INTRODUCTION BY H. W. NEVINSON NTERNATIONAL Education I should call I International Knowledge. It is one of the few hopeful things in human nature that if you get to know people you generally also get to like them. I remember at Oxford there was a very learned don who knew all about the society of ancient Athens rather more than two thousand years ago, but if you spoke to him about modern life, his only remark was, “I hate the lower classes." If you asked him further what he meant by the lower classes, he said, "I hate the working classes." It was only a case of ignorance. He had never spoken to a working man in his life except, perhaps, a plumber who, though inevitable as death, is not a good example. Consequently he knew nothing whatever about the working classes. Being a good-hearted man I am sure if he had known them he would not have expressed himself in that way. My favourite of all authors, my favourite character in all literature, Jonathan Swift, had a saying which exactly illustrates what I mean. He wrote to Pope, "I hate mankind, but I dearly love Tom, 569214 John and Susan," or words to that purpose, showing that when he got to know individuals among mankind, his opinion of mankind in the lump began to alter. I have heard people talk with horror about population, the appalling statistics of population, how population ought to be reduced, how this enormous mass of people, which they seem to regard as an ever increasing mouth, devouring the provisions of the world, must be a great disaster for the whole human race. Yet, if you bring one of these people face to face with a living baby-which is the population-he does not at once desire to kill it. It is a case of knowledge coming in, personal knowledge. It is exactly like that with nations. Those of you who have studied the history of England a hundred years ago or rather more, at the time of the great wars against France, which lasted about twenty years, will know that the English people detested the French. Our great national hero, Nelson, writes in one of his letters, "The very name of Frenchman makes my blood boil. My first rule to my midshipmen is that they shall hate every Frenchman, whether Royalist, Republican, or nothing at all, they shall hate every Frenchman as they hate the devil" (quoted from memory). That was during war time. It was a case of ignorance. Since then we have come to know the French better. Perhaps we do not altogether agree with them or understand them, but if Nelson two or three years ago had said "The very name of Frenchman makes my blood boil," he would have got six months. So it was with regard to our late enemies. During the war a report was spread that they were collecting the corpses of their own men and boiling them down into glycerine to make explosives for the guns. People believed that. It was a mere mistake in translation-ignorance of language in that case. They had taken the word meaning the carcase of an animal as though it meant the corpse of a human being. It showed a profound ignorance of the nature of the German people. An enormous number of people in England actually swallowed that abominable statement through ignorance, because they had probably never read a German book, and almost certainly had never been to Germany and become acquainted with the German people. These are instances of what I mean by a want of international education. I do not myself believe that any country but one's own can be our spiritual home, because there is something deep and almost instinctive in the long bringing-up of childhood, in the intimacy of language for however well you may speak another language, you never get it exactly the same as it is to the native—so many associations gather round every word, long associations of childhood, got from your nurse or your mother or the people in the street. You never can really enter into the language of any other country to perfection as you may into your own. Then there is also the long habit, the long tradition, the way of living, the way of thought, literature, religion, religious services, the look of the streets, even the smell of the towns, for each great city has a separate smell. All these things really make a native country, a spiritual home, and I do not think it is possible to have more than one spiritual home. But we ought to remember that in our Father's house, which is this world, are many mansions, many abiding places, and you can become acquainted with those mansions by reading, by conversation, by travel-above all by travel-and by mixing freely with foreigners and not regarding them as our natural and national enemies. To my mind this international education is far more sure of success in bringing peace to this world, which is the one thing we all desire, than even a League of Nations. In fact without this a League of Nations may become the mere mechanical instrument of diplomatists. These few and random remarks were first |