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A Scrap of Paper

We walked extensively yesterday. In the course of this we saw the cenotaph for the British dead of WW1. The inscription honoring these men was taken from Kipling, whose only son died at Loos in 1915. It makes reference to the fighting in Belgium for the freedom of the whole world. Few people today know the story of why England fought in WW1. After all, England was not herself threatened. Germany tried very hard to obtain English alliance or neutrality. England entered the war when Germany entered Belgium.

Belgium as a nation was created in 1830 and recognized in 1839. It arose by revolution from the kingdom of the Netherlands and Belgium. It was a place of repeated warfare from 1100 onward. Belgium is largely flat, and forms a natural corridor between Germany and France, and was a battlefield between England and France in the 100 Years' War. With this history, England was one of the powers which endorsed Belgian neutrality. The others were Russia, the Netherlands, Austria, France and Germany. The treaty did not technically require that these powers guarantee Belgian neutrality. The wording said these powers would 'respect and defend' it. This left lovely diplomatic wiggle room for interpretation. After all, neutrality could be 'defended' in the newspapers. There was no requirement of military force.

It was, however, a time of honorable expectations. Everyone knew what the language meant, and individual and national honor were at stake if the implied obligations were neglected. Everyone knew what was expected of him, to put it personally. Germany tried hard to get England to see things otherwise, calling the treaty nothing but a scrap of paper. Although there was some debate there was no question of what English honor and self-conception required. England would have to fight to defend Belgium.

And they did. England had a 100,000 man, all-professional army. It sent virtually all of it to Flanders- two army corps and a division of cavalry. In contrast, Germany's conscripted army numbered 2,100,000, France's 1,800,000. The English fought exceptionally well, being long service professionals, but suffered terrible casualties. By December 1914 Flanders was the place of death for 80% of the original British Expeditionary Force.

By the end of the war, England had 700,000 men dead, 2% of its 1914 population of 35 million. By comparison, for the US to suffer an equivalent rate of military deaths today 6.5 million American men would be killed.

All this was done for honor and treaty obligations.

At the cenotaph are permanent memorials from the UK, India, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Every year a black-clad Queen comes to lay a wreath at the site, bowing in front of the cenotaph and its 5 carved, black statues of English soldiers. It is an intense and moving memorial.

At the Victoria Monument are statues representing Victory and Peace. They reminded me of the fourth verse of our National Anthem. 'Blessed with Victory and Peace, may the Heaven-rescued land bless the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.' Peace and Victory come from struggling to create and preserve national values. There is no victory when there is no goal, and no peace if there is no victory.

I can't imagine the America of today fighting for anything to do with national honor or values, let alone to the point of 6.5 million dead men. I can't figure out what we value that much, and I don't see that we as a nation or individuals have much honor.

I stood there moved, but also ashamed and embarrassed for our nation, and for myself.

Ted

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