Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/257

 hesitate to say that they owe it to themselves to take full advantage of this, not only by influencing the diverse Governments where they are represented, or by parliamentary influence, but by making a direct appeal to public opinion by influencing the masses dealing directly with the people themselves, and directed at this purification of war aims in which Russia has set us an example.

Having said this, we hasten to come back to what we consider at present an essential Socialist duty, that of defence against the aggression of German Imperialism, and against its attempt at universal hegemony. We Belgians have even been reproached with having defended ourselves. We shall not reply to that by quoting the resolutions of the International, which recognizes the right of national defence and recommends the creation of militia for that purpose. We should blush to reduce this argument to a mere interpretation of text. We shall only say that attack and invasion have made weigh upon us the most heavy of tyrannies, the German military tyranny, to which Bismarck assigned