On my recent visit to my home in the village of Ettington in England I noted
that the village store had for sale a booklet that provided photographs and
lifestyle accounts of the lives of the men of Ettington who had died during the Great War of 1914-1918.
In addition, all of the national newspapers, almost every day, contained articles relating to all aspects of that war, from digital colour remakes of old photographs, cartoons, words of soldiers' songs and poems, rediscovered real-life stories, and of course new political and historical viewpoints from modern-day commentators and analysts.
A visit to any bookstore revealed a considerable number of books all published to fulfill the growing (and commercial) need for more information on the war – books that range from lengthy, detailed historical accounts at one end of the literary scale to those of a more lighthearted and novelty nature, for example, An illustrated History of the First World War in 100 Objects and Soldiers Songs and Slang of the Great War.
Why? This month commemorates the 100th anniversary of the start of the Great War.
In Europe ceremonies have been held in the U.K. and Belgium to mark
the occasion when Britain and its allies joined the “war to end all wars.” Lights were switched off all across the U.K. at 10 p.m. on Aug. 4 in an event to recall the words of then foreign secretary Sir Edward Grey on the eve of the war, “the lamps are going out all over Europe – we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.”
Dignitaries from all over Europe attended ceremonies and services at Liege in Belgium, hosted by King Philippe of Belgium.
But why Belgium (in Flanders fields) and what then is the “scrap of paper”
which provides the title to this column?
On April 19,1839, Britain, France, Russia, Austria and Prussia signed the
Treaty of London. It was a document which guaranteed the existence,
neutrality and sovereignty of the newly recognized country of Belgium.
Importantly the formation of the German Empire, established in 1871,
continued to recognize that treaty.
However, an ultimatum issued to Belgium on Aug. 3, 1914 to allow German troops to pass through Belgium and invade France without any resistance,
prompted the appeal by Belgium for Britain, France and Russia to defend her territory.
Britain received no response from Germany regarding the non-violation of Belgium's neutrality, and as a result, war was declared the very
next day on Germany.
In his reply the German chancellor, Theobald Hollweg, stated his astonishment that “just for a scrap of paper Britain was going to make war on a kindred nation who desired nothing better than to be friends with her.”
And so a 75-year-old treaty became the reason for a war that caused misery and suffering to countless people across the world with 35 million either dead or wounded.
Few people on the eve of the war would have predicted such losses – few ever imagined that the monarchs of Europe's three most powerful nations -- the kaiser, the tsar and the king -- would allow their countries to take up arms against each other.
The Great War changed the course of history in Europe forever; it destroyed empires, led to revolutions, broke class systems and sowed the seeds for an even more murderous war 20 years later.
The numbers of dead created mass bereavement across the world, inflicting grief and desolation upon almost every community worldwide.
The Innisfail roll of honour totals 55 names. The Ettington cross has 24 names neatly carved on the stone war memorial. Remember that both were very small communities at that time. Of the estimated 16,000 villages in England and Wales at that time, there were only 38 so-called “fortunate villages” where all those who went to war returned.
In addition to the war losses, the end of the Great War created worsening
worldwide consequences. Its economic consequences created the Great
Depression of the 1920s that was experienced across America, Canada and Europe. Its political consequences created Nazism and Stalinism. The 1919 Treaty of Versailles sought to extract maximum reparations from Germany, which stored up a hatred that was vented in 1939, while the Russian revolution of 1917 gave power to Stalin in 1924.
And the enduring legacy of the Great War retains its dark shadow even today.
News bulletins routinely report on tensions and conflict throughout the world in Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan and the Ukraine, the source of which can be attributed in part as a direct consequence of the Great War. The breakup of the British Empire in Palestine paved the way for the creation of Israel, the carving up of Mesopotamia created Syria and Iraq, the partition of India created Muslim Pakistan, and the Treaty of Versailles gave Poland an area of western Ukraine that was formerly part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After 1945 Ukraine was under direct Soviet control. However, today we witness that those in western Ukraine prefer the pull of democratic Europe and those in eastern Ukraine prefer the security of old mother Moscow.
But history cannot rewrite itself nor can we really predict “what might have
been if only ........”
And so a century later we continue today to search for new historical facts
and to uncover new stories in an attempt to fully understand the how, what
and why.
And despite the written agreement to end the “war to end all wars,” the Armistice signed on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, we all know with distressing certainty that past, current and future treaties, accords, pacts, boundaries and ceasefires remain as fragile as the scrap of paper on which they are written or mapped.
At this time of commemoration, heads will be bowed, memories evoked, and promises made that it will never happen again.
Today there is no one left alive who fought in the Great War. However, we, as generations of their descendants, must all continue together to preserve the memory of something that we cannot remember first-hand but which we must never forget.
“We shall not forget, thy deeds shall never die
We who are left shall sing thy praises high
Thy name enrolled upon the scroll of fame
To live forever, thou art our loss and heaven's gain”
A poem by Joseph Glover (a soldier of the Great War)
Arno Glover is the secretary and manager of Innisfail's Royal Canadian Legion Branch 104.
