to
amalgamation. A few decades, a few centuries, and there is fusion
between oppressor and oppressed. Hence the loyalty of conquered nations
to their foreign masters, at times, when rivals vainly hope for trouble.
Hence the indisputable fact that many a nation which but a short time
ago fought valiantly for liberty now manifests not only passive
resignation, but positive contentment. If, on the other hand, the
psychological factors do not favour amalgamation, the legacy of
resentment and opposition is handed on from generation to generation and
the injury is never forgiven. Cases of contented acceptance are quoted
as evidence of the ultimate blessings of war by the adherents of the
theory that efficient military measures constitute right. To me they are
rather evidence of the strength and endurance of the pacifying forces in
human life, and of the sovereignty of the greater unities which draw
nations together. If, in spite of the injuries and devastations of war,
it is possible for men to forgive and to labour for the same social
ends, that is surely proof that the peoples erect no barrier to
brotherhood. The truth is, war sometimes achieves that which pacific
settlement and free intercourse always achieve.

History has a cavalier way of recording the benefits of conquest. The
feelings of the great conquered receive scant consideration. It is
enough that after the passage of some centuries we contemplate the
matter and declare the conquest to have been beneficial. Was not France
invigorated by the wild Northmen who overran her territories and settled
wherever they found settlement advantageous? The Normans, originally
pirates and plunderers, intermingled with the gentler inhabitants of
France. When they turned their eyes to England they were already
guardians of civilization. And we blandly record the Norman conquest of
England as an unqualified benefit, as an impetus to social amenity, art,
learning, architecture, and religion. Protests are useless. The earth
abounds in instances of the spread of knowledge, inventions, culture,
through war and subjugation. The "rude" peoples who cried out at the
outrage, and who fain would have kept their rudeness, receive no
sympathy from posterity.

This, I repeat, is no argument for the perpetuation of the old
ways of aggression. We have reached a new consciousness and a new
responsibility. We see better ways of spreading the fruits of
civilization. In the past ambition and brute