as we stood in the middle of the frozen river,
the thought came to my mind that if we were
all stripped, and only one language were
spoken, it would be very difficult to find in
what essential things we differ from one
another.
We all eat and drink, love and hate, work and sleep. What is it divides us into “ Reds ” and “ Whites ” ? Only the downright crass stupidity which makes people imagine that a customs-house is something sent by God, and that frontiers are an invention of nature to keep people apart.
I felt no more shame shaking hands and taking food with the officers and men of the “ Red ” army than I did thirteen months earlier taking food with British officers in Cologne. I was as proud of one as the other : that is, I felt no pride at all, I simply felt a great pleasure on both occasions. Yet I was in company with people whose business it was to kill, both in Germany and Russia.
Humanity, however, is always better than it appears. The average soldier and officer no more likes killing than any of the rest of us ; neither do revolutionists. It is the training of centuries which is our undoing. We have all been taught to rely on brute force. Some day we shall discover that the true dynamic of life is knowledge and understanding.
