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THE

NATIONAL REVIEW

No. 518. APRIL 1926

What
Wiseacres
Thought

EPISODES OF THE MONTH

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ALL the Wiseacres were at one throughout the opening years of this century, and until, say, August 1st, 1914, that an Anglo-German War was "unthinkable because Peace was "the Greatest of British interests," and the Germans had no more thought of attacking us than we had of attacking them. The so-called "German Danger was a "Scare" invented by invented by "professional Alarmists," worked up by sensation-loving newspapers, and "cranks" with "Germany on the Brain," who ought to be suppressed as a public nuisance-" how could they know anything about German Psychology, German Policy, or German Statesmanship as compared, e.g. with a man such as Lord Haldane, who had translated Schopenhauer in early life, who had kept in close touch with Germany and the Germans ever since, and was personally acquainted with all the leading men of the day, from the Kaiser downwards. What he did not know about Germany could not be worth knowing, and when he pledged his reputation as a pundit that the only thing we need fear in Germany was her higher level of education, it were idle to heed the warnings of men like Lord Roberts and others, who had never translated any German books, nor read any German philosophy, who were unacquainted with German professors, and whose mastery of the German language was questionable." This was plausible if not absolutely convincing. It completely satisfied Front Bench Politicians of all Parties, many able editors, and of course International Financiers, who were so shocked

VOL. LXXXVII

11

at the suggestion that Germany represented anything but Peace and Goodwill, that when the Great War was imminent these Patriots descended en masse upon Downing Street, swearing by all their Gods that Great Britain would be ruined if she withstood the Kaiser's bid for the domination of Europe. The subsequent Catastrophe must be debited primarily to Germany, with her policy of War at any Price -in the second place to our Wiseacres-Political, Journalistic, and Financial-who previously refused to see facts staring them in the face.

The End of War

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SINCE the Great War, which at one time looked as though it might teach common sense, if not wisdom, even to Wiseacres, these have hit on another, and, to them, still more satisfying formula, though actually as futile and perilous as their exploded pre-war dogma of the " Unthinkable" War. As 1914-18 was a War to end War," and as ultimately it ended, ex hypothesi there can never be another war, and all nations that sincerely love Peace may safely beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning-hooks. It is more wicked than ever to regard war as a possibility. Q.E.D. Any sceptics concerning this comfortable post-war theory that mankind has fought and finished its last war are referred to the League of Nations, which is declared to be so impregnable a rock, so powerful a preventive of international conflict, that Responsible Statesmen, such as Viscount Grey of Falloden-whose devoted last-hour efforts to obviate the cataclysm of 1914 are much to his honour, though entirely unsuccessful-go so far as to asseverate that had such a League existed at that time there would have been no war. We have long classified this opinion as among those statements that demonstrate the capacity of the human mind, however honest, to believe whatever it wishes. Had there been a League of Nations during the years Germany was making her prodigious preparations, by land, sea and air, to attack her neighbours-most of whom were asleepGerman Diplomacy would have known how to pervert the entire machinery of the League to her own purposes, and

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