Galsworthy, John, 1867-1933 -- Travel -- United States; Speeches, addresses, etc., English
It is of the main new factors which have come into the life of the
civilised world that I would speak.
The division deep and subtle between those who have fought and those
who have not――concerns us in Europe far more than you in America;
for in proportion to your population the number of your soldiers
who actually fought has been small, compared with the number in any
belligerent European country. And I think that so far as you are
concerned the division will soon disappear, for the iron had not time
to enter into the souls of your soldiers. For us in Europe, however,
this factor is very tremendous, and will take a long time to wear away.
In my country the, as it were, professional English dislike to the
expression of feeling, which strikes every American so forcibly, covers
very deep hearts and highly sensitive nerves. The average Briton is
now not at all stolid underneath; I think he has changed a great deal
in this last century, owing to the town life which seven-tenths of our
population lead. Perhaps only of the Briton may one still invent the
picture which appeared in _Punch_ in the autumn of 1914――of the steward
on a battleship asking the naval lieutenant: “Will you take your bath
before or after the engagement, sir?” and only among Britons overhear
one stoker say to another in the heat of a sea-fight: “Well, wot I
say is――’E ought to ’ave married ’er.” For all that, the Briton feels
deeply; and on those who have fought the experiences of the battlefield
have had an effect which almost amounts to metamorphosis. There are
now two breeds of British people――such as have been long in the danger
zones, and such as have not; shading, of course, into each other
through the many who have just smelled powder and peril, and the very
few whose imaginations are vibrant enough to have lived the two lives,
while only living one.
In a certain cool paper called: “The Balance-sheet of the Soldier
Workman” I tried to come at the effect of the war; but purposely
pitched it in a low and sober key; and there is a much more poignant
tale of change to tell of each individual human being.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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