ely disgusted
at the interpretation of Great Britain's action which I found current
there. I had supposed that Holland would be full of admiration; I
found that she was nothing of the sort. We Britishers, in those early
days, believed that we were magnanimous big brothers who could have
kept out of the bloodshed, but preferred to die rather than see the
smaller nations bullied. Men certainly did not join Kitchener's mob
because they believed that England's life was threatened. I don't
believe that any strong emotion of patriotism animated Canada in her
early efforts. The individual Briton donned the khaki because he was
determined to see fair play, and was damned if he would stand by a
spectator while women and children were being butchered in Belgium.
He felt that he had to do something to stop it. If he didn't, the same
thing would happen in Holland, then in Denmark, then in Norway. There
was no end to it. When a mad dog starts running the best thing to do
is to shoot it.

But the Hollanders didn't agree with me at all. "You're fighting for
yourselves," they said. "You're not fighting to save us from being
invaded; you're not fighting to prevent the Hun from conquering
France; you're not fighting to liberate Belgium. You're fighting
because you know that if you let France be crushed, it will be your
turn next."

Quite true--and absolutely unjust. The Hollander, whose households
we were guarding, chose to interpret our motive at its most ignoble
worth. Our men were receiving in their bodies the wounds which would
have been inflicted on Holland, had we elected to stand out. In the
light of subsequent events, all the world acknowledges that we
were and are fighting for our own households; but it is a glorious
certainty that scarcely a Britisher who died in those early days had
the least realisation of the fact. It was the chivalrous vision of
a generous Crusade that led our chaps from their firesides to the
trampled horror that is Flanders. They said farewell to their habitual
affections, and went out singing to their marriage with death.

I suppose there has been no war that could not be interpreted
ultimately as a war of self-interest. The statesmen who make wars
always carefully reckon the probabilities of loss or gain; but the
lads who kiss their sweethearts good-bye require reasons more vital
than those of pounds, shillings and pence. Few men lay down their
lives from self-interested motives. Courage is a spirit