backed by force, or that the only reward which duty magnificently done
may hope to receive on this earth is every manner of grief and
disaster, ending in death by starvation. So immense and triumphant an
example of iniquity would strike the ideals of mankind a blow from
which they would not recover for centuries.


3

But already this help is becoming exhausted; it cannot be indefinitely
prolonged; and very soon it will be insufficient. It is, moreover, at
the mercy of the slightest diplomatic or political complication; and
its failure will be irreparable. It will mean utter famine, unexampled
extermination, which till the end of the world will cry to heaven for
vengeance. It is no longer a question of weeks or months, but one of
days. That is where we stand; and these are the last hours granted by
destiny to an inactive Europe wherein to expunge the shame of her
indifference.

These hours belong almost solely to you, for others have not your
power. Whatever may happen, however long you may postpone the issue,
one of these days you will be obliged to join in the fray. Everything
advises, everything orders you to do so; and I can see nothing on the
side of honour, justice or humanity, on the side of the will of the
centuries or the human race, nor even on the side of prudence and
self-interest, that allows you to avoid it. Is it not better and more
worthy of yourselves than all the subtleties, plottings and petty
bargainings of diplomacy?

The one hour, the peremptory hour has struck when your aid can break