t-i/v 'C.ciif?/^ ft Jii e}/ 
 
 /j r/Z/^e C^n//fc,. 
 
 THE 
 
 DUTY OF THE NEUTRALS 
 
 Lecture given at the Ateneo 
 N4ADRID, SPAIN 
 
 January 10, 1917 
 
 bv 
 
 WHITNEY WARREN 
 
 A. M. Hon. Harvard 
 
 Member de L'Institut de France 
 
 16 East 47th Street 
 New York 
 
THE 
 DUTY OF THE NEUTRALS 
 
 Lecture given at the Ateneo 
 MADRID, SPAIN 
 
 January 10, 1917 
 
 by 
 
 WHITNEY WARREN 
 
 A. M. Hon. Harvard 
 
 Member de L'Institut de France 
 
 16 East 47th Street 
 New York 
 
W33 
 
 m 
 
The 
 Duty of the Neutrals 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 It is indeed a great pleasure to be able to express 
 here in Spain, especially before an audience in Madrid, 
 the ideas which are dear to me, and my reasons why all 
 nations and all individuals who place a value upon 
 Moral Obligation and on beauty, or those who are 
 simply heedful of their own Interests, should admire 
 and approve the efforts of the Allies and the cause 
 which they are defending with such glorious fervor 
 as to assure the triumph of Eight in this World. 
 
 Citizen of a neutral country, I have the impression 
 in to-day addressing myself to Neutrals, that I am, as 
 it were, in my family, accomplishing a family duty — 
 and that I have neither to limit my thoughts, nor to be 
 careful of the language I use. We belong, you and I, 
 to Nations who have no immediate need to take part 
 in the actual vast conflagration, and we enjoy together 
 an equal independence in any judgment or opinion 
 which we may express. Nothing forces us, except the 
 exaction of our convictions and the understanding of 
 our destinies, to take sides with one party sooner than 
 with the other. We find ourselves under conditions of 
 freedom which authorize us to express ourselves 
 uniquely in accordance with our conscience. This 
 is a splendid position, as it places me at liberty to 
 speak without reserve, and it assures me of being 
 listened to without prejudice. You will judge the sin- 
 cerity of what I say by that of your own opinions. 
 
Spain and America, the two most powerful neutral 
 countries, are bound together by a tie of impartiality 
 which places them in a position to discuss in all con- 
 fidence, the matters of Human Interest which are in 
 jeopardy in this war, and which brings them together 
 in a sort of fraternal effort to consult and to search 
 for the Truth. Who amongst us does not rejoice in 
 such a collaboration, placed, as it is, above all passion, 
 upon a plane the most pure and with a desire to do 
 good that defies suspicion ? What is Upright and what 
 is Wicked in the World are once again at daggers 
 drawn, and we sit upon the bench of the Arbitrators, 
 side by side, animated only with the same desire for 
 equity. We should devote all our efforts and our love 
 for Right to decide between the parties, to separate the 
 innocent from the guilty, the criminal from the victim. 
 May I be permitted to insist upon the nobility of such a 
 responsibility? Those who participate in it owe to each 
 other a moral support, a mutual esteem, the effects 
 of which are bound to last. The noblest of all tasks 
 is given to us, and in accomplishing it together w^e will 
 have learned to better understand the integrity of our 
 own characters. 
 
 Examined from the point of Humanity, the question 
 which the war imposes is to know in which camp are 
 assembled the combatants for Justice, such as the Di- 
 vine Word has given us to understand them to be. 
 Question of the Ideal ! Where would one feel more at 
 ease to treat this problem than amongst a people whose 
 chivalrous traditions have become legendary. Don 
 Quixote and the Cid are heroes that belong to you, 
 proud servitors of the most generous ideas. They 
 symbolize your race, and I invoke them now, in the 
 idea that in addressing you, it is always them, the rep- 
 resentatives of eternal Spain to whom I am speaking. 
 When one is convinced of the certainty of never having, 
 
since the beginning of the war, ventured an opinion or 
 published a word which have not been dictated by an 
 enthusiastic desire to serve the cause of Right, it is, I 
 repeat, a profound satisfaction to be able to explain be- 
 fore a public who sincerely carries in its soul, by force 
 of its ancestry, the Virtues, the Traditions and the 
 Comprehension of that which is Upright, and of that 
 which is Honorable. 
 
 I will only talk of what I know and of what I have 
 seen. What I know is, that in the month of July, 1914, 
 there was in Europe but one Country whose formidable 
 armaments and preparation indicated a warlike tend- 
 ency. This country was Germany. What I know is, 
 that at the same moment, France, Russia, England 
 and Italy possessed neither in arms nor in men 
 sufficient military reserves to make the World fear 
 that the rupture of peace was possible. What I 
 further know is, that the first declarations of war 
 came from the Central Empires, that the attack 
 upon Servia was an Austrian deed, that the violation 
 of the neutrality of Belgium was a German deed. These 
 are historical events against which no one dares to 
 offer a contradiction, and which indicate absolutely 
 the instigators of the greatest crime perpetrated 
 against modern civilization. One cannot repeat these 
 things too often. They are notable. The initial acts 
 of hostility were committed by Austria and Germany ; 
 they dared by extreme measures, to necessitate the 
 raising of all the European armies. This alone should 
 suffice to arouse all Humanity against them. In matters 
 of war, as in matters of crime, he who deserves pun- 
 ishment is the one who strikes the first blow, except, 
 of course, in legitimate defense. No danger of 
 any kind menaced the Central Empires. Russia was 
 enjoying pacific prosperity, governed by a sovereign 
 whose dream was to see all international differences 
 
settled by the Tribunal of the Hague, and who had 
 no reason to interrupt its re-organization nor to search 
 for a quarrel. The diplomatic notes exchanged at this 
 time prove it. The Czar tried in every way to avoid 
 the conflict. England, prosperous and laborious, was 
 looking so little for a fight that up to the very last 
 moment Germany herself believed she could count 
 on her neutrality. As for France, I hardly need 
 refer to the orientation of her politics, and her preoccu- 
 pations. Unhappily the ideas and acts of her Parlia- 
 ment had compelled her for a long time to consider as 
 impossible the peril of a European conflagration. It 
 is therefore indisputable to-day that Germany and 
 Austria premeditated their dastardly crime, and that 
 they alone wished to enlarge, by violence and by force, 
 their territory and their power. Is it possible to for- 
 give them for this? Outside of our personal prefer- 
 ence, AS MEN WHO ARE JUDGING MEN, ought we 
 not to cover with contempt those who for no plausible 
 reason have unchained the carnage at which we have 
 assisted for so many months; who have obliterated so 
 many young existences, cause so much mourning, and 
 occasioned in so many homes all the anguish which your 
 generous Sovereign is trying to diminish through his 
 power and by his charitable intervention. The most 
 elementary sentiment of Humanity commands us to be 
 indignant against the authors of the war; the simplest 
 sentiment of Pity invites us to take the part of the first 
 victims of a monstrous attack, the Servians and the 
 Belgians; and the most natural sentiment of Honor 
 compels us to admire and to appreciate the magnanim- 
 ous nations who could not bear the thought of allowing, 
 without protest, such a vast plan of violence and 
 iniquity. 
 It would seem that the testimony of events forbids 
 any hesitation on our part. There is not an argument 
 
presented that has not the sound of truth for a believer 
 in the Allies. They have undertaken nothing which 
 does not conform to the rules of Human Justice, and 
 to the Divine Ideal, which calls for the punishment of 
 the oppressor, of the assassin and of the perjurer. 
 And yet, even in the century in which we live, there are 
 people who consider it is not a crime to resort to Force 
 regardless of Justice, in order to further their own in- 
 terests. I feel assured you are not of this category, 
 and if I had not the hope of being heard outside of this 
 assembly, if I did not mean to appeal to your country, 
 to all opinions, to endeavor to convince more especially 
 a realistic minority, I would make this debate only on 
 the ground of morality; but unhappily I must descend 
 a step for those who are unwilling to consider the 
 question from such an elevated point of view. As a 
 matter of fact, there are certain people who still assume 
 that the regulation of differences between State and 
 State by force is a political measure which concerns 
 only the parties opposed and with which it is nobody's 
 business to meddle, if they are not directly involved. 
 They say the quarrels of others do not interest them, 
 that any Power should have the choice of its hour to 
 assure a phj^sical advantage over its neighbor, and over 
 all those who in any way obstruct her by competing 
 with or objecting to her projects of development. Such 
 a conception legitimatizes war and forces us to believe, 
 as Bernhardi preaches, that it is right to search for and 
 to provoke it. In other ^vords, these people honor and 
 desire, above every thing, National Egotism, and sub- 
 stitute it for Universal Liberty. They admit War as a 
 necessity, and, taking all things into consideration, 
 that it is better to make War, when one knows that one 
 is to be victorious and to profit by a momentary 
 superiority, than to run the risk of circumstances that 
 may be doubtful. I am very familiar with this kind of 
 
reasoning, which consists in making Germany appear 
 innocent in what she has done, and to awaken wonder 
 as to her foresight and as to her organization, thus 
 pardoning her for having commenced the fight. I can- 
 not allow myself to be won over to such a view ; and the 
 attempt to excuse the War, as an opportune measure, is 
 to me monstrous; I do not, however, want to limit 
 myself to my personal opinions, and adopting for the 
 moment the other viewpoint, assuming the egostistical 
 point of view of each Nation, I will show the impossi- 
 bility of the Neutrals to prove that Germany was justi- 
 fied in her act, and that the only thing that they must 
 hope for is to see her finally crushed. 
 
 To the partisans of the War, who see in it an act 
 which only interests a certain locality or section of 
 the globe, I would say that one must have a very 
 limited perspicacity to ascribe as Local all which does 
 not seem to interest them directly and intimately ; and 
 that further, in a conflict so vast, not only in a 
 geographic sense, but as to its consequences, nothing 
 is Local, nothing is Narrow, nothing is Limited: IN 
 ALL THAT IS HAPPENING NOTHING IS NAR- 
 ROW BUT INDIFFERENCE; and any attempt to cir- 
 cumscribe the debate is bound to militate against 
 them. They say that this immense war is nothing but 
 a series of private interests. I contend, however, that 
 it is YOUR interest and OUR interest. They say, that 
 not being compelled to participate, your duty as Span- 
 iards and our duty as Americans, is to stand aside. ON 
 THE CONTRARY I CONTEND THAT OUR 
 EVERY EXISTENCE AND THE EXISTENCE OF 
 OUR COUNTRIES ARE AT PRESENT IN 
 PERIL ON THE BATTLEFIELDS; THAT OUR 
 NATIONAL CONCEPTIONS AND CONVICTIONS 
 MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR US TO REMAIN 
 WITH OUR ARMS FOLDED. Finally they claim 
 
that every Nation has the care of its own Grandeur, 
 and that it is at liberty at the right moment to protect 
 itself, by force of arms against the perils with which 
 it may feel itself surrounded. In answer to this I say : 
 Do you prefer your Grandeur to that of Germany and 
 do you not understand the formidable danger which 
 she represents to your existence? I do as they do. I 
 circumscribe the debate and what do I find? YOU, 
 SPANIARDS, WE AMERICANS, ON ONE SIDE— 
 THE GERMANS ON THE OTHER. 
 
 As a matter of fact nothing touches our interests 
 closer than the attacks upon the Rights of Peoples. 
 Our very security depends upon its resjject. Nobody 
 is going to tell me that the theory of the "scrap of 
 paper" is part of the political doctrine to which the 
 onlookers of the struggle have the right to remain in- 
 sensible. IT IS YOU THAT IT MENACES AND IT 
 IS US. I cannot express my indignation sufficiently 
 against the authors of such propositions, because I feel 
 the necessity, and propose to place my will of living in 
 peace against a violence that knows no limit. When I 
 listen to the professions of faith of the German 
 race, which I hear everywhere, against the People who 
 insist upon their Rights, what a number of reasons for 
 uneasiness I find. 
 
 I read in the writings of Professor Lasson: 
 "The right of independence is not a right born in 
 a people. It should be acquired with great effort. 
 A PEOPLE OF HIGH CULTURE, BUT OF A CUL- 
 TURE NOT CONDUCIVE TO CONCENTRATION 
 AND MILITARY ACTION AS REGARDS THE 
 STATE, OUGHT TO IN ALL JUSTICE OBEY THE 
 BARBARIAN WHOSE POLITICAL AND MILL 
 TAR Y ORGANIZATION IS SUPERIOR " ; and again, 
 "THE FEEBLE FLATTER THEMSELVES WILL- 
 INGLY AS TO THE INVIOLABILITY OF 
 
8 
 
 TREATIES, WHICH INSURE THEIR MISER- 
 ABLE EXISTENCE, BUT WAR IS THERE FOR 
 JUST THAT SORT OF THING, TO SHOW HIM 
 THAT A TREATY MAY BE VIOLATED, CIRCUM- 
 STANCES HAVING CHANGED. There is but one 
 guarantee, and that is a sufficient military force," Here 
 is what Professor Von Seyden writes: "GERMANY 
 OUGHT TO AND WISHES TO BE ALONE. THE 
 GERMANS ARE THE CHOSEN PEOPLE OP THE 
 EARTPI." General Von Hartman says: "THE 
 RIGHTS OF PEOPLE SHOULD BE CAREFUL 
 NOT TO DEMORALIZE MILITARY ACTION IN 
 PUTTING IN ITS WAY STUMBLING BLOCKS." 
 Finally here is what was proclaimed from the tribunal 
 of the Reichstag by the Chancellor Von Bethmann 
 HoUweg: "OUR TROOPS HAVE OCCUPIED 
 LUXEMBURG AND ARE NOW PROBABLY ON 
 BELGIAN TERRITORY. THIS IS AGAINST THE 
 RIGHTS OF PEOPLE." 
 
 Of this sort of thing there is enough to fill 
 volumes with cynicism. These volumes as a mat- 
 ter of fact have been published; and so, taking 
 my authority from examples which I have given 
 you, I ask you if such principles do not seem to you 
 a DIRECT MENACE AGAINST YOUR LIBERTY. 
 Do you not see, that for all time, and more especially 
 to-day, that your Liberty has for unique guarantee the 
 INVIOLABILITY OF TREATIES, of which the 
 writers of Germany make so little, and the RIGHTS 
 OF PEOPLES, for which its politicians, its orators, its 
 captains, show such an absolute contempt, and can you 
 doubt that when Germany affirms so distinctly, by the 
 views of her intellectuals, that she wishes to remain 
 alone, that THIS SOLITUDE MAY BE ACHIEVED 
 OTHERWISE THAN AT THE PRICE OF YOUR 
 DISAPPEARANCE AS A NATION. 
 
And again, if what I have just read to you was ex- 
 ceptional, you could contest with me its value and say 
 that it reflects only the opinions of a party ; but every- 
 thing is there to prove that it is also public opinion. 
 The unanimity with w^hich the German people has ral- 
 lied around its leaders to carry the war into Luxem- 
 burg and Belgium, to justify the bombardment of open 
 towns, the employment of illicit methods in battle, the 
 use of torpedoes against neutral flags and against 
 merchant ships, the universal rejoicing of the German 
 population all over the world at the sinking of the 
 LUSITANIA, the deportation of civil populations in 
 invaded regions, all attest to the fact that there exists a 
 COLLECTIVE ADHESION TO THE DISDAIN OF 
 ALL LAW, the respect of which assures your very ex- 
 istence in the society of nations. 
 
 Modern Germany, as an entirety, is a product of 
 systematic education. It has for its object, the de- 
 struction of the benefits of Right and Liberty, the 
 upsetting of all rules, and the substitution in the code 
 of International Law of the idea of necessary injury as 
 against injury from which one must be prepared to 
 defend oneself. THUS THE WRONG WHICH IS 
 DONE TO OTHERS BECOMES THE IDEAL; 
 MERIT CONSISTS IN DOING AS MUCH DAM- 
 AGE AS POSSIBLE TO ONE'S NEIGHBORS; 
 BEAUTY RESIDES IN THE SUPERIORITY OF 
 FORCE. 
 
 It is now for us Neutrals to choose on which side 
 it is our interest to be ; to estimate whether it is to our 
 advantage to favor these iniquitous doctrines by our 
 acquiescence, or simply by our silence. Either we feel 
 ourselves sufficiently powerful to resist any attempt of 
 German violence, or else we calmly resign ourselves 
 to be subjected to it; or, we must be constrained, by 
 the logic of things, to protest against it forcibly, UN- 
 
10 
 
 LESS WE JUDGE IT HONORABLE TO ALLOW 
 OTHERS TO EIGHT OCJR BATTLES FOR US, 
 WITHOUT EVEN MANIFESTING OUR GRATI- 
 TUDE, AND ARE WILLING TO PROFIT BY A 
 VICTORY FOR WHICH WE HAVE DONE 
 NOTHING. 
 
 But let us reflect. By geographical good fortune, 
 the fact of having France or the Ocean as a ram- 
 part, we have been permitted this time to escape 
 from the aggression of Germany. If she realizivs lier 
 diabolical projects, we will not have to wait loDg to 
 feel the weight of her intimidation. If the Allies fail, 
 we will by our complacent attitude, and by our toler- 
 ance, be an easy prey for Germany's humiliated am- 
 bition. It therefore behooves us to study the situ- 
 ation as regards ourselves, and that we do not bar- 
 gain with the Allies for the only thing which they want, 
 our Moral Support. They are struggling for the 
 lives of their Countries and at the same time to avoid 
 for us the disaster of future slavery. Their bravery 
 has a double object. Our indifference will have for 
 us a double result: The impossibility in the future 
 to claim the benefit of a Justice which we have 
 done nothing to obtain, and the remorse of having ac- 
 cepted, by our mute acquiescence, a complicity with 
 the enemies of Humanity. Whether Germany win, or 
 not, we will have contributed to the forging of the 
 chains which she reserves for us. In the first case, 
 she will absorb us to complete her programme of 
 solitude ; in the second, it is upon us that she will seek 
 the revenge for her defeat. Who will pity us? Wlio 
 will help us? And, when I speak of us, Spaniards and 
 Americans, or of certain ones amongst us, I mean to 
 include all the non-belligerents who have the love of 
 their Soil and their Liberty at heart. 
 
 The despotism of the German race, its desire for 
 
11 
 
 conquest, acknowledges no frontiers, and her vast 
 plan of invasion is only equalled by her unhealthy am- 
 bition. Disappointed today these assassins will recom- 
 mence tomorrow, and they will attempt to succeed 
 there where they have not been thwarted. Where will 
 this be, if not there where we have had the crim- 
 inal weakness not to combat them? I invite all parti- 
 sans of the German cause, and all those whose 
 principle is to "let well enough alone," with all the 
 ardor of my conviction, to acknowledge their error 
 and to take refuge on the side of Right, in the hour 
 when there is assembled a sufficient force to fight its 
 enemies, for fear of invoking hopelessly this aid when 
 Germany has been conquered without at least our 
 Moral Aid. 
 
 I have lived in France since the beginning of the 
 war, and I have seen day by day the effort of her sol- 
 diers and of her people, first to hold back the invader, 
 then to push him back. I was in Paris during the bat- 
 tle of the Marne. On many occasions I have visited 
 the northern and eastern fronts. Recently a happy 
 coincidence permitted me to be one of the first to en- 
 ter the fort of Vaux reconquered. My admiration for 
 the French effort, admiration which I thought was at 
 its height the day Von Kluck's troops retreated before 
 Joffre and Gallieni, knows no bounds. Never has such 
 a wonderful cause found such magnificent defenders; 
 and do not for a moment compare the blind obedience 
 of the Germans to the free and clearsighted 
 energy of the French, your brothers. Imposed disci- 
 pline can undoubtedly obtain very brilliant results, 
 but only spontaneous sacrifices bring Honor to the 
 Idea of War and justify it. It is this wonderful vol- 
 untary spirit that is rejuvenating daily their courage, 
 which is not commandeered, and which it has been my 
 privilege to witness. I only wish I had the talent of 
 transmitting to you its incomparable beauty. 
 
12 
 
 Pacific citizens wlio thought that war was impossi- 
 ble, who had devoted all their activity and energy, to 
 the research of public and private happiness, who 
 dreamed of the possibility of international fraternity 
 and disarmament, were suddenly and brutally called 
 to be soldiers, and, renouncing their illusions, they 
 placed themselves v/ith enthusiasm at the disposition 
 of their country. What a difference between these 
 heroes and the people whose education has been 
 directed for over a hundred years to form nothing but 
 a military race. I here protest against the idea which 
 consists of wondering at and admiring the force and 
 organization of the Germans. What far surpasses it in 
 splendor is the improvised power of a nation not pre- 
 pared for war, supplying by its unanimous ardor 
 the material resources which she had failed to 
 provide! WEAKNESS WHICH DARES IS FAR 
 NOBLER THAN THE FORCE WHICH STRIKES! 
 These men covered with mud, and gay, in the French 
 trenches, knew that they lacked munitions to protect 
 their existences, but they knew also that Faith 
 brings Victoiy. Armed with this Faith they con- 
 quered on the Ourcq, on the Marne, on the Yser. They 
 stopped the advance on Nancy and thus thwarted 
 the attempt to profit by a superiority obtained by 
 years of preparation. I wish that everyone of 
 you had had the opportunity to witness the specta- 
 cles which I contemplated. There would remain in 
 your minds an emotion, an admiration, so violent that 
 your convictions would need no further impetus. 
 Everywhere, from Belgium to Alsace, are chiefs 
 whose hearts beat in unison with those of their men. 
 Everywhere you would have seen a discipline founded 
 not upon Method, but upon Confidence; Generals who 
 risk their lives in order to protect those of their sub- 
 ordinates ; a sort of fraternity at the same time respect- 
 
13 
 
 ful and familiar, between tlie superior and his inferior; 
 an absolute good will and understanding, a constant 
 exchange of solicitude and devotion. And the look of 
 the French soldier who concentrates all his intelli- 
 gence as he rushes forward towards death! Nothing 
 since the beginning of the war has discouraged such 
 men! None of the means employed by their adver- 
 sary, for whom any expedient seems acceptable, has 
 succeeded in making them retreat. 
 
 THE EFFORT WHICH FRANCE HAS MADE 
 IS BEYOND IMAGINATION! Pitted against a mis- 
 able and brutal enemy, she has put every effort forward 
 TO FIGHT LOYALLY, and the only criticism which 
 the Neutrals can make of her, is that she has been too 
 scrupulous in her treatment of those who have perfidi- 
 ously attacked her. Respectful of the treaties and of 
 the laws of war, it was only after long debates, 
 and against her instinct, that she was forced to 
 use the methods which a treacherous enemy had taken 
 advantage of since the beginning. Search and you 
 will not find her in fault. She is responsible for 
 no degrading act, and every time that she is forced to 
 imitate the methods which have so long been used 
 against her it is in spite of herself and with disgust. If 
 we really understand our own interests we ought 
 to complain, and we ought to encourage her to 
 make use of any method; in place of this we 
 seem ready to reproach her and her allies for the small- 
 est infringement of the international statutes. We 
 seem to be desirous of establishing between the two 
 groups of belligerents an equality as to their felony. 
 We have failed to find the occasion we are looking for ! 
 But, are we quite sure that it is our duty, as Neutrals, 
 to search for if? For instance, if you are looking out 
 of the window and you see a thug assaulting a peace- 
 able passerby, would you exact from the latter that he 
 
14 
 
 observe all the rules for duelling? Or else, would you 
 cry to him to defend himself as best he could, and at 
 the same time defend society, with any means which 
 come to his hand? I say that it is time we changed 
 our attitude, and that our judgment should no longer 
 be an obstacle to the interest of the victims ! WE ARE 
 NOT HERE AS AMATEURS, BUT TO AID MOR- 
 ALLY IN THE SURVIVAL OF JUSTICE. 
 
 You would not be able to contain your indignation 
 had you traversed, as I have, the cities, the villages, 
 and the fields of France destroyed by bestial con- 
 querors. Of what was once a happy city, a prosperous 
 hamlet, or a fertile field nothing remains but waste 
 and cinders. I am not talking about the places situ- 
 ated on the battle fields, but about those cathedrals 
 which have been destroyed by useless bombardments, 
 of those houses inhabited by a population of old men, 
 of women and children, of those inoffensive landscapes 
 where no battalion or convoy has ever been. You can- 
 not give your approbation to these calculated destruc- 
 tions, whose only object is to strike terror. As an archi- 
 tect, a friend by vocation of the stones and of the 
 sites destroyed, I have suffered perhaps more than 
 others to see these monuments subjected to a most 
 cruel martyrdom. The very idea of their suffer- 
 ing must fill you with sorrow, you, who possess the 
 jewels of Toledo, Granada and Burgos; and pray do 
 not say, with a gesture of excuse, ''AFTER ALL IT 
 IS WAR!" FOR IT IS NOT WAR, IT IS CRIME! 
 
 Luck would have it that the French had to oppose 
 their loyal courage to a low beastiality. They an- 
 swered the call, but I cannot efface from my memory 
 the words of the great tragedian, Mounet Sully, 
 ''What, we are going to fight with such people?" 
 This was after the invasion and violation of Belgium. 
 If the question had been a quarrel between individuals, 
 
15 
 
 an altercation between man and man, there is not a 
 tribunal of Honor tliat would not have disqualified the 
 German, and I can well understand the exclamation of 
 the great actor; BUT THE TRIBUNAL OF HUiNOR 
 CONSISTED OF OURSELVES, THE NEUTRALS, 
 AND WE SAID NOTHING. And so France drew 
 her sword, and she gave, in order to withhold the 
 aggressor, one man of every six. She created 
 manufactories and increased in formidable pro- 
 portions the output of arms and munitions. She 
 expended an unbelievable energy, equalling in a few 
 months the production of half a century of premedi- 
 tated warlike preparation, and still she is not content. 
 She wants more, and she will get it. The echo comes to 
 us of parliamentary discussions and she seems to be 
 wasting her energies. Believe nothing of it. She 
 only wishes to learn, in order to increase her effort, 
 not to diminish it. The tumult of parliamentary de- 
 bate gives birth each time to the indisputable evi- 
 dence of her perseverance, of the will ever stronger to 
 conquer, and so, just as she has known how to estab- 
 lish the equilibrium of her physical effort, which in 
 the beginning was most unequal with that of her en- 
 emy, even so she will know how to increase this effort 
 in favor of further progress. THE FERVOUR OF 
 VICTORY POSSESSES HER, AND WHEN FRANCE 
 IS SO POSSESSED HER ENEMIES ARE DOOMED! 
 
 Too many common traits exist between you and the 
 French for you not to appreciate the praise which a 
 stranger gives them. It is your Family that is at the 
 place of Honor, and the glory of one of its members is 
 the glory of all. For that matter, the Latin has 
 the right to be proud of his children, ITALY has 
 placed herself at the side of FRANCE and has not 
 accomplished less wonderful feats than she has. 
 
 Three times in the last two years I have made a voy- 
 
16 
 
 age to Italy. In ordinary times one undertakes it only 
 for the pleasure of the eye and of the senses. To this 
 pleasure must be added today a sort of wonderment 
 of the ett'ort and intelligence displayed. We had be- 
 come used to judging Italy by its past and to according 
 her only a retrospective merit. We visited her as the 
 most beautiful of cemeteries, with our souls chastened, 
 and our hearts open only to the language of those who 
 have disappeared, and so the living passed beside us 
 without our even seeing tliein, without our even hear- 
 ing them. However, their youths were worthy of the 
 souvenirs with which we consoled ourselves, for Italy 
 is prolonging and surpassing her ancient Grandeur. 
 Not less than she, would you have Spain inferior to the 
 prestige of her great dead! ITALY, sincere, frank, 
 honest, liberated herself as soon as she could from an 
 alliance which was dragging her in the mud. To begin 
 with she broke off with Austria, and then completing 
 her program of purification, she broke off with Ger- 
 many. The economical risk which she ran was great, 
 but she exposed herself to it willingly, in order to pre- 
 serve her traditions and her good name. 
 
 Nowhere is the struggle harder than on the Fronts 
 of Triest and the Trent. The Italians conduct them- 
 selves with a gallantry which is extraordinary, and a 
 modesty which is that of great workmen. Neither the 
 rock, the altitude, nor any of the difficulties of this 
 mountainous country are sufficient obstacles to discour- 
 age their perseverance. Impossibilities are conquered 
 by their will. Can you imagine, for instance, the exact 
 character of the Carso? It is a series of hills, rather 
 low, but composed of a stone most brutal and hostile. 
 Inch by inch with small charges of dynamite, they blast- 
 ed out their trenches. The Austrians in the beginning 
 had intrench>5d themselves, but with much less effort, 
 because the frontier, which they in olden time had im- 
 
17 
 
 posed upon Italy, gave them everywhere an unjust ad- 
 vantage, and they worked away without being dis- 
 turbed. The Italian, on the contrary, had to dig under 
 formidable artillery hre, without cover, and upon al- 
 most perpendicular slopes, but he dared everything, 
 and he succeeded. The work of the engineers shown 
 there is inconceivable ! 
 
 'len days after the fall of the Goritzia I had the 
 good fortune to enter the reconquered city. Mount 
 Pogdora and Mount San Michele, the two ramparts 
 which protect, were unable to resist the Italian ardor, 
 for it does not raise mountains, it suppresses them ! In 
 all truth I am not exaggerating; the Italian soldier, 
 and what they call their civilian army, composed of 
 workers too young and too old to carry arms, have 
 passed the limit of human possibilities ! The Austrian, 
 on the contrary, has contented himself in surpassing 
 the limits of cruelty. Not satisfied to follow the exam- 
 ple of his allies in the practices of criminal warfare, 
 he has perfected them. The use of asphyxiating gas 
 was not enough, so he has completed it by the employ- 
 ment of maces with great nails projecting in every di- 
 rection, which he uses to finish off the victims of the 
 poisonous fluid. One of these maces was given me on 
 Mount San Michele, and I keep it because it is fur- 
 ther proof to me of the justice of my indignation, and 
 legitimatizes my partisanship. Nobility, generosity, 
 simplicity are on one side and hideousness, arrogance, 
 barbarism on the other. Compare, I beg of you, the 
 pretentious attitude of William II and the decency and 
 good fellowship of King Victor Emanuel. The latter 
 is the soul of the army and the Government. To him 
 are due all the acts of daring and all the decisions tar 
 ken. He directs the struggle on the field of battle and 
 in council. He is forever at his work, always in the 
 places of peril, always at the post of honor, and one 
 never hears him spoken of. 
 
18 
 
 And now I conie to the English. An abyss sud- 
 denly opened between Germany and Great Britain. 
 Liberated by centuries of isolation from Saxon influ- 
 ence, ENGLAND had very decided views upon the 
 quarrels which interested the Continent. She is so con- 
 stituted that her clearsightedness does not run the risk 
 of being befogged, and when the time came to choose 
 between Right and Wrong, she took sides deliberately 
 with France. REMEMBER, SHE WAS NOT THE 
 FIRST NATION THAT WAS FORCED TO COME- 
 INTO THE FIGHT; SHE WAS THE FIRST NEU- 
 TRAL THAT VOLUNTEERED ON THE SIDE OF 
 JUSTICE AND LIBERTY! WE SHOULD TURN 
 TOWARDS HER WHEN WE QUESTION OUR- 
 SELVES AS TO WHAT OUR DUTY IS! In the 
 first days of the crisis we see her hesitating. She 
 attempted by all her force to avoid the war. She 
 attempted to persuade Germany to reflect, and in spite 
 of the fact that she was not prepared for the struggle, 
 she warned the Government of Berlin that it was 
 quite possible for her to enter the conflict if Right was 
 not respected. Incredulous, Berlin shrugged her 
 shoulders, set her teeth and violated Right. Belgium 
 was invaded! And then, the Englishman calmly took 
 up the defiance. I beg of you to understand the mag- 
 nificence of his act, and do not try to diminish it. Since 
 then England has not ceased to be equal to her task. 
 Through the vigilance of her fleet in spite of the sub- 
 marine campaign, she has permitted the Allies to sup- 
 ply themselves. She has barred the German flag 
 from the Seas and saved from inertia the maritime 
 commerce of the Neutrals. Think for a moment: had 
 Germany found herself in control of the ocean, and 
 knowing her methods, an idea may be formed of the ob- 
 stacles she would have put in the way of your com- 
 merce. But it is not only on the sea that one must ad- 
 
19 
 
 mire the effort of Great Britain! There she had as- 
 sured herself a superiority through centuries, so her 
 power does not surprise us, but on land, who would 
 have thought her capable in so short a time of raising 
 an army so redoubtable ? In 1914 she had 100,000 men. 
 Today her armies amount to 5,000,000! Can you rep- 
 resent to yourself the amount of energy and order such 
 a transformation necessitates! THREE MILLION 
 SOLDIERS ALONE VOLUNTEERED UNDER 
 THE COMMAND OF KITCHENER. I do not 
 know of any more magnificent attitude than this 
 spontaneity in response to duty. Nothing can prove 
 more clearly the justice of the Allied cause. Once 
 again, and with indisputable evidence, FREE SACRI- 
 FICE ON THE PART OF THE ALLIES CON- 
 TRASTS ITSELF TO THE MECHANICAL SUB- 
 MISSION OF THEIR ADVERSARIES; the raising 
 of such armies without compulsion nothing but Idealism 
 could accomplish. A people of sailors, the English 
 changing their destinies, and in an incomparably short 
 time, have become a great military nation. I empha- 
 size the rapidity with which this change was made, and 
 which is often contested. It is nothing short of a mir- 
 acle, to have in two years' time, recruited from a popu- 
 lation which understood nothing of continental war, 
 such vast armies. Right only can find at its call so 
 many Champions enlisting of their own free will. 
 
 Cool, courageous to excess, slow to get into action, 
 but with a tenacity that nothing can discourage, the 
 English soldier under fire would rather die than 
 retreat an inch. Under his helmet, which has a form 
 quite extraordinary, he resembles to a certain extent 
 Don Quixote, and like Don Quixote, he has fear of 
 nothing. He knows that he has not the military clever- 
 ness of the French soldier, who is accustomed by tra- 
 dition to all the initiatives of combat, and, without 
 
20 
 
 any false pride, lie asks of him advice. It is because 
 of this great fraternity that the Unity of Front has 
 been made possible. Every day the efficiency and 
 valor of the English army increases, as well as the 
 science of its chiefs and the skill of its men. Determined 
 never for an instant to weaken, she accumulates pa- 
 tiently more and more means to conquer. The whole 
 country is mobilized for its army's wants. Manufac- 
 turers work day and night for the artillery and for the 
 munitions, and if the Government should momentarily 
 lack energy some one is always there in whom the King 
 and the whole Country immediately place their confi- 
 dence and follow. Political quarrels no longer exist. 
 Whigs and Tories have but one goal — VICTORY, and 
 they will achieve it by their indomitable perseverance, 
 even as the French with their fervor and the Italians 
 Vv'ith their audacity. 
 
 I am not going to speak of the Russians or 
 Japanese, for unfortunately I have not seen them 
 at work, and I only wish to speak from experience. 
 As they stand, the group of allies on the Western 
 Front, including the heroic Belgians, are assured of 
 success. It is not the fluctuations of the struggle in the 
 Orient which will influence it. The decision will come 
 on the Western Front, and on this Front the block of 
 the French, the English, the Belgians and the Italians 
 will not permit it to escape them. 
 
 We, the Neutrals, who live from day to day in a 
 state of shortsightedness, feel the counter strokes 
 of the daily happenings, and, because Germany has 
 undoubtedly made great gains, w^e sometimes allow 
 ourselves to doubt of her defeat. We should remem- 
 ber that History teaches us that conquests due to vio- 
 lence are always ephemeral. The fragility of empires 
 established by military force has been and is constant. 
 Never has Justice failed to take its revenge. There is 
 
21 
 
 for ambitious nations a period of ascension and one of 
 decline. Tlie first of these periods Prussia has en- 
 joyed. For over a hundred years she has established 
 her domination upon the smallest kingdoms of the Em- 
 pire and upon Austria. She has despoiled Denmark 
 of Schleswig and France of Alsace-Lorraine. The 
 sign that the time of her downfall has come may be 
 found in the coalition of enemies she has raised against 
 herself. Never has one power, even with the aid of 
 accomplices, been able to resist Peoples leagued to- 
 gether for the defense of their Liberty, and, in my 
 spirit of impartiality, I invoke before you the images 
 of Philip II and of Napoleon. 
 
 The fruits which Germany has culled up to the 
 present moment, are those due to preparation; ready 
 for the war, because she wished war, she still profits 
 by the advance she has taken ; but it is written in des- 
 tiny that the road to the Summit conducts also to the 
 Precipice. Her adversaries were undoubtedly behind 
 her, they do not attempt to dissimulate this, but this 
 delay procures for them the advantages of seeing Ger- 
 many more rapidly progress to the verge of the abyss. 
 When she gets there, breathless, they will still possess 
 immense resources, because they will not, in a rela- 
 tively short time have used up all their means, while 
 the enemy will have exhausted theirs. He who wins 
 the race is not he who leads his rivals through the 
 greater part of the course, but he who does not show 
 weakness in the last few yards ! This is proven in the 
 present case. The men and the riches which the Allies 
 have at their disposal, will permit them, although they 
 lost ground in the beginning, to hold out longer. Their 
 inferiority is only apparent, and the extent of the illu- 
 sion will only be measured on the day of the decisive 
 combat. What is important, is not the present, but the 
 future. The race is not to the most rapid but to the 
 
22 
 
 most substantial. This, you Spaniards, understood well 
 when lately you refused to associate yourselves to a 
 pacific undertaking. PEACE, YOU KNEW IT, AND 
 YOU HAVE PROVED IT, SHOULD NOT BE AT- 
 TEMPTED UNTIL THE DAY WHEN ITS CONDI- 
 TIONS SHALL BE IMPOSED BY THOSE WHO ARE 
 ON THE SIDE OF RIGHT. TO PROPOSE TODAY 
 A CONVERSATION, IN THE HOUR WHEN GER- 
 MANY HAS REALIZED ALL THAT IT WAS POS- 
 SIBLE FOR HER TO DO, THROUGH PREMEDI- 
 TATION AND PREPARATION, WHEN SHE FEELS 
 NO LONGER THAT SHE IS THE BEST PREPARED, 
 WHEN SHE IS ABOUT TO SUCCUMB, IS INDEED 
 TO MISINTERPRET THE WILL AND THE IN- 
 TELLIGENCE OF THE ALLIES. By what right 
 should any one propose to them to lay down their arms, 
 when they know that they are on the verge of profiting 
 by their advantages, and when they have arrived at the 
 moment, so long waited for, when they are going to see 
 definite results'? Your Government has not allowed 
 itself to be the dupe of appearances; it well un- 
 derstood that it is impossible to talk to victims who 
 feel that their aggressors are on the point of failing, 
 and who are, moreover, not in the least disposed to mis- 
 take for a cry of generosity what is really their cry of 
 distress. You have no reason to forestall a chastise- 
 ment, which is destined for the aggressors through the 
 prolongation of hostilities. All those who understand 
 what even a partial German victory would mean to the 
 world, all those, who are haunted by the prospect of a 
 Germanized universe, owe to you a profound vote of 
 gratitude, because of the clearsightedness of which you 
 have given proof, in thus reserving your good offices for 
 the day when the work of arbitration shall be for the 
 benefit of Right justified. In acting as you have done, 
 you have proved worthy of the Latin race, and have 
 
23 
 
 emphasized your relationship through blood with 
 France and Italy. Never has this relationship im- 
 posed upon you such positive duties, for, as a matter 
 of fact, THIS IS NOT A WAR OF NATIONS, BUT A 
 WAR OF RACES. On one side there is the Latin and 
 his Allies, on the other the German and his Accom- 
 plices; and you are Latins! Latins in origin, Latins in 
 speech, Latins in spirit. Rome, whose influence was so 
 decisive in the formation of Western Europe, has left 
 nowhere traces more profound than in the Spanish Pen- 
 insula. No matter what have been the vicissitudes of 
 your history, the Roman traditions have always domin- 
 ated. The sumptuous language which you speak, is 
 derived almost entirely from the Latin tongue. You 
 owe your first civilization to the Roman Emperors, and 
 it was Constantino who favored amongst you the devel- 
 opment of a religion, of which you have remained the- 
 most faithful disciples. The first organization of your 
 provinces was the work of the Roman legates, and 
 the taste which you have always shown for the study 
 of the law you have derived from the Roman jurists. 
 Your first national unity was realized, it is true, under 
 the reign of the Barbarians, but it could only be 
 realized by their submission to your customs. So 
 strong in fact were the institutions and tradi- 
 tions of the Latin that the German invaders were 
 forced to renounce their faith and their language, and 
 to adopt yours. Latin literature has been illustrated 
 by your poets, by your historians, and later your paint- 
 ers of Catalonia, of Valencia, of Aragon and Seville, 
 owe the mastery of their art to the example of the 
 great Florentines and the great Venetians. So also 
 with your sculptors and with your architects. Your 
 magnificent churches and your most ancient monu- 
 ments bear the eternal distinction of Rome! Rome 
 for six hundred years sowed in your country the seed 
 
24 
 
 of its thought, to such an extent that neither the Goth 
 nor the Arab were able to uproot it. Wlierever one 
 turns one finds the fundamental stamp of Kome, and I 
 cannot but believe that having begot your destinies 
 she still continues to inspire them. 
 
 The civilization, of which you are the issue, has not 
 had for centuries to defend itself against so formidable 
 an assault. All its fruit is compromised by the menace 
 of German ' * Kultur. ' ' This has left nothing to chance. 
 She has organized by method ! Without arousing your 
 or our suspicion, she commenced by insinuating her- 
 self amongst us during Peace. She sent to all the 
 points of the Globe her intellectual ambassadors as 
 well as her commercial and financial ones. She sought 
 to supplant, in every sphere, with subtleness the tradi- 
 tions of Latin honesty and of Latin purity. The big 
 enterprises were in the hands of her agents. Litera- 
 ture and the Arts had been gained and spoiled by her 
 examples. Little by little she left everywhere her 
 mark, and without doubt she would have succeeded in 
 the end in obliterating the taste and the genius which 
 belongs to every nation, through the development of 
 her own ideas and of her own enterprises. This 
 would have happened if the successes she obtained 
 had not rendered her impatient to the point of ex- 
 citing her to an attempt of the immediate realization 
 of her ambitions. For our happiness, yes, for our fu- 
 ture happiness, she lacked patience, and then we wit- 
 nessed this magnificent reaction against her violence 
 and brutality, reaction which has prompted the Allies 
 to awaken, to understand and to measure the danger in 
 which their patrimony found itself. As long as this 
 danger was uncertain, so to speak, it profited by a sort 
 of general indifference, but the day it squarely showed 
 itself it was met with drawn swords and loaded 
 cannon! IT IS THESE SWORDS AND THESE 
 
25 
 
 CANNON THAT DEFEND US, THE NEUTRALS, 
 TODAY ! 
 
 But do not let us deceive ourselves, when it is all 
 over, the peril will not have diminished for us, if we 
 have done nothing personally to help destroy it. IN- 
 TRENCHED BEHIND THE RAMPARTS OF THE 
 ALLIES, WE ARE, FOR THE MOMENT, SAFE 
 FROM BODILY HARM, BUT NOT FROM THE 
 SUBTLE AND SILENT INVASION OF WHICH I 
 HAVE SPOKEN. Little by little, and persistently 
 if we do not take care, Germany will attack 
 all the ramifications of our existence, political, 
 commercial, intellectual, until the day when our 
 national will, our originality, will have entirely 
 disappeared. There where she has been unable to 
 take with arms, Germany will persist in her scheme 
 of absorption. The Neutrals furnish her the field and 
 the possibility to keep on, through this subtle action, 
 by which for fifty years she has succeeded in imposing 
 herself, and so, in an hour when there should re- 
 main to her no resources excepting those of War, 
 she finds certain frontiers still open to her, allowing 
 her to develop an unhealthy pacific conquest ; this, con- 
 trary to all logic, CONTRARY EVEN TO OUR WILL 
 TO LIMIT THE FIELD OF THE STRUGGLE, for 
 we are thus allowing her to establish, besides her mili- 
 tary front, a civil front. Climbing over the ramparts 
 of the Allies she enters by all the doors that are open to 
 her, and if we look closely, she respects only in our 
 security that which interests her own enterprises. Our 
 peace gives her the opportunity of accomplishing in the 
 rear, and without danger, her work of insinuation ! Be- 
 cause of us she is mistress of that imponderable 
 element which is thought, and she makes use of it to 
 propagate an influence hostile to all independence, to 
 all established laws. She enjoys a liberty of envelop- 
 
26 
 
 ment and of spiritual force, which our triple duty, as 
 Patriots, as Men and as Neutrals, calls upon us to 
 resist! 
 
 You must well understand that I do not mean 
 that another nation should be thrown into the melee. I 
 do not come here to ask you to raise armies! Pro- 
 foundly penetrated by the Grandeur of the Latin race, 
 whose traditions you have done so much to perpetuate, 
 I have come here in the endeavor to prove to you the 
 necessity of a MORAL RESISTANCE to the Germanic 
 influence. I know that it is harder to defend oneself 
 against a veiled menace than against an evident peril. 
 The man who is about to be struck seizes an arm and 
 finds immediately an attitude of defense, whereas the 
 man who is approached through flattery sees often too 
 late the utility of an energetic posture. However, if 
 his suspicion is aroused in time he still has opportunity 
 to recover his clearsightedness and to liberate himself. 
 THIS IS ALL I HOPE OF ALL THE NEUTRiVLS, 
 THAT THEY MAY AWAKEN BEFORE IT IS 
 TOO LATE. 
 
 May the example of Italy contribute to this! A 
 member of the Triple Alliance, through a political er- 
 ror, she was admitted to judge intimately her asso- 
 ciates of yesterday. Her situation was such that she 
 had to resort to the sword. Our case is different, but, 
 WAR FOR WAR SHE CHOSE THE LOYAL WAR, 
 THE WAR OF THE LATINS ! LET US REMAIN 
 IN PEACE, BUT IN PEACE WITH DIGNITY, THE 
 PEACE OF THE LATINS! IN THAT PEACE 
 WHICH DOES NOT ADMIT TO ITS HEART THE 
 ENEMIES OF JUSTICE AND OF LIBERTY! IN 
 THAT PEACE WHICH CARRIES ABOUT ITS 
 VISAGE AN AURICLE SO BRIGHT AS TO FOR- 
 EVER BEWILDER AND CONFUSE THE BAR- 
 BARIANS, THE DISCIPLES OF DARKNESS! 
 
T^ 
 
 (f- 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 020 934 000 8 •