Children of no Man's Land by G.B. Stern

I

All this year of hope and reprieve, Richard had just dimly realized the continuation of Mr Gryce's attacks; but they had slithered more or less harmlessly off the conviction that in the September of 1917 would come his own chance to prove to Englishmen whether or no he be an Englishman. Now. Mr Gryce had not improved with keeping; and Richard was again exposed, without shield, to the old pestered agony of responsibility . _he_ had committed atrocities; _he_ did not fight fairly; _he_ was a German, the Germans. No place for him during the war-no place afterwards. Where was he born? Where reared? where legally belonging? Where his sympathies? . All over the place-nowhere-anywhere. What country wanted him? What country claimed him? For what country and in what cause had he suffered during the Great War? -Jew, then, at least? Or Socialist-Conscientious Objector?