Sam Hughes Quotes
You war not on the innocent and lovely people of Germany. Your aim is the overthrow of tyranny and aggrandizement.
Sam Hughes, 1853-1921, Canadian Minister of Militia and Defense, Speech to Canadian troops during the First World War
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
War between England and Germany had just commenced.
Although nether he or the Sultan had made vigorous efforts to stop the massacres, he had promised the world community that Turkey would see that justice was done (See {620596} ). However, there were a few tried and one governor of a province was hanged and a few others received short jail sentences. Talaat, the worst of The Young Turks regarding the genocide, escaped to Germany. But he was tracked by a surviving Armenian who assassinated Talaat. The assassin was acquitted by a sympathetic German court which ruled that the extermination of the assassin’s family had been so traumatic that temporary insanity relieved the assassin of criminal responsibility.
The Lusitania was an American passenger liner that was torpedoed by the German U-Boats. Edith Cavell was a British nurse who was assisting all wounded in Belgium, and Captain Charles Fryatt, was an English Merchant Captain who when his ship was attacked by a German submarine, fought back and rammed and sank the sub. In each case the German behavior was contrary to the then norms of civilized warfare.
This was the first day of WWII and Hitler’s armies seemed invincible. Kaplan was one of the few who at that time predicted allied victory. He was not even wrong about his own fate. He and the vast majority of the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto never survived.
In the American democracy the tradeoff between military activity and respect for human rights has always been an issue.
Sir Samuel Hughes, KCB PC was the Canadian Minister of Militia and Defence during World War I. He was notable for being the last Liberal-Conservative cabinet minister, until he was dismissed from his cabinet post.
