Issue 26 • April 2014 • Record of Lent Term 2014
THE
OCELLUS From the Headmaster A much quoted phrase of historians suggests that those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it. The recent events in Crimea have historical echoes that should perhaps give us pause for such a reflection.
Some parallels come immediately to mind. The last time Britain was involved in a direct war against Russia was in fact in Crimea, which has long been considered strategically very important; a place where East and West meet. In the mid-19th Century this was the setting for the Charge of the Light Brigade and the ministrations of Florence Nightingale. We might also want to recall the assurances Hitler gave in the 1930s, that his military incursions into Czechoslovakia and then Poland were only to respond to the legitimate concerns of ethnic Germans, and that he had no further territorial ambitions. At that time, the leaders of nations were split between appeasers and isolationists and those who followed the Latin maxim, ‘si vis pacem, para bellum’ – if you wish for peace, prepare for war. Those who listened to Radio 4 over the conflict in Crimea will have heard the same divided opinions. Whilst I am quoting famous maxims, I might well add this further view of history, ‘Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose’ the more things change the more they remain the same. In fact, I am not sure that is entirely true. I suspect that deep down most people who live in the West can no longer muster the patriotic or idealistic military fervour in evidence in 1914 and lampooned in Oh! What a Lovely War! It is hard to imagine a ready acceptance that we have any responsibility to defend people in a far away country. This was, of course, Chamberlain’s view of the fate of Czechoslovakia in 1938. Perhaps it is that, through the conflicts of the 19th and 20th Century, we have learnt that war is futile and we are more instinctively pacifists. Or perhaps, less idealistically, we have decided that fighting is only worthwhile when our own interests are immediately threatened. Whichever it is, there is no doubt that history is an important teacher.
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