Dore and Totley Parochial Magazine - September 1914

For three reasons –

1. To save her good name;
2. To save the life of herself and of her Empire;
3. To save the freedom of the democracies of Europe.

The King of the Belgians appealed to us for help when they were in fear of attack and massacre by Germany, knowing that we believed in honourable dealings.

There is no secret about the avowed intentions of the German Emperor. They are, first, to "wipe out" France as a Nation; then to turn to Britain, strip her of her trade and her Colonies, and trample our rights and liberties underfoot. We should certainly be treated with the same brutal violence with which she has treated the Belgians. In six months’ time from now, if we do not wake up, Britain will be reduced to the position of one of the smaller States, her population will be starved into subjection, and have tamely to submit to whatever insults and whatever degrading conditions the conqueror might choose.

The peril is now upon us. A German Army of enormous strength, determined and unscrupulous, is pressing along the shores of France, and any disaster to our Navy may give them, helped by bombs from the sky, a chance of invading England.

They would give us no quarter and no Mercy. If Germany obtained the chief power in Europe the progress of the masses, the cause of freedom and of equal justice and opportunity for every man, would bwe thrown back a hundred years.

Our Colonies have seen at once what this war means. They are putting us to shame by the number of men they are sending out of populations very small compared to ours.

Life perhaps seems to go on as usual around you. Do not be deceived. The most deadly peril that Britain has ever known is now upon her. If she does not strain every nerve she will be crushed.

The writer concludes thus –

“Fight then for your life;

Fight for your good name;

Fight, as Britain has fought before, for freedom;

Fight for humanity.”