Finished with the war

A Soldier’s Declaration

I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority , because I believe the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it .I am a soldier , convinced that i am acting on behalf of soldiers , i believe that this war , upon which i entered as a war of defiance and liberation , has now become a war of aggression and conquest . i believe that the purposes for which i and my fellow soldier entered the  upon this way should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible to change, and that had this been done , the objects which actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation . i have seen and endured the suffering of the troops , and i can no longer be a party to prolong these suffering for ends which i believe to be evil and unjust . i am not protesting against the conduct of the war , but against the political errors and insincerities for which the fighting men are being sacrificed . One behalf of those who are suffering now i make this protest against the deception which is being practised on them , also i believe that i may help to destroy the callous complacence with which the majority of those at home regard the continuance of  agonies which they do not share , and which they have not sufficient imagination to realize.