Private Ryan and the Lost Peace: A Defiant Soldier and the Struggle Against the Great War

Imagine the Great War ending early in 1915 or 1916 or even 1917. Imagine round-table negotiations and a compromise peace ending what seemed to be an unbreakable military stalemate. Had peace come in this way perhaps there would have been no Communism no Fascism no Nazism no Great Depression and no Second World War. During the Great War many urged such a peace.Private Ryan and the Lost Peace is the story of one soldier who rebelled against the war and urged a mediated settlement. He happened to be Australian but his could be the story of many an everyman at the front. Private Ted Ryan originally from Broken Hill sent an angry letter to Britains famous anti-war politician Ramsay MacDonald urging him to keep pushing for peace. Ryan denounced the war as the herding of men to a hideous abattoir of industrialised killing! He blasted talk of fighting on to the knock-out blow. Eventually Ryans revolt landed him in four courts martial. He even received a death sentence. Were secret diplomatic deals prolonging the war? Were promising opportunities for peace callously rebuffed? From what we know now about the squashing of peace initiatives Ted Ryans instincts were dead right. The Great War was a protracted catastrophe unnecessarily prolonged. Those who rebelled against it - even in the trenches - deserve to have their story heard.