Grant Allen: I cannot continute to making peaceable Canadian citizens throw themselves into the devouring whirlpool of militarism

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Grant Allen: War and blood money
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Grant Allen
Response to a request to contribute a piece in “the defence of the Dominion” for the Canadian Yearbook of 1898.

You know very little of my aims and ideals if you think I would willingly do anything on a work whose avowed object is to arouse ‘military enthusiasm.’ Military enthusiasm means enthusiasm for killing people. My desire in life has been not to kill, but to help and aid all mankind, irrespective of nationality, creed, language, or colour. I hate war, and everything that leads to it, as I hate murder, rapine, or the ill-treatment of women. I dislike slavery, however disguised under the cloak of ‘Imperialism.’ I contribute to works designed to strengthen the bonds of amity between nations and to render war impossible, but I cannot contribute to one which aims at making peaceable Canadian citizens throw themselves into the devouring whirlpool of militarism.