Part 32

Great Britain, together with France, Russia, Prussia, and Austria, had solemnly guaranteed the neutrality of Belgium. In the preservation of this neutrality our deepest sentiments and our most vital interests are alike involved. Its violation would not only shatter the independence of Belgium itself: it would undermine the whole basis which renders possible the neutrality of any State and the very existence of such States as are much weaker than their neighbors. We acted in 1914 just as we acted in 1870. We sought from both France and Germany assurances that they would respect Belgian neutrality. In 1870 both powers assured us of their good intentions, and both kept their promises. In 1914 France gave immediately, on July 31, the required assurance; Germany refused to answer. When, after this sinister silence, Germany proceeded to break under our eyes the treaty which we and she had both signed, evidently expecting Great Britain to be her timid accomplice, then even to the most peace-loving Englishman hesitation became impossible. Belgium had appealed to Great Britain to keep her word, and she kept it.

The German professors appear to think that Germany has in this matter some considerable body of sympathizers in the universities of Great Britain. They are gravely mistaken. Never within our lifetime has this country been so united on any great political issue. We ourselves have a real and deep admiration for German scholarship and science. We have many ties with Germany, ties of comradeship, of respect, and of affection. We grieve profoundly that, under the baleful influence of a military system and its lawless dreams of conquest, she whom we once honored now stands revealed as the common enemy of Europe and of all peoples which respect the law of nations. We must carry on the war on which we have entered. For us, as for Belgium, it is a war of defense, waged for liberty and peace.

Sir CLIFFORD ALLBUTT, Regius Professor of Physics, Cambridge.

T.W. ALLEN, Reader in Greek, Oxford.

E. ARMSTRONG, Pro-Provost of Queen's College, Oxford.

E.V. ARNOLD, Professor of Latin, University College of North Wales.

Sir C.B. BALL, Regius Professor of Surgery, Dublin.

Sir THOMAS BARLOW, President of the Royal College of Physicians, London.

BERNARD BOSANQUET, formerly Professor of Moral Philosophy, St. Andrews.

A.C. BRADLEY, formerly Professor of Poetry, Oxford.

W.H. BRAGG, Cavendish Professor of Physics, Leeds.

Sir THOMAS BROCK, Membre d'honneur de la Société des Artistes Francais.

A.J. BROWN, Professor of Biology and Chemistry of Fermentation, University of Birmingham.

JOHN BURNET, Professor of Greek, St. Andrews.

J.B. BURY, Regius Professor of Modern History, Cambridge.

Sir W.W. CHEYNE, Professor of Clinical Surgery, King's College, London, President of the Royal College of Surgeons.

J. NORMAN COLLIE, Professor of Organic Chemistry and Director of the Chemical Laboratories, University College, London.

F.C. CONYBEARE, Honorary Fellow of University College, Oxford.

Sir HENRY CRAIK, M.P. for Glasgow and Aberdeen Universities.

Sir JAMES CRICHTON-BROWNE, Vice President and Treasurer, Royal Institution.

Sir WILLIAM CROOKES, President of the Royal Society.

Sir FOSTER CUNLIFFE, Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.

Sir FRANCIS DARWIN, late Reader in Botany, Cambridge.

A.V. DICEY, Fellow of All Souls College and formerly Vinerian Professor of English Law, Oxford.

Sir S. DILL, Hon. Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

Sir JAMES DONALDSON, Vice Chancellor and Principal of the University of St. Andrews.

F.W. DYSON, Astronomer Royal.

Sir EDWARD ELGAR.

Sir ARTHUR EVANS, Extraordinary Professor of Prehistoric Archæology, Oxford.

L.R. FARNELL, Rector of Exeter College, Oxford.

C.H. FIRTH, Regius Professor of Modern History, Oxford.

H.A.L. FISHER, Vice Chancellor of Sheffield University.

J.A. FLEMING, Professor of Electrical Engineering in the University of London.

H.S. FOXWELL, Professor of Political Economy in the University of London.

Sir EDWARD FRY, Ambassador Extraordinary and First British Plenipotentiary to The Hague Peace Conference in 1907.

Sir ARCHIBALD GEIKIE, Past President of the Royal Society.

W.M. GELDART, Fellow of All Souls and Vinerian Professor of English Law, Oxford.

Sir RICKMAN GODLEE, Emeritus Professor of Clinical Surgery, University College, London.

B.P. GRENFELL, late Professor of Papyrology, Oxford.

E.H. GRIFFITHS, Principal of the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire.

W.H. HADOW, Principal of Armstrong College, Newcastle.

J.S. HALDANE, late Reader in Physiology, Oxford.

MARCUS HARTOG, Professor of Zoology in University College, Cork.

F.J. HAVERFIELD, Camden Professor of Ancient History, Oxford.

W.A. HERDMAN, Professor of Zoology at Liverpool, General Secretary of the British Association.

Sir W.P. HERRINGHAM, Vice Chancellor of the University of London.

E.W. HOBSON, Sadleirian Professor of Pure Mathematics, Cambridge.

D.G. HOGARTH, Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

Sir ALFRED HOPKINSON, late Vice Chancellor of Manchester University.

A.S. HUNT, Professor of Papyrology, Oxford.

HENRY JACKSON, Regius Professor of Greek, Cambridge.

Sir THOMAS G. JACKSON, R.A.

F.B. JEVONS, Professor of Philosophy, Durham.

H.H. JOACHIM, Fellow of Merton College, Oxford.

J. JOLLY, Professor of Geology and Mineralogy, University of Dublin.

COURTNEY KENNY, Downing Professor of the Laws of England, Cambridge.

Sir F.G. KENYON, Director and Principal Librarian, British Museum.

HORACE LAMB, Professor of Mathematics, Manchester University.

J.N. LANGLEY, Professor of Physiology, Cambridge.

WALTER LEAF, Fellow of London University, President of the Hellenic Society.

Sir SIDNEY LEE, Editor of the Dictionary of National Biography, Professor of the English Language and Literature in the University of London.

Sir OLIVER LODGE, Principal of Birmingham University.

Sir DONALD MACALISTER, Principal and Vice Chancellor, Glasgow.

R.W. MACAN, Master of University College, Oxford.

Sir WILLIAM MACEWEN, Professor of Surgery, Glasgow.

J.W. MACKAIL, formerly Professor of Poetry, Oxford.

Sir PATRICK MANSON.

R.R. MARETT, Reader in Social Anthropology, Oxford.

D.S. MARGOLIOUTH, Laudian Professor of Arabic, Oxford.

Sir H.A. MIERS, Principal of the University of London.

FREDERICK W. MOTT, Fullerian Professor of Physiology, Royal Institution.

LORD MOULTON OF BANK, Lord of Appeal in Ordinary.

J.E.H. MURPHY, Professor of Irish, Dublin.

GILBERT MURRAY, Regius Professor of Greek, Oxford.

J.L. MYRES, Wykeham Professor of Ancient History, Oxford.

G.H.F. NUTTALL, Quick Professor of Biology, Cambridge.

Sir W. OSLER, Regius Professor of Medicine, Oxford.

Sir ISAMBARD OWEN, Vice Chancellor of the University of Bristol.

Sir WALTER PARRATT, Professor of Music, Oxford.

Sir HUBERT PARRY, Director of Royal College of Music.

W.H. PERKIN, Waynflete Professor of Chemistry, Oxford.

W.M. FLINDERS PETRIE EDWARDS, Professor of Egyptology, University College, London.

A.F. POLLARD, Professor of English History, London.

Sir F. POLLOCK, formerly Corpus Professor of Jurisprudence, Oxford.

EDWARD B. POULTON, Hope Professor of Zoology, Oxford.

Sir E.J. POYNTER, President of the Royal Academy of Arts.

Sir A. QUILLER-COUCH, King Edward VII. Professor of English Literature, Cambridge.

Sir WALTER RALEIGH, Professor of English Literature, Oxford.

Sir W. RAMSAY, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, London.

Lord RAYLEIGH, Past President Royal Society, Nobel Laureate, Chancellor of Cambridge University.

Lord REAY, First President British Academy.

JAMES REID, Professor of Ancient History, Cambridge.

WILLIAM RIDGEWAY, Disney Professor of Archaeology, Cambridge.

T.F. ROBERTS, Principal of the University College of Wales, Aberystwith.

J. HOLLAND ROSE, Reader in Modern History, Cambridge.

Sir RONALD ROSS, formerly Professor of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, Nobel Laureate.

M.E. SADLER, Vice Chancellor of Leeds.

W. SANDAY, Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, Oxford.

Sir J.E. SANDYS, Public Orator, Cambridge.

Sir ERNEST SATOW, Second British Delegate to The Hague Peace Conference in 1907.

A.H. SAYCE, Professor of Assyriology, Oxford.

ARTHUR SCHUSTER, late Professor of Physics, Manchester.

D.H. SCOTT, Foreign Secretary, Royal Society.

C.S. SHERRINGTON, Waynflete Professor of Physiology, Oxford.

GEORGE ADAM SMITH, Principal and Vice Chancellor, Aberdeen.

G.C. MOORE SMITH, Professor of English Language and Literature, Sheffield.

E.A. SONNENSCHEIN, Professor of Latin and Greek, Birmingham.

W.R. SORLEY, Professor of Moral Philosophy, Cambridge.

Sir C.V. STANFORD, Profesor of Music, Cambridge.

V.H. STANTON, Ely Professor of Divinity, Cambridge.

J. ARTHUR THOMSON, Regius Professor of Natural History, Aberdeen.

Sir J.J. THOMSON, Professor of Experimental Physics, Cambridge.

T.F. TOUT, Professor of Mediæval and Modern History, Manchester.

Sir W. TURNER, Principal and Vice Chancellor, Edinburgh.

Sir C. WALDSTEIN, late Reader in Classical Archæology and Slade Professor of Fine Art, Cambridge.

Sir J. WOLFE-BARRY.

Sir ALMROTH WRIGHT, formerly Professor of Pathology, Netley.

C.T. HAGBERG WRIGHT, Librarian, London Library.

JOSEPH WRIGHT, Professor of Comparative Philology, Oxford.

*Concerning the German Professors*

*By Frederic Harrison.*

_To the Editor of the London Morning Post_:

Sir: I was not invited to join the reply of our distinguished scholars and professors, perhaps because it is so many years since I was the colleague of James Bryce as Professor of Jurisprudence to the Inns of Court. And, indeed, I do not care to bandy recriminations with these German defenders of the attack on civilization by the whole imperial, military, and bureaucratic order. It seems to me waste of time and loss of self-respect to notice these pedants.

The whole German press and the entire academic class seem to be banded together as an official bureau in order to spread mendacious insults and spiteful slanders. Not a word comes from them to excuse or deny the defiance of public law and the mockery of public faith by the German Emperor, his Ministers, and his armies. These professors seem to exult in serving the new Attila--rather let us say the new Caligula, for Attila at least was an open soldier and did not skulk under the Red Cross behind barbed wire fences.

We have long known that all German academic and scholastic officials are the creatures of the Government, as obedient to orders as any Drill Sergeant. They seem to have sold their consciences for place. Not a word comes from them even of regret for the massacre of civilians on false charges, for the wanton murder of children, for the wholesale rape of women, the showering of bombs upon sleeping towns in sheer cruelty of destruction. The intellectual energies of Kultur seem concentrated on distorting the meaning of our dispatches and the speeches of our statesmen, and in manufacturing for their people and neutrals venomous falsehoods. German Geist today is a huge machine to cram lies upon their own people, and to insinuate lies to the world around. Their system of war is based upon lying at home and abroad, on treachery and terrorism. They think that murdering a few civilians would terrify France into surrender, and will drive England to betray the Allies. Their poor conscripts are told that we kill and torture prisoners; their monuments at home are bedizened with mock laurels; and neutrals are poisoned with wild inventions.

For years past their public men, have

[Illustration: ADOLF VON HARNACK.

_See Page_ 198]

[Illustration: THEODORE NIEMEYER.

_See Page_ 206]

been tricking our politicians, journalists, and professors to accept them as peaceful leaders of a higher civilization--- while all the while their soldiers, diplomats, and spies (the three are really but one class) were secretly courting our own royalties and society, studying our naval and military defenses, filling our homes with tens of thousands of reservists having secret orders to spy, to destroy our arsenals and roads, and even planting out bogus industries and laying concrete bases for cannon, to bombard the open towns of friendly nations. We have been living unsuspectingly with a nation of assassins plotting to destroy us. Did these professors of Kultur not know of this elaborate conspiracy of Kaisertum, which unites the stealthy treachery of a Mohawk or a thug to the miracles of modern science? For years past the ideal of Kultur has been to lay down secret mines to destroy their peaceful neighbors. Did these professors of the Fatheland not know this? Then they are unable to grasp the most obvious facts--the life work of their own masters under their own eyes. And, if they did know it, and must at least know it now, and yet approve and glory in it, they must be beneath contempt. Why argue with such hypocrites?

Not a few of us have known and watched this conspiracy for years. I have preached this ever since the advent of Bismarckism and the new Europe that was formed forty years ago. Not a few of us have foretold not only the tremendous attack on the British Empire designed by German sea power but the precise steps of the war upon France, through Belgium, and to be executed by an overwhelming force of sudden shock in the midst of peace. For my part, nothing in this war since July 30 has at all surprised me, unless it be the foul cruelty with which Belgian civilians have been treated. Indeed, in January, 1913, I wrote a warning which reads now like a summary of events that have since happened. I was denounced as a senile alarmist by some who are now the loudest in calling to arms. Alas! too late is their repentance.

May I ask why our eminent academicians and scholars who still profess "friendship and admiration" for their German confrères never even suspected the huge conspiracy of which civilization has been the victim? Why did they accept the stars and crosses of Caligula-Attila? Why hob-nob with the docile creatures of his chancery, and spread at home and abroad the worship of Geist and Kultur? Are they fit to instruct us about politics, public law, and international relations, when they were so egregiously mistaken, so blind, so befooled, with regard to the most portentous catastrophe in the memory of living men? I am glad that they see their blindness now--but why this sentimental friendliness for those who hoodwinked them?

Surely this should open their eyes to the mountains of pretentious clouds on which the claims of Kultur rest. I am myself a student of German learning, and quite aware of the enormous industry, subtlety, and ingenuity of German scholarship. We owe deep gratitude to the older race of the Savignys, Rankes, Mommsens. Since 1851 I have been five times in Germany on different occasions down to 1900. I read and speak the language, and twice I lived in Germany for months together, even in the house of a distinguished man of science. I study their theology, their sociology, economics, history, and their classics. I am quite aware of the supremacy of German scholars in ancient literature, in many branches of science, in the record of the past in art, manners, and civilization. But to have edited a Greek play or to have discovered a new explosive, a new comet, another microbe, does not qualify a savant to dogmatize on international morals and the hegemony of the world. Sixty years ago in Leipzig the editor of a famous journal undertook to prove to me that Shakespeare was a German. Our poet, he said, was the grandest output of the Teutonic mind; nine-tenths of the Teutonic mind was German-argal, Shakespeare was a German, Q.E.D.

With the vast accumulation of solid knowledge of provable facts there is too often in the German mind a sudden bounding up into a cloudland of crude and unproved guesswork. In the logic of Kultur there seems to be a huge gap in the reasoning of the middle terms. A savant unearths a manuscript in Syria, which he deciphers with marvelous industry, learning, and ingenuity. Straightway he cries, "Eureka, behold the original Gospel--the true Gospel!" and he proceeds to turn Christianity upside down. He may have experimented on cultures of microbes for a generation; and then he calls on earth and heaven to acknowledge the mystery of the self-creation of the universe. We hear much of Treitschke today--no doubt a man of genius with a gift for research--but what ferocious pyrotechnics were poured forth by this apostle of mendacious swagger. And as to Nietzsche, he was anticipated by Shakespeare in Timon--a diseased cynic--

henceforth hated be Of Timon, man and all humanity.

They seem to think that to have put the critics right about a few lines in Sophocles, or to have discovered a new chemical dye, dispenses the German Superman from being bound to humanity, truthfulness, and honor. Charge them with the mutilation of little girls and the violation of nuns in Belgium, and they reply: Yes! but think of Kant and Hegel! It is treason to philosophy, they say, that a man who has translated Schopenhauer should condemn Germans for burning Malines and making captive women a screen for troops in battle. Kultur, it seems, has its own "higher law," which its professors expound to the decadent nations of Europe.

Let us hold no parley with these arrogant sophists. Let all intellectual commerce be suspended until these official professors have unlearned the infernal code of "military necessity" and "world policy" which, to the indignation of the civilized world, they are ordered by the Vicegerent of God at Potsdam to teach to the great Teutonic Super-race. Yours, &c.,

FREDERIC HARRISON.

Bath, Oct. 29.

*The Reply From France*

*By M. Yves Guyot and Prof. Bellet.*

_The following is the text of an open lettert addressed by M. Yves Guyot, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal des Economistes, and M. Bellet, Professor at the Schools of Political Science and Commercial Studies, to Prof. Brentano of the University of Munich, the communication being a reply to the recent German Appeal to Civilized Nations on the subject of the war_:

PARIS, Oct. 15, 1914.

_To Prof. Brentano of the University of Munich_:

Very Learned Professor and Colleague: On reading the Appeal to Civilized Nations, (among which France is evidently not included,) which has just been sent forth by ninety-three persons declaring themselves to be representatives of German science and art, we were not surprised to find Prof. Schmoller's signature. He had already shown his hatred for France by refusing to assist at the gatherings organized, a little more than two years ago, to celebrate the seventieth anniversary of the Paris Society of Political Economy, (gatherings at which we were happy to enjoy your presence and that of your colleague, Mr. Lotz.) In his Rector's speech at the Berlin University, in 1897, he declared that German science had no other object than to celebrate the imperial messages of 1880 and 1890; and he pointed out that every disciple of Adam Smith who was not willing to make it a servant of that policy "should resign his seat." But we felt painful surprise when, at the foot of the said factum, we found your name side by side with his.

You and the other representatives of German science and art accuse France, Great Britain, Belgium, and Russia of falsehood. Would you have submitted, on the part of one of your pupils, to so grave an imputation, so lightly bandied? Admitting you to be in absolute ignorance of the documents published since the war declaration, you have certainly been acquainted with the ultimatum pronounced by Austria to Servia. It must have struck you with surprise; for it stands as a unique diplomatic document in all history. Did you not ask yourselves whether the demands of Austria did not go beyond all bounds, seeing that they insisted on the abdication of an independent State? You learned that, in spite of Servia's humble reply, because it contained a reservation, immediately, without discussion, the Ambassador of Austria-Hungary left Belgrade, and that the following day Austria declared war. You do not ignore the steps taken by Great Britain and France, the demand for delay made by Russia, and the reply of the German Chancellor "that none should intervene between Austria and Servia." He elegantly qualified the attitude thus adopted as "localizing the conflict."

Is there a single member among those who signed the document of Intellectuals who has been able to believe--have you been able to believe, Mr. Brentano, with your quick and perspicacious mind?--that this reply from Berlin did not imply war as a fatal consequence; for any nation accepting it was certain to be treated in future, by Germany, as the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy treated Servia? How, then, knowing the initial pretext of the war, are you able to realize that there was no other relation between this cause and the effect produced than the will of those who made use of it to provoke either a dishonoring humiliation for the countries accepting such a situation, or a general conflagration? How, then, do you, and the signatories of your appeal, dare to state: "It is not true that Germany provoked the war"? You dare to speak of proofs taken from authentic documents. Those published by Great Britain, Russia, and Belgium are known. All agree; and they give clear proof that the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum was pronounced with full complicity of the Berlin Chancellery. They prove, moreover, that the German Ambassador at Petrograd, fearing a withdrawal on the part of Hungary, precipitated events while your Emperor kept himself out of the way. Meanwhile, your General Staff had, in underhanded manner, mobilized a portion of its troops, by individual call, while in France we waited, unable to imagine that the German Government had resolved to engage in European war without motives. In the pocketbooks of your reservists have been found forms calling them to the army long before the end of July. Our friend and colleague, Courcelle-Seneuil, has seen the military book of a German living in Switzerland, at Bex, containing this call.

*Bismarckian Loyalty.*

Correspondence of official nature has been stopped at the Cape, which should have reached in full time officers of the German Navy, warning them to prepare for mid-July. Such advance taken by your troops has rendered the task the more difficult for ours. We were very simple, for we believed in the affirmations of your statesmen. You state that these are loyal war methods; so be it. That belongs to the diplomatic rules of loyalty bequeathed by Bismarck to his successors. But to attempt to carry on this falsehood, you have no longer the excuse of its utility. It is clear to all, except, it seems, the representatives of science and art in Germany, who are sufficiently devoid of perspicacity to ignore it.