The New York Times Current History of the European War, Vol. 1, January 9, 1915: What Americans Say to EuropeVarious
Philosophy
The New York Times Current History of the European War, Vol. 1, January 9, 1915: What Americans Say to Europe
Various
World War, 1914-1918
Within a very short time a Labor member of Parliament, J. Ramsay
Macdonald, rises in his place, able and fearless, and, on the basis of
the "White Paper," as published and put in the hands of the British
public, attacks Sir Edward Grey for having so committed Great Britain in
advance to both Russia and France that, in spite of the representations
of the German Ambassador, he dared not discuss the question of
neutrality. This member of Parliament manifestly belongs to the powerful
anti-war party of Great Britain, a party two of whose members, John
Burns and Lord Morley, resigned from the Cabinet rather than condone
iniquity; a party which before the outbreak of the war made itself
heard and felt, and protested against the participation of Great
Britain, desiring localization of the struggle.
Mr. Macdonald says that in his opinion this talk about the violation of
Belgian neutrality, from the point of view of British statesmen, is
absurd, because as long ago as 1870 the plans for the use of Belgium,
both by France and by Germany--in other words, the violation of its
neutrality--were in the British War Office, and that Mr. Gladstone rose
in his place and said he was not one of those whose opinion was that a
formal guarantee should stand so far in thwarting the natural course of
events as to commit Great Britain to war; and that has been the
announced and avowed policy of Great Britain all the way down since
1870, and that therefore talk about the violation of Belgian neutrality
is a mere pretext.
That is another instance of this secret agreement that goes on, which so
commits a man like Sir Edward Grey that in the pinch, when the German
Ambassador substantially proposed to yield everything to him and asked
him for his proposition, he cannot make any.
These facts are in the "White Paper." As far as I know, no editor in the
United States who claims to have studied thoroughly that "White Paper"
has ever brought this out, and they had not been published in that paper
at the time when Sir Edward Grey and Mr. Asquith made their respective
speeches and committed the British Nation to the war.
Another unhappy use of language which has been noted in the public press
is due to the literal translation of words. Americans simply do not know
what the word Emperor means. To most of them it connotes the later Roman
Emperors, or the autocratic Czar of Russia, or the short-lived but
autocratic quality of Napoleon III., so that when we use the word
Emperor we are thinking of an absolutely non-existing personage, unless
it be the Czar of Russia.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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