New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 5, August, 1915Various
History
New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 5, August, 1915
Various
World War, 1914-1918
Is it one of the twentieth century's worthy advances in culture and
civilization that the unsuspecting Indian is brought hundreds of miles
over land and sea that he may on the battlefields of Europe drive to
destruction the first soldiers of the world, the German army? Even
though some may answer this question in the affirmative, I hold
unshaken to my assertion that such a course of action is the very
height of frightfulness! Not frightful to the German soldiers, for I
know what sort of feeling the Indian fighters have for them--respect
and sympathy!
And we aren't much nearer that "roaming about in the streets of
Berlin," and the lindens of Sans Souci are not yet waving above the
warriors from the slopes of the Himalayas.
What must these Indian troops think of their white masters? That the
future will show. Whoever has seen something of the land of a thousand
legends, who has ridden over the crests of the Himalayas, who has
dreamed in the moonlight before the Taj Mahal, who has seen the holy
Ganges slip gray and soft past the wharves of Benares, who has been
entranced by the train of elephants under the mango trees of
Dekkan--in short, whoever has loved India and admired the order and
security which prevails there under the English rule, he will need no
very powerful imagination to understand with what thoughts the Indian
soldiers will go back, and with what feelings their families and their
fellow countrymen in the little narrow huts on the slopes of the
Himalayas will listen to their accounts. Only with a shudder can we
think of this, for it must be said that here a crime against
civilization and Christianity has been done in the name of
civilization.
The question cannot be suppressed: Will the Indian contingent really
be used? Will not the white millions of Great Britain, Canada and
Australia suffice, to say nothing of the French, Belgians, Russians,
Serbians, Montenegrins and Japanese? Apparently not. In _The Times_ of
September 5th appears in large letters: The need for more men. Already
they are in need of more people to overthrow the Kultur of the "German
barbarians"! The English people must be educated by a special method
in order to understand both the cause and the aim of this war.
Otherwise the Englishman will stay at home and play, football and
cricket.
And what is this education of the people? In regard to this the
English press informs us daily. It is a systematic lie! The fatal
reality, that England is slowly sliding to catastrophe, must be hidden
by a strict censorship. The English people has no suspicion of
Hindenburg's victories. The development of the German operations in
Poland is translated into a victorious move of the Russians on Berlin!
The most shameful slander concerning the Kaiser is spread abroad! The
Germans are barbarians who must be annihilated, and the civilized
peoples of Servia, Senegambia and Portugal must take part in this
praiseworthy undertaking!
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