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Title: All for a Scrap of Paper
A Romance of the Present War

Author: Joseph Hocking

Release Date: April 23, 2008 [eBook #25152]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALL FOR A SCRAP OF PAPER***

E-text prepared by Al Haines

ALL FOR A SCRAP OF PAPER

A Romance of the Present War

by

JOSEPH HOCKING

Author of
"Dearer Than Life," "The Curtain of Fire," "The Path of Glory," Etc.

Fifteenth Edition

Hodder and Stoughton
London ---- New York ---- Toronto
MCMXVIII

JOSEPH HOCKING'S GREAT WAR STORIES

THE PATH OF GLORY
THE CURTAIN OF FIRE
DEARER THAN LIFE
TOMMY
TOMMY AND THE MAID OF ATHENS

OTHER STORIES BY JOSEPH HOCKING

Facing Fearful Odds
O'er Moor and Fen
The Wilderness
Rosaleen O'Hara
The Soul of Dominic Wildthorne
Follow the Gleam
David Baring
The Trampled Cross

"I then said that I should like to go and see the Chancellor. . . I
found the Chancellor very agitated. His Excellency began a harangue
which lasted about twenty minutes. He said that the step taken by His
Majesty's Government was terrible to a degree; just for a word,
'neutrality'--a word which in war time had also often been
disregarded--just for a scrap of paper. . . . I protested
strongly. . . . I would wish him to understand it was a matter, so to
speak, of 'life and death' for the honour of Great Britain that she
should keep her solemn engagement. The Chancellor said, 'But at what
price will that compact have to be kept? Has the British Government
thought of that?' I hinted to his Excellency as plainly as I could
that fear of consequences could hardly be regarded as an excuse for
breaking solemn engagements."--_Extract of Report from Sir E. Goschen
to Sir Edward Grey, August 8, 1914._

CHAPTER I

Events have moved so rapidly in our little town of St. Ia, that it is
difficult to set them down with the clearness they deserve. We Cornish
people are an imaginative race, just as all people of a Celtic origin
are, but we never dreame