I was very moved when I came across this Christmas article written by my great great grandfather Walter Edward Archer (4 July 1855 - 19 August 1917).
It may have been published over a century ago, five months into the First World War, in December 1914, but the call for international cooperation still resonates today.
Here’s hoping for a future filled with neither bitterness, nor belligerence.
I have a profound respect for all those who have served. Dad and I watched a moving old Songs of Praise at the weekend featuring interviews with a very impressive British D-day veteran Ken Hay, who was giving talks to school children about the power of love to unite and bring people together.
As ever,
Andrew
"The Christmas and New Year’s festivities which we have been celebrating and more particularly the kindly time-honoured greetings which we have been exchanging, must have seemed strange to many thoughtful men and women this year.
How could they speak of “Peace” and “Goodwill” when war and hatred seemed to surround them; how, of happiness and prosperity, when misery and suffering were in their midst?
At first sight, at any rate, it must have seemed to many that everything around them pointed to an utter negation of all providential rule.
Many must have called to mind the Merry Christmas of last year when the whole political horizon, we were told, was clear; and the year was to be a “Peace year”, in celebration of the centenary of the signing of the Treaty of Ghent on Christmas Eve of 1814, which concluded peace between Great Britain and the United States.
But if we look deeper, and the short leisure from customary toil during the last few days has given time for reflection, do we find that these first thoughts are sound?
Are we not rather led to the opposite conclusion and find good grounds for believing that this year we stand nearer to the true Christmas spirit than we have done for many years?
It must be remembered that the song which the Angels sang on the first Christmas Day more than nineteen centuries ago was “Glory to God in the Highest” — not glory to the ruler of this or that mighty nation — “on Earth Peace” — not merely peace in the land of this or that nation — “goodwill towards men” — not merely goodwill amongst the people of this or that country, but to the whole human race.
In a word, the spirit of the message was - the cause of humanity.
How do we now stand towards that cause? To this question the evidence seems to show but one answer can be given, viz. it is is nearer to our hearts today than it has been for many years.
For years national rivalries have been growing apace. National aggrandisement seems for some years to have been the one aim of every country.
To attain this end agitation has been promoted to increase expenditure on national defence, to secure a monopoly for its own people in the natural resources of the country, to promote protective tariffs, and preferential trading.
Agitation in these directions has found favour not only amongst the great, but also amongst the smaller nations, notwithstanding that the latter have neither a sufficiently large population or revenue to arm on the scale of their more powerful neighbours, and consequently must go to the wall if force, and not “considerations of justice, mercy love and goodwill” are to prevail.
The result is that armaments have increased until the nations of Europe stand as nations at arms, and the burden of taxation in many countries has almost reached to the breaking point - such taxation being, for the most part, not to help forward measures for the benefit of the human race but to help men to destroy and maim one another.
When for a series of year everything has been drifting in this direction; when public men have used their great talents to endeavour to make this “National Selfishness” appear attractive under the guise of national patriotism or loyalty there can be but one end.
That end was reached in August last when as a sequence of this policy it culminated in the long-dreaded war.
Now that war has been waged for nearly five months, how do we stand towards that cause which it is our special duty at this season to call to mind?
There can be no doubt that amongst all nations, belligerents as well as neutrals, a great change has taken place; civilisation has been moved to its very core; all are aware that the present war must be fought out to a close; there is no change on that point — the issues are too vast — but the whole world is asking what can be done to make wars to cease in the future?
The first hopeful sign of this change of feeling is the present attitude of the Rulers of the belligerent Powers.
Some of then, at any rate, must be responsible for the final act which precipitated war, yet all now so fully recognise the heinous crime involved in such an act, that all are anxious to disclaim responsibility in the matter.
It is left to each nation and to each individual to form his own opinion on the evidence which has been put forward and perhaps also on the dogmatic assertions which have been made unsupported by evidence — although it is known that evidence is available if those responsible for the assertions saw fit to publish it.
Next with regard to the peoples themselves on whom the chief brunt of the war falls, viz. the sailors and soldiers who are fighting on the sea and in the field. No one can doubt that on both sides they are sacrificing all that they hold most dear at the call of duty, or that they accept what is told them by their rulers and are fighting in what they hold to a just cause.
For these brave fellows we can only say “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”.
But who can estimate the depth of the moral change which must be taking place in these men’s minds as they continue week after week and month after month to face death, mutilation and hardship at the call of duty?
No one can fail to be thrilled by the letters received from dear ones at the front, filled with the most generous appreciation of the bravery of their foes, with the desire to relieve the anxiety of their dear ones at home by showing whatever dangers others have to face they at least are almost as safe as if they were sitting at their own fire sides.
No one can doubt on reading these letters that they — the flower of our nations, in many cases originally careless, high-spirited lads, not knowing what fear is — are learning a priceless lesson in self-negation and consideration for others which will make them and their descendants brave warriors in the cause of humanity.
Lastly we come to the state of feeling of those who from one cause or another are not able themselves to take their place in the fighting line.
To judge from utterances of public men and from the mass of literature which has appeared on the subject, it is here where the greatest change has taken place.
The civilised world has been deeply moved.
Ideas which twelve months ago would have been considered Utopian are now being discussed by serious statesmen and men of letters.
At present they do not appear to have taken very definite shape.
In any case it is too early; moreover the idea seems to be to endeavour to obtain some general consensus of opinion from all nations before translating the idea into more concrete terms.
[… He quotes then British Prime Minister H. H. Asquith and author W. L. Courtney’s Armageddon and After at length …]
All probably would be prepared to accept the view that we can only hope to reach “the level of a common conscience, or a common will of Europe” so far as “a cosmopolitan spirit takes the place of narrow national prejudice”; and most would agree that an ideal ultimately to be aimed at is an international executive power in control of an international police to execute their decrees, and that police alone should be allowed to use weapons of war.
[…]
If we are right in our conclusion that even the belligerents stand nearer to the true spirit of Christmas than they have been for many years, surely then we may hope that the serious wave of thought and feeling which has spread over the civilised world, has been felt more strongly in natural lands.
If so, they will be able the more effectually to carry out the special duty which lies on them of preserving their friendship impartially with those who are fighting and of smoothing over rather than accentuating any differences or bitternesses which may be caused by a state of war.
With both belligerents and neutrals acting in this spirit we may hope that it will not be long before we have peace again — not a patched up peace to be broken on the first favourable opportunity — but a permanent peace of real value in furthering the cause of humanity.
In the meantime all ought so to act that when that peace does come it may be without bitterness or ill-feeling."
