Pioneer

An Open Letter to the Attested Married Man. By THOMAS THOMAS Friend,—I am obliged to confess to a feeling of keen disappointment over your conduct of late. If you keep up your preeertt role of the aggrieved person much longer, I shall be forced to the conclusion that your parade of patriot- ism is a sham—that you attested not because you desired to help your country, but because you believed that there would be no necessity for you to fulfil your obligations. You know that Mr. Asquith's pledge has been fulfilled — more than fulfilled, for since the Tribunals have been established all sorts and conditions of single men are enforced into the army. Why, then, this loud display of virtuous indignation against being called upon to fulfil your own pledge? You have lately developed an inordin- ate solicitude for your wife and children- such solicitude that you cannot sleep at night for fear the Germans will offer them violence. Is this solicitude real? You yourself have dozens of times inflicted upon them unnecessary suf- fering. You have taken your wages to the public-house and leit your home bereft of the bare essentials of life. Your children wear thread-bare clothes, and are pinched with hun" ger simply because of your bestial cravings. You have often laid violent hands on your wife for the only crime of asking yow for the money necessary to provide the children with food. Before the war you displayed a callous indiffer- ence to the needs of those who looked to you for protection and love; but now. you seem to! have changed. Judging from your vociferous complaints against the single man, you appear to be much perturbed about the sanctity of the home. But the very louckiess of your pro- tests is suggestive of dissimluation and it is to be feared that all your parade of patriot- ism and love for your wife and children is nothing short of a vile subterfuge to hide a craven fear. Everything was alright after your attesta- tion when, with your armlet, you swaggered along the street like an embryo Napoleon, but now the married groups are being called up you try to find excuses to evade your res- ponsibilities. You attend meetings of attested married men, and you pass resolutions protest- ing against the iniquity of the military au- thorities in calling you up before every single negligible man is first enforced into the ser- vice. You go further than that: you even threaten to disobey the authorities unless they accede to your demands. Surely, you don't call that patriotism? You attested of your own free will, and you should be man enough to stick to your guns. You may say that you attested on the strength of Mr. Asquith's pledge, and your only request is to see that pledge fulfilled before you obey your country's call. It does not speak highly of your sense of honour that yo* attested on such conditions, but when you stoop to subeir- fuges in olpør to try and escape from the results of your own pledge, you are doing a very discreditable thing. You insist that every single man must be compelled to serve, in the army before you are called up. Though you be only 26 years of age, and strong in the bargain, whilst the single man may be 40 with his strength wasted in past labourious toil, still you demand that he should go first. The fact that the single man has all his life maintained, or assisted to maintain a home for a widowed mother or di- seased father matters not to you; you stand by the- inexorable law of the single man first, and you will have your pound of flesh though lioliaotih-, decency and justice be easf to the f.)iir winds of heaven. You volunteered of your own free will, but you are not prepared to grant the same immu- nity from force to other men. It is you who made the Military Service Act possible. It is you who stand in the way of the repeal of the Act. Your patriotism out-ran your judgment, and finding things turning. out differently to what you expeated, you display a tendency to emulnte the despicable and tyrannical Hun whom you are called upon to destroy. Do you know that when anyone suffers violence or tyr- rany, the pain is not less if the tyrant be a Britisher. When you, in your drunken orgies, laid violent hands on your wife, the agony to her was as much as if inflicted by a German. This lesson you should take to heart. I cannot, sav that I appreciate your tyranni- cal tactics against the single man. In the name of heaven, why should a single man be called upon to defend your wife while you shirk at home ? The husband is the rightful protector; of, his wife. not anyone else; yet you demand others to do what is rightfully your work. Married men are treated alike with the single in Conscript countries. Why, then, do you demand pireferental treatment in this country? On. what grounds do you insist that the single man should stand between you and the Ger- If you really believe the Germans to be a menace to your wife and children, is it not your duty to defend them, and then call the unmarried to aid you if necessary F I tell you honestly that your attitude is more despi- cable than anything I can imagine. The single man you have so persistently dubbed shirs; ei has, at least, the redeeming virtue of the mo- ral courage of his convictions, and has re- mained firm to his beliefs, however erroneoua those beliefs might be; but you-, believing the war to be right, and having attested as a, public proof of your belief, now, when called upon to give a practical exhibition of your be- lief, you evince anything but enthusiasm for. the cause you espouse. That is not, strictly speaking, a very est nimble course to adopt .1 The man who believes a cause to be right, and who is not prepared to sacrifice for s?ch a cause, has a curve in his moral spine; but you are even worse, for you want to compel those who differ from you regarding the justice of a cause to bear the burden of your own shirking as well as the penalties of their own convictions. I regret having, thus to speak harshly to you, but, honestly, your conduct merits ttw» utmost censure. Do unto others as you would others do to you is still a. golden rule by which to govern your conduct. Of course, I can understand your reluctance in going out to the trenches out there it is anything but, pleasant, but for heaven's sake don't pretend to a virtue you don't possess, and don't snarl at every single eligible man Tn mufti.

At Random. A certain man drew a bow at a venture." By W. H. EVANS. Eighteen months of war, demonstrating the futility of war. Eighteen months of unparallel- ed suffering and agony; of hereic sacrifices; of beating; of bombastic boastings; of talks about economy, and of insane patriotism. Eigh- teen months! An age crowded into a, year and a half. A year and a half of playing "beg- gar my neighbour"; of providing fertiliser for the fields of Europe; and of diddling the De- mocracy. What tools these mortals be!" And alter all there is no definite decision. All the Manufactured news of Germany's bankruptcy; "Of the desire amongst her people for peace, proves nothing. It is the school boys' effort to keep his pecker up by shouting. The Press has shouted, screamed, cajoled. It has called men slackers, cowards and shirkers. The militarist only recognises the courage of the dly the courage it demands must be all fluster and brag. A man must shout, gesticu- late, demand someone's gore, and then he is Considered courageous. If you don't do that; if you have a consciciieei: a brain to think, lou must chloroform both conscfience and brain. The militarist doesn't want thinkers; he wants children who will do as they are told without Question. Men—save the mark—who will as J'illingly obey an order to shoot down their Athens and mothers, if they be in a riotous as they will obey anorder to shoot down rmans. As G, B. Shaw says in John Bull's Other Island" For permanent work the soldier is worse than useless: such effi- ciency as he has is the result of dehumanisa- tion and disablement. His whole training tends to make him a weakling. He has the easiest of 1%8 (in peace time); he has no freedom and no responsibility. He is politically and socially child, with nations instead of rights, treated like a, child, punished like a child, dressed pret- tily and washed and combed like a child, ex- cised for outbreaks of naughtiness like a child, forbidden to marry like a child, and called fonirny like a child." The Conscript is a slave. He is bound body I "Ozd soul. He has no liberty; he is the slave 19f the State; not a freeman. He has to bolster fP a State which is based upon force and :fia,ud. He is compelled to. Unless he deter- ?*fcies not to do so. Then he suffers. But 't is better to suffer and be free, than be well "ell and a slave. And although Britain was ot ideal; its citizens have had greater free- dom than other nations. Its civilisation has f&'ead over the earth; and the strength of 4ft arm has not been in guns and ammuni- t'on, but in her c?-ic spirit. And now, we find "hat Prussian ism has won, not cnly on the field *°t battle, but in the world of ideas, which is ,"stly more important. With skill and cun- ning. the Prussians of Britain have bullied and Reived the Mother of Parliaments into pass- h the Military Service Bill. With the shameless cunning they will endeavour to keep It upon the Statute Book after the war. They ?Bt Conscription in the industrial field to ?intain their supremacy. For it is evident that the wars of the future will be different ?? any in the past. Science is rapidly revo- I ^tionising: warfare, and the most important ?tor ?j? ?? the man in the workshop. 'Thlthout him the man in the trench is useless. 'In if they can get Industrial conscríp- _on g?? things ?s strikes and demands for -?il] be inSnitdy more difficult, 1 not inP"Sslble. Hence the need, from the ?ilitaTi?t point of view, for conscription. T 1 l' 1 d. The power of the law is in the peop l e's obedi-j nee thereto. It is not enforcement from Without, but obedience, which makes the law strong. The unfortunate things is that people accept a law without much question. They lay grumhle. but they will obey. Because it :s the law, they think they must obey. There ;ls lack of solidarity there is mistrust of one If the people refuse to obey, the W loses its power. Therefore, they should ^'frcise their divine right of rejection, when their liberty is curtailed, and let their re- ftesentativos know that- they will have no a", that is unjust. W fiy is it the people have so little power ? •ib dealise they give it away. They put it in the of their representatives. They send them to Parliament to do certain things. which jiWir rppreaenta/tjive- rarely de. Getting dissat- cfied, they send other representatives, thus T'hanging from one party to another. There much difference between Tweedledum and die-dee. It is Codlin and Short over again. ow Short- has succeeded in codding the pco- Dil, and he is laughing at them. Having im- Posed upon them his panacea for winning the ^av-—which, by the way, will not win the war '-he is more firmly entrenched than ever. He has set up bodies named Tribunals, whose one Ntlty it is to get men, and not to grant ^Xoniptions. These bodies are efficient in ona l'ection only. They have no consciences them- tlves. and think no one else can. They be- wve in the murder trade, and think everyone s ought to. They look at all those who tlaiyn to think differently as people who are Jj°i; quite right. To them there is only one gilt in the world, and that is to see that ijr1* don't gfet left. And they are hopelessly *FGapa,'ble of interpreting or understanding the '10tds of their professed Lord and Master, < '-ove your enemies." And for one to utter a j tf^tipaent savouring of the tragic words of 91,s" on the Cross. "Fatherr, forgive them, v1 they know not what they do," is to be Anded as a lunatic or a coward. And so <te bodies, clothed in the robes of authority, it upon—actually sit upon—those who coanej J, ore them with a conscience. You must have! conscience. Of course, to such, who have! y R .VEARS kept their conscience in their pockets I can understand their position. While they (-an t h MEN into the army, they will reap war L- OFITS. Conscience Surely it must have been a Jj^orist who placed the clause in the Act. A '■consf^eneeless assembly tham parliament cl not be found. Diplomatists are polite 1'R. Politicians are credited with being strang- to the truth. And the ship owners, railway V^nates, mine owners, etc., etc., who sit in ??oment have a conscience that is measured ? Dividend. They are the most efficient rogues ?d? of Portland. They have reduced to a  the text Let not your right hW know r^t your left hand doh. Thus they ext- ?_ Fronts from the workers' pocket with one 1"d, ind drop a. subscription into the charity Ma+ with the other. And tbev sit on Tribun- es., V ;p00(3 heavens! Could the farce go fur- 0: Is it not time to end it? Is it not time hkd men with sincerity, with earnestness A? ?'*P<?'6. and with consciences P I think so. l,thie workers, may have them if we Demand ft. It is our right. Make ihe saying, ?Bntons never shaN be slaves."

HELP THOSE WHO HELP -ft I YOUR PAPER! 1

I. 1915=1950. 8\V that we in Britain are inhaling the first breezes of Conscription, and gloating on the fir-it -fruits of the Conscript harvest reaped by the Military Tribunals set up to mow down con- scientious objectors with musty and "blood"- rust ¡; excerpts and doubtful quotations from the Bible, with t'he equally mythical and hypothe- tica stock phrases and questions, 'What would you do if the Huns were to drop bombs on your motherp" etc., after all this, now, I should say it is high time for us to get a glimpse of the truly Prussian, Hunnish, aye Hellish mind of those writers, -aye shame be it said, Bi- Tisn writers, who have written most diabo- liCial, stuff long before the war broke out, in favc ur of Prussianising Britain; placing poor old Bernhardi in the shade. Ttese local members of the Tribunals— and shame be it said, many of them claiming to be labour Representatives !—would never have jeeied, jibed at, badgered, insulted, scoffed, mocted, ridiculed, and ruthlessly trampled on conscientious objectors appearing before them had they taken the trouble to read some of these bloodthirsty and brutal British Bern- hardis before they had so piously and blindly quoted the Bible ifn support of this war, to score off many an inarticulate but nevertheless tru'y and sincerely conscientious objector. Oh! for judiciously minded, unbiassed and unprejud- iced members on the Tribunals which are set up according, to the Military Act, 1916, to grant a complete and absolute exemption from com- batant and non-combatant service to the bona- fide conscientious objector, according to instruc- tions issued by the Local Government Board! A great majority of the members of the Tri- bunals, in South Wales particularly, have swallowed the Daily Express tommy-rot that every conscientious objector is a "certified co- ward," and that the only men they need really exempt on conscientious ground is the man whose profession makes him wear his collar backwards. Let us hope that, directly or indirectly, the following quotations from Dr. Homes' fascina- ting volume on Social Poisons that Prevent Progress" from which one can get much light on the present European conflict) will enlighten the Tribunal members of the actual Prussians in our midst, even in pre-war days. As I have previously hinted, the Doctor has. done a service to Britain and the whole world by his ruthless exposure of the British Bernhardis or Military Mephistopheles. The Doctor shall now speak through his ext- racts HOMER LEA.—A well-known British milit- ary writer, best known through his book called "The Day of the Saxon," which he dedicated to the late Lord Roberts. The frankness of this author can be compared with the outspokenness of Bernhardi in his Germany and the Next War." The Day" in the above title has the same significance as The Day in the celebrated toast of the German Navy to The Day," when a scrap could be arranged between the British and the German Fleet. The Saxon" obviously refers to the Saeson "—the English, and by implication the British, just as the "Prus- ian" by implication suggests the "German Empire." The question of the military necessity for the Germans to violate the neutrality of Bel- gium has been well ventilated since the out- break of the European War. The following extract from a book written in pre-war days by Homer Lea. may help some of the blind to sew: — The necessity of a declaration of war is only a modern illusion. During the last two centuries we have less than ten cases where declarations have been issued prior to the re- gular commencement of hostilities. During this same period we have one hundred and eleven cases where war was begun without any notification. No nation has followed more persistently than the English this prin- ciple of makmg war withour prior delara- tion. They have done so, as have others, because the initiation of a conflict constit- utes the most essential principle of warfare. The occupation of the Persian and Af- ghanistan frontiers by Russia or the Euro- pean frontiers by Germany, arouses in the British nation the appearance of great op- position to the violation of neutral territory. This is false, for the Empire is not moved by the sanctity of neutrality. Neutrality of States under the conditions just mentioned has never heretofore, nor will in future have any place in interna- tional association in time of war. Such neu- trality is a modern delusion. It is an ex- ciesence. In the year 1801 the island of Madeira was taken possession of by the British, without any previous communication to the Court of Lisbon, in order that it should not fall into the hands of the French, observing in this action the true principle governing such activities in war. In 1807 the Brithish Fleet, without any n' tifioation, with no intimaitiorn given of hos- tile intentions, no complaint of misconduct on the part of Denmark, entered the Baltic, seized the Danish fleet and bombarded the island of Zealand, on which is situated the city of Copenhagen. The purpose of this attack was to anticipate the occupation of I Denmark and the use of her fleets by France. So correct is the principle of this initiation (ie. breach of neutrality) that it stands out with remarkable brilliancy in the darkness of innumerable military errors made by the Saxon race. The Doctor's comments on the above are significant: The cool candour of this military writet- l ea about the necessity and virtue of the violation of neutrality is a severe rebuke on the hot and passionate appeals made by Mr. Lloyd George and his contemporaries on behalf of England, who had entered into the wai solely on the regard we had always had for the sacred rights of neutrality. But let us pass on to another British Bern- haircli COLONEL MAUDE—A popular military writer in Engand, who wrote a book in pre-war days called "War and the World's Life." It had a fairly wide circulation, and secured the author a reputation which secured him- self in the days of the European War a pro- minent place amongst the military article writers of the patriotic press—notably The Western Mail" in-t South Wales. His writ- ings are vitiated with phrases conveying the absurd notion of the divinity of war and the absolute justice of all war decisions, as the fol- lowing typical quotation shows: War is the divinely appointed means by which the environment may be re-adjusted until ethi- cally 'fittest' and best' become synony- mised." The Boctor comments Bernhardi eouId never have desired a more apt pupil than MaLde. In fact, Colonel Maude is Bernhardi Maudernis-ed in English garb." How many members on Tribunals under the Military Service Act, 1916, up and down the country have hurled at conscientious objectors the utterly stupid and childish question, "How can you refuse to take up arms (note a thing they have themselves not done, or they would thc- .y be sitting on the Tribunals trying to force younger men than themselves to take up arms) knowing how brutal these German Huns are to our women and children?" Let these Tribunal members read, mark and inwardly digest the following quotations from the writings of DR. MILLEB. MAGUIBE—an English milit- Tv critic and authority of standing, who was very prominent in his counsels to the nation during the Boer War. Dr. Maguire, in the Times for Jluy 2nd, 19(h) -writes: The proper strategy consists in the first place in inflicting as terrible blows as possible I upon the enemy's army, and then in causing the inhabitants so much suffering that they must long for peace and force their Gov- ernment to demand it. The people must bi left with nothing but their eyes to weep with over the war. When the soldier learns that his family li s wife and little children—are sure to suf- fer, he will become uneasy in his place and will weigh the duty he owes his family, and wlat the promptings of nature will be it is net difficrult to determine. All Homes says in comment to the above is: oil Dr. Miller Maguire; your epitaph, when dead should bear the truth, and no- thing but the truth: "Here lies Dr. 'But- cher Maguire." Now for the last of the celebrated quartette of the bloodthirsty, bold, brilliant British Bemhardis quoted by Dr. Homes:- Major Stewart Murray—the most Prussian- minded military writer in Britain, whose beok, called "-The Future Peace of the An- glo-Saxon," so suited the tastes of the vic- tims of the bacillus patrioticococeus" that I old Roberts himself wrote a most laudatory preface to it. IT thi book the Major speaking of the seizure of the Danish fleet by the British in 1870. says:— Nothing has ever been done by any other nation more utterly in defiance of the con- ventionalities of so-called international law. We considered it advisable and necessary and expedient, and we had the power to do therefore, we did it. Are we ashamed of it? No, certainly not; we are proud of it. What sickening hypocrisy it must seem to other nations to hear us, of all people, prate of the sanctity of international law,. and call aloud on its sacred rules as a sure protec- tion against surprise. Whatever course of sudden and unexpected violence, whatever sudden naval surprise any nation may adopt against us, can be amply justified by the precedents we ourselves have set. .For people in this country to talk of the sanctity of international law is iaothing but hypocrisy or ignoranoe. It is when Major Murray comes to speak of the glory of frightfuliaom and barbarities of the war- that he is truly in his zenith. Mark what he says: The-worst of all errors in war is a mistaken, spirit of benevolence. For he who uses his foce unsparingly without reference to the quantity of blood shed must obtain a super- iority if his adversary does not act likewise. Now this is an elementary fact, whidh it is most desirable that those of our poli- ticians and preachers and nunierous old wo- men of both sexes who raise hideous out- cries about methods of barbarism, etc., every time we have a war, should endeavour to learn. By their very outcries for modera- tion and weakness they clearly show that they know nothing about war. By their noisy foolish, thoughtless din in the name of hu- manity, they murder humanity. In this coun- try their name is legion. They fill the pul- P-ts, platforms and Parliament with their outcries, and the press with their articles and letters., and do their utmost to mislead the people into a, display of false humanity and deplorable weakness in the conduct of war. I could go on quoting page after page from Murray's book showing his appreciation of the appeals against sickening humanitarian- ism but I will draw this article to a close by giving Dr. Homes' cutting comment on Major "In all my experience of brutal-minded and Hcod-sotted sinners I can only remember one passage which beats the above for sheer ajiousness and hellishness, and that is a passage quoted by Bernhardi in his Germ- any and the Next War," which passage he saddles on to the great Protestant Refor- mer Luther: "In the business of war men must not regard the massacres, the burnings, the battles, etc.—that is what the petty and simple do who look only with the eyes of children. at the surgeon; how he cuts off the nana or saws off the leg: but do not see or notice that-he does it. in order to save the whole body. Thus we must look at the business of war or the sword with the eyes or men asking Why these murders and hor- roKs ? It will, be shown that it is a business, divine in itself, and as needful and neces- sary to the world as eating or drinking." Poor Luther! he could defy the greatest of Popes, but the microscopic bacillus patriot-ico- ooccus felled him! ABRACADABRA. (TO BE CONTINUED.)

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