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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
British writers on peace and war
Ford Maddox Ford: Millions massacred for picturesque phrases in politicians’ speeches
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Ford Maddox Ford
From Some Do Not…
He loved this country for the run of its hills, the shape of its elm trees and the way the heather, running uphill to the skyline, meets the blue of the heavens. War for this country could only mean humiliation, spreading under the sunlight, an almost invisible pall over the elms, the hills, the heather…
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From No More Parades
“…You see it means such infinite deaths of men, such an infinite prolongation…I seem to see these fellows with clouds of blood over their heads…And then…I’m to carry out their orders because they’re my superiors…But helping them means unnumbered deaths…”
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Getting cattle into condition for the slaughterhouse…They were as eager as bullocks running down by Camden Town to Smithfield Market. Seventy per cent of them would never come back…But it’s better to go to heaven with your skin shining and master of your limbs than as a hulking lout…The Almighty’s orderly room will welcome you better in all probability…
…Not of course pro-German, but disapproving of the preparation of men, like bullocks, with sleek healthy skins for the abattoirs in Smithfield…
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