War Articles and Notes 

BY 

Annie Besant

LONDON

THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY

161 NEW BOND STREET, W.

CITY AGENCY: 3 AMEN CORNER, E.C. 1915 

PUBLISHERS’ NOTE 

IN response to frequent inquiries for “some­thing that Mrs. Besant has written about the war”, the following articles and notes, written between August 1914 and March 1915, have been gathered from the pages of Mrs. Besant’s three journals, viz... New India, The Common­weal, and The Theosophist. The publishers are indebted to Dr Mary Rocke for collecting and forwarding, with the author’s permission, a large amount of material from which this selection has been made. 

DEEPER ISSUES RAISED BY THE WAR 

BEHIND WAR? 

IT is the custom in modern days so to praise peace, and to be so horrified at the ghastly physical concomitants of war, that it does not seem to strike people to look quietly into the question, and to ask themselves why a thing so obviously hideous and brutal should have gone on from time immemorial with the persistence of a natural phenomenon. There are many who are so obsessed by the visions of mangled corpses, of mutilated living bodies, of gaping wounds, of flowing blood, of the agony of un-slaked thirst, of the  irremediable maiming of strong young bodies, and of all the attendant torture of mothers, wives, sweethearts, children, living through long agonies of slow suspense to be ended only by the news of the beloved as a corpse or a cripple, that they cannot master the indignant emotion that tears at their hearts, nor see through their angry, tear-filled eyes any fair fruits from sowings so foul. To ask [1] them to reason is almost to insult them, and they are ready to knock one down in order to demonstrate the beauty of peace.

None the less, as we look backwards over history, we see that invasions of one people by another have spread the knowledge and the arts of the more civilised nation through­out the less civilised. Alexander came and went, but he left behind him in Indian sculp­ture the serene beauty of Greek art; the Muslims came, and gave a new architecture and an exquisite wealth of design and of orna­mentation, that was cheaply purchased by endurance of the cruelties of an Aurungzeb. How much poorer had Spain been, if the Moors had not conquered her fairer provinces; how un-civilised England, if the Normans had not trampled down her peasantry; how Europe would have failed to learn the exquisite lessons of chivalry, had its nations never met the Saracens in Palestine, and if the light of Science had not come to her in the Crescent that shone from the banners of the invaders!

But what of the individuals? If people see in man only the creature of a few years of  mortal life, born out of nothingness, to sink into nothingness again in dying; then indeed should all lovers of man raise the cry of “Peace at any price”, for war means death, and death is the end of all hope of joyous life. Or, if man believes himself to be a vessel moulded by God as clay by a potter, with no [2] past to explain him and no future to evolve him; with a heaven or a hell on the other side of death, where virtue would be a seedless flower and vice an enduring weed; then, again, war could have no meaning and no use, bringing but worse doom of useless pain into a lot already but too dreary and too bootless.

But if man be an eternal spiritual intelli­gence, evolving through many lives into a  nobler and loftier existence; if the fruits of each life be garnered and ripen into seeds for  planting in another, and so on, and on, as the Hindu believes, until the Self which was but as a seed has grown into a mighty tree; then war, like all other happenings in a world “that exists for the sake of the Self”, has under the rough husk of evil the sweet kernel of lasting good. For though the body be slain or mutilated, the man is living still; he has learned to offer life and limb on the altar of a great Ideal that otherwise he would not have known: he dies for King and Country - a King he may never have seen, a Country which is not of plains and hills and cities, but of splendours and radiances and beauties of ideal might and loveliness that else he had not dreamed. And he does not only die; he lives through hardship and pain. The scented darling of a luxurious drawing-room and the village ruffian of the pothouse march  side by side through freezing torrent, across sun-parched desert; they starve, they are [3] fevered and chilled, they joke as they go to cheer each other, they learn to know each other as men, they suffer for the country’s “honour”, they die for the country’s “flag”. What is “honour”, what is “flag”? Mere empty breath of a poet? Nay, they are the mighty forces which evolve the hero from the sybarite and the drunkard, and turn the brute into the man.

When we read of the awful slaughter and image the piles of the wounded, let us forget the pain of the bodies, and realise the swift evolution of the man. Let us realise the unending life, rather than the broken form, and then we shall realise why the saffron-­robed Rajput rode singing into the battle, leaving wife and daughter as fire-blackened corpses behind him, knowing that at eventide they would be reunited, and that over the agony of the shattered bodies the freed men and women would again join hands, smiling at the passing pain that brought them joy so rich. - New India, August 29, 1914.

“GOD’S TEMPLES”

IN a telegram received yesterday, we are told that H.H. the new Pope has addressed a protest to the German Kaiser against the demolition of Rheims Cathedral. The Pope is reported to have expressed himself as [4] follows: “When you destroy temples of God, you provoke the Divine ire before which even the most potent armies lose all power”. We do not think slightingly of the great Roman Catholic Church, or of its new Head, of whom we have all reason to expect that he will prove himself a capable, noble-minded, and venerable leader of his Church; and yet we cannot help dissenting in a most trenchant way from the sentiments expressed in the telegram. To us they represent a hopeless confusion of ideas and a sorrowful falsifica­tion of ideals. First, the minor objection. The Rheims Cathedral stands unique as a work of art, as an historical document wrought in stone and marble, irreplaceable. But it is not on this ground that its demolition is con­demned, not for the sin committed, in its violation, towards civilisation, culture, art. All that is passed by in silence; the only ground given is the mediaeval argument that this was a “home of God”. But the Pope must surely know that “where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them”. Where such meet­ings take place, there are the true temples of God to be found, in a more real and religious sense than any architectural monument can be so, which for scores of years has attracted more tourists than devotees to its shrine. The second objection is the moral argument used: “You insult God; God will in His ire strike [5] you in return”. That is monkish and medi­aeval again, not sound or refined morality. We would have vastly preferred the categorical argument: “Be not a barbarian, not cruel, no vandal,” to the Jehovean threat, “Don’t touch My churches, or I will smite you”. Lastly, there is the old, old mistake of the Church of taking the outer for the inner; the building for the spirit; the shrine for the soul.  Where is the supreme Pontiff’s condemnation of the root, the naked reality, of all the brutish, hellish barbarity? “Ye are the living temple of God. The God dwelleth in you.” Where is the condemnation of the demolition and ruin of the 80,000 German “temples of God” lying unburied before Maubeuge; of the 1200 “temples of God” sunk a day ago in the North Sea; of the tens of thousands of Austrian “temples of God” destroyed in Galicia and damming up its rivers; of the untold other “temples of God” hungering, maimed, plunged in sorrow and pain or ruined, in France, Belgium, England, India, Germany, Russia, Servia, Austria, all over the world?

No, the great Priest of the Seven Hills has - if the reported telegram is authentic - not shown well in this his first international utter­ance. This is priestly, not human, talk, in answer to the voices of hell that have broken loose. What humanity at this moment wants is not the prattle of priests, but words truly divine, ringing out the life-giving note we are [6] dying to hear. Anything falling short of this also fails to answer the human cry of despair, the wail of pain, that arises to the skies from a world in sorrow, plunged in darkness and anguish of soul. Is there no religion left on earth which can bring forth such a voice? - ­New India, September 26, 1914.

SACRILEGE

AN incredible outrage - which will raise every Catholic against the Germans - has been perpe­trated by the armies of the Kaiser in Belgium. It is wired to the London Standard, and was printed in our columns in the earliest edition yesterday. The monastery at Montaigne was occupied by the New Barbarians, and the monks had been ordered to accommodate fifty German soldiers. The large hall and kitchen were assigned to them. More than two hundred came instead of fifty, but the monks managed to put them up. In the middle of the night, the Germans, presumably drunk, began firing into the rooms to which the monks had retired, drove them into the cellars, and treated them with foul insults. Next day they broke into the interior and plundered it, breaking what they could not steal. In the chapel, they scattered the Host over the altar, and carried away the sacred vessels. They then roped the monks together, and dragged them through [7] the town, flogged them, and turned them adrift. The words we have italicised con­stitute the outrage we have called incredible. The Host has for the Catholics - Roman or otherwise - a sancity that is unique. This is not the place to describe what it means to the true Catholic. But everyone who is capable of reverencing the deepest and holiest feelings of a brother human being will shrink at the idea of such outrage. It is the action of gorillas, not of men. Sworn evidence of the outrages has been sent to the Vatican.  What will the Pope do? If he is worthy of his office, he will use the religious weapon which strikes a religious crime, leaving un­believers wholly unaffected, while it calls on believers to defend their holiest beliefs. He will excommunicate the armies of Germany and Austria, and lay an interdict on the two Empires. It is a mediaeval weapon, but where the restraints of modern civilisation are not present it is the appropriate one to use. The Church may rightly exclude from her communion those who have desecrated her holiest treasure. Austria is the great Catholic Power. Will she send her armies to fight side by side with the German troops after this grossest of all sacrileges? She sees what the triumph of the Hohenzollerns means for Catholicism. Will she seat Wilhelm II. on the desecrated altar of her faith? - New India, October 29, 1914. [8]

THE HORRORS OF WAR

WHAT is the duty of the journalist in time of war? Ought he, in order to enhearten  the nation for which he is writing, to record every ghastly story that comes from the scenes  of battle, and so inflame to madness the hatred against the foe? Ought he to publish stories, however well authenticated, which describe isolated crimes, due to the brutality of individuals, and which are not the deeds of armies, of soldiers under command, inflicted as part of a deliberate plan, a carrying out of a theory, but the shameful cruelties of human  madmen, vile actions due to individual lust and wickedness?

These questions arise in our mind an account of the large number of stories we find in the English papers received during the last few weeks. They contain the most frightful stories of German cruelties, tales that make the blood run cold. And one asks oneself: “Ought one to reprint these horrors, which are perhaps true? Does the circulation of these serve any good purpose? Must not their very reading tend to create a morbid taste for horrors, and to sow seeds of hatred that will bear ghastly fruit hereafter? Some of us know many Germans, kindly, gentle people, men and women. But Germany must have, as all nations have, alas! some human brutes among the masses of her kindly people, [9] and these glut themselves with cruelties in the licence given by war. Shall we not rather draw a veil over them, and not blacken the German nation by their record? We do not judge England by her Bill Sykes, nor France by her Apaches. Why judge Germany by these?”

By published books, by the teachings of her statesmen, her historians, her Emperor, by the directions given to her soldiers, by these we may, and must, judge of the peril to the world of the German Empire. We are bound to say that this New Barbarism is a danger to humanity, to civilisation, to evolu­tion. We must nerve our readers to be ready to face to the death this Ideal of Darkness which has arisen in Europe, this negation of all that is noblest, this embodiment of Force as the only right. In this conflict of ideals we must speak out plainly, clearly, decisively. But with isolated facts that can only madden and debase in the reading, over these we think we have the right to be silent.

It would be interesting to know on this the views of leading journalists. Perhaps our Madras editors, and editors in other parts of India, would say what they think? - New India, November 23, 1914. [10]

TWO WORLD-EMPIRES

ALL over the world is the tumult of war; the lurid light of devastated homes blazes out from the burning towns of Belgium; the relics of past ages in Louvain and Rheims and Dinant have been hammered into pieces by the new hammer of Thor; hundreds of thousands of men, killed or wounded, strew the fields that should have been yellowing for the sickle; all the fair, peaceful industries of common life are whelmed in one red ruin.

And for what is all this pain, this agony of wrenched muscles and shattered limbs, this blasting of bright young lives, this destruction of glowing hopes? In the pictures of the killed that appear in the illustrated papers there are so many faces glad with the sunshine of life, bright faces of young manhood, dawn­ing into virility, faces that mothers must have loved so dearly, must have kissed so passion­ately as they sent them forth. As one looks at them, one sees them trampled into crimson mud, shattered by bursting shell, riven by cut of sabre, and is glad that the earth should hide the horror of what was once so fair. Clear eyes, looking out so brightly upon joyous life, that have gazed unflinchingly into the eyes of death. Lips, still showing the gracious curves of youth, that hardened in the battle-crash, to relax again only in the peace of death. [11]

And all for what? For what the broken hearts in all the homes in which these gallant lads were light and joy? For what the anguish of the widows of these other men, beyond the first flush of youth, who left behind them their life’s treasure, with the children who shall watch for their fathers’ coming - useless watching, for homeward he will never come again? For what the myriads of darkened homes, whose breadwinners, hus­bands and sons, fathers and lovers, find no record in the pictured pages, though dear to the hearts that love them as are the noble and the wealthy who thereon have their place? For what the world’s great anguish, mourning over her slaughtered sons? For what?

There have been wars begun for transient objects, for the conquest of a piece of land, for the weakening of a rival, for the gaining of added power, begun because of ambition, of greed, of jealousy, of insult. In such wars, lives are flung away for trifles, though the men who suffer in them, or who die, win out of their own anguish added strength and beauty of character, full reward for the pain endured; for they return with the spoils of victory into new avenues of ascending life, and with them it is very well. Such wars are evil in their origin, however much the divine alchemy may transmute the base into fine gold. [12]

But this war is none of these. In this war mighty principles are battling for the mastery. Ideas are locked in deadly combat. The direction of the march of our present civilisa­tion, upwards or downwards, depends on the issue of the struggle. Two ideals of world­-empire are balanced on the scales of the future. That is what raises this war above all others known in the brief history of the West; it is the latest of the pivots on which, in successive ages, the immediate future of the world has turned. To die, battling for the right, is the gladdest fate that can befall the youth in the joy of his dawning manhood, the man in the pride of his strength, the elder in the wisdom of his maturity - ay, and the aged in the rich splendour of his whitened head. To be wounded in this war is to be enrolled in the ranks of humanity’s warriors, to have felt the stroke of the sacrificial knife, to bear in the mortal body the glorious scars of an immortal struggle.

Of the two possible world-empires, that of Great Britain and that of Germany, one is already far advanced in the making, and shows its quality, with Dominions and Colonies, with India at its side. The other is but in embryo, but can be judged by its theories, with the small examples available as to the fashion of their outworking in the few colonies that it is founding, the outlining of the unborn embryo. [13]

The first embodies - though as yet but partially realised - the ideal of freedom; of  ever-increasing self-government; of peoples rising into power and self-development along  their own lines; of a supreme government “broad-based upon the people’s will”; of fair and just treatment of undeveloped races, aiding not enslaving them: it embodies the embryo of the splendid democracy of the future; of the new civilisation, co-operative, peaceful, progressive, artistic, just, and free - a brotherhood of nations, whether the nations be inside or outside the world-empire. This is the ideal; and that Great Britain has set her feet in the path which leads to it is proved not only by her past interior history with its struggles towards liberty, but also by her granting of autonomy to her colonies, her formation of the beginnings of self-government in India, her constantly improving attitude towards the undeveloped races - as in using the Salvation Army to civilise the criminal tribes in India - all promising ad­vances towards the ideal. Moreover, she has ever sheltered the oppressed exiles, flying to her shores for refuge against their tyrants - the names of Kossuth, Mazzini, Kropotkin, shine out gloriously as witnesses in her favour; she has fought against the slave-trade and well-nigh abolished it. And at the present moment she is fighting in defence of keeping faith with those too small to exact it; in [14]defence of treaty obligations and the sanctity of a nation’s pledged word; in defence of national honour, of justice to the weak, of that law, obedience to which by the strong States is the only guarantee of future peace, the only safeguard of society against the tyranny of brute strength. For all this Great Britain is fighting, when she might have stood aside, selfish and at ease, watching her neigh­bours tearing each other into pieces, waiting until their exhaustion made it possible for her to impose her will. Instead of thus remain­ing, she has sprung forward, knight-errant of Liberty, servant of Duty. With possible  danger of civil war behind her, with supposed possible revolt in South Africa and India, with  shameful bribes offered for her standing aside, she spurned all lower reasonings, and, springing to her feet, sent out a lion’s roar of defiance to the breakers of treaties, uttered a ringing shout for help to her peoples, flung her little army to the front - a veritable David against Goliath - to gain time, time, that the hosts might gather, to hold the enemy back at all  costs, let die who might of her children; called for men to her standard, men from the nobles, from the professions, from the trades, men from the plough, from the forge, from the mine, from the furnace; and this not for gain - she has naught to gain from the war - but because she loved liberty, honour, justice, law, better than life or treasure, that she [15]counted glorious death a thousand-fold more desirable than shameful existence bought by cowardly ease. For this, the nations bless her; for this, her dying sons adore her; for this, history shall applaud her; for this, shall the world-empire be hers with the consent of all free peoples, and she shall be the pro­tector, not the tyrant, of humanity.

The second claimant of world-empire em­bodies the ideal of autocracy founded on force. The candidate proclaims himself the War-Lord, and in his realm no master save himself; he declares to his army, as he flings his sword into the scales of war:

“Remember that the German people are the chosen of God. On me, on me, as German Emperor, the Spirit of God has descended. I am His weapon, His sword, and His vicegerent. Woe to the dis­obedient. Death to cowards and unbelievers.”

The thinkers, the teachers of his people have formulated the theory of the world-empire; it recognises no law in dealing with states save that of strength, no arbitrament save war. Its own self-interest is declared to be its only motive; its morality is based on the increase of the power of its empire; the weak have no rights; the conquered nations must be “left only eyes to weep with”; woe to the conquered! woe to the weak! woe to the helpless! All religions save the reli­gion of force are superstitious, their morality is outgrown. Murder, robbery, arson - all are [16]permissible, nay, praiseworthy, in invading hosts. Mercy is contemptible. Chivalry is an anachronism. Compassion is feebleness. Art and literature have no sanctity. The women, the children, the aged - they are all weak; why should not strong men use them as they will? All undeveloped races are the prey of the “civilised”. And we are not left without signs of the application of the theory. Herr Schlettwein instructs the German Reichs­tag on the “principles of colonization”;

“The Hereros must be compelled to work, and to work without compensation and in return for their food only. Forced labour for years is only a just punishment, and at the same time it is the best method of training them. The feelings of Christianity and philanthropy, with which the missionaries work, must for the present be repudi­ated with all energy.”

General von Trotha, tired even of enslaving them, proclaims:

“The Herero people must now leave the land. If it refuses I shall compel it with the gun. Within the German frontier every Herero, with or without weapon, with or without cattle, will be shot. I shall take charge of no more women and children, but shall drive them back to their people or let them be shot at.”

The proclamation was carried out: thou­sands were shot; thousands were “driven into a waterless desert, where they perished of hunger and thirst”. On this sample, we [17] refuse the goods offered. Moreover, we have seen the Empire at work, carrying out in Belgium its theories of murder, rape, and loot. The “chosen people of the [German] God” stink in the nostrils of Europe. This embryo­-Empire of the bottomless pit, conceived of hatred and shaped in the womb of ambition, must never come to the birth. It is the New Barbarism; it is the antithesis of all that is noble, compassionate, and humane. Human­ity knows the ways of Goths, Vandals, and Huns, the Berserker rage of the Vikings; it refuses to bow down before the idol of force, the negation of law, of freedom, of justice, and of peace. They that make the sword the arbitrament shall perish by the sword. The war Germany has provoked, as her road to empire, shall crush her militarism, free her people, and usher in the reign of peace.

Because these things are so, because the fate of the next age of the world turns on the  choice made now by the nations, I call on all who are pledged to universal brotherhood, all Theosophists the world over, to stand for right against might, law against force, free­dom against slavery, brotherhood against  tyranny. - Theosophist, November 1914. [18]

DIVINE INCARNATION

THE whole Christian world today is cele­brating the birth of its Saviour, or ought to be celebrating it; for who can say what will happen on Christmas Day 1914, since some nine millions of nominally Christian men are furiously endeavouring to annihilate each other? The Pope, with a true intuition, sought to still the tumult of battle on the natal day of “the Prince of Peace”, so that the roar of guns should not intrude into the quiet hour, when

“Very early, very early,

Christ was born.”

The Babe of Bethlehem might well have been granted the “truce of God”, and gentle memories of home and family might have brooded over the silent trenches. But his proposal was rejected, and gloom, instead of joy, must rest upon the nations. For our­selves, though not Christians, we have no mind to wax sarcastic over the gulf between Christ’s peace and love and Christian practice. The war is too terrible and sad a thing to be used as a weapon against any creed, especially by one who believes that the “Resist not evil” of the Sannyasin is no teaching for the man of the world. To us, war, waged in defence of the weak, of honour and of plighted faith, against a nation which is trampling on all [19] public morality, is a righteous thing, and to die in it is to die well. But then we regard the Sermon on the Mount as being teaching for the Sannyasin only, and in no wise in­tended as a general rule.

Apart from this, the doctrine of Divine In­carnation is found in all great religions, and implies a universal truth - that the human spirit is divine, that every man is a divine incarnation, that the great Christian apostle St Paul spoke a sober and literal truth when he asked: “Know ye not that your bodies are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” In the cave of man’s heart burns the Light Eternal, the “light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world”. As the soiled glass of a lamp may dim the flame when the flame is seen through it, and yet the flame remaineth the same, so is the Divine Spirit in His shining dimmed by human ignorance, human folly, human sin. Clean the glass, and the light shines out. Purify the lower nature, and the Divine Light radiates through it.

As witnesses to this universal truth, man has loved to see in the noblest of the human race the fact of Divine Incarnation proved so that all may behold it. When the Jews, in their zeal, accused the Christ of blasphemy, because “thou, being a man, makest thyself God”, His answer was the gentle quotation of a Hebrew scripture: “I said, Ye are gods”. [20] In the dead faiths as well as in the living ones “God made man” was adored. Mithra and Osiris and Tammuz were as dear to their votaries as the Christ and Shri Krishna are to hundreds of millions of men today.

The Hindus, in the many-sided perfection of their noble faith, hold the doctrine of Divine Incarnation in a form of striking completeness. Christ as man shows out one side of human nature in its perfection; the sufferer, the martyr, the man of sorrows, and the pathetic figure draws the heart in bonds of love. But Hinduism represents divine­-human perfection in the many-sided aspects of human life. Perfect son, perfect brother, perfect king, perfect warrior, perfect ascetic, Shri Rama shines out in many-coloured glory. Joyous child, radiant youth, mighty warrior, steadfast friend, wisest counsellor, skilful statesman, Shri Krishna dominates all higher human roles. But that is the unique beauty of Hinduism that it meets us in every walk of life, and holds up ideals for every stage of evolution. Like Nature herself, it has forms for the manifestation of every type of life.

To all, then, of every faith, in every land, be peace and goodwill; on all creatures who  rejoice and suffer, may happiness descend; may war pass into peace; may hatred melt into love; for the Divine is bliss eternal, and the heart of all is love. - New India, Decem­ber 25, 1914. [21]

THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY AND THE WAR

IN spite of all that is going on, we ought to recognise with pleasure and gratitude that, although Britain is at war with those countries, the bond of the Theosophical Society is strong enough to make them wish to tell us how they are going on, and that the tie of human brotherhood is not broken because one or other nation may be at war. I look to the Theosophical Society in the future to bind up the wounds which are caused by this terrible, fratricidal war. When the war is over, I hope the influence of the Society in the various countries may draw the nations again more nearly together, and sure I am that no Theo­sophist will allow for one moment any feeling of hatred to enter into his heart against any nation. It is, remember also, your duty to recognise the ideals which are separating the two, and to throw the whole of your thought and energy into those ideals for which we must ever stand - of justice to small states, of public faith, of public honour, and the recognition of international treaty obligations; and it is our duty to do that, because the whole future of the world depends upon the word of a nation becoming a matter of honour to the nation as well as to the individual. Treaties and international obligations are only useful in time of war. When nations are fighting, [22] then only is it that these things and other matters of civilised warfare come up. If they are to be thrown aside in war, then it is use­less to make them, and we are falling back into barbarism. So that I would ask you to remember the teaching of the Bhagavad-Gita; to remember what Shri Krishna said about war; to remember that while war may right­eously be waged for an ideal, or in discharge of a duty, there must be no feelings of hatred, no feelings of revenge, no feelings of antagon­ism against the enemies as such, only against the principles that they may for the time embody: “So fighting, thou shalt not commit sin”. And it is for all members of the Society to show that love may be kept pure and true, even in the midst of slaughter and misery, so that we may perform at once our duty to our respective countries and also to humanity. ­Extract from the Presidential Address to the Theosophical Society delivered at Adyar, Decem­ber 26, 1914.

CHRIST AND WAR

MUCH distress is felt by some good Christian people from their difficulty in harmonising war with the doctrines of the Sermon on the Mount. Dr Alfred Salter has voiced this difficulty in a very honest and outspoken way, and comes to the conclusion at which Tolstoi arrived, and comes thither by the [23] same road. The teaching of the Christ is clear and direct. He forbids any appeal to violence, any resistance of evil, Dr Salter says:

“I do not base my position on logic or worldly wisdom. I base it simply on the command of God and the teaching of Christ. Christ’s teaching applies as much to defensive as offensive wars; in fact, His precepts are directed mainly to the method of defence. ‘Render not evil for evil’, ‘Overcome evil with good’, ‘Love your enemies’, ‘Unto him that smiteth you on the one cheek’, are all commands which imply antecedent offence on the part of the enemy, and specify the method of defence on the part of the Christian. To the great majority of the people all this sounds utter foolishness in face of the present situation, but the divine sense has always been hidden from the wise and prudent, and has only been revealed to the babes of simple faith and childlike heart.

I will not stain my conscience with blood by going to war myself or by urging anyone else to go. I will, therefore, take no part in recruiting, not even to resist an invasion of England. I believe that to be the Christian view, and, therefore, the right view, though, doubtless, it is a highly un­popular doctrine just now. It is certainly not a vote-catching cry.

What is the result of such a policy? If I refuse to fight or support measures of defence, then I may get shot by the enemy as an act of war, or I may be shot by the authorities of my own State as guilty of treason. Very well. I say deliberately that I am prepared to be shot rather than kill a German peasant with whom I have no conceivable quarrel. I will do nothing to kill a foe, directly or indirectly, by my own hand or by proxy. So help me God. Never.” [24]

The position is quite logical and manly, and we think that Dr Salter is right in saying that it is the teaching of the Christ. This is the fatal weakness of Christianity as a national religion. Under this view of national morality, there must be no defence against attack from abroad, no protection against violence at home. To the man who steals your coat, you must give your cloak. Robbery and murder must stalk unchecked within the land, until a neighbour comes in and seizes power, re-establishing law and order. Most Chris­tians shut their eyes to the dilemma, or boldly say, seizing one horn, like the late Bishop of Peterborough, that a nation that lived by the Sermon on the Mount could not exist for a week. Dr Salter accepts the other horn, and says:

“There is a great place waiting in history for the first nation that will dare to save its life by  losing it, that will dare to base its national exist­ence on righteous dealing and not on force, that will found its conduct on the truths of primitive Christianity, and not on the power of its army and navy. And there is a great place waiting in history for the first political party that will dare to take the same stand, and will dare to advocate the Christian policy of complete disarmament and non-resistance to alien force.”

We fancy the place will wait long, and rightly wait; for, though peace be the goal, there are many weary steps to be trodden before the world is ready for it. The Inner [25] Ruler Immortal must have become enthroned in our hearts ere the compulsion of outer law can be wholly cast aside. Else would the lowest in evolution exterminate the highest, even as the Jewish mob did to death the Christ.

Dr Salter makes a tremendous challenge

“If in my bottommost heart I want to know what I should do under any given circumstances, I must ask myself what is God’s command on the subject and what would Christ do in my place. In the matter of this war I must try and picture to myself Christ as an Englishman, with England at war with Germany. The Germans have overrun France and Belgium, and may possibly invade England by airship and drop bombs on London. What am I to do? Am I to answer the Prime Minister’s call, make myself proficient in arms, and hurry to the Continent to beat the Germans off?

“Look! Christ in khaki, out in France, thrust­ing His bayonet into the body of a German workman. See! The Son of God with a machine-gun, ambushing a column of German infantry, catching them unawares in a lane and mowing them down in their helplessness. Hark! The Man of Sorrows in a cavalry charge, cutting hacking, thrusting, crushing, cheering. No! no! That picture is an impossible one, and we all know it.

“That settles the matter for me. I cannot uphold the war, even on its supposedly defensive side, and I cannot, therefore, advise anyone else to enlist or to take part in what I believe to be wrong and wicked for myself. A country, as an individual, must be prepared to follow Christ if it is to claim the title of Christian.”

The conception of the Christ as warrior is not impossible to those who have studied the [26] lives of Shri Rama and of Shri Krishna. The Christian world has thought only of the Christ as the patient, gentle Saviour, and so the other view looks revolting. But if Dr Salter believes in Him, he must also remember another aspect, when He comes “in flaming fire taking vengeance”, when he sends His enemies, as “Ye cursed”, to company with devils in the bottomless pit, into everlasting torture. The Good Shepherd is an exquisite picture, but the angry and destroying Judge is equally Scriptural.

The truth is that the problem lies deeper than war, in a fact that sentimental religionists ignore. Dr Salter regards Christ as God incarnate. Then what of natural catastrophes, of earthquakes, of avalanches, of tidal waves, of cyclones, of whirlwinds, of all the destructive agencies of “Nature”? What of a Titanic, sunk by an iceberg; of the endless tragedies of the seas? What of deadly and torturing diseases - of the swift bayonet-like agony of cholera, and the long-drawn anguish of con­sumption? Who is behind all these?

There is one answer that leaves men sane and joyous, unterrified, undismayed, and it is given by Hinduism: that “evil” as well as “good”, death as well as life, pain as well as, joy, come to man under a Will that is wisdom as well as love, and works unwaver­ingly through storm and sunshine to a foreseen end - the unfolding of divinity in man. That [27] man, an eternal spirit, wears these bodies as his garments, enjoys and suffers, is happy and miserable, smiles and weeps, to learn the varied lessons that make him gradually strong, and wise and loving; experience is his food; he gathers it, assimilates it, transforms it, growing from life to life, an ever-unfolding spirit. “Every pain that I suffered in one body was a power that I wielded in the next”, says Edward Carpenter. And that is true. These heroic deeds, these lives offered up for a great ideal, whether in German, British, French, or any other bodies - they are not lost. The bodies die; the spirit passes on with the jewels he has created, and returns, wiser, better, nobler, to wear another body for yet greater service. For the anguished body, death; for the spirit, birth; and then return to labour once again on earth. When Dr Salter realises this, he will be able to see the Christ beside Krishna on the battle-car, and to know that the same Will worketh in war as in all other struggles, and guides the world unfalteringly towards a higher and diviner life. - New India, January 15, 1915.

A BISHOP AND ANIMALS

OUR readers will remember the beautiful Russian prayer for the animals taken into [28] war, showing the sense of human responsi­bility for the sufferings inflicted on them by man. But the Bishop of Oxford is more in sympathy with the contemptuous Pauline comment on the tender Hebrew precept: “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn”; St Paul asks: “Doth God take care for oxen?” One might answer that He certainly should, since, according to the Christian teaching, He created them. The Bishop says that it has never “been the custom of the Church to pray for any other beings than those whom we think of as rational”. Then why does his Prayer Book call on all living things to praise God? “Ye whales, and all that move in the waters, bless ye the Lord, praise Him and magnify Him for ever”, and so on through a catalogue of animals. May they praise God, and yet not be prayed for to God? That seems a little one-sided. The Pall Mall Gazette, after some not quite nice comments, says finally:

“And yet most people, we fancy, will be on the side of the quadrupeds in this matter. The horses and dogs being used in the war are as brave, faithful, and devoted as any soldiers, and no Christian need feel ashamed of asking the Father of All to have them in his keeping. And it smacks of spiritual ‘snobbery’ to assume that the providence of the Creator has its limits drawn immediately beneath our own species.”

It is the Bishop’s view which has led to the excuse in Italy for cruelty to animals: [29] “Non e cristiano” - “It is not a Christian”. And this is the root of the cruelties inflicted on animals throughout Christendom, and of the cruelties now in Eastern countries, where Christianity has spread, contrasting sharply with the older indigenous feeling embodied in hospitals for sick and shelters for worn-out animals. - New India, February 5, 1915.

ST GEORGE FOR ENGLAND - AND WHY

AN English friend sends the following story, told by a man who was present in the trenches at the time. Under the tremendous strain of battle, men’s eyes are sometimes opened, as in earlier days, when such tales were told. The Roman saw Castor and Pollux on their  white horses battling for Rome; the Greek saw Hermes, the messenger; the Christian, the oriflamme In hoc signo vinces; the Hebrew, the angel of the Lord. And so our soldiers. Under similar conditions, similar visions are seen.

Here is the story:

“A small force of British were in trenches and saw approaching them a tremendous number of Germans; they thought: ‘Hullo, we can just make a last stand, but we can’t possibly keep them at bay’. One of the British sat back and suddenly thought of a restaurant in London where he had been - and he thought he saw over it the figure of [30] St George, and he kept saying to himself: ‘St George for England, St George for England’, over and over again, and couldn’t get away from it. Presently he looked up, and saw that although the British were not firing, the Germans were falling in every direction. Another man, happening to look at the thinker, saw above him the figure of St George, and all around were figures in green, throwing something - he did not know what - at the Germans, who were falling fast. The British were able to beat the Germans back because of this other help. Afterwards the Germans told them they had been using something (I can’t remember what it is called) that kills without making any mark. The British said they hadn’t; but went to look at the German dead, and found crowds of dead with no mark of wounds anywhere.”

In this tremendous struggle, good and evil are ranged against each other, Shri Ramachandra against Ravana, and the progress of the world depends upon the triumph of those who are battling for treaty faith and inter­national law against the brute reign of force.  The Devas of the nations ever guide the destinies of nations - Origen’s account of this, as part of the work of angels, is at once interesting and true; and, as they ever sub­serve the divine Will, they work for evolution, and work against the retarding forces when they grow strong enough to imperil the up­ward progress of humanity. - March 4., 1915. [31]

GREAT BRITAIN AND THE WAR

YESTERDAY’S telegrams announce the spread­ing of the European conflagration by the entry of Germany into the war arena. That entry has been signalised by a line of action which, if the telegrams speak truly, is in contravention with the recognised rules of combat. It is true that we are far removed from the chival­rous days of battle, when we had the probably mythic story of Fontenoy, with the English and French regiments facing each other, and the courteous greeting: “Gentlemen of the Guard, fire first”. But at least we might expect that neutral territory would not be violated in order to strike at a part of the French frontier guarded by treaty, because bordering on the neutralised State, and that French territory would not be invaded before the German Ambassador had left Paris and before any declaration of war had been made. We say this with all reserve, for the telegrams may be, and we hope are, misleading, and the very fact that the German invasion of France must drive Great Britain into war with Ger­many makes us anxious not to judge unjustly. [32] If the telegrams be true, then Germany has behaved most unfairly, and in any case the violation of neutral territory, which is ad­mitted, strikes at the very root of international morality. It is all-important to Germany to strike swiftly, but a message along the wires would have travelled to Paris more quickly than her troops could cross the border.

If this be so, then has “The Day” arrived to which the German officers have long been  drinking, and Great Britain and Germany have clinched in the deadly wrestling match for  Empire. The double attack on France and England would be consistent with the splendid  military organisation over which the War-Lord of Germany presides, and it is but natural that Germany should seek to prevent the despatch of an army corps from England to help in the defence of France by engaging all her attention at home in the prevention of invasion. Great Britain’s magnificent fleet is now her protection, and should be fully ade­quate for its task.

The best service that we can all do is to remain calm and confident, ready to help where help is needed, steadfast in our loyalty to the Empire, suspending our local quarrels in face of the crisis on the issue of which depends the immediate future. India is bound up with Great Britain; we want no German Empire here, with its rough arrogance and military regime. The Indian princes will be [33] eager to defend the Paramount Power, and it may be worth while for Great Britain to consider what a magnificent fighting force is there, at the disposal of the Empire, and to win their allegiance for centuries to come by showing trust in them now. Everything that can give rise to friction here must be stopped, so that England and India may stand together in defence of the Crown.­ - New India, August 4, 1914.

“It is hereby notified for general informa­tion that war has broken out between His Majesty and Germany.” Such is the quiet, curt paragraph, issued as a Gazette Extra­ordinary, signed by Sir Percy Cox. We know  from the admirably lucid, dignified, and re­strained speech of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Sir Edward Grey - which was cabled verbatim by Reuters Agency, and published in our columns yesterday - the exact steps which have led up to this declaration of war. Sir Edward Grey has, with inexhaust­ible patience, striven to bring about a peace­able solution of the questions disturbing European peace. How dear peace is to his heart - as to the heart of every righteous and compassionate man - has been shown during the years of his tenancy of office. A born diplomat, a man of the most delicate honour, [34] he succeeded in holding the Concert of Europe together during the Balkan War, which, had it not been for his skill in meeting opposition and in placating enmities, would most cer­tainly have led to a general armed conflict. His simple, frank narrative to the House of Commons, telling of his communications with the Powers, of his reiterated efforts to induce Germany to regard treaty obligations, must convince any impartial observer that he  went to the limit of honourable patience in his endeavours to save his country from the  horrors of war. What could be more touching than his appeal - after describing the obliga­tions which Great Britain had incurred, after his question whether she could stand with folded arms and watch Germany devastating the coasts of France, left by France herself unprotected in order that her Fleet, concen­trated in the Mediterranean, should safeguard Britain’s way to India-to every man to look into his own heart and to decide what honour demanded? There spoke the English gentle­man, keenly alive to personal honour, and realising that the honour of a nation is as precious as that of any individual. It sounds like the echo of Shri Krishna’s appeal to Arjuna, as Arjuna, horror-struck with the vision of impending fratricidal combat, shrank back, gallant warrior as he was, and let a moan of anguish break from his lips, crying that the empire of the world would be bought too [35] dearly at the price of blood: “What is this depression, unworthy, unmanly? Dishonour is worse than death”. So also said Sir Edward Grey, and looked to his fellow-countrymen for reply. The acclamation of the nation’s representatives answered him, and from North to South, from East to West, the voice of a united people has re-echoed the approval of the Commons of England.

Great Britain has had set before her the momentous choice of abdicating her position as a world-power, or marching armed into the battlefield. She has chosen to hold the mighty position won by the centuries of effort and labour since Sir Walter Raleigh and the Elizabethan heroes crossed the seas and wrested from Spain the empire of the waves. She does well. To act otherwise would be to descend voluntarily into the gulf of national dishonour, and to leave to the mercy of German militarism the smaller states of Europe, and all the lands beyond the seas that acknowledge the British Crown.

The peace of the world can only be secured when nations honour treaties signed by them as individuals honour the contracts they have made. Society would revert to barbarism if every man broke his promises, tore up his contracts, refused to abide by his pledged word. The effort of all good men is to intro­duce the moral obligations recognised by individuals into international relations. War [36] can only cease between nations when justice is acknowledged, and when the strong nation is held back by the concert of peoples from invading and plundering the weak, as the murderer and the thief are arrested by the constable. Until that day arrives, the weak nation, protected by treaty, must be defended by the strong. For this Great Britain, France, Russia, Holland, Belgium, and, we hope, Italy, stand together against the forces of Germany and Austria. Austria began by tearing up the Treaty of Berlin at a moment when Europe could not move, and seizing Bosnia and Herze­govina. She followed this, insolent in her success in trampling upon her obligations, by trying to bully Servia into the surrender of her national independence. Germany seized the opportunity, after forty years of prepara­tion, hoping to complete the dismemberment of France, begun by the wrenching away of Alsace and Lorraine. She rushed across Luxemburg, tried to browbeat little Belgium into a submission which deprived her of her neu­trality and forced her to aid Germany in her invasion of France. This is the final action which has forced Britain into the field. Ger­many was determined to sweep Britain out of her path to world-empire, either by war or by dishonour. Britain has chosen war.

Gravely, solemnly, Great Britain has taken her stand. Ready for conflict, she has striven for peace, but she will not crouch [37] nationally as a craven under fear of Germany’s whip. Germany has voted a war credit of £250,000,000; she has invaded Belgium; her spirit is shown in a military official organ, in which, after her years of eager preparation and her standing menace to European peace, she has the insolence to speak of her “flaming anger at the onslaught committed on the peaceful German people”; and then follow the awful words: “If God vouchsafes victory, then vae victis” - woe to the conquered! Europe is thus told what she will suffer if the German eagle plunges its beak and talons into its quivering body, Germany’s prey. It only needed such a threat to nerve all to resistance. - New India, August 6, 1914.

As Earl Kitchener points out, Powers that raise armies by conscription show their whole strength at once. In the Island Kingdom every man is a potential soldier, and games, drill, hunting, racing, make muscles hard and ready for exertion. It is easy to turn such a nation into an armed force. - Commonweal, August 28, 1914.

DRAKE COME BACK?

THE following is printed in the Daily Citizen, an English labour paper. Who would have [38] expected to find among English sailors a belief in reincarnation?

“HAS DRAKE REAPPEARED?

“Sailors are among the most superstitious of folk, and there is a belief among many of them that Jellicoe is a reincarnation of Drake. You know the story told by Alfred Noyes in his poem ‘The Admiral’s Ghost?’ Mr. Applin refers to the legend how Drake, when dying, told his men to take back his drum and to hang it upon the sea wall, and if ever England was in danger and called, the sailors were to strike upon his drum and he would rise from the seas and come back and fight for her. Well, when England, over a century ago, was threatened, Drake’s drum was heard one night by the fisherfolk. And Nelson came to England’s rescue. When Mr. Applin was in Devonshire a little while after the outbreak of war, he talked to an old sailor eighty years of age, on the red cliffs beyond Brixham. He referred to the story of Drake, and the sailor’s face grew grave, and he was silent for a long time. ‘The drum was beat’, he whispered at last. ‘Drake’s drum was heered to beat a while back; our lads heered ‘er, one night when they was puttin’ out from Plymouth Sound’. He nodded his head to and fro as he took off his cap. ‘But I knawed long back when I stood afore Jack Jellicoe, close as I be standin’ to yew; I caught his eye - and I knawed it was Drake come back. Yes, sir; the old drum beat, and he come back as he said he would’.

If England needs me, dead

Or living I’ll rise that day!

I’ll rise from the darkness under the sea

Ten thousand miles away.

The materialists may laugh; the superstitious may speculate; but the seafolk on the red cliffs of Devonshire, they know.” [39]

And true is it that the old heroes come back to play their part on the stage of history.  Should they idle away their time in a heaven, when they are needed here in a turning-point of history? - March 23, 1915.

RECRUITING in England is very rapid, and it seems as though the voluntary system would emerge triumphantly from the tremen­dous strain to which it has been subjected. Volunteering for the army is far more con­sonant with English traditions than is con­scription, and the man who goes voluntarily to the front, for his country’s sake, should be a better soldier than those who are forced into the ranks. One remembers the building of Cromwell’s Ironsides, the coming forward of the men who, as he said, “had a con­science in what they did”. This conscience is present in the men who are filling the ranks of England’s citizen army today; and despite  the splendid valour of the German soldiery, we cannot but feel that the army under Sir John French is of finer individual fibre than the German hosts. The initiative the men show, their swift adaptability, their intelli­gence, all tell of men who have not been drilled into automata. If there were uni­versal military training in our schools, technical institutes, and colleges, and perhaps the [40] continuance of that training for a couple of years beyond the finishing of the educational course, before the young man went out into the world, the manhood of the nation would be ready for all emergencies, while only those would pass on into the regular army as a career who felt that their bent lay in that direction. - New India, January 7, 1915.

WE may hope that the splendid response to Lord Kitchener’s call will be the end of all idea of conscription. A conscript army has in it the element of compulsion, while the voluntary recruit comes from sheer love of country. Germany sneers at the British army as mercenary; but she supports her troops as much as does England. Mercenaries are troops which fight under the flag of another nation for pay, not men who defend their own country and are supported by that country during that service. The finest system would be a union of the British and the German universal military training for three years, following compulsory drill in school and shoot­ing drill in college; and then volunteering for home and foreign service, as at present in the Territorials and the Regulars. - New India, December 23, 1914. [41]

THE CHANNEL TUNNEL

IT is noteworthy that Lord Sydenham, at a moment when no European war was dreamed of, speaking of the military advantages of the Tunnel, remarked on the possibility of  sending through it “military forces to France, Belgium, or Holland … we have definite treaty responsibilities as regards Belgium in certain contingencies”. Now that those con­tingencies have suddenly become actualities, Great Britain must wish that the Channel Tunnel were available. … For ourselves, we are fully and heartily in favour of all means of communication between nations, because we believe that, the more nations know each other, the less is the danger of war. We see now the advantage of the constant intercommunication between England and Italy and France and Italy, in the refusal of the Italian nation, evidently against its Government, to take up arms against the peoples it loves. The Government rightly feels bound by its treaty obligations; the nation ties its hands. In the growth of love between nations, and the consequent deliberate tearing up by consent in time of peace of treaties which would drive them into war, lies the hope of the future. - Commonweal, August 11, 1914. [42]

THE “LEAGUE OF MEDITATION”

THE hatred that Germany nourishes for England is as extraordinary as the rest of her proceedings. The “hymns of hate” pub­lished are not human in their ferocity. …

In pleasant contrast with this is the “League of Meditation” in England, the groups of which meditate daily, sending out thoughts of love and goodwill to all the suffering and the dying, to those in anxiety and sorrow, poverty and distress. Much may be done in the world of thought to overcome hatred by love, and to hasten the coming of the peace towards which the agonised nations of the world are looking with longing eyes. It is worthy of notice that the meditation begins “On the Unity of Life”, and has for keynote the shloka of the Bhagavad-Gita: “I established this universe out of a frag­ment of myself, and I remain”. - Commonweal, December 11, 1914. [43]

INDIA

INDIA AND ENGLAND

EDUCATED India has never desired to throw off her allegiance to the Crown; she has only asked for the self-government enjoyed by the Colonies. Her loyalty is not a change of opinion; it is not an approval of the Arms Act, and the Press Act, and the many badges of racial inferiority branded upon her; she hates these things as she has ever hated them, but, of her own free will, she chooses now to put them on one side. And why? Because she loves England for having aroused her from the sleep of centuries by holding up before her the ideal of liberty, for having sheltered the oppressed of every nation. She rallies to her because England is the mother of free nations; because, if England fell, tyranny would stalk unchecked over prostrate peoples; because England is the most sanely progressive nation on earth, and, with what­ever temporary vagaries, her face is steadily set towards the goal of liberty. India has been inspired politically by the glorious history of England’s struggles for freedom. [44] She has read, with breathless interest, how England, step by step, won constitutional  liberty; how she curbed her kings; how she lifted her serfs; how she refused the payment of unjust taxes; how her merchants built up her prosperity; how she educated her masses; how she has widened the sphere of self-­government by Act after Act; how her Commons have twice honestly cancelled their own resolutions when they infringed on popular liberty; how she has declared that “taxation without representation is rob­bery”; how she has freed her press; how she has won full liberty of speech. All this has created the ideals of educated India, and her clear vision has seen the real England through the thick fog of autocracy and bureaucracy which shroud her here. The danger of teach­ing English history to boys under an auto­cracy has been recognised of late years in the efforts to check the teaching, but the check comes too late; it has already inspired educated India, the India which believes in old England, the real England, despite the new-fangled Anglo-England, and with pathetic intensity believes that if England only knew and understood her grievances all would be redressed. And she is right. How, save in amity with England, how, save with Eng­land’s help, can she build up the fair fabric of India’s liberty, and become that which her voice, her Congress, has persistently demanded, [45] a self-governing nation within the Empire?

The war broke out with a thunderclap, and the Mother of Freedom, waking from her lethargy, sent out her ringing call for help to maintain national honour, international faith.  All her admiration for England’s past, all her hopes for work with England’s future, all her loyalty to a King who had shown her honour and sympathy, all her ingrained feel­ings of chivalry and truth and faith, brought India springing to her feet, and made her pour out her all for the guarding of the Empire’s life - the Empire which is the ark in which all the hopes of the world’s freedom are embarked, and which is tossing on the stormy waves of war. India’s freedom is in that ark; France, the standard-bearer of ideas, is in that ark; where else can India be?

By her quick answer to the call of the King, India won instantaneous recognition. And  now, to make new discord, to re-arouse the sense of injury so magnanimously thrown aside,  the strident voices of ungenerous effort to use against India India’s magnanimity arise, and  thinly veiled dislike of the advocates of liberty endeavours to misrepresent her motives, and  to use her loyalty to buttress autocracy.

Does Ireland, in rallying to the Empire, proclaim that in the Penal Laws, in the destruction of her manufactures, in the famine-compelled exile of her once-numerous [46] population, in the suspension of the Habeas Corpus, in the hanging of Emmet, in the  imprisonment of Davitt, England ruled her well? Does Russia, in silencing every voice of reproach and rallying round the Tsar­dom which has knouted, exiled, starved, imprisoned, hanged her noblest sons and daughters, declare that she approves of all these things? Nay. Both nations forget the evils, because loyalty and patriotism, and belief in the splendid immortal soul of Eng­land, of Russia, outweigh all transitory wrongs. Oh! let not the fair opportunity of the present union of hearts be flung away by the covert insinuations of those who have tried to build England’s rule in India on the ignorance of peasants and the servility of office-seekers, instead of on the rock of the loyalty of free men! Let it be remembered that, under the influence of the spirit of the age, there is no safety for any empire, for any throne, unless it be, like the throne of Britain, in Britain, “broad-based upon the people’s will”. - New India, October 13, 1914.

SAYINGS FROM THE COMMONWEAL

INDIA owes to English teaching and English example the love for liberty which pulses in her veins today. Only with English help can she [47] swiftly realise her hopes, and with England’s stability as a Great Power must stand or fall the hope of India’s coming freedom. In a true and noble sense, “England’s need is India’s opportunity”. Opportunity not to weaken England, but to strengthen her; not  to be a danger in her rear, but a protecting shield at her back; not to look on with cold indifference, but with warm and eager help­fulness. …

Let every cause of quarrel be forgotten; they are “family disputes”, to be suspended when the foe is at the door. Time enough to remember them when peace returns; at present, to press them would be treason to humanity, for in the union of India and England lies the future hope of the world. The colour bar has vanished before the call of Imperial need. Let India forget it now, and England will never revive it. … The future lies with Britain: her final defeat is impos­sible; her strength is tenacious, and her re­sources are world-wide; her courage grows with prolonged struggle, and her emergence in final triumph is secure. Then shall her gratitude clasp India’s hands as equal in their world-empire. - August 5, 1914.

INDIA’S safety, India’s future, India’s liberty, depend on the success of Great Britain in the present war, and India’s wisdom is to stand by the Paramount Power. There is, [48] un-happily, little doubt that war between England and Germany has broken out, and England will soon feel the strength of India behind her. Ireland has dropped her quarrels; the suffragettes have dropped theirs; in Russia, all the strikers have resumed work. India will follow these examples, and send out her sym­pathy to her sorely-tried Emperor, who, in the hour of his glory, gave her his sympathy by word and act. She will now pay him back in his own coin of love, for she is never un­grateful. He need have no fear that the India he loves will add one thorn to his crown. ­August 7, 1914.

FORGETTING every grievance, remembering only the manifold good things which have come to them under British rule, they have, as with a single impulse, flung themselves forward to defend the English throne. Surely none will again say that India should be treated with distrust. Coldness from her would have multiplied indefinitely every anxiety, every burden, weighing on the respon­sible rulers of the land. Now they may go forward joyously. There is no foe in their rear, but a friend who will “keep the fort” for them, should the Empire need their ser­vices. - August 14, 1914.

THE Theosophical Society is international, and therefore no one can speak in its name [49] on any public matter in which opinions are divided. We have local societies in all the nations now at war, and it is obvious that their sympathies must be with their own countries. As President, I could therefore only pledge our Indian T.S. to sympathy with the Empire of which India is part. ­August 7, 1914.

LORD HARDINGE has looked deep into the heart of India and has never confused her righteous longing for freedom with sedition. Our Viceroy, loving and trusting, sits enthroned in India’s love and trust, and in recognising her worth he has served Britain more truly than by aught else he could have done. Grievous are his personal sorrows, bereft of wife and with son in peril; but, strong man that he is, his duty to the Empire suffers no whit because his heart is wrung and his home laid desolate. May Britain and India, in future hours of need, have such men to serve them as Lord Hardinge of Penshurst. No better blessing can the High Gods bestow on any land they love. September 10, 1914.

WE have one great consolation in this war, that we have at the head of the Government a man who loves India as though Indian-born, and who shows not only love for but pride in India, a jealous care for her honour and her [50] dignity as a great nation. Surely our national Rishi and Deva did well by the Motherland when they brought hither Lord Hardinge of Penshurst at this critical period of her history. We can never forget how he held India’s honour dear as his own in the South African trouble, and spoke for India with an Indian voice. We may trust him fully to guide our ship of State safely through the present storm, and apply the old familiar warning: “Do not speak to the man at the wheel”. Our helmsman deserves our confidence; let us give it in full measure, for terrible is the weight of responsibility on him and his immediate circle of advisers. They know what we cannot know, and are guided in their judgment by facts of which we are ignorant. Our trust will help and enhearten them; our distrust, our carping criticism, will discourage them, and they have enough anxiety to bear. It is those who have never known the burden of responsibility who are most ready to gird at those who carry it. - October 2, 1914.

THE Army Order to the Indian troops, under date November 10 in our telegrams, is most admirably conceived, and was evidently writ­ten by someone who knows Indian feeling.  A sentence in it, the one italicised, reads like Shri Krishna’s words to Arjuna: “Looking to thine own duty, thou shouldst not tremble, for there is nothing more welcome to a Kshattriya [51] than righteous war. Happy the Kshattriyas, O Partha, who obtain such a fight, offered unsought as an open door to heaven”. These warriors of Ind, like their ancestors, go into battle as to a bridal, and throw themselves gladly into the arms of Death, as bride. The Germans have been bidden, as is shown in the letters found on prisoners, to inflict “the severest possible punishment” on the Indian troops, whom they have dared to despise. The “punishment” seems to be the other way. Indian troops are not only fighting for the preservation of the Empire, but are also making a place within the Empire for them­selves and their fellow-countrymen.

Their bearing, their dignity, their high and gracious courtesy, impress all those who meet them, and they have only to be themselves to justify India’s claim to a place in the Empire. None can see these men and say that they are unworthy to be free. Let them be compared, man for man, with the English soldiers; many of them are but peasants, children of the soil, agricultural labourers. Are they not in intelligence, in manners, in morals, as good as the best of the same class in Europe? It was only ignorance that thought of them as an inferior race. They are the equals, fully the equals, of the proudest European nation, and they claim, in their own land, to be free citizens, governing themselves, and shaping their own national destiny, within the many­[52]-nationed “Empire of the free”. Who shall say them nay? - November 12, 1914.

GERMANS IN INDIA

WE are glad to note that Truth has taken up the question of the freedom of Germans in India. At the beginning of the war both the Viceroy and Lord Carmichael had in their service German bandmasters, of whom the former, according to the information of our contemporary, still retains his appointment. Even more surprising is another incident, which, if true, is extremely strange. It is stated that a young German, once interned at Ahmednagar, has been released on parole by order of the Adjutant-General.

The policy followed by the Government in India is, as Truth observes, in strong contrast with that followed in England. Lord Haldane is criticised vehemently and looked on with suspicion because he was partly educated in Germany; the late First Sea Lord was compelled to make room for Lord Fisher because of his Austrian birth. But in India, where the Germans or their friends can do the utmost mischief, the treatment meted out to them is the least strict. It is true that many Germans, at first considered harmless, have since been interned; but still, so long as a single German, [53] male or female, is permitted freedom, the Government of India will not have done its duty towards the people or the Empire. - New India, February 11, 1914.

IN the Indian Peninsula we have German missionaries, German schoolmasters, and Ger­man schools, wherein the greatness of the German Empire is proclaimed, and attempts are made to dazzle the children with its gran­deur. All this is allowed to go on with the usual fatuity of Englishmen, who, even with the German propaganda unveiled in Europe before their eyes, still continue to allow these centres of mischief to exist. - Commonweal, October 23, 1914.

THE second in command of the Emden was a Madras Volunteer. One hopes that we have seen the last of the enrolling of foreigners in corps from which the men of the country are excluded. Things will be different in the future. - Commonweal, October 2, 1914.

How far has German conspiracy been at the back of anarchism here in India? We have learned how she has plotted against Great [54] Britain in many lands, and we know how numerous were her emissaries here in the disguise of traders and of missionaries. We know also that she stirred up a rebellion in South Africa, the only one of her plots which to some extent succeeded for a short time. We know also how bitter is her disappoint­ment that there has been no rising in India; and as the hope of a rising must be founded on a long-continued secret plotting, it is likely that all the anarchical crimes here have been “made in Germany” and paid for with Ger­man money. Krishnavarma, the ostensible source of the crimes, may well be a German agent, for anarchy has strong root in Germany while it is alien from the Indian spirit. The recrudescence of murders and dacoities syn­chronises with the outbreak of war, and they are occurring specially in two parts of India­in Bengal, where the seed of mischief was so widely sown, and on the West Coast, where German missionaries were so active, and where Indian children were taught to look up to Germany, and to speak of “our Kaiser” as against “your Emperor”. On that coast dacoities are very plentiful just now, and the outburst of crime among the Moplahs is as marked as in Bengal. It probably has the same source. - Commonweal, March 5, 1915. [55]

BASEL MISSION ORPHANAGES

IT is worthy of note that the Government have at last found themselves obliged to  arrest some German missionaries at one of the Basel Orphanages - which they were urged to subsidise a little time ago. They had been teaching the children that the British were their enemies. It is extraordinary how reli­gious sympathy blinds otherwise intelligent men, despite the overwhelming evidence of German methods. “Your Emperor” and “our Kaiser” are expressions heard from children attending some of these disloyal schools. The danger of schools managed by non-British teachers is evident enough in time of peace; it is, of course, worse in time of war. But at all times, as the editor of this journal has long pointed out, the teaching of large masses of children by foreigners is fatal to national spirit; the peculiar circumstances of India place the control of Indian education in non-Indian hands, but they are hands that belong to the Empire. But the hordes of foreign missionaries that pour into the land, Americans, Germans, Swiss, who receive In­dian money in Government grants, and under­mine loyalty to the Crown and patriotism to the Motherland, these form a peril to which our rulers are apparently blind. They at length begin to recognise it with regard to the Germans, with whom the Empire is at [56] war, though they allow a free hand to all German women to continue to spread anti­-British feeling among Indian children. But why should India be the dumping-ground of all these alien missionaries, who are not subjects of the King-Emperor, but are allowed to mould after their own ideas the plastic brains of the future citizens of the country? This subtle propaganda of anti-British and anti-­Indian ideas ought to be stopped. - New India, November 25, 1914.

GRANTS TO ENEMY MISSIONARIES

As trading with enemy firms is forbidden, and as it is even doubtful if it is permissible to pay a German official in any establishment, while he is interned, it is not surprising that a ques­tion was asked in the House of Commons as to the continuance of Government grants-in-aid to German missionaries in India. It is in­credible that, after the exposure of German methods, the Government should continue to help them. It has been stated here that all German missionaries are interned, but this question seems to imply the contrary. The innocent official answer is that the grants were given “after careful inquiries had been made into the conduct and attitude of the missionaries and the character of their work”. [57] What about their correspondence? - New India, February 10, 1915.

INDIA AND THE FUTURE

Is may be remembered that in 1889 H. P. Blavatsky wrote that the early years of the  next century would see many of the accounts of the nations made up, and verily she was a true prophet in this matter. For one very clear result of the present gigantic war is to bring Asia into new relations with Europe, and to establish her in her old place of power in the shaping of the world’s destinies. We sometimes forget that all the old empires of the past were Asian; that India, Persia, Assyria struck the keynote of civilisation for thousands of years; and that China, though she did not make so flaming a trace on the world’s pages, wrote a self-contained story of rare internal progress and lofty ethics which have maintained her in her sure place among the great civilisations of the world.

Asia has been for centuries a continent to be exploited by the young and virile nations of the West. These started on fresh lines on the younger continent of Europe, the fourth and fifth sub-races spreading westwards, and occupying the lands some of which had but lately emerged from the seas. The great [58] swamps of eastern Europe, as they dried up into habitable soil, furnished a centre for the young fifth sub-race, from which their families emigrated westwards and northwards, to found future nationalities. They naturally forgot their Asian Motherland, as generation suc­ceeded generation; and as they developed their new type of civilisation, difficulties of communication kept the two continents iso­lated from each other, unknowing their relative lines of development. Only, later on, in­cursions into Europe of hordes of warlike and ferocious warriors from the central parts of Asia made the names of the Huns and others names of terror in Europe.

Then came a new impulse from Asia, which embodied itself in the Saracens, the impulse of chivalry and mysticism, spreading west­wards and southwards from Persia. Masonry was enriched from the same source, and these all softened and refined the rougher manners of the West, while Arabia took up the tradition of Greece, enriched and developed it, and brought science to Europe, laying the founda­tions of the modern world. Not only in religion did Asia teach Europe, though it is true that Asia had the genius of spirituality, and that Europe merely copied and spread, but originated no great religion. In literature, philosophy, science, and art, Asia was the mother of all progress; while as regards toler­ance, that true mark of greatness, Akbar [59] was discussing religions among wise men of different faiths while Mary was burning Protestants and Elizabeth executing Roman Catholics. Scarcely for two centuries has Europe been taking the lead, while Asia, sated with great achievements, slept for a while to rest, and let the reins of empire slip from fingers tired of power.

But now Asia is awakening, and Japan first raised her head, and fought her way to high position among the nations of the world, concluding alliance with the mighty Western people whose genius for colonisation and rule was laying deep and firm the foundations of a world-wide empire. Persia stirred uneasily, feeling the breath of liberty, and, though hardly entreated by Russia and Britain, she has her eyes fixed on a fuller national life. And China, that vast, unknown land, that land of far-reaching possibilities, took her fate into her own hands, flung off her empire, established a republic, and is feeling her feet, intent on working out her own salvation.

How could this great wave of new life sweep over Asia and leave untouched the blood in India’s veins? She, mightiest, fairest, wisest of all Asian peoples, how should she lie supine, continues to sleep, when lesser nations were stirring? And so has come unrest, and move­ments of new life, a sense of growing strength and consciousness of national unity. Slowly [60] she has been awaking to self-realisation and measuring her resources, and, quietly learning from the younger nations methods of self­-government, has been pursuing the new ways of modern peoples. As a nation, she sprang to her feet at the cry for help that rang across the seas from the little northern island that had taught her the great lesson of liberty, and that found herself confronted by a mighty foe, and she flung her sons into the carnage of war, poured out the blood of her people and the hoarded treasures of her princes, and proved her worth and her strength on the stricken fields of modern war in Europe. Never again can India, who has fought and died for the common empire side by side with Britain, sink back into the old position of Ma-Bap, and stand with folded hands sub­missive to the Shaba’s nod. When Britain called on India for help, she treated her as an equal, and never again can she, in fairness and in honour, treat the Indian nation as a subject race. By her sword, drawn for England not against her, India has won her freedom, and the chaplet of liberty has been wrought for her on the fields of Europe, sodden with the outpoured blood of Indians and of Britons. Well, verily, is it for both nations that full national self-consciousness has flowered while the two nations are fighting side by side. There was a time when there was a danger that it might be realised in [61] opposition instead of in union, when South Africa strained India’s patience and strength almost to the breaking point. South African oppression did much to awaken the sense of unity in India, but, thanks to all good Powers, Lord Hardinge’s sympathy and Mr. V. Gandhi’s patience tided India over the danger, and turned anger into gratitude.

All this change and the near approach of self-government in India is making the  thoughtful feel the need for preparation, and for pressing on more rapidly the religious,  educational, social, and political reforms which are too interlinked and interwoven for separation. - The Theosophist, March 1915. [62]

GERMANY

AUSTRIA - YESTERDAY AND TODAY

IF we take a map of Europe and look at Servia and Austria-Hungary with its append­ages, we cannot but be struck with the fact of the littleness of the one and the hugeness of the other. A war between them is like combat between an elephant and a toy terrier. Servia is a tiny State, overshadowed by Hungary - flanked by Austria - on her north, with the stolen provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina on her west, with the remainder of her frontier marked off by the other Balkan States. Belgrade, from which she very wisely moved her capital, is on the frontier, which runs with that of Hungary, and is the natural point of Austria’s attack. Her tiny army, formidable only by the extraordinary heroism of its officers and men, numbers but 36,000 men on a peace footing and 300,000 on a war, as against Austria’s huge phalanx of 360,000 on a peace and 2,500,000 on a war footing.

Under these circumstances, Austria, like a huge bully threatening a gallant boy, [63] presents an ultimatum which, assented to, would deprive Servia of her independence and reduce her to the condition of Bosnia and Herzegovina, insolently annexed by Austria in defiance of the Treaty of Berlin. Servia has gallantly preferred national death to national dishonour. A nation can rise again from death; from dishonour there is no resurrection. Better for Servia to be annexed after heroic defence of her independence, than cravenly to submit to immediate practical annexation. Having thus made war inevit­able by an ultimatum impossible of accept­ance, and - by bombarding Belgrade within two days of the declaration of war - showing that he had prepared his first blow in con­fident expectation of the refusal of his demand, the Austrian Emperor has the extraordinary temerity to declare, with the usual offensive appropriation of “God,” that he “takes up the sword … in order to secure the territorial integrity of Austria-Hungary!” He cannot secure it with 2,500,000 men against 300,000. Such odds are too much for the Dual Monarchy in its old age. Eight and a third Austrians against one Servian is too little for protection, even with the help of the “Almighty”. “Territorial integrity” is not safe against the assault of the Servian, even supposing that he ventured on an assault in some Berserker delirium. But bullies are always cowards. The Emperor further charges Servia with [64] “dishonesty”, but such a charge from the most notoriously disingenuous Power on the Continent has no weight.

For what is the past and the present of Austria? We omit Hungary, for Hungary is no friend of Francis Joseph. It has never forgotten his ruthless cruelty in crushing the Hungarian struggle for freedom, and his refusal of all mercy to the conquered; the memory, of Kossuth has not faded away. Nor is Austria’s previous tyranny in the days of the Rakoczis forgotten; Hungary brought back the corpse of the last reigning prince of that glorious name in honour and triumph, not so very long ago. Shall Europe forget - as Italy forgets - the part played by Austria in Italy’s struggle for freedom? Shall lovers of liberty forget the Italian provinces held under the Austrian heel by the detested “Whitecoats”; the insults in the streets of Venice; the awful cruelties perpetrated on “Young Italy”; the flogging of brave men, and one woman even, because they were patriots and would not betray their brethren; the drugging of prisoners, that in their delirium they might reveal the names of their com­rades, so that a brave lad died of starva­tion in gaol lest the food should contain the treacherous drug; the sympathy with “Bomba” and his unspeakable Neapolitan prisons; the exile of Mazzini; the landing of  the red-shirted thousand under Garibaldi; [65] the building of united Italy despite every effort of the detested foe?

And what of Austria at home? A con­stant, ever-present tyranny. No meeting of more than twenty persons without police permission; Austrian Freemasons must cross her frontier ere they can hold a Lodge, for Freemasons are excommunicated by Rome, and Austria is Rome’s obedient vassal. Her triumph threatens European freedom. One cannot but extend human sympathy to the aged Emperor, who has seen stricken down so many of his family by violent deaths; yet the shades of his brother Maximilian, of his son Rudolph; of his wife Elisabeth, of the late heir to his throne, are hidden out of sight by the countless shades of those sent by him to torture and to death; they too had brothers, sons, and wives, whose agony was as great as his, for crowns do not deepen sorrow. He reaps the harvest of his many crimes against men, and, though compassion must be extended to every sinner in the day of retribution, this crowned sinner is still persisting in his relentless campaign against human liberty; his victims will send up a cry to that God to whom he dares to appeal, and, if Bhishma be right, it is the anguish of the weak which undermines the thrones of kings. - New India, July 13, 1914. [66]

THE NEW BARBARIANS

GERMANY wants to sit where Britain sits; she aspires to wear the imperial crown of the world, and this, she feels, Britain alone can dispute with her. In the dawn of German history she destroyed the Roman Empire; can she now, thrilling with new life, destroy the British?

Germany has not only supreme soldiers, supreme thinkers, in her near past, but she is preparing with the foundation of a world-­empire to make the tremendous experiment of formulating a world-religion. This, Britain has never dared to do. “The development of German thought, from Kant to Fichte, from Hegel and Schopenhauer to Lotze, Hart­mann and Nietzsche, strives to no other term.” Hence Germany is inspired to battle by a tremendous and passionate enthusiasm - the foundation of a world-empire, the formation of a world-religion, a hope fit to inspire to uttermost sacrifices, to supremest heroism. That is Germany as she sees herself, as she understands her mission to the world, as taught by her professors, as stimulated by her historians. And it is necessary that this should be understood.

What does this double object mean to the world? The world-empire is to be embodied  power, force supreme. There is nothing higher than the State; all that increases its power [67] is right; the duty of the citizen is to serve the State, and the State is a law unto itself. The world-religion is the religion of valour, the strong man, the brave man, the warrior ruthless and all-crushing, the old Scandinavian Berserker, to whom battle is a delight and carnage is a satisfaction. Such is the ideal. Nietzsche is its prophet; Treitschke its historian.

Strange that Heine should have foreseen this, and have prophesied the return of the old Scandinavian gods, of Thor and his hammer, and have said that the leaders of this New Barbarism would be found to be the disciples of Kant, of Fichte, and of Hegel. The Hohenzollerns, as a House, incarnate the pride of empire and the spirit of the War­-Lord; people and ruler match.

Since India is so closely bound up with the British Empire, it is well that Indian thinkers should study this evolution of the German ideal, for no such portent as a world-empire based on force as the highest law, and a world-­religion reviving the cult of force, has hitherto risen on the horizon of the modern world. The Germans today are verily the reincarna­tion of the barbarous tribes which destroyed Roman civilisation and drove Europe out of the light of Greece and Rome into the Dark Ages. Their acts are the acts of the Vandals who gave their name to the savage lust of destruction, and Rheims and Louvain [68] testify to the fact that Europe is face to face with the perils to which the Roman Empire succumbed. As our readers grasp the full meaning of the struggle now raging, the knowledge will strengthen their hearts and stiffen their wills, for the world’s future hangs in the balance. Two ideals of world-empire are before us. Each is only in the making; neither is accomplished fact. But to recognise the main features of each, to make our choice, to work strenuously for the chosen-that is the duty of all earnest and thoughtful men. The one is building for a happier future; the other is a revival of a past that was thought to be dead. The one sets justice for strong and weak alike as the safety of both; the other declares that the world is for the strong and that the weak should perish. The one proclaims that humanity is higher than the nation, and that the nation must recognise its subordination to the higher good of the race; the other declares the nation to be supreme, and that it must fight for its own hand, without regard to others. The one sees in international law the common recogni­tion of right, and as embodying the highest public opinion of the time, rising higher as humanity evolves, and seeks the Concert of Nations as its legislative body; the other sees the might of each nation as its law, and seeks in war the sole arbitrament. The one is the human, seeking progress by co-operation, by [69] peace, by the protection of the weak by the strong; the other is the bestial, seeking pro­gress by combat, like the wild beasts of the jungle, crushing out the weak as unfit to survive. The first ideal is recognised by the present British Empire, which is beginning to re-create itself as a group of free self-­governing nations, federated together on the basis of brotherhood and righteousness; its relations with undeveloped or retrograde peoples - Kaffirs, Hottentots, negroid types  -protective, educative, non-exploiting. To­wards such an ideal British literature points, and the British Empire is tending; it is the recognition of this tendency - it is not yet  actuality - that has made the tremendous rally to the Empire which has astonished the world and falsified all the German calcula­tions. This world-empire will stand on justice, and express itself by peace. It will favour national developments, and find its bonds of union in love and truth and equity, seeing in diversity of growth a higher organic evolution than in uniformity, a chord rather than a monotone.

The other is the ideal that one nation is to lord it over the whole world, with a War-Lord as the one master: “There is no master in the realm but I,” said the Kaiser. It stands on might; it expresses itself by war; it tramples subject peoples to powder under its feet, and imposes itself on all others. Its [70] theory as to the original possessors of the lands it conquers is expressed - in the remarks on the natives of its South-West African colony “by Herr Schlettwein,” says the Times, “one of the Government experts who was recently called in to instruct the members of the Reichstag on the principles