Our debt to Serbia

From ‘Boldness, Boldness and Again Boldness’, The Spectator, 16 October 1915: There are considerations of faith and honour which must in any case control the action of the allies. Serbia has been our ally from the beginning of the war, and it is now absolutely impossible for us to leave her to her fate. We must stand by her at all costs. The Bulgarians are preparing to stab her in the back. If Greece and Roumania quail, we must not do so. How can we expect them to play the part of honour in this respect unless we set the example? We cannot desert the Serbians — even though to help them will require a gigantic effort, and one which students of war in the abstract tell us may cause a loss of energy and involve us in great risks. We must take the risks, be they what they may. To say this of course is not to lay down the particular way in which we are to help Serbia and punish Bulgaria for her assassin’s blow.