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CHAPTER XXII

NATIONAL SERVICE AND GERMAN INTRIGUE

THE only other business of a public nature that I have taken part in since my retirement has been the work of the National Service League; and, although I was not one of the original members, I joined it shortly after it was started, and worked steadily with voice and pen to try and convince my countrymen of the necessity for a real - and not a bogus - national army, up to the outbreak of the war; when we turned all our machinery and our energies on to assist the Government in beating up recruits on the voluntary system. For although we never believed in either the justice or the efficiency of that system, Lord Roberts - our President - decided that it was the most patriotic course to take under the circumstances, and I have no doubt he was right.

Looking back now at the opposition we had to encounter during our efforts to convince our countrymen of the wisdom of preparing for a war which all save knaves and fools saw to be inevitable, one stands aghast at the folly and utter absence of logic in the arguments used by the political lawyers and other conceited and ignorant people who thought themselves to be better judges of the military requirements of the nation than the great soldier-statesman, who not only implored the country to prepare, but pointed out the only way in which it could prepare for the crash which he so clearly foresaw was coming.

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Wiseacres tell us not to cry over spilt milk, as it is useless to do so. It is also " useless " - in the strict sense of the word - for widows to weep for their husbands, or mothers for their sons; but if the country realizes and takes to heart the undeniable fact that there would be fewer widows and fewer bereaved mothers if Lord Roberts's advice had been taken in time, it may help to impart wisdom to the coming generation, which will have the making of our future laws; and although lawyers may be very clever at interpreting laws, they seem to be uncommonly stupid about making them. Unless, indeed, they purposely make them ambiguous, so as to prepare remunerative work for themselves in interpreting them. But this is a digression. It is difficult, however, to keep one's hands off those nimble tricksters who, having seized the reins of government, preferred the interests of their party to the safety of their country, and rushed us unprepared into the greatest war the world has ever seen.

One of the most astonishing features of the present situation (May, 1916) is the unblushing effrontery of these same incompetent politicians, who are still trying to brazen out the appalling blunders for which the country is now paying so dearly in blood and treasure, and to which they have now added the Irish Rebellion, brought about by a mixture of equal parts of blindness and cowardice.

The culmination of effrontery is reached when these same blunderers grandiloquently announce that to turn them out of office would amount to a national disaster! For although it is a regrettable fact that the wily Radicals succeeded in bamboozling a few amiable and unsuspecting Conservatives to walk into their parlour and share the blame for any future blunders they might

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commit, they had no intention of altering their policy or changing the leader who still holds the helm and steers the ship. But I find I am lapsing into politics, so I must pull up short, as my only remaining task now is to note and record the nature of the opposition which the National Service League had to encounter in its efforts to awaken the country, with the hope that by so doing the folly of this opposition may be disclosed, for the enlightenment of those amiable dreamers who are already telling us that this is going to be the last war. Of course it is going to be the last war - until the next one.

It is very easy to be wise after the event; but Lord Roberts and the National Service League can claim to have been wise before the event, and they steadfastly warned the country, for several years, that war with Germany was inevitable, and that Germany would choose her own time and strike when she was ready. War with Germany became inevitable upon the date when the first German Navy Law was published, in 1900. If, indeed, it had not become inevitable three years earlier, when the famous Kruger telegram was ostentatiously launched as a direct insult and a challenge to England.

The proposals of the National Service League are common knowledge. They have been so clearly and so forcibly put before the country in the literature of the League, and in the lucid and ever-memorable speeches of our gallant and lamented President, that I need not weary the reader by restating them here. It is enough to say that we founded our arguments on the proposition that, in a free, self-governing country, every sound man of military age ought to be, not only willing, but ready, to fight for his country; and, further,

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that he could not be ready - even if willing - unless he had been previously trained.

The whole of Lord Roberts's arguments were founded upon that simple proposition.

The proposition is not new. The ancient Greeks had national service, though, of course, they were heathens; and it might be argued - in fact, it has been argued - that it is unchristian to fight for your country, if you happen to have a conscience which instructs you that you have a God-given right to enjoy all the advantages of living in a free country, but that you must not raise your hand to defend that freedom. A convenient creed for selfish shirkers.

The opponents of national service were fond of arguing that it would be " un-English " to cause young Englishmen to do their duty if they preferred to shirk it. But this was historically false, as compulsory service is as old as the monarchy; and, moreover, Englishmen had already taken the principle of national service across the Atlantic more than one hundred and fifty years ago, as may be seen from the following extract from the " Militia Law of Massachusetts Bay," passed in 1758. And as this was before the American Revolution, we may presume that the inhabitants of the colony of Massachusetts Bay were English, and English of a of a sturdy type.

" As it is the essential property of a free Government to depend on no other soldiery but its own citizens for its defence, so in all such free governments every freeman and every freeholder should be a soldier. A freeman that is no soldier does as much as in him lies that he should be no longer free . . . . 'Tis base not to be allowed to bear arms in his own and his country's defence. 'Tis perfidy and treachery in a free citizen not to be willing to bear arms. But to affect to bear

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arms, and not to know or learn the use of them, is worse than slavishness or treachery; it is cruelty with aggravation, to mock his country in its distress."

We are not told whether there were any conscientious objectors in the colony of Massachusetts Bay in 1758. But if there were, they probably got short shrift from the elders who managed public affairs; for these early settlers were not the sort of men to stand any effeminate hypocrisy amongst their community. They had consciences themselves, no doubt, but they did not use them as a cloak for cowardice.

I wonder what Miles Standish would have said to a young man who told him that he had a conscientious objection to take up arms in defence of the colony. Or what Priscilla would have said to John Alden, if he had told her that, although he loved her dearly, he had a conscientious objection to fight against the Indians in defence of her honour and her life. Yet these Indians were not one bit more ruthless nor more cruel than the cultivated Germans of the twentieth century, whom our conscientious young men decline to fight.

Amongst the objections which were raised by those who opposed Lord Roberts and the N.S.L., I will give a few extracts from a manifesto which was distributed broadcast, in the shape of a leaflet, and signed by forty-two members of the House of Commons. It was headed, " Working Class Leaders and Compulsory Military Training," and it said:

" At a time when the workers in other countries " (query: which other countries ?) " are crying out against the evils of conscription, a persistent attempt is being made to introduce it into this country in the form of compulsory military training. It is because this agitation is backed by a large array of men and women of

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the rich (my italics) classes, and lavishly supplied with money, that we think it desirable to warn the working classes of this well-organized conspiracy against their liberties." (The conspiracy was an unsuccessful attempt to prepare the country for the great war which Lord Roberts and the N.S.L. clearly foresaw.) . . . " We regard compulsion in any form as bad " (though apparently not the compulsory taxing of the rich classes to provide compulsory education, free, to the children of the working classes) . . . . " Trade-unionists, cooperators, and other organized workmen, have been untouched by this mischievous propaganda of militarism. They stand resolutely by the voluntary system as the only one which the workers will tolerate " (as it is the only one which enables them to shirk all duty to the State, which protects them and their wives and children from foreign aggression). " The Government which tried to abolish it would have short shrift at their hands . . . . Holding these views strongly, we venture to urge upon all classes the importance of a strenuous resistance to the demands which are made for compulsory military training by Lord Roberts and the National Service League, of which he is the head."

This statesmanlike and patriotic manifesto was issued to the British public in February, 1911, when Germany was strenuously making large additions to her Navy, with feverish haste, accompanied by clumsy attempts to preserve secrecy; and was also adding greatly to her already immense and highly organized army.

Amongst the forty-two legislators who signed the above document, we find the names of Messrs. Abraham, Barnes, Brace, Burt, Clynes, honest Will Crooks, Arthur Henderson, Lansbury, Ramsay Macdonald, Snowden, John Ward, etc.

It would be interesting to know if these short-sighted and misguided gentlemen are now at all ashamed of themselves, and of their treatment of Lord Roberts;

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and if they realize that it was largely owing to their stupidity and arrogant assumption of military knowledge that the country was caught unprepared for a great war, with all the consequences arising therefrom.

One of the most incorrigible - and, I think history will record, most blameworthy - of the opponents of Lord Roberts and the N.S.L. was Lord Haldane, who, although he professed to know more about Germany and her intentions than any of his colleagues, deliberately reduced our tiny army, abolished the militia, and set to work tinkering in a thoroughly amateurish manner with his Territorials, who were only to begin their serious six months' training after war had been declared ! And when Lord Roberts repeatedly told him that troops ought to be trained during peace-time, in readiness for war, he said he knew better, and went on to say that, although Lord Roberts might have been a successful leader of troops in the field, he (Lord Haldane) knew better how to organize an army. Here are his words. Speaking at a Territorial prize-giving at Bradford (one wonders what the Territorials had done to earn prizes), Lord Haldane said: " Lord Roberts had commanded troops with unbroken success, but the leading of troops was one thing, and the business of organizing for war in times of peace was another."

So we find a successful lawyer claiming to know more about the organization of an army than a veteran Field-Marshal and successful General! And, what is more, the country entrusted this unabashed amateur with the job. Punch. called him Napoleon Haldane, and drew flattering pictures of him, after Meissomer, with his cocked hat athwart-ships and his legs wide apart.

Our British Carnot lost neither time nor opportunity in showing his countrymen - including Lord Roberts

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how thoroughly he understood the organization of an army, and the necessary preparations for war. In one of his numerous speeches in praise of his own work - Ipswich, May 13th, 1911 - he said:

" No financial apprehension need be felt by the Territorial Associations. The War Office " (meaning himself) " was an indulgent parent to all its deserving children. The defence scheme was nearly complete, and, he believed, was the most perfect possible. A great army of Reserves and Boy Scouts would play an important part in the military problem which was being pieced together. The great silent courage of the British people had contributed to the success of the Territorial Force."

The great silent courage of the British people! A great army of Reserves and Boy Scouts !

And yet there was nothing in the report of this speech to show that Lord Haldane was not perfectly sober and quite in earnest!

And how did our British Carnot set about appealing to the great silent courage of the British people, in order to piece together the military problem ? Thus

" The Territorial week at Kingston-on-Thames, held for the purpose of bringing the local companies of the 6th East Surrey (Territorial) Regiment up to full strength, was concluded on Saturday with a special recruiting night at headquarters " (then follow some statistics). " Ladies wearing recruiting favours of tricolour rosettes have been very active in the cause, the authorities offering each lady a pair of gloves for each recruit enlisted. On the morning of Saturday a fox-terrier paraded the streets with a recruiting badge .affixed to its collar, and all district Territorials displayed tricolour ribbons on their bicycles; each member of the regiment obtaining a recruit receiving a monetary reward."

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And yet the great silent courage of the British people failed, by thirty-two men, to furnish the required quota for the East Surrey Regiment.

England expects every man to do his duty. And if he won't, the Minister for War will send a lady to kiss him and a fox-terrier to entice him.

Our great organizer of victory said, on another occasion, that " he knew the considerations that moved many public-spirited people towards compulsory service. His comment was that they did not know what they were driving at, and that, if they did know it, many of them would be the first to drop the object they had set in view."

We rather thought we did know what we were driving at, and that Lord Haldane didn't. We never had any intention of dropping the object we had in view, and many of us have lived - though, alas! not our wise leader - to see compulsory national service become the law of the land.

In the same speech (made at the Caxton Hall on November 24th, 1913, less than nine months before the crash) Lord Haldane went on to say: " There might also come a time when, instead of having to spend seventy or eighty millions on defence, they would be able to devote the greater part of it " (my italics) " to social reform, which was much needed, and other things."

What a far-sighted statesman! " Social reform and other things " are the well-known euphemisms for promises of bribery to ignorant voters, in order to keep Radical political lawyers in power and office.

But enough of Lord Haldane. We must charitably suppose that he knew less about his spiritual home than he pretended to do. He has not, however, confessed

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his folly, nor shown any signs of being ashamed of himself.

The National Service League had plenty of other opponents besides the Minister for War. Thus, Mr. F. D. Acland, Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, made the following savage attack on our honoured President: " Lord Roberts not only stated that Germany wanted to strike at us, but he said something worse - that we ought to be in a position to strike at Germany (cries of 'Shame!'), and to smash them in a time of profound peace and without any cause. It was nothing less than a wicked proposal (cheers)."

While our so-called statesmen were saying these things and doing their best to reduce England's powers of self-defence to the lowest possible ebb, it must be remembered that they had had ample and repeated warnings that Germany intended to attack us as soon as she was ready and saw a good opportunity of doing so. I do not mean secret warnings from Consuls and Ambassadors - about which I know nothing - but public warnings, known to all the world.

Out of scores of such warnings which I could quote, I will give two, as being typical of the spirit and ambitions of the German nation.

As long ago as 1900, the late General Von der Goltz wrote

" The national energy of Germany has need of space, and the soil of our country has become insufficient. The dream of a greater Germany has become a law for the present generation under the iron hand of necessity . . . . War with England has nothing improbable about it . . . . Violence is a right for people who fear for their existence . . . . Germany can meet the trial when it comes, and must not lose a single day in preparing for it." Which she didn't.

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On our part, we set about preparing for it by reducing our little army by 30,000 men and cutting down our battleship programme, the money being wanted for " other things." Thus, in 1905 England laid down four capital ships and Germany laid down two. In 1906 England laid down three, and Germany three. In 1907 England three, Germany three. In 1908 the Mistress of the Seas reduced to two, and Germany increased four. And in this same year we received another of the numerous warnings to which I have alluded above. The Neue Politische Correspondenze of Berlin (March, 1908) wrote:

" We have no reason to fear England, if we have one day to resort to the ultima ratio regum. The spirits and bodies of Englishmen have lost their former value by reason of the decline of military virtues . . . . England has enveloped us in diplomatic toils which begin to interfere with our liberty of action. A desire may overcome us to break these toils with a vigorous hand, before we are so enclosed by them that we can no longer stir . . . . It may be reserved for the conquerors of Alsen " (where the great bully jumped on poor little Denmark) " to execute a century later the plan abandoned by Napoleon in 1805."

King Edward VII. had been frequently accused of enveloping Germany in diplomatic toils, because he made friends with France. Fortunately for us, that wise monarch could see a little farther ahead than his purblind and stupid Ministers.

While enumerating the various opponents which the National Service League had to encounter, I must not forget the Quakers. Being myself a direct descendant from a family of Quakers, I shall take the liberty of speaking with some freedom, and with the zeal of a

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renegade, on the subject of the patriotism of this amiable Society of Friends, who have a conscientious objection to defend the country they live in; though they have none whatever to enjoy the freedom and security and all other benefits won for them by the blood of their fellow-countrymen.

It is on record in my family that my great-grandfather, a wealthy timber-merchant in the city of Cork, was " read out of meeting "- i.e., expelled from the Society - because he had a picture-gallery in his house, including a beautiful Venus in the classical attire of one diaphanous cloud; he also drove four-in-hand; but the most heinous of his crimes, and what was probably the last straw, was that he had eight little brass cannon in his yacht! These are still preserved in the family, to show that we are impenitent.

In 1906, when Lord Roberts and the N.S.L. were working hard to arouse the country to the danger of being unprepared for war, the Quakers did their best to frustrate our efforts. A representative meeting of the Society, held in London in March of that year, passed the following resolution:

" This representative meeting of the Society of Friends feels that it must at once express its conviction that any such attempt " (national service) " to instil the military spirit into the boys and youths of our country is antagonistic to the high moral ends which national education should have in view."

The high moral end of teaching boys to cultivate a conscience which will forbid them, when they arrive at man's estate, to undertake an imperative national duty; forbid them to behave like men; forbid them to take any steps which might enable them to defend

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successfully the life and honour of their mothers and sisters. It is difficult to see where the morality comes in; and when I am told that I ought to respect the honest convictions of my fellow-countrymen, I reply that they have no right to be my fellow-countrymen; that they have no right to enjoy a freedom and security which they will not help to defend. I tell them that the thing they call their conscience is a dishonest sham, unless they are prepared to pack up their traps and leave the country immediately, and go to some country - if they can find one - where they will enjoy freedom and security without risking their own skins in defence thereof.

The above-quoted Quaker view of the " high moral ends " of education was expressed in 1906, when the country was enjoying the blessings of peace. But what shall be said of the following manifesto by the same society, issued ten years later, when the country had been at war for more than a year, engaged in a struggle for its life ?

The following letter was sent to members of the Cabinet and to all members of the House of Commons on January 4th, 1916:

" COMPULSORY MILITARY SERVICE.

" On behalf of the committee of the Society of Friends specially appointed to have charge of this matter, we write to inform you that, if any measure having the above for its object should become law, the opposition of our Society to it will in no sense be modified or withdrawn. Such opposition is fundamental, and is based upon a conscientious objection to all warfare. We are further to inform you that if any such measure should become law the support and co-operation of

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members of the Society will be available for those outside their own body (my italics) whose conscientious objection is based upon the same ground as their own.

" Signed on behalf of the committee,

EDWARD GRUBB,

JOAN MARY FRY,

ROBERT O. MENNELL."

So we see that if, during the throes of a great war, the Parliament of Great Britain should deem it necessary for the safety of the country to pass a certain law, these sanctimonious hypocrites, who profess to be more righteous than their fellow-countrymen, not only threaten to break the law themselves, but inform the Cabinet and the legislature that they will aid and abet anybody else who wishes to break the law, though not of their Society.

If this is not treason, it would be interesting to hear some suitable name for it.

It is all very well to say, " Oh, these people are only crazy Quakers, and nobody minds what the Quakers say. Leave 'em alone, and don't make martyrs of them."

I don't agree to this. I see no reason why a Quaker or a Shaker or any other British subject should be allowed to defy with impunity the law of the land he lives and flourishes in, and also offer his support to any would-be law-breaker who can manage to manufacture a convenient conscience for the purpose. I might just as well trump up a conscience against paying my taxes.

There were many other people, besides those I have mentioned, who offered strenuous opposition to the labours of the National Service League; but in spite of all opponents we worked away steadily, though in

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vain, to awaken our masters, the voters, to the danger they were running in remaining unprepared to meet the onslaught of the great bully of Europe, which we clearly foresaw to be inevitable.

I shall probably be told that it is very easy to be rise after the event; but I can say with a clear conscience (not a Quaker one) that in almost every speech I made for the N.S.L. - and I made a good many - I made the German menace the groundwork of my remarks. In doing this I followed the lead of that great, clear-sighted, single-minded soldier who, for eight years at least, never entertained a doubt that Germany would strike directly her preparations were completed. " Germany strikes when Germany's hour has struck," said he. For which wise and timely warning some of the members of our enlightened legislature actually had the impertinence to apologize to the would-be assassin

I started a branch of the National Service League at Folkestone in 1905, and it increased and flourished up to the outbreak of the war; when we turned our organization on to recruiting on the voluntary system, though still holding our opinion that universal military training was the only just and equitable method of preparing for national defence. I also placed my services at the disposal of the headquarters of the N.S.L., and they sent me all over England speechifying in favour of national service. It was extremely difficult to get the working classes to come to our meetings or to take any interest in the subject. It was obvious that they preferred the voluntary plan, as it allowed them to shirk all duty to the State. So it turned out that the various meetings which I addressed, north, south, east, and west, were almost entirely composed of

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what are called the well-to-do classes. Sometimes the audience would be quite enthusiastic on the subject, and cheer vociferously, and at other meetings they would be cold and indifferent, and apparently disappointed with the entertainment - as if they expected me to sing a nautical song and dance a hornpipe. But even at the meetings where the audience appeared to be heartily in favour of universal service, we did not always get many of them to join the League. They would smile and say that they thought national service would be a very good thing for all young men; but they would not join the League " at present." Or, like Felix, they would hear me at a more convenient season.

And now, after boasting of all the work I did to assist Lord Roberts in his crusade, I must, in common honesty, relate an event which is not much to the credit of my perspicacity: for I was fairly taken in and fooled by a wily Teuton. In 1904 - four years after the promulgation of the first German Navy Law - I received a very friendly and courteous letter from the editor of the Deutsche Revue, asking me to write an article for him on the relations between Germany and England. He would undertake the translation of the article, and I would have no further trouble, beyond writing it in English and receiving payment for it. The editor (Mr. Richard Fleischer) was extremely polite; I was, " Your Excellency; Sir Fitzgerald; The Right Honourable," etc.; and he only published articles by people of " the highest standing." I ought to have smelt a rat; but I didn't, and fell incontinently into the trap.

So I wrote what I thought was a friendly and moderate article, but at the same time pointing out frankly that the preamble to the first German Navy Law (1900) could scarcely be regarded otherwise than as a challenge

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to this country for the mastery of the seas; and that we had for years felt that our very life and existence as an independent Power rested upon our naval supremacy; and, further, that the Kaiser's famous remark, " Neptune's trident must be in our fist," seemed to me to leave but little doubt as to Germany's ultimate object. And I wound up by saying that, if this really was her object, I would rather see war come to-morrow than wait until the German Fleet approached ours in equality.

This was exactly what the wily editor wanted and was playing for. The German Press took the matter up and screamed with rage and fury. I was a bloodthirsty, swashbuckler Admiral. I was suggesting that a base and treacherous attack should be made upon poor dear innocent Germany in a time of profound peace, and before she was ready.* One of the German comic papers published a caricature of me, gnashing my teeth, and with a pen couched as a lance, striking an innocent, unsuspecting German in the back. The German Navy League was delighted and demanded an immediate increase in the programme for Dreadnoughts, which they got; while Great Britain steadily decreased her programme of shipbuilding, and Mr. Churchill went whining for a naval holiday, as we wanted to maintain our naval supremacy on the cheap.

As I do not understand the German language, I am unable to say whether the editor of the Deutsche Revue made a fair and honest translation of my article; but as he certainly cheated me with regard to the object of his request that I should write an article for him,

* Many of our own newspapers scolded me roundly for making such a wicked and " unprovoked " suggestion. Though a few - including the Army and Navy Gazette - supported me.

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I shall probably be doing him no injustice if I suspect him of dishonesty in the translation.

It is well known that, in translating one language into another, it is easy - without making an absolute misstatement - to give a turn to a phrase which shall convey a different meaning to that intended by the author of it. There are many words which have no exact equivalent in another language; and we ourselves borrow largely from the French tongue in order to express ideas and sentiments for which we have no words in our own.

To use a popular modern expression, I was " had," badly " had," by the editor of the Deutsche Revue. I fell into his trap; and I have no doubt my innocent frankness, or, more properly, my indiscretion in trusting a German, may quite possibly have helped my old friend Tirpitz to get more money for his Dreadnoughts. My only excuse is that in 1904 the Germans had not been found out, though they were under suspicion, and I gave them the benefit of the doubt.

And now my task is finished. In the two volumes I have written I have tried to give the reader some idea of life in the Navy during the latter half of the nineteenth century, in the piping times of naval peace. Someone else must write of the War - when it is finished - and that will be more interesting.

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