The Illustrious Prince

by E. Phillips Oppenheim

  CHAPTER XXXII. PRINCE MAIYO SPEAKS

  The library at Devenham Castle was a large and sombre apartment, withhigh oriel windows and bookcases reaching to the ceiling. It had anunused and somewhat austere air. Tonight especially an atmosphere ofgloom seemed to pervade it. The Prince, when he opened the door, foundthe three men who were awaiting him seated at an oval table at thefurther end of the room.

  "I do not intrude, I trust?" the Prince said. "I understood that youwished me to come here."

  "Certainly," the Duke answered, "we were sitting here awaiting yourarrival. Will you take this easy chair? The cigarettes are at yourelbow."

  The Prince declined the easy chair and leaned for a moment against thetable.

  "Perhaps later," he said. "Just now I feel that you have something tosay to me. Is it not so? I talk better when I am standing."

  It was the Prime Minister who made the first plunge. He spoke withoutcircumlocution, and his tone was graver than usual.

  "Prince," he said, "this is perhaps the last time that we shall allmeet together in this way. You go from us direct to the seat of yourGovernment. So far there has been very little plain speaking betweenus. It would perhaps be more in accord with etiquette if we let you gowithout a word, and waited for a formal interchange of communicationsbetween your Ambassador and ourselves. But we have a feeling, Sir Edwardand I, that we should like to talk to you directly. Before we go anyfurther, however, let me ask you this question. Have you any objection,Prince, to discussing a certain matter here with us?"

  The Prince for several moments made no reply. He was still standingfacing the fireplace, leaning slightly against the table behind him. Onhis right was the Duke, seated in a library chair. On his left the PrimeMinister and Sir Edward Bransome. The Prince seemed somehow to havebecome the central figure of the little group.

  "Perhaps," he said, "if you had asked me that question a month ago,Mr. Haviland, I might have replied to you differently. Circumstances,however, since then have changed. My departure will take place sosoon, and the kindness I have met here from all of you has been sooverwhelming, that if you will let me I should like to speak of certainthings concerning which no written communication could ever pass betweenour two countries."

  "I can assure you, my dear Prince, that we shall very much appreciateyour doing so," Mr. Haviland declared.

  "I think," the Prince continued, "that the greatest and the most subtleof all policies is the policy of perfect truthfulness. Listen to me,then. The thing which you have in your mind concerning me is true. Twoyears I have spent in this country and in other countries of Europe.These two years have not been spent in purposeless travel. On thecontrary, I have carried with me always a definite and very fixedpurpose."

  The Prime Minister and Bransome exchanged rapid glances.

  "That has been our belief from the first," Bransome remarked.

  "I came to Europe," the Prince continued gravely, "to make a report tomy cousin the Emperor of Japan as to whether I believed that a renewalof our alliance with you would be advantageous to my country. I need notshrink from discussing this matter with you now, for my report is made.It is, even now, on its way to the Emperor."

  There was a moment's silence, a silence which in this corner of thegreat room seemed marked with a certain poignancy. It was the PrimeMinister who broke it.

  "The report," he said, "is out of your hands. The official decision ofyour Government will reach us before long. Is there any reason why youshould not anticipate that decision, why you should not tell us franklywhat your advice was?"

  "There is no reason," the Prince answered. "I will tell you. I owe thatto you at least. I have advised the Emperor not to renew the treaty."

  "Not to renew," the Prime Minister echoed.

  This time the silence was portentous. It was a blow, and there was notone of the three men who attempted to hide his dismay.

  "I am afraid," the Prince continued earnestly, "that to you I mustseem something of an ingrate. I have been treated by every one in thiscountry as the son of a dear friend. The way has been made smooth for meeverywhere. Nothing has been hidden. From all quarters I have receivedhospitality which I shall never forget. But you are three just men. Iknow you will realize that my duty was to my country and to my countryalone. No one else has any claims upon me. What I have seen I havewritten of. What I believe I have spoken."

  "Prince," Mr. Haviland said, "there is no one here who will gainsay yourhonesty. You came to judge us as a nation and you have found us wanting.At least we can ask you why?"

  The Prince sighed.

  "It is hard," he said. "It is very hard. When I tell you of the thingswhich I have seen, remember, if you please, that I have seen them withother eyes than yours. The conditions which you have grown up amongstand lived amongst all your days pass almost outside the possibility ofyour impartial judgment. You have lived with them too long. They havebecome a part of you. Then, too, your national weakness bids your eyessee what you would have them see."

  "Go on," Mr. Haviland said, drumming idly with his fingers upon thetable.

  "I have had to ask myself," the Prince continued,--"it has been mybusiness to ask myself what is your position as a great military power,and the answer I have found is that as a great military power it doesnot exist. I have had to ask myself what would happen to your countryin the case of a European war, where your fleet was distributed to guardyour vast possessions in every quarter of the world, and the answer tothat is that you are, to all practical purposes, defenceless. In almostany combination which could arrange itself, your country is at the mercyof the invader."

  Bransome leaned forward in his chair.

  "I can disprove it," he declared firmly. "Come with me to Aldershot nextweek, and I will show you that those who say that we have no army areignorant alarmists. The Secretary for War shall show you our newscheme for defensive forces. You have gone to the wrong authorities forinformation on these matters, Prince. You have been entirely and totallymisled."

  The Prince drew a little breath.

  "Sir Edward," he said, "I do not speak to you rashly. I have not lookedinto these affairs as an amateur. You forget that I have spent a week atAldershot, that your Secretary for War gave me two days of his valuabletime. Every figure with which you could furnish me I am alreadypossessed of. I will be frank with you. What I saw at Aldershot countedfor nothing with me in my decision. Your standing army is good, beyond adoubt,--a well-trained machine, an excellent plaything for a Generalto move across the chessboard. It might even win battles, and yet yourstanding army are mercenaries, and no great nation, from the days ofBabylon, has resisted invasion or held an empire by her mercenaries."

  "They are English soldiers," Mr. Haviland declared. "I do not recognizeyour use of the word."

  "They are paid soldiers," the Prince said, "men who have adoptedsoldiering as a profession. Come, I will not pause half-way. I will tellyou what is wrong with your country. You will not believe it. Some dayyou will see the truth, and you will remember my words. It may be thatyou will realize it a little sooner, or I would not have dared to speakas I am speaking. This, then, is the curse which is eating the heartout of your very existence. The love of his Motherland is no longer areligion with your young man. Let me repeat that,--I will alter one wordonly. The love of his Motherland is no longer _the_ religion or evenpart of the religion of your young man. Soldiering is a profession forthose who embrace it. It is so that mercenaries are made. I have beento every one of your great cities in the North. I have been there on aSaturday afternoon, the national holiday. That is the day in Japan onwhich our young men march and learn to shoot, form companies and attendtheir drill. Feast days and holidays it is always the same. They do whattradition has made a necessity for them. They do it without grumbling,whole-heartedly, with an enthusiasm which has in it something almostof passion. How do I find the youth of your country engaged? I havediscovered. It is for that purpose that I have toured through England.They go to see a game played called
football. They sit on seats andsmoke and shout. They watch a score of performers--one score, mind--andthe numbers who watch them are millions. From town to town I went, andit was always the same. I see their white faces in a huge amphitheatre,fifteen thousand here, twenty thousand there, thirty thousand at anotherplace. They watch and they shout while these men in the arena play withgreat skill this wonderful game. When the match is over, they streaminto public houses. Their afternoon has been spent. They talk it over.Again they smoke and drink. So it is in one town and another,--so itis everywhere,--the strangest sight of all that I have seen inEurope. These are your young men, the material out of which the cominggeneration must be fashioned? How many of them can shoot? How many ofthem can ride? How many of them have any sort of uniform in which theycould prepare to meet the enemy of their country? What do they know orcare for anything outside their little lives and what they call theirlove of sport,--they who spend five days in your grim factories toilingbefore machines,--their one afternoon, content to sit and watch theprowess of others! I speak to these footballers themselves. They arestrong men and swift. They are paid to play this game. I do not findthat even one of them is competent to strike a blow for his country ifshe needs him. It is because of your young men, then, Mr. Haviland, thatI cannot advise Japan to form a new alliance with you. It is because youare not a serious people. It is because the units of your nation haveceased to understand that behind the life of every great nation standsthe love of God, whatever god it may be, and the love of Motherland.These things may not be your fault. They may, indeed, be the terriblepenalty of success. But no one who lives for ever so short a timeamongst you can fail to see the truth. You are commercialized out of allthe greatness of life. Forgive me, all of you, that I say it so plainly,but you are a race who are on the downward grade, and Japan seeks for noalliance save with those whose faces are lifted to the skies."

  The pause which followed was in itself significant. The Duke aloneremained impassive. Bransome's face was dark with anger. Even the PrimeMinister was annoyed. Bransome would have spoken, but the former heldout his hand to check him.

  "If that is really your opinion of us, Prince," he said, "it is uselessto enter into argument with you, especially as you have already actedupon your convictions. I should like to ask you this question, though.A few weeks ago an appeal was made to our young men to bring up to itsfull strength certain forces which have been organized for the defenceof the country. Do you know how many recruits we obtained in less than amonth?"

  "Fourteen thousand four hundred and seventy-five," the Prince answeredpromptly, "out of nearly seven millions who were eligible. This pitifulresult of itself might have been included amongst my arguments if I hadfelt that arguments were necessary. Mr. Haviland, you may drive someof these young men to arms by persuasion, by appealing to them throughtheir womankind or their employers, but you cannot create a nationalspirit. And I tell you, and I have proved it, that the national spiritis not there. I will go further," the Prince continued with increasedearnestness, "if you still are not weary of the subject. I will pointout to you how little encouragement the youth of this country receivefrom those who are above them in social station. In every one of yourcounties there is a hunt, cricket clubs, golf clubs in such numbers thattheir statistics absolutely overwhelm me. Everywhere one meets young menof leisure, well off, calmly proposing to settle down and spend the bestpart of their lives in what they call country life. They will look aftertheir estates; they will hunt a little, shoot a little, go abroad fortwo months in the winter, play golf a little, lawn tennis, perhaps, orcricket. I tell you that there are hundreds and thousands of theseyoung men, with money to spare, who have no uniform which they couldwear,--no, I want to change that!" the Prince cried with an impressivegesture,--"who have no uniform which they will be able to wear when theevil time comes! How will they feel then, these young men of family,whose life has been given to sports and to idle amusements, when theirwomankind come shrieking to them for protection and they dare not evenhandle a gun or strike a blow! They must stand by and see their landslaid waste, their womankind insulted. They must see the land runred with the blood of those who offer a futile resistance, but theythemselves must stand by inactive. They are not trained to fight assoldiers,--they cannot fight as civilians."

  "The Prince forgets," Bransome remarked dryly, "that an invasion of thiscountry--a practical invasion--is very nearly an impossible thing."

  The Prince laughed softly.

  "My friend," he said, "if I thought that you believed that, althoughyou are a Cabinet Minister of England I should think that you werethe biggest fool who ever breathed. Today, in warfare, nothingis impossible. I will guarantee, I who have had only ten years ofsoldiering, that if Japan were where Holland is today, I would halvemy strength in ships and I would halve my strength in men, and I wouldoverrun your country with ease at any time I chose. You need not agreewith me, of course. It is not a subject which we need discuss. It is,perhaps, out of my province to allude to it. The feeling which I have inmy heart is this. The laws of history are incontrovertible. So surely asa great nation has weakened with prosperity, so that her limbs have losttheir suppleness and her finger joints have stiffened, so surely doesthe plunderer come in good time. The nation which loses its citizen armydrives the first nail into its own coffin. I do not say who will invadeyou, or when, although, to my thinking, any one could do it. I simplysay that in your present state invasion from some one or other is a surething."

  "Without admitting the truth of a single word you have said, my dearPrince," the Prime Minister remarked, "there is another aspect of thewhole subject which I think that you should consider. If you find us inso parlous a state, it is surely scarcely dignified or gracious, on thepart of a great nation like yours, to leave us so abruptly to our fate.Supposing it were true that we were suffering a little from a periodof too lengthened prosperity, from an attack of over-confidence. Stillthink of the part we have played in the past. We kept the world at baywhile you fought with Russia."

  "That," the Prince replied, "was one of the conditions of a treaty whichhas expired. If by that treaty our country profited more than yours,that is still no reason why we should renew it under altered conditions.Gratitude is an admirable sentiment, but it has nothing to do with themaking of treaties."

  "We are, nevertheless," Bransome declared, "justified in pointing out toyou some of the advantages which you have gained from your alliance withus. You realize, I suppose, that save for our intervention the UnitedStates would have declared war against you four months ago?"

  "Your good offices were duly acknowledged by my Government," the Princeadmitted. "Yet what you did was in itself of no consequence. It is assure as north is north and south is south that you and America wouldnever quarrel for the sake of Japan. That is another reason, if anotherreason is needed, why a treaty between us would be valueless. You andI--the whole world knows that before a cycle of years have passed Japanand America must fight. When that time comes, it will not be you whowill help us."

  "An alliance duly concluded between this country--"

  The Prince held out both his hands.

  "Listen," he said. "A fortnight ago a certain person in America wroteand asked you in plain terms what your position would be if war betweenJapan and America were declared. What was your reply?"

  Bransome was on the point of exclaiming, but the Prime Ministerintervened.

  "You appear to be a perfect Secret Service to yourself, Prince," he saidsmoothly. "Perhaps you can also tell us our reply?"

  "I can tell you this much," the Prince answered. "You did not send wordback to Washington that your alliance was a sacred charge upon yourhonor and that its terms must be fulfilled to the uttermost letter. Yourreply, I fancy, was more in the nature of a compromise."

  "How do you know what our reply was?" Mr. Haviland asked.

  "To tell you the truth, I do not," the Prince answered, smiling. "I havesimply told you what I am assured that your answer must have been. Letu
s leave this matter. We gain nothing by discussing it."

  "You have been very candid with us, Prince," Mr. Haviland remarked. "Wegather that you are opposed to a renewal of our alliance chiefly fortwo reasons,--first, that you have formed an unfavorable opinion ofour resources and capacity as a nation; and secondly, because youare seeking an ally who would be of service to you in one particulareventuality, namely, a war with the United States. You have spent sometime upon the Continent. May we inquire whether your present attitudeis the result of advances made to you by any other Power? If I am askingtoo much, leave my question unanswered."

  The Prince shook his head slowly.

  "Tonight," he said, "I am speaking to you as one who is willing to showeverything that is in his heart. I will tell you, then. I have been toGermany, and I can assure you of my own knowledge that Germany possessesthe mightiest fighting machine ever known in the world's history. ThatI do truthfully and honestly believe. Yet listen to me. I have talked tothe men and I have talked to the officers. I have seen them in barracksand on the parade ground, and I tell you this. When the time arrives forthat machine to be set in motion, it is my profound conviction that theresult will be one of the greatest surprises of modern times. I say nomore, nor must you ask me any questions, but I tell you that we do notneed Germany as an ally. I have been to Russia, and although our handshave crossed, there can be no real friendship between our countries tilltime has wiped out the memory of our recent conflict. France hates usbecause it does not understand us. The future of Japan is just asclear as the disaster which hangs over Great Britain. There is only onepossible ally for us, only one possible combination. That is what Ihave written home to my cousin the Emperor. That is what I pray that ouryoung professors will teach throughout Japan.. That is what it will bemy mission to teach my country people if the Fates will that I returnsafely home. East and West are too far apart. We are well outside thecoming European struggle. Our strength will come to us from nearerhome."

  "China!" the Prime Minister exclaimed.

  "The China of our own making," the Prince declared, a note of tenseenthusiasm creeping into his tone,--"China recreated after its greatlapse of a thousand years. You and I in our lifetime shall not seeit, but there will come a day when the ancient conquests of Persia andGreece and Rome will seem as nothing before the all-conquering armies ofChina and Japan. Until those days we need no allies. We will have none.We must accept the insults of America and the rough hand of Germany. Wemust be strong enough to wait!"

  A footman entered the room and made his way to the Duke's chair.

  "Your Grace," he said, "a gentleman is ringing up from Downing Streetwho says he is speaking from the Home Office."

  "Whom does he want?" the Duke asked.

  "Both Your Grace and Mr. Haviland," the man replied. "He wished me tosay that the matter was of the utmost importance."

  The Duke rose at once and glanced at the clock.

  "It is an extraordinary hour," he remarked, "for Heseltine to be wantingus. Shall we go and see what it means, Haviland? You will excuse us,Prince?"

  The Prince bowed.

  "I think that we have talked enough of serious affairs tonight," hesaid. "I shall challenge Sir Edward to a game of billiards."