* * * * *
What is the moral of this story? I have chosen it to illustrate again
the historic words which should be, I think--and we know that what is in
our hearts is in your hearts also!--the special watchword of the Allies
and of America, in these present days, when the German strength _may_
collapse at any moment, and the problems of peace negotiations _may_ be
upon us before we know.
_Reparation_--_Restitution_--_Guarantees_!
The story of Vareddes, like that of Senlis, is not among the vilest--by
a long, long way--of those which have steeped the name of Germany in
eternal infamy during this war. The tale of Gerbeviller--which I shall
take for my third instance--as I heard it from the lips of
eye-witnesses, plunges us in deeper depths of horror; and the pages of
the Bryce report are full of incidents beside which that of Vareddes
looks almost colourless.
All the same, let us insist again that no Army of the Allies, or of
America, or of any British Dominion, would have been capable of the
treatment given by the soldiers of Germany to the hostages of Vareddes.
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