zation according to their
terms of service, which was for "the duration of the war." They
protested against the gross inequalities of selection by which men of
short service were sent home before those who had been out in 1914,
1915, 1916. They demanded justness, fair play, and denounced red tape
and official lies. "We want to go home!" was their shout on parade. A
serious business, subversive of discipline.

Similar explosions were happening in England. Bodies of men broke camp
at Folkestone and other camps, demonstrated before town halls, demanded
to speak with mayors, generals, any old fellows who were in authority,
and refused to embark for France until they had definite pledges that
they would receive demobilization papers without delay. Whitehall, the
sacred portals of the War Office, the holy ground of the Horse Guards'
Parade, were invaded by bodies of men who had commandeered ambulances
and lorries and had made long journeys from their depots. They, too,
demanded demobilization. They refused to be drafted out for service
to India, Egypt, Archangel, or anywhere. They had "done their bit,"
according to their contract. It was for the War Office to fulfil its
pledges. "Justice" was the word on their lips, and it was a word which
put the wind up (as soldiers say) any staff-officers and officials who
had not studied the laws of justice as they concern private soldiers,
and who had dealt with them after the armistice and after the peace as
they had dealt with them before--as numbers, counters to be shifted
here and there according to the needs of the High Command. What was
this strange word "justice" on soldiers' lips?... Red tape squirmed
and writhed about the business of demobilization. Orders were made,
communicated to the men, canceled even at the railway gates. Promises
were made and broken. Conscripts were drafted off to India, Egypt,
Mesopotamia, Archangel, against their will and contrary to pledge. Men
on far fronts, years absent from their wives and homes, were left to
stay there, fever-stricken, yearning for home, despairing. And while the
old war was not yet cold in its grave we prepared for a new war against
Bolshevik Russia, arranging for the spending of more millions, the
sacrifice of more boys of ours, not openly, with the consent of the
people, but on the sly, with a fine art of camouflage.

The purpose of the new war seemed to many men who had fought for
"liberty" an outrage against the "self--determ