LAY DOWN YOUR ARMS.
Every attempt has been made to replicate the original as printed.Some typographical errors have been corrected;a list follows the text. (etext transcriber's note) |
LAY DOWN YOUR ARMS
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
MARTHA VON TILLING
BY
BERTHA VON SUTTNER
AUTHORISED TRANSLATION BY
T. HOLMES
REVISED BY THE AUTHORESS
New Impression
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
FOURTH AVENUE & 30TH STREET, NEW YORK
LONDON, BOMBAY, CALCUTTA AND MADRAS
1914
TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
WHEN I was requested by the Committee of the International Arbitrationand Peace Association, of which I have the honour to be a Member, toundertake the translation of the novel entitled Die Waffen Nieder, Iconsidered it my duty to consent; and I have found the labour truly adelight. Baroness Suttner’s striking tale has had so great a success onthe Continent of Europe that it seems singular that no completetranslation into English should yet have appeared. An incomplete versionwas published some time since in the United States, without the sanctionof the authoress; but it gives no just idea of the work.
Apart from its value as a work of fiction—great as that is—the bookhas a transcendent interest for the Society with which I am connectedfrom its bearing on the question of war in general and of the presentstate of Europe in particular. We English-speaking people, whether inEngland, in the Colonies, or in the United States, being ourselves in noimmediate danger of seeing our homes invaded, and our cities laid undercontribution by hostile armies, are apt to forget how terribly theremembrance of such calamities, and the constant threat of theirrecurrence, haunt the lives of our Continental brethren. MadameSuttner’s vivid pages will enable those of us who have not seen anythingof the ravages of war, or felt the griefs and anxieties ofnon-combatants, to realise the state in which people live on theContinent of Europe, under the grim “shadow of the sword,” withconstantly increasing demands on the treasure accumulated by theirlabour, and on their still dearer treasure—their children—drawn intothe ravenous maw of the Conscription, to meet the ever-increasingdemands of war, which seems daily drawing nearer and nearer, in spite ofthe protestations made by every Government of its anxiety for peace.
What can we expect to change this terrible condition except theformation of a healthy public opinion? And what can more powerfullycontribute to its formation than a clear conception both of the horrorsand sufferings that have attended the great wars waged in our times, andalso of the inadequacy of the reasons, at least the ostensible reasons,for their commencement, and the ease with which they might have beenavoided, if their reasons had been indeed their causes? This workappears to me of especial value, as setting this forth more plainly thana formal treatise could do, and it is towards the formation of such apublic opinion that we hope it may contribute. The dawn of a better dayin respect of war is plain enough in our country. We have advanced far