Note 97 — III The ‘Clerks’—The Great Betrayal

In the Dictionnaire théologique of Vacant-Mangenot (1922, article ‘Guerre’), I find the following passage, which I recommend to all aggressors desirous of sheltering under a high moral authority: ‘It is not only the right but the duty of the leader of a nation to adopt this method (i.e. war) to safeguard the general interests committed to his care. This right and duty apply not only to a strictly defensive war, but also to an offensive war rendered necessary by the actions of a neighbouring State whose ambitious intrigues constitute a real danger.’ In the same article will be found a theory of colonial wars identical to Kipling’s when he calls them: the white man’s burden.