sing again.

I have on several occasions shown how the neutral countries have become
the refuge of this European spirit, which seems driven from the
belligerent countries by the armies of the pen, more savage than the
others because they risk nothing. The efforts made in Holland or in
Spain to save the moral unity of Europe, the burning charity and
untiring help that Switzerland lavishes on prisoners, on wounded, on
victims of both sides, are a great comfort to oppressed souls, who in
every country are suffocating in the atmosphere of hatred forced on
them, and who look for purer air. But I find still more beautiful and
touching the signs of fraternal aid between friends and enemies in
belligerent countries, however rare and feeble they may be.

If there are two countries between which the present war seems specially
to have created an abyss of hatred and misunderstanding, they are
England and Germany. The writers and publicists of Germany, whose orders
are to profess for France rather sympathy and compassion than
animosity, and who are even constrained to distinguish between the
people and the Government of Russia, have vowed eternal hatred against
England. _Hasse England_ has become their _Delenda Carthago_. The most
moderate declare that the struggle cannot be ended except by the
destruction of the _Seeherrschaft_ (naval supremacy) of Britain. And
Great Britain is not less determined to continue the conflict until
German militarism has been totally eradicated. Yet it is precisely
between these two nations that the noblest bonds of mutual assistance
for the misfortunes of the enemy have been formed and maintained.

Two days after the declaration of war there was founded in London by the
Archbishop of Canterbury and by well known persons, such as J.
Allen-Baker, M.P., the Right-Hon. W. H. Dickinson, M.P., Lord and Lady
Courtney of Penwith, the _Emergency Committee for the Assistance of
Germans, Austrians, and Hungarians in Distress_. This work, which
affects a large part of England, consists in paying the repatriation
expenses of destitute civilians, of accompanying German women and girls
on their return journey, of securing hospitality in families for poor
Germans and finding work for them. By the end of December almost L10,000
had been spent in this way. Several sub-committees visit Prisoners'
Camps, facilitate correspondence between the belligerent nations, or
undertake, for Christmas, to convey to interned alien