Nothing is probably more horrible than the scene of war. It is not
the death of millions of lives but it is their manner of dying which strikes
terror into the heart and creates disgust in the every soul of humanity.
When people die by millions in the battlefield, it is but natural that many
children are rendered homeless, many women are made widows and many
parents are deprived of their sons. The very separation between husbands
and wives, between brothers and sisters, between parents and children is a
painful sight. Very few of those who go to the battlefield return home, and
many of them come back with crippled limbs – some for ever grown deaf,
others without their legs or arms, still others completely deranged. These
are the after-effects of every war But warfare in modern days is a more horrible affair than it
to be in the days of yore when people used to
arrow, used fight only with the bow and
the sword and the battle-axe, the lance and the javelin. But now
there are the machine gun, the torpedo, the submarine, the depth charge,
the mustard gas, the air-bomber, the tank and so many other latest
destructive inventions of science. There is no escape from destruction in
land, water or air. Just imagine when the civil population of a country is
bombarded form the air by machine guns and air-bombers, how helplessly
the people try to hide themselves in the jungles, in the mountains or under
the stone roofs of their houses, but even the hardest stone-houses
shattered into dust by the highly explosive bombs, the trees in the jungles
are set into a blazing fire, the mountain caves are exploded into stone
particles making a living grave of those who fly there for shelter. When
the mustard gas is let loose in the air, the poor animals, men and birds, all
are suffocated and scorched to their very lungs, grow blinds and die the
most painful death. There is nothing to protect them against the foul,
obnoxious gas that kills millions of souls like flies and lets them lie in
mountains. There are anti-aircraft guns against the air-bombers but there is
heaps in the open streets, in the fields and meadows, the jungles and
nothing anti-mustard gas except the gas mask which is costly and which
only the soldiers put on in the battlefield. It is the civil population that
suffers the greatest in times of war, particularly by air-raids and tank-
rolling. Nobody knows when a peaceful city is to be attacked from air. It
may be when all are asleep in the night or when people are busy with their
work in the streets or in the fields or in the workshops or in the offices.
Look at the work of the submarines, the mines and the torpedoes
in the eyeless and depthless waters. It is not merely the merchant or
passengers ships, but also the battle cruisers which are taken by surprise
and made to sink in the bottomless sea by a sudden charge from the
submarine or the torpedo or the mines. Not even the greatest precaution
can give you any foretaste of the appearance of any of these formidable
and destructive demands of war. Like death they wander about very near
you in disguise taking shelter in the pit of the sea, in the fog of the air, in
the misleading badges and colours of your allies, and betray you when it is
too late to escape. There are depth charges against the submarine and the
torpedo as there are anti-aircraft guns against the air-bombers but the
result is the same-death and destruction.
When the battle rages on land there are so many ways of killing
the army. The guns and the cannons are the first to operate when the
opposing armies are in sight or at a near distance. Next, the charge of the
bayonets when there is an occasion for hand-to-hand fight. But all the while, the tank, the bomber, the mustard gas do play an important role in
the raid to carry on the devastation of the enemy in the largest scale
possible. When the soldiers work in the trenches or behind the barricades,
it is not the cannonading that matters so much as the raid from the air by
machine guns and the bombers that make the sheltering troops absolutely
helpless and lead them inevitably to death. What a tragic thing it is where
a complete battalion or whole regiment is blown off by the air-raiders with
no injury to themselves.
Sometimes, the soldiers are completely cut off from food supply
or reinforcements with the result that they are bound to surrender
themselves to the enemy with the best of arms at their back and the
greatest courage in their hearts. There have been innumerable cases of
merciless massacre of soldiers and civilians even in spite of their forced
surrender for the mere feeding of revenge or fun. How many beautiful
cities with valuable works of art and science have been ruined and
depopulated, how many millions of innocent souls have been killed and
butchered, how many resourceful countries have been impoverished in the
course of the Great War.
WAR SETTLES NOTHING
It is a fact that seeds of the World War II were sown when the
peace treaty for the firs tone was written at Versailles. Since very
disgraceful conditions were imposed on the Germans and the Turks, it was
sure to cause reaction, which it did. Although strict limits for armament
were imposed on Germany, yet Chamberlain was shocked to know that
Germany was hundred times better prepared for war than she was in 1914.
It is quite obvious that the Great War I had led to the second, as the
second will naturally draw the world into a third. Thus we come to the
conclusion that war settles nothing..
If force is met with force and the only way for settling disputes is
to settle them through warfare, we cannot achieve anything substantial for
the betterment of humanity. War creates an atmosphere of doubt, fear and
suspicion which leads to a race for arniaments and an endless vicious
circle which is recurring in its nature and thus seems to break nowhere.