CHAPTER VI
THE NOTE OF WAR
The _Official Gazette_, published November the 25th, 1909, contained thefollowing announcement:--
"Naval Promotions. Lieutenant-Commander Francis Erskine, of H.M. Fishery Cruiser _Cormorant_, to be Captain of H.M. Cruiser _Ithuriel_. Lieutenant Denis Castellan, also of the _Cormorant_, to be First Lieutenant of the _Ithuriel_."
On the evening of the same day, Mr Chamberlain, the Prime Minister, roseamidst the tense silence of a crowded House to make anotherannouncement, which was not altogether unconnected with the notice inthe _Gazette_.
"Sir," he said in a low, but vibrant and penetrating voice, which manyyears before had helped to make his fame as an orator, "it is my painfulduty to inform this honourable House that a state of war exists betweenHis Majesty and a Confederation of European countries, includingGermany, Russia, France, Spain, Holland and Belgium."
He paused for a moment, and looked round at the hundreds of faces, mostof them pale and fixed, that were turned toward the front TreasuryBench. Since Mr Balfour, now Lord Whittinghame, and Leader of theConservative Party in the House of Lords, had made his memorable speechon the 12th of October 1899, informing the House of Commons and theworld that the Ultimatum of the South African Republic had beenrejected, and that the struggle for the mastery of South Africa wasinevitable, no such momentous announcement had been made in the House ofCommons.
Mr Chamberlain referred to that bygone crisis in the following terms:
"It will be within the memory of many Members of this House that, almostexactly ten years ago to-day, the British Empire was challenged to fightfor the supremacy of South Africa. That challenge was accepted notbecause there was any desire on the part of the Government or the peopleof this country to destroy the self-government of what were then theSouth African Republic and the Orange Free State, but because theGovernment of her late Majesty, Queen Victoria, knew that the fate of anempire, however great, depends upon its supremacy throughout itsdominions.
"To lose one of these, however small and apparently insignificant, is totake a stone out of an arch with the result of inevitable collapse ofthe whole structure. It is not necessary for me, sir, to make anyfurther allusion to that struggle, save than to say that the policy ofHer Majesty's Ministers has been completely justified by theconsequences which have followed from it.
"The Transvaal and Orange River Colonies have taken their place amongthe other self-governing Colonies of the Empire. They are prosperous,contented and loyal, and they will not be the last, I think, to come tothe help of the Mother Country in such a crisis as this. But, sir, I donot think that I should be fulfilling the duties of the responsibleposition which I have the honour to occupy if I did not remind thisHouse, and through this House the citizens of the British Empire, thatthe present crisis is infinitely more serious than that with which wewere faced in 1899. Then we were waging a war in another hemisphere, sixthousand miles away. Our unconquered, and, as I hope it will prove,unconquerable Navy, kept the peace of the world, and policed the oceanhighways along which it was necessary for our ships to travel. It istrue that there were menaces and threats heard in many quarters, butthey never passed beyond the region of insult and calumny.
"Our possible enemies then, our actual enemies now, were in those dayswilling to wound, and yet afraid to strike. To-day, they have lost theirfear in the confidence of combination. To-day the war cloud is not sixthousand miles away in the southern hemisphere; it is here, in Europe,and a strip of water, twenty-one miles broad, separates us from theenemy, which, even as I am speaking, may already be knocking at ourgates. Even now, the thunder of the guns may be echoing along the shoresof the English Channel.
"This, sir, is a war in which I might venture to say the most ardentmember of the Peace Society would not hesitate to engage. For itinvolves the most sacred duty of humanity, the defence of our country,and our homes.
"We remember, sir, the words which Francis Drake wrote, and which haveremained true from his day until now: 'The frontiers of an islandcountry are the coasts of its possible enemies.' We remember also thatwhen the great Napoleon had massed nearly half a million men on theheights above Boulogne, and more than a thousand pontoons were waitingto carry that force to the Kentish shore, there was only one old Englishfrigate cruising up and down the Straits of Dover.
"Sir, there is on the heights of Boulogne a monument, built tocommemorate the assembly of the Grand Army, and collectors of coinsstill cherish those productions of the Paris Mint, which bear thelegend, 'Napoleon, Emperor, London, 1804.' But, sir, the statue ofNapoleon which stands on the summit of that monument faces not westwardbut eastward. The Grand Army could have crossed that narrow strip ofwater. It could, no doubt, have made a landing on British soil, butNapoleon, possibly the greatest military genius the world has ever seen,anticipated Field-Marshal von Moltke, who said that he had found eightways of getting into England, but he had not found one of getting outagain, unless it were possible to pump the North Sea dry, and march themen over. In other words, sir, the British Navy was then, as now,paramount on seas; the oceans were our territories, and the coasts ofEurope our frontiers.
"Again, sir, we must not forget that those were the days of sails, andthat these are the days of steam. What was then a matter of days is nowonly a matter of hours. It is two hundred and forty-two years since thesound of hostile guns was heard in the city of London. To-morrow morningtheir thunder may awaken us.
"It has been said, sir, that Great Britain plays the game of Diplomacywith her cards face upwards on the table. That, in a sense, is true, andHis Majesty's Government propose to play the same game now. The demandswhich have been presented by the Federation of European Powers, at thehead of which stands the German Emperor--demands which, it is hardlynecessary for me to say, were instantly rejected--are these: ThatGibraltar shall be given back to Spain; that Malta shall be dismantled,and cease to be a British naval base; that the British occupation ofEgypt and the Soudan shall cease, and that the Suez Canal and theTrans-Continental Railway from Cairo to the Cape shall be handed over tothe control of an International Board, upon which the British Empirewill be graciously allowed one representative.
"It is further demanded that Singapore, the Gate of the East, shall beplaced under the control of the same International Board, and that thefortifications of Hong Kong shall be demolished. That, sir, would amountto the surrender of the British Empire, an empire which can only existas long as the ocean paths between its various portions are keptinviolate.
"Those proposals, sir, in plain English are threats, and His Majesty'sGovernment has returned the only possible answer to them, and thatanswer is war--war, let us remember, which may within a few weeks, oreven days, be brought to our own doors. Whatever our enemies may havesaid of us it is still true that Britain stands for peace, security, andprosperity. We have used the force of arms to conquer the forces ofbarbarism and semi-civilisation, but the most hostile of our critics maybe safely challenged to point to any country or province upon which wehave imposed the Pax Britannica, which is not now the better for it. Itis no idle boast, sir, to say that all the world over, the rule of HisMajesty means the rule of peace and prosperity. There are only twocauses in which a nation or an empire may justly go to war. One, is tomake peace where strife was before, and the other is to defend thatwhich has been won, and made secure by patient toil and endeavour, noless than by blood and suffering. It is that which the challenge ofEurope calls upon us now to defend. Our answer to the leagued nations isthis: What we have fought for and worked for and won is ours. Take itfrom us if you can.
"And, sir, I believe that I can say with perfect confidence, that whatHis Majesty's Government has done His Majesty's subjects will enforce toa man, and, if necessary, countersign the declaration of war in theirown blood.
"Let us remember, too, those weighty words of warning which the Laureateof the Empire wrote nearly twenty years ago, of this Imperialinheritance of ours:
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sp; "'It is not made with the mountains, it is not one with the deep, Men, not gods, devised it, men, not gods, must keep. Men not children, servants, or kinsfolk called from afar, But each man born in the island broke to the matter of war.
'So ye shall bide, sure-guarded, when the restless lightnings wake, In the boom of the blotting war-cloud, and the pallid nations quake. So, at the haggard trumpets, instant your soul shall leap, Forthright, accoutred, accepting--alert from the walls of sleep. So at the threat ye shall summon--so at the need ye shall send, Men, not children, or servants, tempered and taught to the end.'
"Sir, it has been said that poets are prophets. The hour of thefulfilment of that prophecy has now come, and I shall be much mistakenin my estimate of the temper of my countrymen and fellow-subjects of HisMajesty here in Britain, and in the greater Britains over sea, if,granted the possibility of an armed invasion of the Motherland, everyman, soldier or civilian, who is able to use a rifle, will not, ifnecessary, use it in the defence of his country and his home."
The Prime Minister sat down amid absolute silence. The tremendouspossibilities which he had summed up in his brief speech seemed to havestunned his hearers for the time being. Some members said afterwardsthat they could hear their own watches ticking. Then Mr John Redmond,the Leader of the Irish Nationalist Party, rose and said, in a slow, anddeliberate voice, which contrasted strikingly with his usual style oforatory:
"Sir, this is not a time for what has been with a certain amount ofdouble-meaning described as Parliamentary speeches. Still less is it atime for party or for racial differences. The silence in which thisHouse has received the speech of the Prime Minister is the most eloquenttribute that could be paid to the solemnity of his utterances. But, sir,I have a reason for calling attention to one omission in that speech, anomission which may have been made purposely. The last time that afoeman's foot trod British soil was not eight hundred years ago. It wasin December 1796 that French soldiers and sailors landed on the shoresof Bantry Bay. Sir, the Ireland of those days was discontented, and, ifyou please to call it so, disloyal. There are those who say she is sonow, but, sir, whatever our domestic difficulties and quarrels may be,and however much I and the party which I have the honour to lead maydiffer from the home policy of the Right Honourable gentleman who hasmade this momentous pronouncement, it shall not be said that any ofthose difficulties or differences will be taken advantage of by any manwho is worth the name of Irishman.
"As the Prime Minister has told us, the thunder of the enemy's guns mayeven now be echoing along our southern coasts. We have, I hope, learnt alittle wisdom on both sides of the Irish Sea during the last twentyyears, and this time, sir, I think I can promise that, while the gunsare talking, there shall be no sound of dispute on party matters inthis House as far as we are concerned. From this moment, the IrishNationalist Party, as such, ceases to exist, at any rate until the war'sover.
"In 1796, the French fleet carrying the invading force was scatteredover the seas by one of the worst storms that ever was known on the westcoast of Ireland. As Queen Elizabeth's medal said of the Spanish Armada,'God blew, and they were scattered.' With God's help, sir, we willscatter these new enemies who threaten us with invasion and conquest.Henceforth, there must be no more Englishmen, Irishmen, Scotchmen, orWelshmen. We are just subjects of the King, and inhabitants of theBritish Islands; and the man who does not believe that, and act upon hisbelief, should get out of these islands as soon as he can, for he isn'tfit to live in them.
"I remember, sir, a car-driver in Galway, who was taking an Englishtourist--and he was a politician as well--around the country about thathalf-ruined city. The English tourist was inquiring into the troubles ofIreland, and he asked him what was the greatest affliction that Irelandsuffered from, and when he answered him he described just the sort ofIrishman who won't be wanted in Ireland now. He said, 'It's the absenteelandlords, your honour. This unfortunate country is absolutely swarmingwith them.'"
It was an anti-climax such as only an Irishman could have achieved. Thetension which had held every nerve of every member on the stretch whilethe Prime Minister was speaking was broken. The Irish members, almost toa man, jumped to their feet, as Mr Redmond picked up his hat, waved itround his head, and said, in a tone which rang clear and true throughthe crowded Chamber:
"God save the King!"
And then for the first time in its history, the House of Commons roseand sang the National Anthem.
There was no division that night. The Prime Minister formally put themotion for the voting of such credit as might be necessary to meet theexpenses of the war, and when the Speaker put the question, Ay or Nay,every member stood up bareheaded, and a deep-voiced, thunderous "Ay"told the leagued nations of Europe that Britain had accepted theirchallenge.
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