England Joins W.W.1

France, Belgium, Russia, and Serbia were combined against Austria and
Germany. Little Montenegro also rushed to the help of her neighbor and
kinsman, Serbia. The question was, what would Italy and England do.
Italy, like Russia and Germany, had been having trouble in holding
down her people. A revolution had been threatened which would
overthrow the king and set up a republic. The Socialist Party,
representing the working class, had been growing very strong, and one
of their greatest principles was that all war is wrong. They felt that
the Triple Alliance made by the Italian statesmen had never bound the
Italian people. Throughout the entire peninsula, the Austrians were
hated.

France had aroused the Italians' anger in 1881
by seizing Tunis. Italy had hoped to snap up this province for
herself, for the Italian peninsula was crowded with people, and as the
population increased, it was thought necessary that colonies be
established to which the people could migrate to have more room.
Finally in 1911, in order to divert the minds of the people from
revolutionary thoughts, the government organized an expedition to
swoop down on Tripoli, which, like Egypt, was supposed to belong to
Turkey.

This meant war with the government at Constantinople, and Germany and
Austria were very angry at Italy, their ally, for attacking Turkey,
with which the Austrians and Germans were trying to establish a firm
friendship. However, "self-preservation is the first law of nature,"
and the Italian king and nobles valued their leadership in the nation
much more than they dreaded the dislike of Germany and Austria.

The Germans had counted on Italy to join in the attack on Russia and
France, but the Italian statesmen knew the feelings of their people
too well to attempt this. Of late years, there had been growing up a
friendship between the people of Italy and those of France, and the
Italian generals knew that it would be a difficult task to induce
their men to fire upon their kinsmen from across the Alps. Therefore,
when Austria and Germany demanded their support in the war, they
replied by pointing out that the terms of the Triple Alliance bound
Italy to go to their help only if they were attacked. "In this case," said the Italians, "you are the attacking party. The treaty does not
bind us to support you in any war conquest. What is more, we were not
consulted before Austria sent to Serbia her impossible demands. Expect
no help from us."

Now the great question arose as to England. The English statesmen were
not blind to the German plan. They saw that Germany intended to crush
France first, capturing Paris and dealing the French army such an
overwhelming blow that it would take it a long time to recover. Then
the German armies were to be rushed back over their marvelous system
of government-owned railroads to meet the on-coming German tide of
Russians.

The Germans knew that they were well provided with ammunition and all
war supplies. They knew that they had invented some wonderful guns
which were large enough to batter down the strongest forts in the
world. They did not have very much respect for the ability of the
Russian generals. They had watched them bungle badly in the Japanese
war, ten years before. If once France were brought to her knees, they
did not fear Russia. Then after France and Russia had been beaten,
there would be plenty of time, later on, to settle with Great Britain.

The English statesmen, as we have said, were aware of this plan. They
saw that if they were to fight Germany, this was the ideal time.
However, Great Britain, having a government which is more in the hands
of the people than even that of republican France, did not have the
system of forcing her young men to do military service. Her little
army in England was made up entirely of men who enlisted in it because
they wished to, and because they received fair pay. If England were to
enter a great war with Germany, there must be some very good reason
for her doing so. Otherwise, her people, who really did not hate the
Germans, would never enlist to fight against them. The question was,
would anything happen to make the English people feel that they were
justified in entering the war on the side of France and Russia.

England, France, and Prussia had promised each
other to protect Belgium from war. Even in the war of 1870, France and
Prussia had carefully avoided bringing their troops upon Belgian soil.
Now, however, with the German army invading Belgium, the English
statesmen had to decide their course. As heads of one of the nations
to guarantee Belgium's freedom, they called on Germany to explain this
unprovoked invasion. The Germans made no answer. They were busily
attacking the city of Lige. Great Britain gave Germany twenty-four
hours in which to withdraw her troops. At the end of this time, with
Germany paying no attention still, England solemnly declared war and
took her stand alongside of Russia and France.

The Germans were furious. They had no bitter feeling against the
French. They realized that France was obliged, by the terms of her
alliance, to stand by Russia, but they had confidently counted on
keeping England out of the war. In fact, the German ambassador to
England had assured the German emperor that England had so many
troubles, with her uprising in Ireland and threatened rebellions in
India and South Africa that she would never dare fight at this time.

The English people, on the other hand, were now thoroughly aroused. If
there is one thing that an Englishman prides himself on, it is keeping
his word. The word of the English had been given, through their
government, to Belgium that this little country, if it should resist
invasion, would be protected, and this word they thought must be kept
at all hazards. It made no difference that, aside from her great navy, England was utterly unprepared for the war. Like the decision which
Belgium had had to make the day before, this was a crucial step for
the British to take, but to their everlasting honor they did not
hesitate. In the case of Germany's declaration of war the German laws
say that no war can be declared by the Kaiser alone unless it is a
defensive war. Therefore, as one American writer has pointed out, this
is the only kind of war that the Kaiser ever declares. The German
military group, having control of the newspapers, put in a lot of
stories made up for the occasion about French soldiers having crossed
the border and shot down Germans on August 2nd. They told how French
aviators had dropped bombs on certain German cities. As a matter of
fact, the French soldiers, by orders of their government, were drawn
back from the frontier a distance of six miles in order to avoid any
appearance of attacking the Germans. The City Council of Nuremburg,
one of the cities that was said to have been bombed by the French,
later gave out a formal statement saying that no bombs had fallen on
their city and no French aviators had been seen near it. But the
German government gave out this "news" and promptly declared a
"defensive" war, and the German people had to believe what they were
told.
Very different was the case in England. Here was a free people, with
free schools and free newspapers. Just as every German had been taught
in the schools of his country that Germany was surrounded by a ring of
jealous enemies and would one day have to fight them all, so the
people of England had been taught in their schools that war between
civilized peoples is a hateful thing and must finally disappear from
the earth.