How much could material development be conducive to intellectual, moral and religious progress, if the Nations of the Earth would only sincerely and permanently abide by the Divine teachings of Christianity. Considering all the conditions of the military situation, at the end of the summer of 1916, I clearly perceived the imperious necessity of the Allies--Canada as well as all her associates--to fight to a finish. That duty I did my best to impress on the minds of the French Canadians. Events have since developed in many ways, but they all tend to strengthen the conviction that ultimate victory will only be the price of unshaken perseverance, of undaunted courage, of more patriotic sacrifices. CHAPTER XV. JUST AND UNJUST WARS. In one of his pamphlets Mr. Bourassa favoured his readers with his views on the justice and injustice of war. He affirmed that a Government could rightly declare war only for the three following objects:-- 1.--For the defence of their own country. 2.--To fulfill the obligations to which they are in honour bound towards other nations. 3.--To defend a weak nation unjustly attacked. I have no hesitation to acknowledge the soundness of those principles, as theoretically laid down. I took the "Nationalist" leader at his own word, wondering more than ever how he could refuse to admit the justice of the cause of the Allies. Looking at the case from the British standpoint, was it not clear as the brightest shining of the sun that England had gone to war against Germany for the three reasons assigned by Mr. Bourassa as those which alone can justify a Government entering a military struggle. Great Britain was by solemn treaties in honour bound to the defence of Belgium whose territory had been violated by Germany, the other party to those treaties which she threw to the winds contemptuously calling them "_scraps of paper_." Even outside of all treaty obligations, it was England's duty, according to the third principle enunciated by Mr. Bourassa as authorizing a just declaration of war, to rush to the defense of Belgium, a _"weak nation" most dastardly attacked by the then strongest military Power on earth_. The British Government, being responsible for the safety of the British Empire, would have been recreant to their most sacred duty, had they failed to see that if the German armies were freely allowed to overrun Belgium, to crush France and vanquish Russia, Great Britain and her Colonies, unprepared for any effective resistance as they would have been, had they remained the passive onlookers of the teutonic conquest of continental Europe, would have been the easy prey of the barbarous conquerors. Consequently, in accepting the bold challenge of the Berlin Government, that of England also did their duty for the defence of Great Britain and the British Empire.