78 Hoiv to Pay for I he War 



public, and especially the bankers, would turn their backs 

 on him and retire home to read their six-shilling or seven- 

 penny novel by the fireside, glad to be quit of the 

 "importunate idiot." Thus it comes about "that the 

 Germans should build Zeppelins and we should not ; that 

 we should invent aniline dyes and the Germans exploit 

 them ; that the German and American steel industries 

 should increase by leaps and bounds and ours should 

 remain stagnant," that we should produce palm-kernels 

 and copra, should possess land rich in little-known (to the 

 Englishman) but valuable minerals and chemicals, and that 

 the Germans should scour our possessions and rout these 

 out, like pigs hunt out truffles, to send to Germany to be 

 exploited and manufactured into everyday necessities of 

 life and sold to us (whose lands produced the raw materials) 

 at huge profits with which to fight and worry us, as we 

 deserve to be. 



This War, people say, is a hell. Well, that more or 

 less mythical spot may have a nearer and more palpable 

 existence than some of us have hitherto bargained for. 

 It was originally called into existence, we have always 

 imagined, in order that those who have failed to do their 

 duty may be punished, and there is no doubt that all 

 classes in this country, rich and poor, but especially the 

 lower and lower-middle classes, in spite of the millions 

 spent annually to educate them, have woefully failed in 

 their duty to appreciate and make the most of the riches 

 that Nature has showered on us through the Tropics, On 

 the contrary, they have shown, and are still showing, the 

 most callous and incorrigible indifference as to where these 

 gifts come from, how long they will last, and to whom we 

 are directly indebted for their production. We deserve 

 punishment, therefore, and are getting it with a vengeance, 

 but unfortunately the ones who are most to blame are the 

 heads of our Government for not forcing us to do our duty, 

 and they are just those who do not go and fight and so 

 escape the torments of the battlefield. But have they 

 escaped them ? Perhaps a few have, but it must be very 

 few, since most of us will agree that those who remain 

 behind sometimes, and possibly very often, are the hardest 

 hit and most sorely wounded by the bullets that killed their 

 nearest and dearest. 



And so the War metes out equal justice to all. Since 

 this is so, let us hope that when peace comes all classes 

 will consider more attentively and think more forcibly of 

 how deeply this country is indebted to the Tropics and our 



