"Bennett States the German Case"

By George Bernard Shaw.

Letter to The Daily News of London.

To The Daily News, Sir:

In justice to the enemy I am bound to admit that Mr. Bennett’s case, which is the German case, is a very strong one and that his ironic comment on the case against Germany, “We have here an example of Mr. Shaw’s aptitude for practical politics,” is a comment that the Kaiser will probably make and that the average “practical man” will make, too.

Mr. Bennett, in saying that I am a simpleton to doubt that, if Germany had not attacked France, France would have attacked her, shows a much greater courage than he credits me with.  That is Germany’s contention, and if valid is her justification for dashing at any enemy who, as Mr. Bennett believes, was lying in wait to spring on her back when Russia had her by the throat.  If Mr. Bennett is right, and I am a simpleton, there is nothing more to be said.  The Imperial Chancellor’s plea of “a state of necessity” is proved up to the hilt.

I did not omit to say that Germany regards our policy and our diplomacy as extremely able and clear-sighted.  I expressly and elaborately pointed that out.  Mr. Bennett, being an Englishman, is so flattered by the apparent compliment from those clever Germans that he insists it is deserved.  I, being an Irishman and, therefore, untouched by flattery, see clearly that what the Germans mean by able and clear-sighted is crafty, ruthless, unscrupulous, and directed to the deliberate and intentional destruction of Germany by a masterly diplomatic combination of Russia, France and Great Britain against her, and I defend the English and Sir Edward Grey in particular on the ground, first, that the British nation at large was wholly innocent of the combination, and, second, that even among diplomatists, guilty as most of them unquestionably were and openly as our Junkers—­like the German ones—­clamored for war with Germany, there was more muddle than Machiavelli about them, and that Sir Edward never completely grasped the situation or found out what he really was doing and even had a democratic horror of war.

Shaw’s Excuses Scorned.

But Mr. Bennett will not have any of my excuses for his unhappy country.  He will have it that the Germans are right in admiring Sir Edward as a modern Caesar Bogia, and that our militarist writers are “of first class quality,” as contrasted with the “intense mediocrity” of poor Gen. Bernhardi.

If Mr. Bennett had stopped there the Kaiser would send him the Iron Cross, but of course, like a true born Englishman, he goes on to deny indignantly that England has produced a militarist literature comparable to Germany and to affirm hotly that Mr. Asquith is an honest man whose bad arguments are “a genuine emotional expression of his convictions and that of the whole country,” and that Sir Edward Grey is an honest man, and that he (Mr. Bennett) “strongly