, have served the cause of humanity by their generous reception
of sick and wounded. Some, like the Norwegians, have themselves suffered
cruel wrongs by the ruthlessness of our foes.

Lastly, we must look forward to the possibility of a real peace with
Germany, a readmission of Germany to the commonwealth of Nations, a
restoration in the future of friendly intercourse with the German
people.

Never again shall we of the older generation cross the German frontier
save in answer to some clear call of imperative duty. We should be
more--or perhaps less--than human to wish it. Day after day we have read
or our eyes have seen the reiterated and continued acts of infamy done
under the direction of those whom the majority of the German people not
only submit to as their rulers, but follow willingly as their guides.

Nor for years to come will many of the men of younger age risk the
chance of contact with those who were responsible for or committed such
crimes as they have witnessed from the day when German troops first
entered Belgium four years ago to the sinking of the last hospital ship
or last murder of wounded men and of nurses under the shadow of the Red
Cross.

But a new generation will follow us who may find and may accept a
welcome from a younger German race who had no part in the sins against
humanity committed by the Germans of to-day. Some, indeed, of that
younger race will have learned from their own fathers who suffered for
them, to detest those crimes.

For another generation of Englishmen it may be possible once again to
find even in Germany something to enjoy and to admire. They may watch
from the Schlossgarten at Heidelberg the sun go down beyond the Rhine
over Alsace, then again united to France; they may wander again in
friendly talk with some forester under the pines of the Schwarzwald and
listen to the singing of the familiar Volkslieder--Tannenbaum or Haiden
Roeslein--by a people who have a natural gift for song; they may in
Nuremberg again look with delight on the marvels in stone wrought by its
craftsmen or seek out the hidden meanings in the mystic art of Albrecht
Duerer; perhaps be whirled along in the Isar "rolling rapidly" through
the baths of Munich or plunge in the crystal depths of the Koenig See;
from the highlands of Bavaria they may lift up their eyes to the long
ranges of the snowy Alps of Tyrol, and, as the decennial cycle comes
round and the reverent peasants re-enact the sacred drama