choice would be in favour of the operation.

War is hell, but its prosecution as an effective means in arresting
the development of the cancer of mad militarism was as essential as
the use of the surgeon's knife to remove a malignant growth.

War is an ugly business--it is carnage and horror. The thought of man
butchered by his brother, the thought of both sea and land stained
with human blood, spilled by human hands, is too horrible for
contemplation. Yet peace at the price we were asked to pay would have
been, in its effects, considerably worse than war.

There are accruing to us individually, and to the Empire, blessings
which possibly no other event (certainly not undisturbed tranquillity)
than this unprecedented conflict could have created. There are
compensations that are apt to be overlooked. To realize appreciably
the compensatory effects in connexion with this conflict, it is
necessary that we turn from the purely sordid and sad aspect to its
spiritual and constructive side. The question, Has this war produced
anything that would approximately counterbalance the arrest of
industry and progress, waste of life at its prime, the desolation of
hearts and homes, the devastation of property, and the incalculable
measures of sorrow and suffering?--is permissible, and we forget not
the atrocities on both land and sea, the deliberate violation of
individual and international laws, and the fact that there is hardly a
street without a loss, and scarce a heart without anxiety.

Throw this immeasurable pile of war-waste and colossal suffering into
the scales of thoughtful contemplation, then heap into it as a
counter-weight the blessings that have accrued, and the effect upon