Source: File: 1906
George Croydon Marks Liberal MP Cornwall North.jpg, [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Croydon_Marks,_1st_Baron_Marks>
Accessed: 6 September 2015].
With acknowledgement
That this twentieth century war, was
no
Ordinary war, as those
That had gone before - was stated
By Sir Croydon Marks.
They all faced the first total
Artillery war of history - conflict
could
Not be won by sole uses
Of the rifle - Croydon spoke in capacity
As an engineer.
This MP’s statement,
Made on Friday September 1915
At Week St. Mary, Cornwall -
In his position of connection to
Ministry
Of Munitions.
The facts lay in guns of a great
Velocity, not being visible - positioned
Back behind the lines -
At distances of up to four miles, causing
Great damage.
Sir Croydon Marks had himself
Travelled to the front, in witness destruction
Done by heavy guns -
Having witnessed a great suffrage
Of the land.
The practical impossibility
Was how men, making defence of lines
Of trenches with rifles,
Could be driven out - might the war
Even go on forever?
This war could not
Then be won by rifles alone - a purpose
Of his speech was to ask
Everyman, to consider what might
Be done?
The greatest need was
To end conflict in their own lifetimes -
hence
An underlying fear had
Begun of war that might go for years,
Or over many generatons.
Sir Croydon Marks had looked
Across a panorama of earth, churned
To nothing - only a force
Of overwhelming odds might
End the conflict.
Nothing then existed that
Might be able to bring such an end about -
Thus this MP prompted
For continued debate, on the worth
To carry on as was.
Suspending unnecessary matters
Might be answer - for all men’s attention
To create ultimate solution -
The greater need to concentration
On bigger guns.
Sir Croydon Marks had seen
Bricks of a French farmhouse blown apart -
To suggest, what if British
People found their home turned into
German trenches?
The idea was not to spread
Fear, but rouse people of home to
duty
In a fight that was a much
As theirs, as the people of France,
In that dire situation.
If, when Parliament met to request
To call for every fit man, he
would raise
His hands to say,
This was not only way to win war -
More had to be done.
Sir Croydon Marks did not have
Final solution – a question hung
over likely
National service, against desire
National service, against desire
To be free men - above all was need
To drive out Germans.
To clear that presence from
France Belgium and Poland -
prophetic
Words continued to say how a
Worse war may come - his fears not
being
That Britain may be beaten.
There was no wish to fight for five
Years - but somehow shorten
destruction -
That help from everyman
Cheers were raised for Croydon.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1915. How To Win The War - Need of
Heavy Artillery. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 4 September. P.7. Col.4. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11817060/Daily-Telegraph-September-6-1915.html
[Accessed: 6 September 2015].
Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication,
6 September 2015).
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#worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1Munitions
