Burden of Guilt by Daniel Allen Butler

Author:Daniel Allen Butler
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-935149-57-6
Publisher: Casemate
Published: 2010-07-24T16:00:00+00:00

If Germany is beaten and Austria is beaten, it is not England and France who will emerge preeminent in Europe. It will be Russia. . . People will rub their eyes when they realize that cossacks are their victorious fellow-champions for Freedom, Equality of man. . . and respect for treaties.

Here Morley was not simply playing on an old British prejudice but was also drawing attention to political realities; it was an argument not easily refuted. Morley made it clear to his colleagues that every other question, including the integrity of Belgian neutrality, was “secondary to the question of our neutrality in the struggle between Germany and France.” By Morley’s count there were at least nine Cabinet members who would vote against intervention, and if the Chancellor of the Exchequer joined them, it would almost certainly assure that Britain would remain neutral no matter what might transpire on the Continent.

The Chancellor was, of course, David Lloyd George. Both camps were courting him, for he was already a key figure in the British government. Lloyd George was ambitious and cunning, and his Welsh roots had blessed him with a capacity for spellbinding eloquence. Already something of a demagogue, careful observers might have detected within him a craving for power for its own sake which would one day propel him to the office of Prime Minister, but would subsequently leave his reputation and legacy tarnished. Yet at this time, at least, he could still be the fiery radical free-thinker, unbeholden to any ideology but determined to do what was right and best for Britain. Whichever way Lloyd George went he would take with him a large portion of the Cabinet, and with it Parliament and the country.

A point which must be made most emphatically here is that the division within the Cabinet over whether or not to intervene on the Continent should Germany attack France was not simply an exercise in party politics. It reflected an equally deep rift in the mood of the country. Earlier that week the magazinePunch published a bit of verse that despite its tongue-in-cheek tone—or perhaps because of it—summed up the attitude of a great many Britons:

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