 1914 to embark on "the next war"—if indeed another war should prove necessary to enable her to consolidate and extend the fruits of victory. The King's Proclamation is right, therefore, in exhorting us to a 'clear-sighted understanding' of the position. We need to be " enlightened." It is only a clear understanding that will inspire us to maintain our determination to face any sacrifices that may be involved in a fight to a finish, if that be necessary "before our work is done." It would repay all expense and trouble if the National War Aims Committee were to organise dissemination of information of the right sort, by lectures and leaflets, throughout the country. Failing that, or in the meantime, the Proclamation implicitly appeals to the influence of our pulpits. Hitherto we clergy, for the most part, have concentrated upon the purely spiritual side of the war—upon the inspiration to courage and self-sacrifice that comes from the truths of our religion. Now we are called upon to take a wider view, and to consider the national and political aspects of the war : this is the Vicar's apology, if apology be needed, for the character of his sermon at the evening service on Jan. 6th.

We have no space here to do more than indicate the lines of study necessary for a clear understanding of Prussian ambition, which is summed up in the German expression world-dominion. Some of them may be followed, by those who have leisure to read and opportunity to spread the knowledge they require, in a little book of essays which bears the somewhat misleading title of The War and Democracy, published by Macmillan, at the price of 2s. net. The key to the whole matter lies in a study of the Balkan question. Austria is to absorb the independent Balkan States, and to extend her power to the ports of the Adriatic and the Black Seas. The political supremacy of Germany over Austria and Turkey is already an accomplished fact. The great Berlin-Constantinople railway, already completed, will be linked up, by a tunnel under the straits, with Adriatic lines through Asia Minor, Kurdistan and Northern Persia, to Afghanistan (flanking and so threatening India), and through Bokhara to China and the Far East. It is significant that German intrigue has long been busy in Persia, working to upset the treaty rights of Russia and England in that country, and that the Bolshevists have already been negotiating the abandonment of the Russian sphere of influence in Northern Persia.

It has recently been said that a German Berlin-Baghdad railway scheme has been rendered bankrupt by the British occupation of Jerusalem and Baghdad: but such an overland route to Persia, with tentacles branching south here and there, towards Aleppo and down the Tigris, would be adequately safe-guarded from British interference, and would in time render the British occupation of Palestine and Mesopotamia insecure. The Mediterranean would be at the mercy of submarines working from the Dalmatian ports, and Egypt would be vulnerable through the ancient highway of Palestine. In considering all this, it is to be remembered that in case of a future war between Britain and Germany in these eastern countries the enemy's direct overland communications by rail would be immune from attack, and they would be much shorter and easier than our means of transport by long and perilous sea routes.

This is the ambition of German world-policy, and it means world-power: a premature peace would simply make Prussia a present of it. And it means also the extinction of the hopes of all the little nationalities which are longing and striving for independence and freedom, not only in the Balkan peninsula, but also in Austria, where the Czechs and Slovaks are groaning under the yoke of the Magyars and German-Austrians.

The Great War is the culminating phase of the long-standing struggle between the rival claims of Prussian autocracy, lusting for world dominion, and nationalities that stand in her way, fighting each one for liberty of self-government, the evolution of its own kind of civilization, the use of its own language, the preservation of its own system of education and varied institutions—in a word, for freedom of self-expression and development. Which shall win? tyranny and hatred or freedom and goodwill?

P.S.—Since the above was written and despatched to the printer the writer has realised that the Pan-German party, while making a show of laying stress on the permanent occupation by Germany of Flanders (as against England) and of Alsace-Lorraine (as against France), affects to deprecate or even to ignore any German ambition to establish a great Central European State (Mittel-Europa) to ensure a highway to the east. This is their peace-trap. They have practically got all they want, for the present, in Central Europe, and if our allies let them retain it they will doubtless be willing to make peace on those terms, making a show of concession by giving up Belgium and Alsace-Lorraine. That is the trap they are laying for us, and if we fall into it we shall have sounded the death-knell of the British Empire. We should study the position with the help of big maps.

THE CHRISTMAS DINNER TABLE COLLECTIONS, described in the December number of the Parish Magazine., for the St. Dunstan's "Blinded Soldiers' Children Fund," realised £16 3s. 7d. The envelopes, collected by the Scouts (G. Shepherd, F. Green, A. Jukes, C. Wells, E. King, G. Crampton, W. Stow, A. Newick and C. Curd), and returned to Scout Master Smith, contained sums ranging from 1d. up to £2 4s.

A private entertainment, in which some of our young people (Morton Lambarde, Livett, Southwell-Sander and Warburton) acted a children's play, was repeated for the benefit of the same charity in the Church Room, on New Year's Day, and realised £6 9s. 9d., of which 7s. came from the sale of programmes, hand-painted by some of our budding artists. The hire of the Church Room was kindly paid by a friend, so that the Vicar has been able to send up the whole of these two sums, amounting to £22 13s. 4d., to St. Dunstan's. The first part of the programme consisted of songs given by Evelyn Martin, and the wounded soldiers of Barham Court Hospital¹, piano solos by Elsie Dickerson, and a recitation (The Revenge), by Cecilia Livett. The scene of the play represented the witching hour of midnight when toy-dolls come to life and play and dance together with the supposition that if they can pass an hour without quarreling and pair off in affianced love they will turn into real boys and girls like their owners. Their amusing efforts to realise their transformation end in failure, and the stroke of one o'clock sees them lapse again into inanimation.

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The sum of £12 8s. 7d. has been sent to the British Red Cross as the result of the collections in church on January 6th.

*****

Mr. Walter Phillips, C.O. of the Wateringbury Platoon of the Kent Volunteer Regiment, is appealing for funds to meet certain expenses which the War Office does not defray, such as hire of an orderly room and drill hall, vehicles to take the men to the Rifle Range at Birling, train service being impracticable, and the like. The Platoon has been highly complimented on the efficiency it has attained in the short period of its existence. It deserves, and we feel sure it will receive, the support required to relieve its hard-working commandant from financial worries in respect of it. Doubtless he will be glad to acknowledge the gift of small sums from such as cannot afford to send him cheques or treasury notes.

*****

KENTISH PRISONERS OF WAR.—In the lists published last month Mrs. Benfield's total of £7 13s. 0d. included 2s. 6d. given by the Rev. F. M. Richards, whose name was inadvertently omitted; and the heading "Mr. Stone" was a misprint for "Mr. Stow."

*****

The treasurer of the Schools War Savings Association recently purchased its 200th certificate (15s. 6d.), and the event was celebrated by a little ceremony in the Girls' School in the presence of teachers and the Vicar, as representing the managers, and some members of his family. Mrs. Leney (manager) and Mr. Baker (correspondent) were unfortunately unable to be present, and sent their regrets. The Vicar talked to the children, impressing upon them the value of their savings, not only to the country, the Government needing every penny it could get to feed the fighting forces with men and munitions, and to win the war, but also to the children themselves, as teaching them how to invest their savings profitably. There was some fun as well as seriousness in the proceedings. At the suggestion of Miss Harvey, the Vicar was glad to refund the little sum that purchased the certificate, and to let the members draw for it. It was suitably won by little Freddie Underhill, whose father and three brothers are all serving in the forces.

*****

Mr. Edgar Smith is arranging a Scouts' entertainment, in the form of a pantomime, to be held in the Church Rooms on the afternoon and evening of Wednesday, 23rd inst.

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THE MAGAZINE.—This is the first number issued without the usual 'inside' (The Sign) for reasons of both of economy and patriotism. Paper is very scarce, its manufacture and printing involves expense and labour which might be devoted to the prosecution of the war, and its use for any other purpose is to be deprecated. We hope that the continued issue of the 'outside' for the duration of the war will contribute in its small way to that end by helping to keep Wateringbury's spirits up to the mark. And we hope, therefore, that subscribers will continue to pay the old rates of subscription (1s. a year for cottagers and not less than 2s. for other householders), which we find will be necessary to keep the Magazine going.

Notes:

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