Europe—whither bound? (Quo vadis Europa?) : $b being letters of travel from the capitals of Europe in the year 1921Graham, Stephen
History
Europe—whither bound? (Quo vadis Europa?) : $b being letters of travel from the capitals of Europe in the year 1921
Graham, Stephen
Europe -- Description and travel
The appropriation of the cathedral is, no doubt, justified. But there
is something in the coolness of it, in the hate of it and lack of tact
which breeds the opposite of Christian charity in human hearts. The
Slavs have much to learn. By the stealing of trains, the purloining of
cathedrals, and false pretensions to their neighbours' lands, the Poles
are showing that there is yet national tragedy ahead for them. They
will be deceived by some nations and slaughtered by others. What have
we raised her from the dead for--but to live again, to live and let
live. All have rejoiced in the risen Poland, even the old destroyers
of Poland--Germany, Russia, and Austria, all rejoiced until they
realized the nature of the phantom. The beautiful white eagle that
leapt from the tomb is a more sinister bird to-day, blood-ravenous, and
scanning far horizons.
EXTRA LEAVES
(iv) _On Nationality and an Armistice Baby_
The personal idea of nationality suffered some heavy blows in the war
and even heavier ones in the peace which followed. A mature Austrian
suddenly becomes a Czech, a Hungarian who knows only Magyar becomes a
Roumanian, a self-conscious Prussian is written into a Pole, and their
hearts are supposed to respond to new loyalties. The famous lines:
"Breathes there a man with soul so dead" have now a comical effect when
recited in some parts of Europe. Men are saying such absurd things as
"I am a German Czecho-Slovak," "I am a Polish Austrian Jew," "I am a
Russian Armenian Greek." A relief from the imbroglio of nationalism
might be found in the name of European with a higher loyalty to Europe
as a whole, but few have reached that stage of knowledge and feeling.
Asked at Ellis Island what his nationality was a gloomy gentleman from
Upper Silesia recently answered, "Plebiscite." And have there not been
many babies born whose nationality has remained long in doubt, pending
plebiscites and decisions of the Supreme Council? The plight of the
plebiscite baby is, however, eclipsed by that of the Armistice one.
The following true story was told me by H.M. Consul at Munich. He had
to decide the point at issue, or at least to take a decision upon it.
The difficulty was that of stating the nationality of a child born on a
ship at the time of the Armistice. The ship was a German one which had
been captured by the British. It had a British crew, but it was
bringing refugees from Murmansk, the Arctic port of Russia, to Reval on
the Baltic. It was flying the Neutrality flag. The ship, however, was
wrecked off the coast of Norway and was towed by a Danish boat into the
harbour of Stavanger. None of the refugees were allowed ashore but the
baby was born in the ship whilst it lay in the harbour. The parents
were Russian, but an attempt was made to get the British Consul at
Stavanger to register it as British. He refused. The English law is
that the flag decides nationality and in this case the flag was neutral.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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