Details
SHAW, GEORGE BERNARD. Typed letter signed ("G. Bernard Shaw") TO FRANK HARRIS ("My dear Harris"), London, 10 March 1919. 7 pages, 4to, double-spaced, with numerous holograph revisions by Shaw, a few marginal pencilled editorial notes (? by Harris) for publication purposes, a marginal paper-clip rust mark on first page.
SHAW ON WORLD WAR I
A detailed discussion by Shaw, apparently for publication in an American periodical run by Harris, of the Allied victory and of the British versus American contributions. "Your article on How the British Lion Crowns Himself with American Laurels does not really affect the truth of my general statement of the position. The British Empire has smashed the German Empire: that is the point to be seized. That she did it with French troops, with Russian troops, with Italian troops, with Portuguese troops, with Irish and Indian troops, and finally with American troops only enhances the demonstration of her amazing instinctive war craft. The question of personal prowess is for schoolboys. For grown men the interest of the actual fighting lies in the absurd vicissitudes of the campaign...The American army was so farcically inexperienced at first that it had to be brigaded with the French army; and the moment it was cut loose and left to itself its lines of communication jammed and it was left without food and munitions for two days, during which it was at the mercy of the Germans (if they had only known); yet the American army wiped out the St Mihiel salient and saved Colonel House from having to send General Pershing home to be run for the Presidency as a consolation prize...
"...I will assume, as I am writing this to America, that no American ever blenched, ever ran, ever sat down and cried like a child, ever ceased posing for his picture in the next number of Life. But the American soldier's heart knows its own bitterness; and it is for him to tell his countrymen the truth when he hears them explaining how the American army won the war when all the Europeans were whipped to a frazzle. When everyone has owned up, England remains the most formidable single fighting Power in the world. I have insisted on that of set purpose; and I insist on it still, not as a mere Jingo brag...but because the most dangerous mistake that could be made in the world now is the mistake of America underrating England as a fighting power. I do not think there is much danger of the converse mistake being made. England knows fairly well that she could not have won without America...
"...Nothing that you can say of the demoralization wrought by the war among the civilians can be too severe...You can tell the Americans from me that they have seriously compromised the credit of republicanism throughout the world by their outrageous repudiation at the first show [of anti-war protestors], of all the liberties the Declaration of Independence proclaimed...As a republican I am ashamed of the American patriots; and you may tell them so with my compliments. I have had to stand up for [President Woodrow] Wilson not as an American, but as a great man of whom his country is apparently utterly unworthy...That is all I have to say about the laurels. Let the British and American Jingoes scramble for the leaves to their hearts content: I take it that your business and mine is to uproot the tree and cast it into the bottomless pit. Ever, G. Bernard Shaw."
SHAW ON WORLD WAR I
A detailed discussion by Shaw, apparently for publication in an American periodical run by Harris, of the Allied victory and of the British versus American contributions. "Your article on How the British Lion Crowns Himself with American Laurels does not really affect the truth of my general statement of the position. The British Empire has smashed the German Empire: that is the point to be seized. That she did it with French troops, with Russian troops, with Italian troops, with Portuguese troops, with Irish and Indian troops, and finally with American troops only enhances the demonstration of her amazing instinctive war craft. The question of personal prowess is for schoolboys. For grown men the interest of the actual fighting lies in the absurd vicissitudes of the campaign...The American army was so farcically inexperienced at first that it had to be brigaded with the French army; and the moment it was cut loose and left to itself its lines of communication jammed and it was left without food and munitions for two days, during which it was at the mercy of the Germans (if they had only known); yet the American army wiped out the St Mihiel salient and saved Colonel House from having to send General Pershing home to be run for the Presidency as a consolation prize...
"...I will assume, as I am writing this to America, that no American ever blenched, ever ran, ever sat down and cried like a child, ever ceased posing for his picture in the next number of Life. But the American soldier's heart knows its own bitterness; and it is for him to tell his countrymen the truth when he hears them explaining how the American army won the war when all the Europeans were whipped to a frazzle. When everyone has owned up, England remains the most formidable single fighting Power in the world. I have insisted on that of set purpose; and I insist on it still, not as a mere Jingo brag...but because the most dangerous mistake that could be made in the world now is the mistake of America underrating England as a fighting power. I do not think there is much danger of the converse mistake being made. England knows fairly well that she could not have won without America...
"...Nothing that you can say of the demoralization wrought by the war among the civilians can be too severe...You can tell the Americans from me that they have seriously compromised the credit of republicanism throughout the world by their outrageous repudiation at the first show [of anti-war protestors], of all the liberties the Declaration of Independence proclaimed...As a republican I am ashamed of the American patriots; and you may tell them so with my compliments. I have had to stand up for [President Woodrow] Wilson not as an American, but as a great man of whom his country is apparently utterly unworthy...That is all I have to say about the laurels. Let the British and American Jingoes scramble for the leaves to their hearts content: I take it that your business and mine is to uproot the tree and cast it into the bottomless pit. Ever, G. Bernard Shaw."