Refugees. The Work Of The League
C. A. Macartney
 
PREFACE
 

Amid all the suffering caused by a great war there is, perhaps, none so great as that of the refugees ; at any rate, none so widespread and so multifarious. The story of every individual refugee makes a romance, and there were nearly half-a-million of them in Russia alone. It is interesting to reflect that, in ancient times, it was the varied fortunes of refugees from the wars of the Successors of Alexander that gave rise to the 'New Comedy' of Menander and Philemon, on which almost all modern drama is built ; that it was a refugee, Epicurus, who founded the great and not entirely extinct philosophy which teaches that man’s virtue lies in diminishing the sum of human suffering and his happiness in friendship or affection—lessons taught by the long personal experience of actions which increased suffering and lives poisoned by mutual hatred.

This book does not attempt to tell the individual stories of the refugees. That would need a library. It merely collects in clear and intelligible form the main story of the refugee problem as a whole, its origin, its course in different regions, and the various remedial measures authorised by the League and carried out by many devoted workers among whom stands for ever eminent the heroic figure of Dr. Nansen.

Those who know Mr. Macartney's previous work will find here the same scholarly temper and scrupulous accuracy.
 

GILBERT MURRAY.


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