The Telegraph Book of Readers' Letters from the Great War (38 page)

2. To promote undertakings for the disabled, using our individual and combined efforts to find employment for all discharged soldiers and sailors.

3. To help discharged soldiers and sailors to prepare their necessary papers, and to see that their pensions and allowances are in order.

4. To secure the welfare of the women and children left by those who have fallen.

5. To perpetuate in loving memory and affection the dead.

6. To promote amongst the rising generation the grand spirit of patriotism and devotion that is the characteristic of the Army of today.

To achieve these objects it would be necessary to have borough and county organisations throughout the country, with a grand central council. Parliament would be requested to grant a recognised uniform for authorised parades only, which parades could be held at intervals during the year or on a stated bank holiday. Membership would be free, with service as a qualification. Women should be admitted to the
association to represent their husbands during their absence on service.

For the past two years these questions have been discussed in various forms, and the very definite desire is evident that when we drift back to civil life, whatever our vocations may be, we may still hold together as a living corporate body. It should be noted that the welfare of every trade or profession is safeguarded by some such organisation as is hereby suggested. There are a large number who desire to contribute annually toward the general funds to be used for this organisation, and for extending help when necessary, and I therefore ask you, as a token of your appreciation of our serving soldier, to give all the publicity possible to this suggestion. Through your valuable paper, I ask all officers, non-commissioned officers and men who are interested to communicate their views to the Hon. Secretary, VGA Association, 3 Central Buildings, Westminster, S.W.1. Those who have been connected with County or Regimental Associations in the past are particularly requested to communicate at once with the undersigned, so that at the earliest data possible a meeting of county representatives may be arranged to prepare and approve of the first bye-laws.

Yours, &c.,

J. Norton-Griffiths
3 Central Buildings, Westminster, S.W.1

Yours faithfully.

R.M. Sueter, Chairman and Honorary Treasurer,
RNAS Comforts Fund

The Central Bureau for the Employment of Women – at whose offices thousands of women are interviewed and advised year by year – established seven years ago a small fund which has done and is doing excellent service in helping educated women to meet the expenses of training, maintenance during training or, at times, outfit and business
equipment. The fund is administered with the greatest care and forethought, but its usefulness is curtailed by lack of capital. The committee earnestly desire, therefore, to raise a sum of £10,000 immediately, to be devoted entirely to the preparation of educated women for useful and remunerative professions. Such a fund could but be a sound national investment, for what greater benefit can a nation reap than the health, happiness and efficiency of so many of its citizens? We need only add, in appealing to those who desire to see trained women take their proper place in the reconstruction of our country after the war, that the administrators of the existing fund, of which the Countess of Dudley is president, court the fullest inquiry into its financial stability, and that all donations may be addressed to the Countess of Dudley, at the offices of the Appeal Committee, Central Employment Bureau, 5 Princes Street, Cavendish Square, W.1

Yours,

Bryce

Selborne
Mary G. Spencer

But those who look forward with horror to the prolongation of the war, who believe that its wanton prolongation would be a crime, differing only in degree from that of the criminals who provoked it, may be excused if they scan the horizon anxiously in the hope of discovering there indications that the outlook may after all not be so hopeless as is supposed.

The obstacles are indeed formidable enough. We are constantly reminded of one of them. It is pointed out with force that, while we have not hesitated to put forward a general description of our war aims, the enemy have, though repeatedly challenged, refused to formulate theirs, and have limited themselves to vague and apparently insincere professions of readiness to negotiate with us.

The force of the argument cannot be gainsaid, but it is directed mainly to show that we are still far from agreement as to the territorial questions which must come up for settlement in connection with the terms of peace. These are, however, by no means the only question which will arise, and it is worth while to consider whether there are not others, also of first-rate importance, with regard to which the prospects of agreement are less remote.

Let me examine one or two of those. What are we fighting for? To beat the Germans? Certainly. But that is not an end in itself. We want to inflict signal defeat upon the Central Powers, not out of mere vindictiveness, but in the hope of saving the world from a recurrence of the calamity which has befallen this generation.

What, then, is it we want when the war is over? I know of no better formula than that more than once made use of, with universal approval, by Mr Asquith in the speeches which he has from time to time delivered. He has repeatedly told his hearers that we are waging war in order to obtain reparation and security. Both are essential, but of the two security is perhaps the more indispensable. In the way of reparation much can no doubt be accomplished, but the utmost effort to make good all the ravages of this war must fall short of completeness, and will fail to undo the grievous wrong which has been done to humanity. It may, however, be possible to make some amends for the inevitable incompleteness of the reparation if the security afforded is, humanly speaking, complete. To end the war honourably would be a great
achievement; to prevent the same curse falling upon our children would be a greater achievement still.

This is our avowed aim, and the magnitude of the issue cannot be exaggerated. For, just as this war has been more dreadful than any war in history, so we may be sure would the next war be even more dreadful than this. The prostitution of science for purposes of pure destruction is not likely to stop short. Most of us, however, believe that it should be possible to secure posterity against the repetition of such an outrage as that of 1914. If the Powers will, under a solemn pact, bind themselves to submit future disputes to arbitration; if they will undertake to outlaw, politically and economically, any one of their number which refuses to enter into such a pact, or to use their joint military and naval forces for the purpose of coercing a Power which breaks away from the rest, they will, indeed, have travelled far along the road which leads to security.

We are, at any rate, right to put security in the front line of our peace demands, and it is not unsatisfactory to note that in principle there seems to be complete unanimity upon this point.

In his speech at the banquet of the League to Enforce Peace, on 28 May 1916, President Wilson spoke strongly in favour of:

A universal association of nations … to prevent any war from being begun either contrary to treaty covenants or without warning and full submission of the cause to the opinion of the world.

Later in the same year the German Chancellor, at the sitting of the Main Committee of the Reichstag, used the following language:

When, as after the termination of the war, the world will fully recognise its horrible devastation of blood and treasure, then through all mankind will go the cry for peaceful agreements and understandings which will prevent, so far as is humanly possible, the return of such an immense catastrophe. This cry will be so strong and so justified that it must lead to a result. Germany will honourably co-operate in investigating every attempt to find a practical solution and collaborate towards its possible realisation.

The Papal Note communicated to the Powers in August last places in the front rank:

The establishment of arbitration on lines to be concerted and with sanction to be settled against any State that refuses either to submit international disputes to arbitration or to accept its awards.

This suggestion was immediately welcomed by the Austrian Government, which declared that it was conscious of the importance for the promotion of peace of the method proposed by his Holiness, viz., ‘to submit international disputes to compulsory arbitration', and that it was prepared to enter into negotiations regarding this proposal. Similar language was used by Count Czernin, the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, in his declaration on foreign policy made at Budapest
in October, when he mentioned as one of the ‘fundamental bases' of peace that, of ‘obligatory international arbitration'.