Part 31 (1/2)

The United States part in the war is truly a grand, a n.o.ble one. They have no particular territorial interest to serve. Their only object is the general public good. They will be the benefactors of Humanity in claiming for their Allies the above enunciated conditions without which no JUST and DURABLE peace can be expected nor obtained.

It is most important to caution the public against the insidious clamours of our _”pacifists”_, trying again to deceive the people by a.s.serting that Germany is ready to negotiate for peace on fair terms.

The Huns will acquiesce only to such peace terms as they will be forced to.

The Allies are better to be guided in consequence in their unfaltering determination to realize a JUST and DURABLE peace by a GLORIOUS VICTORY.

CHAPTER x.x.xIX.

CONCLUSION.

My ardent desire to speak the plain truth and only the truth, is just as strong to-day as it was when, in concluding my French work, I summarized the situation such as it was at the end of the year 1916, to show the hard duty inc.u.mbent on all the Allies, Canada included. It has been perhaps still more intensified by the outrageous efforts of those amongst us whose sole object has been, since the outbreak of the hostilities, to discourage our people from the herculean task they had bravely undertaken.

Two years have since elapsed--years full of great events, and of untiring heroism on the part of the glorious defenders of Justice and Right--and I do not see the slightest reason to modify the conclusions I then arrived at as a matter of strict duty. Unworthy of public confidence is the man who, pandering to the supposed prejudices of his countrymen, refrains out of weakness, or of more guilty considerations, to tell them what they are bound to do for their own country, for their Empire, for the world, in the supreme crisis of our time.

True every one is longing for the restoration of peace. But few are those who, even before being tired of the war, were ready to curb their heads under the German yoke, are now praying for a compromise between the Allies and their enemies. There are some left, it is sad to admit.

Everywhere they are chased by the indignant public opinion daily growing more determined that millions of heroes shall not have given their lives in vain, that millions of others, wounded on the fields of battles, shall not, until the last of them is gone for ever, be the betrayed victims of Teutonic dastardly ambition.

True, peace is sorely wanted, and would be welcomed by the thanksgivings to the Almighty of grateful peoples, who have borne with undaunted courage such untold and admirable sacrifices to uphold their Rights and their Honour. But it cannot be sued for by the nations whom Germany wanted to enslave by the might of her crus.h.i.+ng militarism operating under the dictates of a new code of International Law of her own barbarous creation.

Thank G.o.d, the flowing tide of unlimited Teutonic ambition let loose over the world, more than four years ago, has met with inaccessible summits where love of Justice, respect of Right, devotion to human Civilization, obedience to Christian Law, heroism of sacrifices, were so deeply entrenched, that they could not be reached and conquered. From this commanding alt.i.tude, they not only continue to defy the tyrants bent on dominating the universe, but they are mightily smas.h.i.+ng their power.

From the overshadowing point of view which cannot be forgotten, or wilfully abandoned, nothing has changed since the German Empire, in her delirious aspirations, challenged the world to the almost superhuman conflict by which she felt certain to succeed in realizing her fond dream of universal domination.

At the outbreak of the war, ever since, to-day, to-morrow, there were, there are and there will be but three alternatives to the restoration of peace:--

1.--A victorious German peace imposed on beaten and cowed belligerents: the peace of the ”_defeatists_.”

2.--A peace by compromise, patched up by disheartened ”_pacifists_,”

lured by cunningness, winning where force would have failed to succeed, to agree to conditions pregnant with all the horrors of a new and still greater struggle in the near future.

3.--A peace the result of the indomitable courage and perseverance of all the nations who have joined together to put an end to Germany's ambition to rule the world, and to destroy the instrument created for that iniquitous purpose: Prussian militarism.

There could be a fourth alternative to peace, but it would be possible only by a miracle which, we can grant without hesitation, the world has perhaps not yet deserved.

It would be peace restored by the sudden conversion of Germany to the practice of sound Christian principles, acknowledging how guilty she has been, repenting for her crimes, agreeing to atone for them as much as possible, and taking the unconditional pledge to henceforth behave like a civilized nation.

All must admit that there is not the slightest hope of such a move from a nation whose autocratic Kaiser, answering, in February last, an address presented to him by the burgomaster of Hamburg, thundered out, in his usual blasting manner, that the neighbouring peoples, to enjoy the sweetness of Germany's friends.h.i.+p, ”MUST FIRST RECOGNIZE THE VICTORY OF GERMAN ARMS.”

As an inducement to the Allies to bow to his wishes, he pointed to Germany's achievement in Russia, where a beaten enemy, ”_perceiving no reason for fighting longer_,” clasped hands with the generous Huns. The world has since learned with appalling horror with what tender mercy the barbarous Teutons reciprocated the grasping of hands of defeated Russia, tendered to them by the ”bolshevikis” traitors.

The Allies had then to select one of the three above mentioned alternatives.

They have made their choice and they will stick close to it until it is achieved by the victory of their arms.

Knowing as they do that the future of their peoples, and that of the whole world, are at stake, they will not waver in their heroic determination to free Humanity from Germany's cruel yoke.

Viewed from the commanding height it requires to be worthily appreciated, the joint military effort of the Allies offers a truly grand spectacle, daily enlarging and getting more gloriously magnificent.