Produced by Al Haines
2nd LIEUT. ARGYLL AND SUTHERLAND HIGHLANDERS
For those who were chiefly in my heart when these verses came to mefrom time to time—our men and boys at the Front, and those they leavebehind them in grievous sorrow and anxiety at home—my little messageis that, so far as they are concerned—"ALL'S WELL!"
Those who have so nobly responded to the Call, and those who, withquiet faces and breaking hearts, have so bravely bidden them "Godspeed!"—with these, All is truly Well, for they are equally givingtheir best to what, in this case, we most of us devoutly believe to bethe service of God and humanity.
War is red horror. But, better war than the utter crushing-out ofliberty and civilisation under the heel of Prussian or any othermilitarism.
Germany has avowedly outmarched Christianity and left it in the rear,along with its outclassed guns and higher ideals of, say, 1870, itshonour, its humanity, and all the other lumber, useless to anabsolutely materialistic people whose only object is to win the worldeven at the price of its soul.
The world is witnessing with abhorrence the results, and, we may surelyhope, learning therefrom The Final Lesson for its own future guidance.
The war-cloud still hangs over us—as I write, but, grim as it is,there are not lacking gleams of its silver linings. If war brings outthe very worst in human nature it offers opportunity also for thedisplay of the very best. And, thank God, proofs of this are notwanting among us, and it is better to let one's thought range the lightrather than the darkness.
What the future holds for us no man may safely say. Mighty changeswithout a doubt. May they all be for the better! But if that is to beit must be the work of every one amongst us. In this, as in everythingelse, each one of us helps or hinders, makes or mars.
If, in some of these verses, I have endeavoured to strike a note ofwarning, it is because the times, and the times that are coming, callfor it. May it be heeded!
That the end of the present world-strife must and will mark also theend of the most monstrous tyranny and the most hideous conception of"Kultur" the world has ever seen, no man for one moment doubts.
But that is not an end but a beginning. Unless on the ashes of thepast we build to nobler purpose, all our gallant dead will have beenthrown away, all this gigantic effort, with all its inevitable horrorand loss, will have been in vain.
It rests with each one among us to say that that shall not be,—thatthe future shall repair the pas