smaller nations bullied. Men certainly did not join Kitchener's mob
because they believed that England's life was threatened. I don't
believe that any strong emotion of patriotism animated Canada in her
early efforts. The individual Briton donned the khaki because he was
determined to see fair play, and was damned if he would stand by a
spectator while women and children were being butchered in Belgium.
He felt that he had to do something to stop it. If he didn't, the same
thing would happen in Holland, then in Denmark, then in Norway. There
was no end to it. When a mad dog starts running the best thing to do
is to shoot it.

But the Hollanders didn't agree with me at all. "You're fighting for
yourselves," they said. "You're not fighting to save us from being
invaded; you're not fighting to prevent the Hun from conquering
France; you're not fighting to liberate Belgium. You're fighting
because you know that if you let France be crushed, it will be your
turn next."

Quite true--and absolutely unjust. The Hollander, whose households
we were guarding, chose to interpret our motive at its most ignoble
worth. Our men were receiving in their bodies the wounds which would
have been inflicted on Holland, had we elected to stand out. In the
light of subsequent events, all the world acknowledges that we
were and are fighting for our own households; but it is a glorious
certainty that scarcely a Britisher who died in those early days had
the least realisation of the fact. It was the chivalrous vision of
a generous Crusade that led our chaps from their firesides to the
trampled horror that is Flanders. They said farewell to their habitual
affections, and went out singing to their marriage with death.