the world.

R. R.

_August, 1919._

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE TO CHAPTER XX

A GREAT EUROPEAN: G. F. NICOLAI

Comment is requisite upon the reproaches addressed by G. F. Nicolai to
certain Christian sects. In the various countries of Europe, opposition
to the war, on the part of those he names, was far more vigorous than
has been commonly supposed. Inasmuch as the authorities ruthlessly but
silently suppressed all opposition, it is only since the close of the
war that we have been able to glean information concerning these
conscientious revolts and sacrifices. Without dwelling upon the story of
the thousands of conscientious objectors in the United States and in
England (where Bertrand Russell has been their defender and
interpreter), I wish to mention that Paul Birinkov has drawn my
attention to the attitude of the Nazarenes in Hungary and Serbia, where
large numbers of them were shot. He has also given me information
concerning the doings of the Tolstoyans, the Dukhobors, the Adventists,
the Young Baptists, etc., in Russia. As for the Mennonites, according to
the reports of Dr. Pierre Kennel, in the United States most of them
refused to subscribe to the war loans. They were not compelled to
undertake combatant duties, but they accepted service in the battalions
for the reconstruction of the devastated regions in northern France. In
tsarist Russia, and in a number of the German states, they were granted
exemption from combatant service, and did duty in the medical corps or
other auxiliary drafts. In France, by a decree of the Convention
(respected by Napoleon) they were likewise assigned to non-combatant
service. But the Third Republic disregarded this decree.

R. R.

_Printed in Great Britain by_ UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAM
PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Published in pamphlet form by La Maison Francaise, Paris, 1918.

[2] Except the last two stanzas, which were composed in the autumn of
the same year.

[3] Conversation with L. Mabilleau, "Opinion," June 20, 1908.

[4] In a recent issue of the "Revue des Deux Mondes."

[5] Institut fuer Kulturforschung (Institute for the Study of
Civilisation), founded at Vienna in February, 1915, by Dr. Erwin
Hanslick. So rapid was its success that in February, 1916, it gave birth
to the Institute for the Study of the East and the Orient.

[6] "Nature," writes Voltaire in _L'Homme aux quarante ecus_, "is like
those great princes who think no