4. Germany’s Sole Responsibility for the War

The accusation against the enemy of sole responsibility for the war is common form in every nation and in every war. So far as we are concerned, the Russians (in the Crimean War), the Afghans, the Arabs, the Zulus, and the Boers, were each in their turn unprovoked aggressors, to take only some recent instances. It is a necessary falsehood based on a momentary biased opinion of one side in a dispute, and it becomes the indispensable basis of all subsequent propaganda. Leading articles in the newspapers at the outbreak of every war ring the changes on this theme, and are so similarly worded as to make it almost appear as if standard articles are set up in readiness and the name of the enemy, whoever he may be, inserted when the moment comes. Gradually the accusation is dropped officially, when reason returns and the consolidation of peace becomes an imperative necessity for all nations.

It is hardly necessary to give many instances of the universal declaration of Germany’s sole responsibility, criminality, and evil intention. Similar declarations might be collected in each country on both sides in the war.

It [the declaration of war] is hardly surprising news, for a long chain of facts goes to show that Germany has deliberately brought on the crisis which now hangs over Europe. ,, Times" August-% 1914.

Germany and Austria have alone wanted this war.

Sir Valentine Chirol, “ The Times,” Aufftst 6 , 1914.

And with whom does this responsibility rest ? . . . One Power, and one Power only, and that Power is Germany.

Mr. Asquith at the Guildhall, September 4, 1914.

(We are fighting) to defeat the most dangerous conspiracy ever plotted against the liberty of nations, carefully, skilfully, insidiously, clandestinely planned in every detail with ruthless, cynical determination.

Mr. Lloyd George, August 4, 1917.

Lord Northcliffe, who was in charge of war propaganda, saw how essential it was to make the accusation the basis of all his activities. “ The whole situation of the Allies in regard to Germany is governed by the fact that Germany is responsible for the war,” and again, “ The Allies must never be tired of insisting that they were the victims of a deliberate aggression ” {Secrets of Crewe House).

Among the few moderate voices in August 1914 was Lord Rosebery, who wrote :

It was really a spark in the midst of the great powder magazine which the nations of Europe have been building up for the last twenty or thirty years. ... I do not know if there was some great organizer. . . . Without evidence I should be loath to lay such a burthen on the head of any man.

So violently and repeatedly, however, had the accusation been made in all the Allied coimtries, that the Government were forced to introduce it into the Peace Treaty.

Article 251.—The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies.

When war passions began to subside, the accusation was gradually dropped. The statesmen themselves even withdrew it.

The more one reads memoirs and books written in the various countries of what happened before August i, 1914, the more one realizes that no one at the head of affairs quite meant war at that stage. It was something into which they glided, or rather staggered and stumbled, perhaps through folly, and a discussion, I have no doubt, would have averted it.

Mr. hloyd George, December 25, 1910.

I cannot say that Germany and her allies were solely responsible for the war which devastated Europe. . . . That statement, which we all made during the war, was a weapon to be used at the time; now that the war is over it cannot be used as a serious argument. . . . When it will be possible to examine carefully the diplomatic documents of the war, and time will allow us to judge them calmly, it will be seen that Russia’s attitude was the real and underlying cause of the world conflict.

Sifftor Francesco Nitti, former Premier of Italy.

Is there any man or woman—let me say, is there any child—who docs not know that the seed of war in the modern world is industrial and commercial rivalry ? . . . This was an industrial and commercial war.

President Woodrow Wilson, September 5, 1919.

I do not claim that Austria or Germany in the first place had a conscious thought-out intention of provoking a general war. No existing documents give us the right to suppose that at that time they had planned anything so systematic.

M. Raymond Poincare', 1925.

6o FALSEHOOD IN WAR-TIME I dare say that the belief in the sole guilt of Germany is not possible even to M. Poincare. But if one can construct a policy based upon the theory of Germany’s sole guilt, it is clear that one should grimly stick to this theory, or at least give oneself the appearance of conviction.

General Sukhomlinojf (Kussian Minister of IFar). Quoted hj M. Vail/ant Conturier in the Chamber of Deputies (“ Journal Officiel," July 5, 1922).

The Press and publicists also changed their tone.

To saddle Germany with the sole responsibility for the war is from what we already know—and more will come— an absurdity. To frame a treaty on an absurdity is an injustice. Humanly, morally, and historically the Treaty of Versailles stands condemned, quite apart from its economic monstrosities.

Austin Harrison, Editor “ English Revieis'.”

Did vindictive nations ever do anything meaner, falser, or more cruel than when the Allies, by means of the Versailles Treaty, forced Germany to be the scapegoat to bear the guilt which belonged to all ? What nation carries clean hands and a pure heart ?

Charles F. Dole.

In 1923 the representatives of the nations assembled on a Temporary Mixed Commission to draft a Treaty of Mutual Assistance under the auspices of the League of Nations. Fully aware of what had been declared to be by their Governments a flagrant and indisputable instance of unprovoked aggression on the part of Germany, they found themselves quite unable to define “ unprovoked aggression.” The Belgian, Brazilian, French, and Swedish delegations said, in the course of a memorandum ;

It is not enough merely to repeat the formula “ unprovoked aggression,” for under the conditions of modern GERMANY’S SOLE RESPONSIBILITY 6i warfare it would seem impossible to decide even in theory what constitutes a case of aggression.

This view was practically adopted and the Committee of Jurists, when consulted, suggested that the term “ aggression ” should be dropped. The future case under the Covenant of the League of Nations of a nation which refused the recommendation of the Council or the verdict of the Court and resorted to arms was substituted as constituting a war of aggression.

In 1925, in the preamble of the Locarno Pact drawn up between Germany, France, and Great Britain, there is not the faintest echo of the accusation; on the contrary, a phrase is actually inserted as follows;

Anxious to satisfy the desire for security and protection which animates the peoples upon whom fell the scourge of the war 1914-1918 (les nations qui ont en a subir le fleau de la guerre).

This is no place to enter into the question of responsibility, to shift the blame from one nation to another, or to show the degree in which Germany was indeed responsible. Sole responsibility is a very different thing from some responsibility. The Germans and Austrians were busy, not without good evidence, in accusing Russia. But the disputes and entanglements and the deplorable ineptitude of diplomacy on all sides in the last few weeks were not, any more than the murder of the Archduke, the cause of the war, although special documents are always produced to give the false impression.

The causes were precedent and far-reaching, and it is doubtful if even the historians of the future will be able to apportion the blame between the Powers concerned with any degree of accuracy.

Lord Cecil of Chelwood recently put his finger on the most undoubted of all the contributory and immediate causes. Speaking in the City in 1927, he referred to “ the gigantic competition in armaments before the war,” and said:

No one could deny that the state of mind produced by armament competitions prepared the soil on which grew up the terrible plant which ultimately fruited in the Great War.

The above series of quotations will suffice to show how the sole culpability of the enemy is, as always, a war-time myth. The great success of the propaganda, however, leaves the impression fixed for a long time on the minds of those who want to justify to themselves their action in supporting the war and of those who have not taken the trouble to follow the subsequent withdrawals and denials. Moreover, the myth is allowed to remain, so far as possible, in the public mind in the shape of fear of “ unprovoked aggression,” and becomes the chief, and indeed the sole, justification for preparations for another war.