19133 Concerning National Guilt 



by every army set to keep order in a district thor- 

 oughly aroused against invading forces. 



Miss Hobhouse was at first banished from South 

 Africa because she knew too much, but was after- 

 ward allowed to go back because the military authori- 

 ties thought she did more harm in England by telling 

 what she knew than she possibly could in South 

 Africa! 



Taking tea with her one afternoon at the home of 

 her brother, Professor Leonard T. Hobhouse of the Schrfiner 

 University of London, Mrs. Jordan and I also met 

 there Olive Schreiner, interpreter of the spirit of 

 South Africa, one of the truly noble spirits of our 

 time, whose name is intimately associated with all 

 that is best in the development of her country. 

 Both women were strongly opposed to war, and 

 severely blamed the British government for a policy 

 which they thought had for six years allowed Europe 

 to drift toward it. 



As the months went by, we found that like some 

 other friends of peace they were disposed to minimize 

 German breaches of common decency by comparing 

 them with similar outrages in the earlier history of 

 England; and certain Liberals referred to the war as 

 "the nemesis of Lord Beaconsfield." The latter 

 aspersion was not unjust, however, for the success 

 of the schemes pursued by Disraeli, the arch-imperial- 

 ist and master of intrigue, encouraged similar policies 

 among rival Tory groups in Germany and Russia, so 

 that the bad example set by him tended to pervert 

 all the world politics of Europe. But I cannot believe NO nuiii- 

 that the crimes and blunders of somebody else, at fi catwn f 



. . crime 



some other time, can in any way condone crimes 

 and blunders today. It is the duty of friends of peace 



3 



