Remembrance Day Address

The Weekly Machen

Last week, we read one of Arthur Machen’s few works intentionally written for children, and now offer another such rarity. For some of the more historically minded, such as myself, the following may fall short. While it must be conceded that writing for children on a complicated matter such as war necessarily requires simplification, Machen does much more than a distilling down of a large and difficult subject. The result is little more than propaganda with both half-truths and untruths. For sure, Machen, a patriot, supported the war, and on more than one occasion, he displayed a distinct disdain for pacifism and the conscientious objector. However, it is difficult to reconcile his knowledge of the war as a journalist with some of the claims made here for his impressionable audience. In any case, this is an intriguing relic of the era, and indeed, it must be made clear that a heavy burden of censorship was strictly applied to both the journalist and the man on the street.

When this piece was published in August 1918, the end of the Great War was still three months away, so the suggestion of August 4^th as a “day of remembrance” became obsolete as the Armistice took effect on the 11^th of November. Beginning in 1919, the United Kingdom and Commonwealth Nations would designate the latter date Remembrance Day while the Church of England would institute a liturgical observance on the second Sunday of November. In the following article, both “Remembrance Day” and “Remembrance Sunday” are used to commemorate Britain’s entry into the war rather than the end of the conflict.

As with the Scott piece, there is some suggestion that the article may have been released as a separate pamphlet. If true, it remains a fugitive bibliographical item.

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Remembrance Day Address
by
Arthur Machen
July 26, 1918

Sunday week, August 4, is the fourth anniversary of the entry of Great Britain into the great War. It is to to be kept holy as a Day of Remembrance.

Following the example which we set when all England was mourning for Captain Scott and his heroic comrades, we give the following brief “Story of the War” written so as to be easily understood by children. “The Evening News” gladly places it at the disposition of all school managers, schoolmasters, and schoolmistresses.

Four years ago, on August 4, 1914, Great Britain declared war against Germany.

This was one of the most terrible and tremendous things that have happened in the history of the world. It was terrible for us because it meant that tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of Englishmen, Scotchmen, Irishmen, and Welshmen were to be killed in fighting. It was tremendous; because it was bound to alter the whole history of the world for ages and ages yet to come. In a thousand years’ time people will still remember August 4, 1914. In a thousand years’ time, people will still be the better every day of their lives for what happened on August 4, 1914.

So though it was a terrible day and a tremendous day, it was also a glorious day. When the King’s Ministers made up their minds that King George must declare war against the Kaiser, they knew that dreadful things would happen. A few people told the King’s Minister that it was their duty to keep this country out of the war; that was the easy way, and the way to make money. But it was the wrong, and if Mr. Asquith and the other Ministers had taken this bad advice the whole world, England and all, would have become the slaves of the Germans.

The German Aim

For the Germans had made up their minds that they were to be the masters of the whole world, and all the other peoples were to be their servants and do exactly what they were told to by the Kaiser and soldiers. Some people say that it was the Kaiser who put this notion into their heads, other people say that it was the generals of German Army, and others think it was the great business men in Germany, who wanted to get all the riches of the earth into their hands. It is most likely that the notion was started by Bismarck, who was Prime Minister to the King of Prussia fifty years ago and more. He started the notion, and it grew and grew, and it is pretty certain that the whole German people liked it as well as the Kaiser, the generals, and the rich businessmen. The Germans had beaten the Danes, they had beaten the Austrians, they had made up their minds that they could beat the whole world. And for forty years they laid their plans and saved their money, and made big guns, and drilled themselves to fight. They went into training to fight the world, just as a boxer or a runner or a football player goes into training for his sport.

They meant war, and Lord Haldane, one of King George’s Ministers, who was in Germany about two years before the war broke out, saw that the Germans meant war.

Picking the Quarrel

So the Germans worked till they thought that the right time had come. That was four years ago. They got the Austrians, whom they had made into their servants, to pick a quarrel with a small country called Serbia. They knew that Russia would not allow the Serbians to be ill-treated; and so that would bring Russia into the war. And the Germans knew that if Russia fought, then the French, who were friends of the Russians, would fight too. And Russia and France were the two nations that Germany wanted to beat to begin with. The Germans thought that we in England hated war so much that we would keep out of it all and let our French and Russians friends be robbed and murdered. Besides, they thought that the British Army was so small that it didn’t count. And four years ago the British Army was very small; but it did count.

King George’s Ministers did all they could to keep out of the war. The German Ambassador in London at that time said so. But when it turned out that the German Army was marching through Belgium on its way to attack France, then our Government saw that there was no help for it, and that we must join in the war. For the Germans had given a solemn promise never to hurt Belgium or to interfere with it in any way; and the German Prime Minister confessed in the German Parliament that they had done a very wicked thing. His excuse was that Germany meant to beat France, and that going through Belgium was the only way to do it; promise or no promise.

England’s Word

That was how England had to join in the war. For England had given promises and meant to keep them. And if the Germans were going to break their promises when ever it suited them, it was clear that Germany was like a wild beast. If the tiger at the Zoo got out of his cage and began to tear people to pieces, it would be of no use to ask the tiger to go back to his den and promise never to come out again. A wild beast cannot make promises. The only thing to do is to catch the tiger and shut him up, and to be sure that the bars and locks and bolts are strong enough, so that he shall not come out and kill people again.

So, as Germany was a wild beast nation, King George and his counsellors made up their minds that the wild beast must be caught and caged, or else there would be no peace or help or safety or happiness in the world. The wild beast was tearing Belgium to pieces; it was going to try to tear France and Russia to pieces; then it would be our turn to be torn to pieces.

Caging the Wild Beast

So on August 4, 1914, we set about this business of catching and caging the wild beast; that is, beating Germany.

We have been trying to do this for the last four years, we are still trying, and we mean to succeed. We have made stupid mistakes, we have had dreadful misfortunes. The Germans bribed Russians to betray their own country, and so all the German soldiers that were fighting Russia were able to come to France and fight us and the French. But the Americans have come to our help; and they are fighting the Germans and beating them; and there are millions and millions more American soldiers coming over to France to help the French and ourselves and all our friends and Allies to catch that wicked wild beast Germany and shut it up in a strong cage, so that the world may be made a safe and happy and good place for men and women and children to live in.

This is what we have to remember on August 4: Remembrance Sunday.

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