In any case, the French Government would do well to invite to such
places as Arras, Soissons, and Senlis groups of Mayors of the cities
of all countries, so that these august magistrates may behold for
themselves and realise in their souls what defensive war and the
highest civilisation actually do mean when they come to the point.

Personally, I am against a policy of reprisals, and yet I do not see
how Germany can truly appreciate what she has done unless an
object-lesson is created for her out of one of her own cities. And she
emphatically ought to appreciate what she has done. One city would
suffice. If, at the end of the war, Cologne were left as Arras was
when I visited it, a definite process of education would have been
accomplished in the Teutonic mind. The event would be hard on
Cologne, but not harder than the other event has been on Arras.
Moreover, it is held, I believe, that the misfortunes of war bring out
all that is finest in the character of a nation, and that therefore war,
with its sweet accompaniments, is a good and a necessary thing. I
am against a policy of reprisals, and yet--such is human nature--
having seen Arras, I would honestly give a year's income to see
Cologne in the same condition. And to the end of my life I shall feel
cheated if Cologne or some similar German town is not in fact
ultimately reduced to the same condition. This state of mind comes
of seeing things with your own eyes.

Proceeding, we walked through a mile or two of streets in which not
one house was inhabited nor undamaged. Some of these streets
had been swept, so that at the first glance they seemed to be
streets where all the citizens were indoors, reflecting behind drawn
blinds and closed shutters upon some incredible happening. But
there was nobody indoors. There was nobody in the whole quarter--