Crime Against Europe
BY SIR ROGER CASEMENT
THE
Crime Against Europe
* * * * *
_A Possible Outcome of the War of 1914_
BY
SIR ROGER CASEMENT
INTRODUCTION.
* * * * *
The reader must remember that these articles were written before
the war began. They are in a sense prophetic and show a remarkable
understanding of the conditions which brought about the present great
war in Europe.
The writer has made European history a life study and his training in
the English consular service placed him in a position to secure the
facts upon which he bases his arguments.
Sir Roger Casement was born in Ireland in September, 1864. He was made
consul to Lorenzo Marques in 1889, being transferred to a similar
post in the Portuguese Possessions in West Africa, which included the
consulate to the Gaboon and the Congo Free State. He held this post
from 1898 to 1905, when he was given the consulate of Santos. The
following year he was appointed consul to Hayti and San Domingo, but
did not proceed, going instead to Para, where he served until 1909,
when he became consul-general to Rio de Janeiro. He was created a
knight in 1911.
He was one of the organizers of the Irish Volunteers at Dublin in
November, 1913, being one of their provisional committee. At present
he is a member of the governing body of that organization. He spent
the summer of this year in the United States. Sir Roger is at present
in Berlin, where, after a visit paid to the foreign office by him,
the German Chancellor caused to be issued the statement that "should
the German forces reach the shores of Ireland they would come not as
conquerors but as friends."
Sir Roger is well known for his investigation into the Putomayo rubber
district atrocities in 1912.
December, 1914.
Chapter I
THE CAUSES OF THE WAR AND THE FOUNDATION OF PEACE
Since the war, foreshadowed in these pages, has come and finds public
opinion in America gravely shocked at a war it believes to be solely
due to certain phases of European militarism, the writer is now
persuaded to publish these articles, which at least have the merit of
having been written well before the event, in the hope that they may
furnish a more useful point of view. For if one thing is certain it is
that European militarism is no more the cause of this war than of any
previous war. Europe is not fighting to see who has the best army,
or to test mere military efficiency, but because certain peoples wish
certain things and are determined to get and keep them by an appeal to
force. If the armies and fleets were small the war would have broken
out just the same, the parties and their claims, intentions, and
positions being what they are. To find the causes of the war we must
seek the motives of the combatants, and if we would have a lasting
peace the foundations upon which to build it must be laid bare by
revealing those foundations on which the peace was broken. To find
the causes of the war we should turn not to Blue Books or White
Papers, giving carefully selected statements of those responsible
for concealing from the public the true issues that move nations to
attack each other, but should seek the unavowed aims of those nations
themselves.
Once the motive is found it is not hard to say who it is that broke
the peace, whatever the diplomats may put forward in lieu of the real
reason.
The war was, in truth, inevitable, and was made inevitable years ago.
It was not brought about through the faults or temper of Sovereigns
or their diplomats, not because there were great armies in Europe,
but because certain Powers, and one Power in particular, nourished
ambitions and asserted claims that involved not only ever increasing
armaments but insured ever increasing animosities. In these cases
peace, if permitted, would have dissipated the ambitions and upset
claims, so it was only a question of time and opportunity when those
whose aims required war would find occasion to bring it about.
As Mr. Bernard Shaw put it, in a recent letter to the press: "After
having done all in our power to render war inevitable it is no use now
to beg people not to make a disturbance,
