Note 261 — Chapter X · ISLAM, PAST AND PRESENT

An American writer, referring to the Italian campaign in Tripoli, asks: “Is there rain enough in the sweet heavens to wash away the stain on Italy’s fair name made deep and black by ruthless massacre?” G. F. Herrick in Christian and Mohammedan, p. 236 (New York, 1912).

And an English author writing of the British war on the Gold Coast declares: “Our ‘prestige’ serves as an excuse for committing what we should condemn as crimes in any other nation. It is an entity that has juggled us into the belief that to destroy what we cannot retain is the prerogative not of barbarism, but of civilization and Christianity.... Truly this war will be a damnosa hereditas to posterity, alike whether we accept or disclaim the fearful responsibilities in which it has involved us.” R. B. Smith, op. cit., p. 258.