World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, Canadian; World War, 1914-1918 -- Prisoners and prisons, German
Justice, that is to say, restitution and reparation. Justice, that
is to say, indemnity for the millions of women and children who are
deprived of their main support.
And why, some will ask, should I speak here of magnanimity? Does not
the entire people of Germany and of her allies deserve the most severe
condemnation?
In uttering here this word “magnanimity,” I only reflect the thought
expressed by the leaders of the three great allied countries, on the
day following the armistice: Lloyd George, Clemenceau, and Woodrow
Wilson.
And as Mr. Winston Churchill declared on the 4th of July last, at
Westminster: “We are bound to the principles for which we are
fighting. Those principles alone will enable us to use with wisdom
and with justice the victory which we shall gain. Whatever the extent
of our victory, those principles would protect the German people. We
could not treat them as they have treated Alsace-Lorraine or Belgium or
Russia, or as they would treat us all if they had the power.”
It is because the population of a country is composed for the most part
of women and children, and because we could not, without stooping to
the level of the methods employed in Belgium, for example, make war
against women, against children, against property.
Justice will have a field of operations large enough, if it wishes, to
reach the conscious authors of the war and of the deeds incompatible
with humanitarian principles and contrary to international laws.
(The End.)
End of Project Gutenberg's My Three Years in a German Prison, by Henri Beland
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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