Jessica by Bryce Courtenay & Humphrey Bower

Author:Bryce Courtenay & Humphrey Bower [Courtenay, Bryce & Bower, Humphrey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General
ISBN: 9781552781579
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 1997-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

C HAPTER E LEVEN

On Thursday 6 August 1914, news reaches Australia that war is declared against Germany and Billy Simple’s hanging takes place on the dawn of the same day. The war against Kaiser Bill is announced on all the news vendors’ posters for the Sydney Morning Herald in letters five inches high.

GREAT BRITAIN

DECLARES WAR

ON GERMANY!

There is no need for any other details as few are surprised by the announcement. The news is the result of months of posturing and three days of ultimatum by Britain to Germany.

On Monday 3 August, Germany declares war on Russia. On Tuesday 4 August, Britain issues an ultimatum to the German High Command following their invasion of Belgium and Luxembourg.

On Wednesday 5 August, by 12.30 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time, Germany has failed to respond to the British initiative and war is declared on Germany.

Telegrams are sent out by the War Office to the dominions to arrive at 12.30 p.m. in Australia, too late for the newspapers, so that the nation has to wait until the following morning, 6 August, to learn that it is officially at war.

The Herald is high on rhetoric and filled with earnest injunctions for every able-bodied man to do his duty to King and Country in the war to end all wars.

Though nobody seems able to give a sensible reason why Australia, or anyone else for that matter, should go to war, this doesn’t cut any mustard with the prevailing sentiment. The Australian public is overwhelmingly in favour of getting involved in the fray, going to the aid of the mother country whatever the reason.

In the heat and fervour of the moment the nation seems more than happy to sacrifice the flower of its youth willy-nilly, in what will later seem the silliest of quarrels between a bunch of old men. It will result in the loss of countless young lives.

The hostilities all began with the assassination in Sarajevo of the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In itself, his death is no sound reason for even the most junior cabinet minister to get out of bed and put on his slippers to read the telegram telling of the Archduke’s murder. But the assassination comes after months of squabbling and quibbling between the major nations, Germany, Russia, France and Great Britain. There is by now so much confusion, cross-accusation and name-calling that the almost comic death of a minor prince seems as good a reason as any to fight each other. It’s simply the spark needed to set the dry tinder of failed diplomacy alight. The entire matter is not unlike two schoolboys calling each other names and threatening each other in the playground, until eventually they are required to fight or be declared humbugs.

All this has been said by the more sober news columns in the weeks leading up to the declaration of war. But now, the sheer stupidity of the warring factions is forgotten. The call to arms takes on an urgency and there is a feeling of elation and adventure in the air.

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