Britain's Deadly Peril: Are We Told the Truth?Le Queux, William
History
Britain's Deadly Peril: Are We Told the Truth?
Le Queux, William
Secret service -- Germany; Spies; World War, 1914-1918
We frequently hear the man-in-the-street jeer at the Zeppelin peril,
and declare that it is only a "bogey" raised to frighten us. To a
certain extent I think it is, but the fact that Zeppelins have not yet
appeared over London is, surely, no reason why they should not come
and commit havoc and cause panic as the vanguard of the raid which may
be intended upon us. There is much in our apathy which is more than
foolish--it is criminal. Had the country, ten years ago, listened to
the warnings of Lord Roberts and others, instead of being immersed
in their own pleasure-seeking and money-grubbing, we should have had
no war. The public, who are happily to-day filled with a spirit of
patriotism because they have learnt wisdom by experience, now realise
their error. They see how utterly foolish they were to jeer at my
warnings in the _Daily Mail_; and by singing in the music halls "Are we
Down-'earted--No!" they have gallantly admitted it--as every Britisher
admits where he is wrong--and have come forward to stem the tide of
barbarians who threaten us.
As one who has done all that mortal man can do to try to bring home to
his country a sense of its own danger, and who, by the insidious action
of "those in power," narrowly escaped financial ruin for _daring_ to
be a patriot, I cast the past aside and rejoice in the fine spirit of
the younger generation of men, actuated by the fact that they are still
Britons.
But, after this war, there will be men--men whose names are to-day as
household words--who must be indicted before the nation for leading us
into the trap which Germany so cunningly prepared for us. Those are men
who knew, by the Kaiser's declaration in 1908, what was intended, and
while posing as British statesmen--save the mark!--lied to the public,
and told them that Germany was our best friend, and that war would
never be declared--"not in our time."
There will be a day, ere long, when the pro-German section of what
Britons foolishly call their "rulers"--certain members of that
administration who are now struggling to atone for their past follies
in being misled by the cunning of the enemy--will be arraigned and
swept out of the public ken, as they deserve to be. The blood of
a million mothers of sons in Great Britain boils at thoughts of
the ghastly truth, and the wholesale sacrifice of their dear ones,
because the diplomacy of Great Britain, with all its tinsel, its
paraphernalia of attachés, secretaries (first, second, and third), its
entertainments, its fine "residences," its whisperings and jugglings,
and its "conversations," was quite incapable of thwarting the German
plot.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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