The War That Will End WarWells, H. G. (Herbert George)
History
The War That Will End War
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
World War, 1914-1918
And it is with scarcely a dissentient voice that England is at war.
Never were the British people so unanimous; all Ireland is with us, and
the conscience of all the world. And, now this war has begun, we are
resolved to put an end to militarism in the world for evermore. We are
not fighting to destroy Germany; it is the firm resolve of England to
permit no fresh “conquered provinces” to darken the future of Europe.
Whatever betide, all German Germany will come out of this war undivided
and German still. Her own “conquests” she may have to relinquish, her
Poles and other subject peoples, but that is the utmost we shall exact
of her. With the accession of Austria, Germany may even come out of this
war a larger Germany than at the beginning. We have no hatred of things
German and German people. But we are fighting to break this huge
fighting machine for ever—this fighting machine which has been such an
oppression as no native-born American can dream of, to every other
nation in Europe. We are fighting to end Kaiserism and Kruppism for ever
and ever. There, shortly and plainly, is our case and our object. Now
let us come to the immediate substance of this appeal.
We do not ask you for military help. Keep the peace which it is your
unparalleled good fortune to enjoy so securely. But keep it fairly.
Remember that we fight now for national existence, and that in the
night, even as this is written, within a hundred miles or so of this
place, the dark ships feel their way among the floating mines with which
the Germans have strewn the North Sea, and our sons and the sons of
Belgium and France go side by side, not by the hundred nor by the
thousand, but by the hundred thousand, rank after rank, line beyond
line—to death. Even as this is written the harvest of death is being
reaped. Remember our tragic case. Europe is full of a joyless
determination to end this evil for ever; she plunges grimly and sadly
into the cruel monstrosities of war, and assuredly there will be little
shouting for the victors whichever side may win. At the end we do most
firmly believe there will be established a new Europe, a Europe riddened
of rankling oppressions, with a free Poland, a free Finland, a free
Germany, the Balkans settled, the little nations safe, and peace secure.
And it is of supreme importance that we should ask you now—What are you
going to do throughout the struggle, and what will you do at the end?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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