during a period of at least twenty years consciously and deliberately making preparations for a War to be waged upon its neighbours solely for the purpose of self-aggrandisement. When the War was at last commenced it was acclaimed and universally supported by the Nation. That it opened with a flagrant and undisguised breach of national faith affected the people not at all. At no time did they seek in any way to mitigate its horrors but made it their aim to increase them. Common soldiers co-operated with their officers and the higher commands in carrying it out with calculated and revolting brutality to the civilian populations of the invaded countries. Finally they introduced the use of asphyxiating gas and all the tortures of so-called Chemical Warfare. They thus realized the image which has been before my mind throughout this War when thinking of their ideal of the individual and of the Nation—that which they would have Science and Education make them. It is the monster which the Frankenstein of Mary Wolstencroft created—a
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