G.K. CHESTERTON
The Right Kind of War
As compared with Belloc or myself, Bernard Shaw was
definitely in favour of the South African War. At any rate,
he was very definitely in favour of the South African Peace,
the particular Pax Britannica that was aimed at by the South
African War. It was the same, for that matter, with Mr. H.
G. Wells; then a sort of semi-detached Fabian. He went out
of his way to scoff at the indignation of the Pro-Boers
against the Concentration Camps. Indeed he still maintains,
while holding all wars indefensible, that this is the only
sort of war to be defended. He says that great wars between
great powers are absurd, but that it might be necessary, in
policing the planet, to force backward peoples to open their
resources to cosmopolitan commerce. In other words, he
defends the only sort of war I thoroughly despise, the
bullying of small states for their oil or gold; and he
despises the only sort of war that I really defend, a war of
civilisations and religions, to determine the moral destiny
of mankind. - G.K. Chesterton, Autobiography
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