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 XVII I

LETTER TO A NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICER

You are surprised that soldiers are taught that it is right to kill people in certain cases and in war, while in the books admitted to be holy by those who so teach, there is nothing like such a permission, but, on the contrary, not only is all murder forbidden but all in- sulting of others is forbidden also, and we are told not to do to others what we do not wish done to us. And you ask. Is there not some fraud in all this? And if so, then for whose sake is it committed ?

Yes, there is a fraud, committed for the sake of those accustomed to live on the sweat and l)lood of other men, and who therefore have perverted, and still per- vert, Christ's teaching, given to man for his good, but which has now, in its perverted form, become a chief source of human misery.

The thing has come about in this way :

The Government and all those of the upper classes near the Government who live by other people's work, need some means of dominating the workers, and find this means in the control of the army. Defence against foreign enemies is only an excuse. The German Government frightens its subjects about the Russians and the French ; the French Government frightens its people about the Germans ; the Russian Government frightens its people about the French and the Germans ; and that is the way with all Governments. But neither Germans nor Russians nor Frenchmen desire lo fight their neighbours or other people ; but, living in peace, they dread war more than anything [ 230 ]