Stretcher Bearers at the Double - ElectricCanadian.com

278 POST-WAR ACTIVITIES
that it was too late to repudiate the inference. Thus we slith
ered over the brink into the burning cauldron."
Was Britain s chief concern caused by Germany s disregard
for Belgium s neutrality, or did she declare war simply because
she saw her own world-domination threatened?
A rather interesting sidelight on the causes leading up to the
war was supplied by President Woodrow Wilson in a speech
he made in 1919: "Peace?
Why, my fellow-citizens, is there
any man here or any woman - - let me say, is there any child -
who does not know that the seed of war in the modern world is
industrial and commercial rivalry? The war was a commercial
and industrial war. It was not a political war. The reason that
the war we have just finished took place was that Germany
was afraid her commercial rivals were going to get the better
of her; and the reason why some of the nations went into the war
against Qermany was that they thought Qermany would get the
commercial advantage of them. The seed of the jealousy, the seed
of the deep-rooted hatred, was hot commercial and industrial
rivalry."
Were the excuses given by the British cabinet as Britain s
reason for taking up arms genuinely honest statements of the
case or were they, for the most part, sheer hypocrisy and jingoism?
Was the propaganda employed to encourage recruiting in
Canada founded on facts, or was it manufactured for the sole
purpose of appealing to the baser instincts, hates and fears
which were products of wartime hysteria? Weren t some of our
leading educationists, clergymen and bankers aware of the lies ?
Were our troops sacrificed needlessly in the assaults
"nibbling"
in the Salient during the fall and winter of 1915-1916? Were
they also ruthlessly sacrificed during
Passchendaele worth the price paid for it?
the Somme battles? Was
Were any of the high
officers who were responsible for several very obvious and costly
staff blunders ever courtmartialled and shot - - or was their
criminal incompetency considered unimportant - - less important
than the desertion of some poor shell-shocked infantryman who
was shot for an act his shattered mental and physical powers could
not control?
Discussing British operations of 1916, one of Britain s most
eminent historians states: "Newly trained British armies were
made to advance in close formation by generals who, unless they