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Title: The New York Times Current History: the European War, February, 1915
Author: Various
Release Date: July 20, 2006 [eBook #18880]
Language: English
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The New York Times
CURRENT HISTORY: THE EUROPEAN WAR
FEBRUARY, 1915
[Illustration: THE PRINCE OF WALES IN WAR KIT.
(_Photo_ © _by American Press Assn._)]
[Illustration: FIELD MARSHAL PAUL VON HINDENBURG,
Commander of the German Armies in the East.
(_Photo from Brown Bros._)]
The New Russia Speaks
An Appeal by Russian Authors, Artists, and Actors
[From the Russkia Vedomosti, No. 223, Sept. 28, (Oct. 11,) 1914, P. 6.]
We appeal to our country, we appeal to the whole civilized world.
What our heart and our reason refused to believe has come indisputably
true, to the greatest shame of humanity. Every new day brings new
horrible proofs of the cruelty and the vandalism of the Germans in the
bloody clash of nations which we are witnessing, in that neutral
slaughtering of brothers provoked by the madness of these same Germans;
in their vainglorious ambition to rule the world with violence, they are
throwing upon the scales of the world's justice nothing but the sword.
We fancy that Germany, oblivious of her past fame, has turned to the
altars of her cruel national gods whose defeat has been accomplished by
the incarnation of the one gracious god upon earth. Her warriors seem to
have assumed the miserable duty of reminding humanity of the latent
vigor of the aboriginal beast within man, of the fact that even the
leading nations of civilization, by letting loose their ill-will, may
easily fall back on an equal footing with their forefathers--those half
naked bands that fifteen centuries ago trampled under their heavy feet
the ancient inheritance of civilization. As in the days of yore, again
priceless productions of art, temples, and libraries perish in
conflagration, whole cities and towns are wiped off the face of the
earth, rivers are overflowing with blood, through heaps of cadavers
savage men are hewing their path, and those whose lips are shouting in
honor of their criminal supreme commander are inflicting untold tortures
and infamies upon defenseless people, upon aged men and women, upon
captives and wounded.
Let these horrible crimes be entered upon the Book of Fate with eternal
letters! These crimes shall awake within us one sole burning wish--to
wrest the arms from the barbarous hands, to deprive Germany forever of
that brutal power upon whose achievement she has concentrated all her
thoughts. Already the seed of national pride and of hatred, widely sown
by her, has awakened a magnificent growth. This hatred may spread like
wildfire among other nations, and then will resound the voice of those
blinded by wrath, the voice of those demanding vengeance, the voice of
those repudiating everything great and beautiful among the creations of
the German genius to the rejoicing and for the benefit of all mankind.
But let us remember the disastrous results of such a course--for the
black crimes thrust by Germany upon herself by drawing the sword, and
the outrages in which she has indulged herself while drunk with victory
are the inevitable fruits of the darkness which she has voluntarily
entered. At present she is pursuing this course, encouraged even by her
poets, scientists, and social and political leaders.
Her adversaries, carrying peace and victory to their peoples, shall
indeed be inspired solely by holy motives.
_Signed by:_
K. ARSENIEV, I. BUNIN, A. VESSELOVSKI, NESTOR KOTLIAREVSKI, and D.
OVSIANIKO-KULIKOVSKI, Honorary Members of the Academy.
F. KORSCH, Regular Member of the Academy.
A. GRUZINSKI, President of the Society of the Amateurs of Russian
Literature.
Prof. P. SAKULIN, Vice President.
Prof. L. LOPATIN, President of the Moscow Psychological Association.
N. DAVYDOV, President of the Tolstoy League of Moscow.
Prince V. GOLYTZIN, President of the Literary, Dramatic and Musical
Society of A.N. Ostrovski.
S. SHPAZINSKI, President of the League of Russian Authors and Composers.
I. KONDRATIEV, Secretary.
I. POPOV, President of the Literary-Artistic Circle.
S. IVANTZOV, Vice President.
V. FRITSCHE, President of the Council of the Newspaper Writers and
Authors' Association.
V. ANZIMIROV, Chairman of the Board.
JULIUS BUNIN, President of the Literary Circle "Sreda" and the Vice
President of the Moscow Society for Aid to Authors and Newspaper
Writers.
N. TELESHEV, Chairman of the Moscow Board of the Mutual Aid Fund for
Authors and Scientists.
A. BAKHRUSHIN, Chairman of the Board of the Literary-Theatrical Museum
of the Academy of Sciences in Moscow.
JOANN BRUSSOV, Member of the Committee of the Society of Free Esthetics.
P. STRUVE, editor of the magazine, Russkaia Mysl.
N. MIKHAILOV, editor of the magazine, Vestnik Vospitania, (Educational
Messenger.)
D. TIKHOMIROV, editor of the magazine, Yunaia Rossiia, (Young Russia.)
S. MAKHALOV RAZUMOVSKI, and D. GOLUBEV. TH. ARNOLD, Prof. N. BAZHENOV,
Y. BALTRUSHAITIS, A. BIBIKOV, BOGDANOVITSCH, I. BELORUSSOV, Lecturer D.
GENKIN, SERGIUS GLAGOL, MAXIME GORKY, V. YERMILOV, V. KALLASH, Prof. A.
KIESEVETTER, E. KURTSCH-EK, V. LADYSHENSKI, A. LEDNITZKI, SERGIUS
NAIDENOV, Prof. M. ROZANOV, Prof. M. ROSTOVTZEV, A. SERAFIMOVICH,
SKITALETS, (S. PETROV,) I. SURGUTSCHEV, Lecturer K. USPENSKI, L.
KHITROVO, A. TZATURIAN, Prof. A. TZINGER, I. TSHEKHOV, Lecturer S.
SHAMBINAGO, N. SHKLIAR, and I. SHMELEV, the representatives of the
Publishing House of the Authors in Moscow.
RUSSIAN PAINTERS.--A. ARKHIPOV, Member of Academy; A. ALADZHALOV, V.
BKSHEIEV, V. BYTSCHKOV, A. VASNETZOV, Member of Academy; VICTOR
VASNETZOV, S. VINOGRADOV, Member of Academy; S. ZHUKOVSKI, M. ZAITZEV,
P. KELIN, A. KORIN, K. KOROVIN, S. KONENKOV, K. LEBEDEV, S. MALIUTIN, S.
MERKULOV, sculptor; S. MILORADOVITCH, Y. MINTSCHENKO, L. PASTERNAK, V.
PEREPLETTSCHIKOV, K. PERVUKHIN, A. STEPANOV, Member of Academy; A.
SREDIN, E. SHANKS, and M. SHEMIAKIN.
F.O. SHEICHTEL, the President of the Association of the Moscow
Architects, Member of the Academy.
REPRESENTING THE GREAT IMPERIAL THEATRE.--U. AVRANEK, Ancient Artist; K.
ANTAROVA, L. BALANOVSKAIA, A. BOGDANOVICH, A. BONATCHITCH, N.
BAKALEINIKOV, K. VALTZ, R. VASILEVSKI, P. VASILIEV, S. GARDENIN, A.
GERASIMENKO, E. GREMINA, E. DAVYDOVA, A. DOBROVOLSKAIA, N. DOCTOR, E.
KUPER, M. KUZHIAMSKI, A. LABINSKI, V. LOSSKI, E. LUTSCHEZARSKAIA, N.
MAMONTOV, S. MIGDI, A. NEZHDANOVA, S. OLSHANSKI, V. OSIPOV, N.
OSTROGRADSKAIA, V. OBTSCHINIKOV, F. ORESHKEVITCH, O. PABLOVA, TH.
PAVLOVSKI, A. PRAVDINA, V. PETROV, G. PIROGOV, E. PODOLSKAIA, L.
SAVRANSKI, M. SEMENOVA, S. SINITZYNA, LEONID SOBINOV, E. STEPANOVA, V.
SUK, TOLKATCHEV, TRIANDOPHILION, P. TIKHONOV, A. USPENSKI, N. THEODOROV,
P. FIGUROV, R. FIDELMAN, L. FILSHIN, TH. SHALIAPIN, V. SHKAFER, and F.
ZRIST.
SMALL IMPERIAL THEATRE.--S. AIDAROV, &c., altogether the signatures of
forty artists.
ARTISTIC THEATRE.--N. ALEXANDROV, &c., altogether the signatures of
forty-nine artists.
THEATRE OF KORSCH.--Director, Mr. TH. KORSH; regisseur, A. LIAROV;
representatives of the artists, A. TSCHARIN and G. MARTYNOVA.
THEATRE OF NEZLOBIN.--A. ALIABIEVA-NEZLOBINA; regisseur, N. ZVANTZEV;
representatives of the artists, V. NERONOV, E. LILINA, and A.
TRETIAKOVA.
MOSCOW DRAMATIC THEATRE.--Director, I. DUVAN; the regisseurs, A. SANIN
and I. SCHMIDT; artists, B. BORISOV and M. BLUMENTHAL-TAMARINA.
THEATRE OF MR. P. STRUISKI.--Director, P. STRUISKI; regisseur, V.
VISKOVSKI; M. MORAVSKAIA.
CHAMBER THEATRE.--A. KOONEN, N. ASLANOV, A. ZONOV, and A. TAIROV.
OPERA OF S.I. ZIMIN.--Director, S. ZIMIN; the regisseurs, PETER OLENIN
and A. IVANOVSKI; conductor, E. PLOTNIKOV; representatives of the
artists, M. BOTCHAROV, P. VOLGAR, V. DAMAIEV, S. DRUZIAKINA, M.
ZAKREVSKAIA, V. PETROVA-ZVANTZEVA, V. TZIKOK, A. KHOKHLOV, N. SHEVELIEV,
M. SHUVANOV, and the whole orchestra and the chorus.
M. IPPOLITOV-IVANOV, Director of the Moscow Conservatory; ancient
professor, I. GRZHIMALI; professor, A. ILIINSKI.
P. KOTSCHETOV, Director of the Musical and Dramatical School of the
Philharmonic Society; A. BRANDUKOV, Inspector of same school; professor,
A. KORESHTSCHENKO.
Y. VASILIEVA, President of the Actors' Aid Society.
Russia in Literature
By British Men of Letters.
The following address, signed by a number of distinguished
writers in Great Britain, and intended for publication in
Russia, appeared in The London Times on Dec. 23, 1914.
_To Our Colleagues in Russia:_
At this moment, when your countrymen and ours are alike facing death for
the deliverance of Europe, we Englishmen of letters take the opportunity
of uttering to you feelings which have been in our hearts for many
years. You yourselves perhaps hardly realize what an inspiration
Englishmen of the last two generations have found in your literature.
Many a writer among us can still call back, from ten or twenty or thirty
years ago, the feeling of delight and almost of bewilderment with which
he read his first Russian novel. Perhaps it was "Virgin Soil" or
"Fathers and Sons," perhaps "War and Peace," or "Anna Karenina"; perhaps
"Crime and Punishment" or "The Idiot"; perhaps, again, it was the work
of some author still living. But many of us then felt, as our poet Keats
felt on first reading Homer,
"like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken."
It was a strange world that opened before us, a world full of foreign
names which we could neither pronounce nor remember, of foreign customs
and articles of daily life which we could not understand. Yet beneath
all the strangeness there was a deep sense of having discovered a new
home, of meeting our unknown kindred, of finding expressed great burdens
of thought which had lain unspoken and half-realized at the depths of
our own minds. The books were very different one from another, sometimes
they were mutually hostile; yet we found in all some quality which made
them one, and made us at one with them. We will not attempt to analyze
that quality. It was, perhaps, in part, that deep Russian tenderness,
which never derides but only pities and respects the unfortunate; in
part that simple Russian sincerity which never fears to see the truth
and to express it; but most of all it was that ever-present sense of
spiritual values, behind the material and utterly transcending the
material, which enables Russian literature to move so naturally in a
world of the spirit, where there are no barriers between the ages and
the nations, but all mankind is one.
And they call you "barbarians"! The fact should make us ask again what
we mean by the words "culture" and "civilization." Critics used once to
call our Shakespeare a barbarian, and might equally well give the same
name to Aeschylus or Isaiah. All poets and prophets are in this sense
barbarians, that they will not measure life by the standards of external
"culture." And it is at a time like this, when the material civilization
of Europe seems to have betrayed us and shown the lie at its heart, that
we realize that the poets and prophets are right, and that we must, like
them and like your great writers, once more see life with the simplicity
of the barbarian or the child, if we are to regain our peace and freedom
and build up a better civilization on the ruins of this that is
crumbling.
That task, we trust, will some day lie before us. When at last our
victorious fleets and armies meet together, and the allied nations of
East and West set themselves to restore the well-being of many millions
of ruined homes, France and Great Britain will assuredly bring their
large contributions of good-will and wisdom, but your country will have
something to contribute which is all its own. It is not only because of
your valor in war and your achievements in art, science, and letters
that we rejoice to have you for allies and friends; it is for some
quality in Russia herself, something both profound and humane, of which
these achievements are the outcome and the expression.
You, like us, entered upon this war to defend a weak and threatened
nation, which trusted you, against the lawless aggression of a strong
military power; you, like us, have continued it as a war of self-defense
and self-emancipation. When the end comes and we can breathe again, we
will help one another to remember the spirit in which our allied nations
took up arms, and thus work together in a changed Europe to protect the
weak, to liberate the oppressed, and to bring eventual healing to the
wounds inflicted on suffering mankind both by ourselves and our enemies.
With assurances of our friendship and gratitude, we sign ourselves,
WILLIAM ARCHER, J.W. MACKAIL,
MAURICE BARING, JOHN MASEFIELD,
J.M. BARRIE, A.E.W. MASON,
ARNOLD BENNETT, AYLMER MAUDE,
A.C. BRADLEY, ALICE MEYNELL,
ROBERT BRIDGES, GILBERT MURRAY,
HALL CAINE, HENRY NEWBOLT,
G.K. CHESTERTON, GILBERT PARKER,
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE, ERNEST DE SELINCOURT,
NEVILL FORBES, MAY SINCLAIR,
JOHN GALSWORTHY, D. MACKENZIE WALLACE,
CONSTANCE GARNETT, MARY A. WARD,
EDWARD GARNETT, WILLIAM WATSON,
A.P. GOUDY, H.G. WELLS,
THOMAS HARDY, MARGARET L. WOODS,
JANE HARRISON, C. HAGBERG WRIGHT.
ANTHONY HOPE,
HENRY JAMES,
Russia and Europe's War
By Paul Vinogradoff.
_The following letter to The London Times by Paul Vinogradoff,
Corpus Professor of Jurisprudence at Oxford University,
appeared on Sept. 14, 1914. Prof. Vinogradoff was invited to
return to Russia a few years ago to become a Minister of
State, but on going there he found the Ministry not liberal
enough for him, and returned to Oxford._
_To the Editor of The Times:_
SIR: I hope you may see your way to publish the following somewhat
lengthy statement on one of the burning questions of the day.
In this time of crisis, when the clash of ideas seems as fierce as the
struggle of the hosts, it is the duty of those who possess authentic
information on one or the other point in dispute to speak out firmly and
clearly. I should like to contribute some observations on German and
Russian conceptions in matters of culture. I base my claim to be heard
on the fact that I have had the privilege of being closely connected
with Russian, German, and English life. As a Russian Liberal, who had to
give up an honorable position at home for the sake of his opinions, I
can hardly be suspected of subserviency to the Russian bureaucracy.
I am struck by the insistence with which the Germans represent their
cause in this worldwide struggle as the cause of civilization as opposed
to Muscovite barbarism; and I am not sure that some of my English
friends do not feel reluctant to side with the subjects of the Czar
against the countrymen of Harnack and Eucken. One would like to know,
however, since when did the Germans take up this attitude? They were not
so squeamish during the "war of emancipation," which gave birth to
modern Germany. At that time the people of Eastern Prussia were
anxiously waiting for the appearance of Cossacks as heralds of the
Russian hosts who were to emancipate them from the yoke of Napoleon. Did
the Prussians and Austrians reflect on the humiliation of an alliance
with the Muscovites, and on the superiority of the code civil when the
Russian Guard at Kulm stood like a rock against the desperate onslaughts
of Vandamme? Perhaps by this time the inhabitants of Berlin have
obliterated the bas-relief in the Alley of Victories, representing
Prince William of Prussia, the future victor of Sedan, seeking safety
within the square of the Kaluga regiment! Russian blood has flowed in
numberless battles in the cause of the Germans and Austrians. The
present Armageddon might perhaps have been avoided if Emperor Nicholas
I. had left the Hapsburg monarchy to its own resources in 1849, and had
not unwisely crushed the independence of Hungary. Within our memory, the
benevolent neutrality of Russia guarded Germany in 1870 from an attack
in the rear by its opponents of Sadowa. Are all such facts to be
explained away on the ground that the despised Muscovites may be
occasionally useful as "gun meat," but are guilty of sacrilege if they
take up a stand against German taskmasters in "shining armor"? The older
generations of Germany had not yet reached that comfortable conclusion.
The last recommendation which the founder of the German Empire made on
his deathbed to his grandson was to keep on good terms with that Russia
which is now proclaimed to be a debased mixture of Byzantine, Tartar,
and Muscovite abominations.
Fortunately, the course of history does not depend on the frantic
exaggerations of partisans. The world is not a classroom in which docile
nations are distributed according to the arbitrary standards of German
pedagogues. Europe has admired the patriotic resistance of the Spanish,
Tyrolese, and Russian peasants to the enlightened tyranny of Napoleon.
There are other standards of culture besides proficiency in research and
aptitude for systematic work. The massacre of Louvain, the hideous
brutality of the Germans--as regards non-combatants--to mention only one
or two of the appalling occurrences of these last weeks--have thrown a
lurid light on the real character of twentieth-century German culture.
"By their fruits ye shall know them," said our Lord, and the saying
which He aimed at the Scribes and Pharisees of His time is indeed
applicable to the proud votaries of German civilization today. Nobody
wishes to underestimate the services rendered by the German people to
the cause of European progress, but those who have known Germany during
the years following on the achievements of 1870 have watched with dismay
the growth of that arrogant conceit which the Greeks called ubris. The
cold-blooded barbarity advocated by Bernhardi, the cynical view taken of
international treaties and of the obligations of honor by the German
Chancellor--these things reveal a spirit which it would be difficult
indeed to describe as a sign of progress.
One of the effects of such a frame of mind is to strike the victim of it
with blindness. This symptom has been manifest in the stupendous
blunders of German diplomacy. The successors of Bismarck have alienated
their natural allies, such as Italy and Rumania, and have driven England
into this war against the evident intentions of English Radicals. But
the Germans have misconceived even more important things--they set out
on their adventure in the belief that England would be embarrassed by
civil war and unable to take any effective part in the fray; and they
had to learn something which all their writers had not taught them--that
there is a nation's spirit watching over England's safety and greatness,
a spirit at whose mighty call all party differences and racial strifes
fade into insignificance. In the same way they had reckoned on the
unpreparedness of Russia, in consequence of internal dissensions and
administrative weakness, without taking heed of the love of all Russians
for Russia, of their devotion to the long-suffering giant whose life is
throbbing in their veins. The Germans expected to encounter raw and
sluggish troops under intriguing time-servers and military Hamlets whose
"native hue of resolution" had been "sicklied o'er with the pale cast of
thought." Instead of that they were confronted with soldiers of the same
type as those whom Frederick the Great and Napoleon admired, led at last
by chiefs worthy of their men. And behind these soldiers they discovered
a nation. Do they realize now what a force they have awakened? Do they
understand that a steadfast, indomitable resolution, despising all
theatrical display, is moving Russia's hosts? Even if the Russian
Generals had proved mediocre, even if many disappointing days had been
in store, the nation would not belie its history. It has seen more than
one conquering army go down before it--the Tartars and the Poles, the
Swedes of Charles XII., the Prussians of Frederick the Great, the Grand
Army of Napoleon were not less formidable than the Kaiser's army, but
the task of mastering a united Russia proved too much for each one of
them. The Germans counted on the fratricidal feud between Poles and
Russians, on the resentment of the Jews, on the Mohammedan sympathies
with Turkey, and so forth. They had to learn too late that the Jews had
rallied around the country of their hearths, and that the best of them
cannot believe that Russia will continue to deny them the measure of
justice and humanity which the leaders of Russian thought have long
acknowledged to be due to them. More important still, the Germans have
read the Grand Duke's appeal to the Poles and must have heard of the
manner in which it was received in Poland, of the enthusiastic support
offered to the Russian cause. If nothing else came of this great
historical upheaval but the reconciliation of the Russians and their
noble kinsmen the Poles, the sacrifices which this crisis demands would
not be too great a price to pay for the result.
But the hour of trial has revealed other things. It has appealed to the
best feelings and the best elements of the Russian Nation. It has
brought out in a striking manner the fundamental tendency of Russian
political life and the essence of Russian culture, which so many people
have been unable to perceive on account of the chaff on the surface.
Russia has been going through a painful crisis. In the words of the
Manifesto of Oct. 17, (30,) 1905, the outward casing of her
administration had become too narrow and oppressive for the development
of society with its growing needs, its altered perceptions of rights and
duties, its changed relations between Government and people. The result
was that deep-seated political malaise which made itself felt during the
Japanese war, when society at large refused to take any interest in the
fate of the army; the feverish rush for "liberties" after the defeat;
the subsequent reign of reaction and repression, which has cast such a
gloom over Russian life during these last years. But the effort of the
national struggle had dwarfed all these misunderstandings and
misfortunes as in Great Britain the call of the common fatherland has
dwarfed the dispute between Unionists and Home Rulers. Russian parties
have not renounced their aspirations; Russian Liberals in particular
believe in self-government and the rule of law as firmly as ever. But
they have realized as one man that this war is not an adventure
engineered by unscrupulous ambition, but a decisive struggle for
independence and existence; and they are glad to be arrayed in close
ranks with their opponents from the Conservative side. A friend, a
Liberal like myself, writes to me from Moscow: "It is a great,
unforgettable time; we are happy to be all at one!" And from the ranks
of the most unfortunate of Russia's children, from the haunts of the
political exiles in Paris, comes the news that Bourtzeff, one of the
most prominent among the revolutionary leaders, has addressed an appeal
to his comrades urging them to stand by their country to the utmost of
their power.
I may add that whatever may have been the shortcomings and the blunders
of the Russian Government, it is a blessing in this decisive crisis that
Russians should have a firmly knit organization and a traditional centre
of authority in the power of the Czar. The present Emperor stands as the
national leader, not in the histrionic attitude of a war lord but in the
quiet dignity of his office. He has said and done the right thing, and
his subjects will follow him to a man. We are sure he will remember in
the hour of victory the unstinted devotion and sacrifices of all the
nationalities and parties of his vast empire. It is our firm conviction
that the sad tale of reaction and oppression is at an end in Russia, and
that our country will issue from this momentous crisis with the insight
and strength required for the constructive and progressive statesmanship
of which it stands in need.
Apart from the details of political and social reform, is the
regeneration of Russia a boon or a peril to European civilization? The
declamations of the Germans have been as misleading in this respect as
in all others. The masterworks of Russian literature are accessible in
translation nowadays, and the cheap taunts of men like Bernhardi recoil
on their own heads. A nation represented by Pushkin, Turgeneff, Tolstoy,
Dostoyevsky in literature, by Kramskoy, Verestchagin, Repin, Glinka,
Moussorgsky, Tchaikovsky in art, by Mendeleiff, Metchnikoff, Pavloff in
science, by Kluchevsky and Solovieff in history, need not be ashamed to
enter the lists in an international competition for the prizes of
culture. But the German historians ought to have taught their pupils
that in the world of ideas it is not such competitions that are
important. A nation handicapped by its geography may have to start later
in the field, and yet her performance may be relatively better than that
of her more favored neighbors. It is astonishing to read German
diatribes about Russian backwardness when one remembers that as recently
as fifty years ago Austria and Prussia were living under a régime which
can hardly be considered more enlightened than the present rule in
Russia. The Italians in Lombardy and Venice have still a vivid
recollection of Austrian jails; and, as for Prussian militarism, one
need not go further than the exploits of the Zabern garrisons to
illustrate its meaning. This being so, it is not particularly to be
wondered at that the eastern neighbor of Austria and Prussia has
followed to some extent on the same lines.
But the general direction of Russia's evolution is not doubtful. Western
students of her history might do well, instead of sedulously collecting
damaging evidence, to pay some attention to the building up of Russia's
universities, the persistent efforts of the Zemstvos, the independence
and the zeal of the press. German scholars should read Hertzen's vivid
description of the "idealists of the forties." And what about the
history of the emancipation of the serfs, or of the regeneration of the
judicature? The "reforms of the sixties" are a household word in Russia,
and surely they are one of the noblest efforts ever made by a nation in
the direction of moral improvement.
Looking somewhat deeper, what right have the Germans to speak of their
cultural ideals as superior to those of the Russian people? They deride
the superstitions of the mujikh as if tapers and genuflexions were the
principal matters of popular religion. Those who have studied the
Russian people without prejudice know better than that. Read Selma
Lagerloef's touching description of Russian pilgrims in Palestine. She,
the Protestant, has understood the true significance of the religious
impulse which leads these poor men to the Holy Land, and which draws
them to the numberless churches of the vast country. These simple people
cling to the belief that there is something else in God's world besides
toil and greed; they flock toward the light, and find in it the
justification of their human craving for peace and mercy. For the
Russian people have the Christian virtues of patience in suffering;
their pity for the poor and oppressed are more than occasional
manifestations of individual feeling--they are deeply rooted in national
psychology. This frame of mind has been scorned as fit for slaves! It is
indeed a case where the learning of philosophers is put to shame by the
insight of the simple-minded. Conquerors should remember that the
greatest victories in history have been won by the unarmed--by the
Christian confessors whom the Emperors sent to the lions, by the "old
believers" of Russia who went to Siberia and to the flames for their
unyielding faith, by the Russian serfs who preserved their human dignity
and social cohesion in spite of the exactions of their masters, by the
Italians, Poles, and Jews, when they were trampled under foot by their
rulers. It is such a victory of the spirit that Tolstoy had in mind when
he preached his gospel of non-resistance, and I do not think even a
German on the war path would be blind enough to suppose that Tolstoy's
message came from a craven soul. The orientation of the so-called
"intelligent" class in Russia--that is, the educated middle class, which
is much more numerous and influential than people suppose--is somewhat
different, of course. It is "Western" in this sense, that it is imbued
with current European ideas as to politics, economics, and law.
It has to a certain extent lost the simple faith and religious fervor of
the peasants, but the keynote of popular ideals has been faithfully
preserved by this class. It is still characteristically humanitarian in
its view of the world and in its aims. A book like that of Gen. von
Bernhardi would be impossible in Russia. If anybody were to publish it
it would not only fall flat, but earn for its author the reputation of a
bloodhound. Many deeds of cruelty and brutality happen, of course, in
Russia, but no writer of any standing would dream of building up a
theory of violence in vindication of a claim to culture. It may be said,
in fact, that the leaders of Russian public opinion are pacific,
cosmopolitan, and humanitarian to a fault. The mystic philosopher
Vladimir Solovieff used to dream of the union of the churches with the
Pope as the spiritual head, and democracy in the Russian sense as the
broad basis of the rejuvenated Christendom. Dostoyevsky, a writer most
sensitive to the claims of nationality in Russia, defined the ideal of
the Russians in a celebrated speech as the embodiment of a universally
humanitarian type. These are extremes, but characteristic extremes
pointing to the trend of national thought. Russia is so huge and so
strong that material power has ceased to be attractive to her thinkers.
But we need not yet retire into the desert and deliver ourselves to be
bound hand and foot by civilized Germans. Russia also wields a sword--a
charmed sword, blunt in an unrighteous cause, but sharp enough in the
defense of right and freedom. And this war is indeed our
"Befreiungskrieg." The Slavs must have their chance in the history of
the world, and the date of their coming of age will mark a new departure
in the growth of civilization.
Yours truly,
PAUL VINOGRADOFF.
Court Place, Iffley, Oxford.
Russian Appeal for the Poles
By A. Konovalov of the Russian Duma.
[A Letter to the Russkia Vedomosti, No. 231, P. 2, Oct. 8, 1914.]
The population of Poland has been forced to experience the first
horrible onslaught of the wrathful enemy. All points within the sphere
of the German offensive offer a picture of utter desolation. The people
are fleeing in horror before the advancing enemy, leaving their homes
and their property to sure destruction. An uninterrupted line of arson
fire shines on the sorrowful path of the exiles. Their fields have been
devastated and furrowed by the trenches, their animals have been taken
away, their savings have been wasted, and all their chattels destroyed.
The prosperity of millions has been destroyed and men have been turned
into homeless beggars without a morsel of bread.
The flight of these people is beyond description. One cannot fail to
realize the stupefying horrors of such a deep and overwhelming national
calamity. The strokes of fate have come down upon the people of Poland
with a most merciless cruelty. Shall we gaze upon these horrors with
indifference? Can the Russian people remain neutral witnesses of the
sufferings and privations thrust upon the population of the devastated
country?
The Russians are making heavy sacrifices for the war, but in these
historic days we must speed up our energies still more, we must double
and treble our sacrifices. Let us not forget that despite all our
sacrifices, despite all our sorrow and alarm we are not deprived of
peaceful work, we have not been drawn into destruction as the people of
Poland have been. Without further delay we have to hasten to their aid.
A widely organized social aid must be brought to the fleeing people. We
must provide them with shelter and food. These victims are flocking to
the central provinces of Russia, to Moscow, and they must be assisted up
to the time when they shall be able to return to their country. It is
necessary to ascertain the degree of their distress and to help to
provide them with the necessities of life in places already cleared from
the enemy by the aggressiveness of the Russian Army.
Of course, the main duty in the regaining of the prosperity of Poland
lies with the Government. Only the Government is able to stand the
expense of millions required for this task, only the State through its
legislative organs is capable of creating the social, economic, and
political conditions making possible the reconstruction of the
civilization of Poland. But we also owe a duty of help, a sacred duty of
immediate sympathy to those stricken with disaster.
To carry out our task we need funds. In submitting this problem to the
Russian people, in calling upon it for the solution of this tremendous
and pressing issue, as far as possible, I herewith forward my little
contribution of 10,000 rubles for aid to the people of Poland suffering
from war.
A. KONOVALOV,
Member of the Duma.
Moscow, Oct. 7, (20,) 1914.
Note.--Konovalov's appeal met with a most generous response. Not only
individuals and charitable associations came forward with funds and
food, but a large number of Russian cities organized permanent aid
committees for the benefit of the war victims in Poland. Street and
house-to-house collections were organized, and considerable funds have
already been collected. Not only Russians, but also the Armenians, the
Jews, and other nationalities of Russia have shown a deep and
substantial sympathy for the Poles.
Prince Trubetskoï's appeal emphasized the political side of this
campaign of succor, while Mr. Konovalov has given prominence to the
human side of it. Prince Trubetskoï's appeal follows.
I AM FOR PEACE!
By LURANA SHELDON.
I am of New England! A daughter of mountains,
Wide-stretching fields, broad rivers that smile
With the sun on their breasts. I am of the hills--
The great, bald hills where the cattle roam.
The peace of the valleys still clings and thrills,
And the joy of the tinkling fountains,
Where the deep-creviced boulders pile.
I am of it, New England, my home!
The tenure of conflicts, the feeble thriving,
Are lore of the past. Now the giant peaks
May sleep and sleep. Their watch is ended.
The beacon towers may crumble and fall.
So well have my people defended--
So well have they prospered through striving--
Today her triumph New England speaks
In the mantling calm that envelops all.
They have come to New England, the woeful invaders.
The hills attracted, the valleys lured;
They have sowed their seeds of disturbance and fear.
They wrought for destruction, but all in vain.
They were told that order was master here.
The hills turned censors, the streams, upbraiders.
No war of men should be fought, endured!
They need wage no battle for peace again!
Like my native hills, my strife is ended;
Like my sleeping hills, I have earned life's calm.
The sun that smiles on New England's streams
Bids human conflicts forever cease.
Let those who must, writhe in their dreams
At thought of days with horror blended.
For me, the meadow's gentle balm--
I am of New England--where all is peace!
United Russia
By Peter Struve.
[From The London Times.]
Prof. Peter Struve, editor of the monthly, Russian Thought, is
recognized as one of the most acute political thinkers in
Europe. He was one of the chief founders of the Constitutional
Democratic Party (the Cadets) and was member for St.
Petersburg in the Second Duma. He is also known as an
economist of great erudition.
PETROGRAD, Sept. 16.
The future historian will note with astonishment that official Germany,
when she declared war on Russia, was in no way informed of the state of
public opinion in our country.
This is all the more astonishing because not a single country to the
west of Russia maintains so close a communication with Russia as
Germany. The Germans, better than other peoples, could and should have
known Russia and her material resources, her internal state, and her
moral condition. When she declared war on Russia, Germany evidently
counted, above all, on the weakness of the Russian Army. There was
nothing, however, to justify such an estimate of the armed forces of
Russia. Certainly Russia had been beaten in the Japanese war, but in
that war the decision was reached on the sea, and after the fall of Port
Arthur the land war had no object. The Germans have probably convinced
themselves already how superficial was such an estimate of the forces of
Russia, but in reality their mistake was due to an entirely superficial
view of the national culture of Russia and an extremely elementary idea
of our internal development. The Germans did not believe that there is
in Russia a genuine and growing national civilization, and did not
understand that the liberation movement in Russia had not only not
shaken the power of the Russian State, but had, on the contrary,
increased it.
Not understanding this, they thought that any blow from outside would
tumble over the Russian State like a rotten tree. German aggression, on
the contrary, united the whole population of Russia, and by this alone
strengthened a hundredfold her external power. This, of course, would
have been the natural effect of any attack from without upon any sound
people or any State that was not in decomposition. But in this case
there was something else. Such a war as this could not fail to take on
at once the character both of a world war and of a national war. That is
why in this struggle with Germany and Austria-Hungary, elemental forces
united in one impulse and spirit both the Russian Radicals, with their
tendency to cosmopolitanism, and the extreme Nationalist Conservatives.
Nay, more than that, all the races of Russia understood that a challenge
had been thrown out to Russia by Germany that morally compelled her, in
the interests of the whole and of the various parts, to forget for the
time all quarrels and grievances.
This showed itself in the most natural and inevitable way with the
Poles, of whose national culture Germanism is the sworn foe. The
well-known manifesto of the Commander in Chief did not awake this
feeling among the Poles of Russia, but simply met it and gave it
support. Equally natural and elemental was the patriotic outburst that
spread among the Jews of Russia. In their case the political and social
Radicalism which we always find in the Jews turned by some sound
instinct against German militarism, which had shown itself the chief
cause and occasion of a world catastrophe.
The German declaration of war on Russia at once dispersed all doubts and
hesitations in the many millions of the population of the Russian
Empire. Some may put in the forefront of this war the struggle with the
uncivilizing militarism of Prussia. Others may see in it, above all
things, a struggle for the national principle and for the inured rights
of nationalities--Serbians, Poles, and Belgians. Others, again, see in
the war the only means of securing the peaceful future of Russia and her
allies from the extravagant pretensions of Germany. But all alike feel
that this war is a great, popular, liberating work, which starts a new
epoch in the history of the world. Thus the war against united Germany
and Austria-Hungary has become in Russia a truly national war. That is
the enormous difference between it and the war with Japan, whose
political grounds and objects, apart from self-defense against a hostile
attack, were alien to the public conscience.
There is one other consideration which cannot be passed over in silence.
In Russia many are convinced, and others instinctively feel, that a
victorious war will contribute to the internal recovery and regeneration
of the State. Many barriers have already fallen, national and political
feuds have been softened, new conditions are being created for the
mutual relations of the people and the Government. There is every reason
to think that some members of the Government--unfortunately, it is true,
not all--have understood that at the present time of complete national
union many of the old methods of administration and all the old
Government psychology are not only out of place, but simply impossible.
In one question, the Polish, this conviction has received the supreme
sanction of the sovereign and of the Commander in Chief, and a striking
expression in the latter's manifesto to the Poles. Further than this,
the actual attitude of Russian Liberals and Radicals toward a whole
series of problems and relations cannot fail to be changed. Thus the war
will help to reconcile and soften many internal contradictions in
Russia.
How far we are, with this state of public opinion and these perspectives
of the internal development of Russia, from those fantastic pictures of
civil disunion and revolutionary conflagration which were anticipated
before the war and have sometimes been, even since the war, portrayed in
the German and Austro-Hungarian press! Our enemies counted on these
domestic divisions, and they have made a bitter mistake. Constitutional
Russia, precisely because of the radical internal transformation which
it has experienced in the period that began with the Japanese war, has
proved to be fully equal to the immense universal and national task that
has devolved upon it. The national and political consciousness of Russia
not only has not weakened, but has wonderfully strengthened and taken
shape. As one who has had a close and constant share in the struggle for
the Russian Constitution, I can only note with the greatest satisfaction
the striking result of Russia's entry into the number of constitutional
States, a result which has so plainly showed itself in the tremendous
part that Russia is playing in the great world-crisis of 1914.
Prince Trubetskoi's Appeal to Russians to Help the Polish Victims of War
[Russkia Vedomosti, No. 231, Oct. 8, (21,) 1914, P. 2.]
A new era of Russian-Polish relations has begun, and the noble
initiative of A.J. Konovalov, who has donated 10,000 rubles for the
needs of the war victims of Poland, offers a shining testimony.
Up to the present the Polish people have had relations with official
Russia only. The war has brought them for the first time into immediate
touch with _the Russian people_. Thousands of Polish exiles have gone
forth to our central provinces. In Moscow alone there are not less than
1,000 former inhabitants of Kalisz, to say nothing of fleeing people
from other provinces. Moscow, of course, attracts the largest number of
these unfortunates. Some particular instinctive faith draws the Poles to
Moscow, to the centre of popular Russia. To my query why she had chosen
Moscow among all Russian cities, a poor Polish woman, the wife of a
reservist, said:
"I was sent here by the military chief. 'Go to Moscow,' said he. 'You
won't perish there.'"
And indeed in Moscow the Polish exiles have not perished. They have
found here brotherly love, shelter, and food. The municipality of
Moscow, numerous philanthropists, both Polish and Russian, are rendering
them assistance.
It is needless to describe the impression made upon the Poles by this
attitude of the people of Russia. A prominent municipal worker of the
City of Kalisz, with tears in his eyes, told me: "Up to the present
moment Poland has been segregated from Russia by a wall of officialdom
erected by the Germans; now for the first time this wall has been broken
down, two peoples are seeing each other and feeling each other."
A tremendous process of mutual understanding has begun before our eyes!
It has barely begun as yet; for what has been accomplished by Russia for
Poland is but a drop as compared with what still remains to be done. It
is not enough to help the Polish immigrants in our central provinces.
Our help must be carried to the provinces devastated by the German and
Austrian hordes. Right there the scenes of misery make the hair stand
upon our heads.
Let us realize that the City of Kalisz alone has suffered not less than
40,000,000 rubles in loss of property. Representatives of Polish
municipalities with whom I had opportunity to discuss the situation told
me that in the City of Kalisz there is no longer a single drug store,
nor a grocery store, and there were about three thousand of them before.
There are numerous cities and villages where everything has been
pillaged by the German requisitions. Horses, cows, food, even
mattresses, have been taken away, and for all these ironical receipts
have been tendered: "So much worth of goods have been taken; the payment
for same will be made by the Russian Government."
Owing to the destruction of the inventory and the stock in the villages,
there is nothing to till the soil with, and the fields have to remain
unseeded.
Poland is indeed the Belgium of Russia. Belgium is aided by England and
France, but there is nobody to help Poland except us. The appeal of the
Commander in Chief has promised, in case of Russian victory, the
political regeneration of Poland, with her own religion, with her own
language, and with her own self-government. But before the political
regeneration we have to think of the saving of the unfortunate country
from starvation.
_This must be above all our national, Russian affair._ Let the
exhausted, suffering people of Poland feel that the people of Russia are
their real brothers; let them see that our words are backed up by deeds.
Perhaps in this way we shall forever clear away their ancient distrust
toward us, a distrust which unfortunately had ground in the past
relations between Russia and Poland.
We are not speaking of a commonplace charity at the present moment.
There is need for a help which should mark the beginning of a historical
change in the lives of both peoples. Both peoples should not only
silence their material sufferings, but they should draw a spiritual
comfort from this great historical trial and make it a source of their
moral vigor.
They should feel that their sufferings and their sacrifices have not
been in vain, that no matter what their further resolutions might be the
popular affair should by all means be carried on right now, and that
irrespective of the outcome of the present war one tremendous result has
already been accomplished. The Polish affair has already become a
Russian national affair. And this means that henceforth there shall be
no discrepancy between words and deeds in the relations of both peoples.
The whole might of the people of Russia and their ideals, expressed by
the Supreme Commander in Chief, shall be the bond for the Poles,
guaranteeing them the realization of the dreams of their forefathers for
the resurrection of Poland.
Let us Russians prepare this resurrection and help it by all means
within our power. Now or never the aid to the suffering people of Poland
shall grow into a national Russian demonstration. Let all Russian papers
throw open their columns for subscriptions for aid to the people of
Poland suffering from war, without prejudice to their religion and race.
As the funds will be forthcoming, a national Russian committee shall be
organized to take charge of their distribution.
Let us not fear for the modest beginnings. The tremendous wave of
sympathy and love which has now swept over the Russian people can create
wonders, if need be, for the success of the Russian national issue.
Let us hope that wonders will happen even now. I myself witnessed in our
neighborhood the following dramatic scene: The small provincial City of
Kaluga was getting ready in August to receive the wounded. Unexpectedly
it got many times more than at first had been contemplated. The wounded
had to be placed on the floor, without straw, without linen, without
food. But within two days all were comfortably placed, fed, and clothed.
_Unknown_ persons secured straw, other _unknown_ persons sent
mattresses, linens, and pillows, _unknown peasants_ brought food from
their villages.
All this was done as a matter of course, without a previous concert,
without any organization, through an elementary popular movement.
This elementary movement which can heal the wounds is needed at this
moment in most tremendous proportions. It is not a question of a few
wounded individuals, not even a question of thousands of wounded, but
the problem of a whole wounded Polish nation.
Let the great Russian tide of sympathy rise to its aid, without a
previous agreement, without a previous organization. Let this impulse
show Poland her protector--_Russia, the liberator of nations_.
This movement of sympathy for a brotherly people shall be our guarantee
that our coming victory over Germany will call forth the triumph of
light in Russian herself.
Prince EUGENE TRUBETSKOI.
Moscow, October 7, (20,) 1914.
How Prohibition Came to Russia
Interview with the Peasant-Born Millionaire Reformer, Tchelisheff.
[By the Associated Press.]
PETROGRAD, Nov. 18.--There is prohibition in Russia today, prohibition
which means that not a drop of vodka, whisky, brandy, gin, or any other
strong liquor is obtainable from one end to the other of a territory
populated by 130,000,000 people and covering one-sixth of the habitable
globe.
The story of how strong drink has been utterly banished from the Russian
Empire was related by Michael Demitrovitch Tchelisheff, the man directly
responsible for putting an end to Russia's great vice, the vodka habit.
It should be said in the beginning that the word prohibition in Russia
must be taken literally. Its use does not imply a partially successful
attempt to curtail the consumption of liquor resulting in drinking in
secret places, the abuse of medical licenses and general evasion and
subterfuge. It does mean that a vast population who consumed
$1,000,000,000 worth of vodka a year; whose ordinary condition has been
described by Russians themselves as ranging from a slight degree of
stimulation upward, has been lifted almost in one day from a drunken
inertia to sobriety.
On that day when the mobilization of the Russian Army began, special
policemen visited every public place where vodka is sold, locked up the
supply of the liquor, and placed on the shop the imperial seal. Since
the manufacture and sale of vodka is a Government monopoly in Russia, it
is not a difficult thing to enforce prohibition.
From the day this step was taken drunkenness vanished in Russia. The
results are seen at once in the peasantry; already they are beginning to
look like a different race. The marks of suffering, the pinched looks of
illness and improper nourishment have gone from their faces. There has
been also a remarkable change in the appearance of their clothes. Their
clothes are cleaner, and both the men and women appear more neatly and
better dressed. The destitute character of the homes of the poor has
been replaced with something like order and thrift.
In Petrograd and Moscow the effect of these improved conditions is
fairly startling. On holidays in these two cities inebriates always
filled the police stations and often lay about on the sidewalks and even
in the streets. Things are so different today that unattended women may
now pass at night through portions of these cities where it was formerly
dangerous even for men. Minor crimes and misdemeanors have almost
vanished.
Tchelisheff, the man who virtually accomplished this miracle, was a
peasant by birth, originally a house painter by profession, then Mayor
of the city of Samara, and now a millionaire. Physically he is a giant,
standing over 6 feet 4 inches in his stocking feet, and of powerful
build. Although he is 55 years old, he looks much younger. His movements
display the energy of youth, his eyes are animated, and his black hair
is not tinged by gray.
In Petrograd Mr. Tchelisheff is generally found in a luxurious suite of
rooms in one of the best hotels. He goes about clad in a blue blouse
with a tasseled girdle, and baggy black breeches tucked into heavy
boots. He offers his visitors tea from a samovar and fruit from the
Crimea. Speaking of what he had accomplished for the cause of sobriety
in Russia, Mr. Tchelisheff said:
"I was reared in a small Russian village. There were no schools or
hospitals, or any of the improvements we are accustomed to in civilized
communities. I picked up an education from old newspapers and stray
books. One day I chanced upon a book in the hands of a moujik, which
treated of the harmfulness of alcohol. It stated among other things that
vodka was a poison.
"I was so impressed with this, knowing that everybody drank vodka, that
I asked the first physician I met if the statement were true. He said
yes. Men drank it, he explained, because momentarily it gave them a
sensation of pleasant dizziness. From that time I decided to take every
opportunity to discover more about the use of vodka.
"At the end of the eighties there came famine in Russia, followed by
agrarian troubles. I saw a crowd of peasants demand from a local
landlord all the grain and foodstuffs in his granary. This puzzled me; I
could not understand how honest men were indulging in what seemed to be
highway robbery. But I noted at the time that every man who was taking
part in this incident was a drinking man, while their fellow villagers,
who were abstemious, had sufficient provisions in their own homes. Thus
it was that I observed the industrial effects of vodka drinking.
"At Samara I decided to do more than passively disapprove of vodka. At
this time I was an Alderman, and many of the tenants living in my houses
were workingmen. One night a drunken father in one of my houses killed
his wife. This incident made such a terrible impression on me that I
decided to fight vodka with all my strength.
"On the supposition that the Government was selling vodka for the
revenue, I calculated the revenue received from its consumption in
Samara. I then introduced a bill in the City Council providing that the
city give this sum of money to the imperial treasury, requesting at the
same time that the sale of vodka be prohibited. This bill passed, and
the money was appropriated. It was offered to the Government, but the
Government promptly refused it.
"It then dawned upon me that Russian bureaucracy did not want the people
to become sober, for the reason that it was easier to rule
autocratically a drunken mob than a sober people.
"This was seven years ago. Later I was elected Mayor of Samara, capital
of the Volga district, a district with over a quarter of a million
inhabitants. Subsequently I was elected to the Duma on an anti-vodka
platform. In the Duma I proposed a bill permitting the inhabitants of
any town to close the local vodka shops, and providing also that every
bottle of vodka should bear a label with the word poison. At my request
the wording of this label, in which the evils of vodka were set forth,
was done by the late Count Leo Tolstoy. This bill passed the Duma and
went to the Imperial Council, where it was amended and finally tabled.
"I then begged an audience of Emperor Nicholas. He received me with
great kindness in his castle in the Crimea, not far from the scene of
the recent Turkish bombardment. He listened to me patiently. He was
impressed with my recital that most of the revolutionary and Socialist
excesses were committed by drunkards, and that the Svesborg, Kronstadt,
and Sebastopol navy revolts and the Petrograd and other mutinous
military movements were all caused by inebriates. Having heard me out
his Majesty promised at once to speak to his Minister of Finance
concerning the prohibition of vodka.
"Disappointed at not having been able to get through a Government bill
regulating this evil, I had abandoned my seat in the Duma. It was
evident that the bureaucracy had been able to obstruct the measure.
Minister of Finance Kokovsoff regarded it as a dangerous innovation,
depriving the Government of 1,000,000,000 rubles ($500,000,000) yearly,
without any method of replacing this revenue.
"While I lobbied in Petrograd the Emperor visited the country around
Moscow and saw the havoc of vodka. He then dismissed Kokovsoff, and
appointed the present Minister of Finance, M. Bark.
"Mobilization precipitated the anti-vodka measure. The Grand Duke,
remembering the disorganization due to drunkenness during the
mobilization of 1904, ordered the prohibition of all alcoholic drinks
except in clubs and first-class restaurants. This order, enforced for
one month, showed the Russian authorities the value of abstinence.
"In spite of the general depression caused by the war, the paralysis of
business, the closing of factories, and the interruption of railroad
traffic, the people felt no depression. Savings banks showed an increase
in deposits over the preceding month, and over the corresponding month
of the preceding year. At the same there was a boom in the sale of
meats, groceries, clothing, dry goods, and housefurnishings. The
30,000,000 rubles a day that had been paid for vodka were now being
spent for the necessities of life.
"The average working week increased from three and four days to six, the
numerous holiday [Transcriber's Note: so in original] of the drinker
having been eliminated. The working day also became longer, and the
efficiency of the worker was perhaps doubled. Women and children, who
seldom were without marks showing the physical violence of the husband
and father, suddenly found themselves in an undreamed-of paradise.
There were no blows, no insults, and no rough treatment. There was bread
on the table, milk for the babies, and a fire in the kitchen.
"I decided to seize this occasion for a press campaign, so far as this
is a possible thing in Russia. I organized delegations to present
petitions to the proper authorities for the prolonging of this new
sobriety for the duration of the war. This step found favor with his
Imperial Majesty, and an order was issued to that effect. Another
similar campaign to remove the licenses from privileged restaurants and
clubs was successful, and strong liquor is no longer available anywhere
in Russia.
"The second month of abstinence made the manifold advantages so clear to
everybody that when we called upon his Majesty to thank him for his
orders, he promised that the vodka business of the Government would be
given up forever. This promise was promulgated in a telegram to the
Grand Duke Constantine.
"There remains only now to find elsewhere the revenue which up to the
present time has been contributed by vodka. There has been introduced in
the Duma a bill offering a solution of this question. The aim of this
bill is not the creation of new taxes or an increase in the present
taxes, but an effort to render the Government domains and possessions
more productive."
[Illustration: decoration]
[Illustration: ADMIRAL SIR CHRISTOPHER CRADOCK,
Who Went Down with His Flagship, the Good Hope, in the Naval Engagement
Off the Coast of Chile.
(_Photo from a Kodak Negative._)]
[Illustration: ADMIRAL COUNT VON SPEE,
Who Went Down with His Flagship, the Scharnhorst, in the Battle with the
British Squadron Off the South American Coast.
(_Photo_ © _by Brown Bros._)]
Influence of the War Upon Russian Industry
[From Russkia Vedomosti, No. 260, Nov. 11, (Nov. 24,) 1914, P. 3.]
_The Russian Ministry of Commerce and Industry has lately
published the preliminary results of an inquiry into the
changes in industry which have occurred during the first two
and one-half months of the war, Aug. 1 to Oct. 14, 1914._
Altogether 8,550 of the largest industrial establishments, excepting
those of Poland, have been investigated. These employ 1,602,000 workers.
Of those investigated 502 factories employing 46,586 employes had to be
closed down entirely, while 1,034 establishments with 435,000
wage-earners have cut down their working force to 319,000. Thus about
one-third of the total industrial wage-earning force has felt the
effects of the war either through total discharge or through diminished
output.
The lack of trained labor power and the failure to obtain funds have
affected 222 establishments with 58,000 workers. Lack of funds has been
very severely felt in the Baltic provinces, (there, especially, in the
chemical industry,) affecting fourteen establishments with 15,701
workers. Altogether 132 establishments with 50,000 employes have cut
down their operations, and of these 30 per cent. employing 15,000
workers belonged to the chemical industry. Also twenty establishments of
the metal working (fine machinery) industry with 11,000 employes had to
curtail their volume of business. In other industries the lack of labor
supply has not been felt. Evidently only the industries requiring highly
qualified labor have suffered from this cause. The shortage of fuel
forced 108 establishments with 49,000 workers to diminish their output,
and eleven establishments with 3,000 workers had to close down
altogether.
The lack of fuel was very severely felt in the provinces of Petrograd
and in the Baltic, owing to the stoppage of the importation of British
coal. Of all establishments closed down for this reason, about 60 per
cent. belong to the provinces of Petrograd, Livland, and Estland.
In other regions this want was felt less severely. The output of coal in
the Donetz basin and of naphtha in the Baku region has increased, and
the decreased demand for fuel owing to the diminished production has
somewhat lowered the prices of naphtha. Thus in 1913 the average monthly
price of light naphtha in Balakhany was 42 copecks per pood, (two-thirds
of a cent per pound,) but in September, 1914, it was 36, and on Nov. 5
it fell to 25-26 copecks per pood, (13 cents per thirty-six pounds--a
little over 1-3 cent per pound.)
The main difficulty in the fuel supply lies, however, in the inadequate
transportation facilities.
The next obstacle in the way of normal development of industry is the
lack of transportation facilities. This cause alone forced 223 factories
with 128,000 workers to curtail their output, and fifty-six factories
with 5,300 workers stopped production.
But the most disastrous effect upon the Russian industry has been
produced by the diminished demand and by the lack of raw materials. For
lack of market, 671 establishments with 219,000 workers reduced their
output. The greatest sufferers have been the building trades and the
industries connected therewith--structural iron, cement, (concrete,)
brickmaking, &c.
The railroads have suffered greatly through the cancellation of
registered orders and by the stoppage of further orders from Poland,
also by the military mobilization.
During the month of August, 1914, the gross earnings of the Russian
railroads, both State and private, were only half of their gross
earnings for August the year before.
The unexpected prohibition of alcoholic beverages has almost ruined the
liquor industry.
For lack of demand 83 textile factories with 95,000 employes have
reduced their output. The lack of raw material forced 103 cotton mills
with 188,000 weavers to cut down their output. This makes 40 per cent.
of the total cotton mills of Russia. Similar reductions have occurred in
the silk, woolen, linen, and hemp industries.
The Ministry has withheld the data as to the exact nature of the raw
materials wanting, but it may be surmised that raw cotton and dyestuffs
are among the chief items.
Among the remedies suggested are better credit facilities and the
resumption of interrupted intercourse with friendly and neutral powers
for the securing of raw material.
Declaration of the Russian Industrial Interests
[Russkia Vedomosti, No. 217, Sept. 21, (Oct. 4,) 1914, P. 5.]
Referring to the abundance of donations forthcoming from the industrial
interests for the victims of war, the Council of the Conventions of the
industrial interests declares its confidence in the ability of Russian
industry to bear the burden of war cheerfully and whole-heartedly.
The Council finds the proposed measures of the Government for its
financing of the campaign insufficient, and promises to come forward
with its own project of a special single property and personal war tax.
Then the causes of the war are summed up and the importance of the war
for the industrial interests is outlined. The chief cause of the war is
assigned to the irreconcilable economic conflict between the German and
Russian interests created by commercial treaties favorable to Germany.
Victorious Russia should dictate her own economic programme to the
defeated enemy. Without such a result all sacrifices made will be in
vain, and will fall as a heavy and unbearable burden upon the shattered
economic organization of the country.
The industrial interests desire a war to the finish, and they say:
"Let the Government know how to cultivate in the future among the people
the conviction that the war will be brought to an end, then the task of
finding the means for carrying on the campaign will be greatly
facilitated; for no sacrifice is too great for us for the overthrow of
the economic yoke of Germany and for the conquest of economic
independence. Nothing but strong will and determination are needed."
The Council of Industrial Conventions is a permanent
organization corresponding roughly to the executive board of
the National Manufacturers' Association of the United States.
All big industrial interests, like the mining companies, the
textile manufacturers, iron manufacturers, are represented in
the council.--Translator.
A Russian Financial Authority on the War
[Russkia Vedomosti, No. 167, July 22, (Aug. 4,) 1914, P. 4.]
_Prof. Migoulin, member of the Council of the Russian Ministry
of Finance and the author of several works on Russian
indebtedness, in his article, published immediately after the
beginning of the war and evidently written before the position
of Italy had become known, thus sums up the war situation:_
The moment for the declaration of war has been well chosen and carefully
planned by Germany and Austria. Russia had her hands full with the
numerous labor strikes and poor crops in certain parts of the country.
England had her troubles with the Ulsterites, and the President of
France was absent from his country when the Austrian ultimatum was
handed to Servia.
Austria had already mobilized large numbers of her troops in Bosnia
under the pretext of manoeuvres, Italy had a partial mobilization, and
Germany was preparing herself for a grand army show.
The German strategists are looking for a brief campaign. But they are
mistaken. Even with the capture of Petrograd the war will have barely
begun, for Petrograd is only the frontier of Russia.
Our troops are numerous and well equipped. The vastness of our country,
her poor roads, and her severe climate are her defenses. The French
frontier is strongly fortified. A quick surrender is unthinkable, and
there is no reason for surrender, for the war will continue to the
bitter end.
But a long campaign threatens Germany. She is a country with highly
developed industry and with a tremendous foreign commerce, the breakdown
of which cannot be compensated by any territorial conquest. A war of
Germany against England, France, and Russia will stop her commerce
entirely. It will be impossible for her to export her goods and to
import foodstuffs. Her manufactures and her commerce will come to a
deadlock, and unemployment will threaten her cities. All the victories
of her army will be of no avail. If her enemies draw out the war for a
year or two Germany will be exhausted. We are not talking of the
possibility of a German defeat, although Germany is not invincible.
The gold reserve of Russia, France, and England amount to about
350,000,000 rubles, ($155,000,000,) while the gold reserve of Germany,
Austria, and Italy is only about 160,000,000 rubles.
The gold currency of the first three countries amounts to about
7,000,000,000 rubles, ($3,500,000,000,) while the gold currency of the
other three is only $1,500,000,000.
The food supply of Russia is inexhaustible. Her industries are working
chiefly for the home market. They can only win by the campaign. The
curtailing of food and raw material exports may benefit her home
industries by cheapening production.
In case of a shortage of war supplies Russia will be able to get them
from neutral countries--for example, from the United States. But where
will Germany get them? What shall she do when her stock of saltpetre
runs out? For the time being saltpetre is obtained by all countries from
Chile only.
France is an agricultural country which has large supplies of food. Her
manufactures are poorly developed, and they are working for a foreign
market which will not be closed. Her resources are so large that she
will be able to stand the campaign with comparative ease.
Owing to her insular position, England will lose but very little through
this war, provided she is able to maintain the supremacy of her navy
over the German fleet. The British merchant marine and her manufactures
will gain quite considerably.
The public credit of France and Great Britain is inexhaustible, and it
will not be restricted to Russia, while she is an ally of these
countries.
Proposed Internal Loans of Russia
[Russkia Vedomosti, No. 222, Sept. 27, (Oct. 3,) 1914, P. 3.]
Prof. Migoulin has submitted to the Russian Minister of Finance a scheme
for new internal loans to meet the extraordinary expenditures caused by
the present war.
It is proposed to enlist the support of various groups of capitalists
and of small property holders and to obtain from them about
2,500,000,000 rubles, ($1,500,000,000.)
Four different loans are contemplated. Persons desiring to invest their
savings at a small but sure interest rate will be able to buy the
certificates at a 5 per cent. loan. These certificates will have a face
value of 100 rubles, and they will sell at $90. The interest rate will
not be changed within the next fifteen or twenty years. Therefore, the
actual interest rate will be 5.56 per cent. on the original investment.
A 6 per cent. loan will cater to those investors who like to place their
loans at shorter terms. The certificates of this loan will be sold at
premiums. Five-year certificates will be sold at ninety-six for a
hundred rubles face value, four-year certificates at ninety-seven,
three-year certificates at ninety-eight, two-year certificates at
ninety-nine, and one-year certificates at par. This loan will be free
from the interest (coupon) tax, but not from the income and inheritance
taxes. In case of success one billion worth of these certificates will
be issued.
For persons interested in the changes of values upon Stock Exchange
different loans will be issued. In the first place, no interest-bearing
ten-ruble certificates with a large number of winners will be issued. A
considerable number of these certificates will be redeemed each year. It
is proposed to have one winner of 200,000 rubles, one of 100,000, two of
50,000, one of 25,000, about fifty of 10,000 rubles each, some 3,950
"chances" of from 100 to 500 rubles each. The whole loan may amount to
100,000,000 rubles. It is to be redeemed within fifty years.
Should this loan prove a success it will be followed by another of equal
amount.
Finally, Prof. Migoulin proposes to obtain about 200,000,000 rubles by
selling 4 per cent. Government bonds in fifty-ruble denominations. This
loan, too, will be equipped with the winners at the annual draw for the
redemption.
The first of the proposed loans will be realized soon. The Government
has decided to obtain 500,000,000 rubles at 5 per cent. This new loan
will increase the present debt of the Russian Government of
8,838,000,000 rubles ($4,500,000,000) to 9,338,000,000 rubles. Russia
has to pay 370,000,000 rubles annually for the interest on her debts.
About one-half of her indebtedness is due to railroad building and to
other more or less productive expenditures. But the other half of her
indebtedness has been spent on armaments, wars, and other unproductive
items.
Russia's new budget is about 3,500,000,000 rubles ($1,800,000,000.) The
interest on the new loan will increase this budget only 6 per cent. But
this new loan increases again her unproductive debt and places a heavy
burden upon the taxpayer for whom the Government has prepared many
"surprises" this year.
The possibilities of _internal_ loans are not very great. During the
first month of the war about 380,000,000 rubles of savings were
withdrawn from the banks. Of this sum only 76,000,000 were redeposited
later when the first excitement had passed. The rest of the money
evidently was either used up for production, for consumption, or for
private storing of ready cash. How much of this money will come forth to
buy the various short-time loans no one is able to tell beforehand. But
the big manufacturing interests are craving for _foreign gold loans_,
not for internal paper money loans.
How Russian Manufacturers Feel
[Digested from Russkia Vedomosti, No. 266, Nov. 18, (Dec. 1,) 1914, P.
6.]
The manufacturers of war supplies are making large profits through the
war. All they need is Government advances to buy their raw material. The
Government permits them to borrow from the State bank upon Government
orders for war supplies. The only difficulty lies in the extent of the
credit. The Government would not permit borrowing more than one-third of
the amount of its orders, while the manufacturers are asking for
two-fifths.
The manufacturers who are using imported raw material and are working
for the private consumer are suffering heavily from the war. The lack of
coal, of hides, of wool and of cotton is threatening Russian industry
with a crisis. There is a great want of hydroscopic (absorbent) cotton,
since the only factory for this product was in Poland (City of Zgerzc)
and has been destroyed. Lack of dyestuffs and other chemicals is
hampering many other industries. The importation of tea and coffee has
been curtailed considerably.
Russian cotton mills used to get 45 per cent. of their raw material from
the United States, since only 55 per cent. of their demand can be
supplied by Central Asia.
Furthermore, this Asiatic cotton can be used for the coarser grades of
manufacturing only.
The war has cut off the American supply altogether.
Moreover, the manufacturers need cash to buy the cotton available. But
they have none. They have already applied for some hundred million
rubles gold loan from the Treasury, but the Government has promised them
only about eight million from the new loan.
The wool manufacturers are faring no better than the cotton interests.
The only way to get raw wool seems to be to ship it from Australia via
Vladivostok. But the lack of foreign exchange prevents them from using
this source.
The tea trade of Russia will be paralyzed soon for the same reason.
The big manufacturers see only three possibilities of remedying this
situation. The first would be to export gold, the other to export
Russian commodities on a large scale, and the third--to get a gold loan
from Great Britain.
The first proposition is impossible, since the Government will not
permit any exportation of gold at this moment. The second proposition
won't work owing to the demoralized transportation. Thus the only escape
from a serious national crisis seems to lie in a large foreign gold
loan.
This idea is favored by such prominent manufacturers as S.I.
Tschetverikov, G.M. Mark, and A.E. Vladimirov of Moscow, the first
speaking for the wool interests, and other two for the tea wholesalers.
Mr. N.A. Vtovov voices the same sentiments on behalf of the Russian
cotton mill owners.
New Sources of Revenue Needed
By A. Sokolov.
[From Russkia Vedomosti, No. 171, July 26 (Aug. 8), 1914.]
Russia entered upon the present war better equipped financially than
ever before in her history. But it is evident that her ordinary
resources will not suffice, and the Ministry of Finance will have to
find new sources of revenue to meet the gigantic expenditures. The
Ministry of Finance has begun the usual banking and credit
operations--the supervision of specie payments, the issuance of paper
money, and the discounting of the Treasury notes in the State Bank. In
addition to these the Ministry is ready to turn to new taxes.
It proposes to increase the tax on tobacco and to raise the price of
whisky. Both are desirable objects of taxation. The tobacco tax has been
relatively low in Russia. Only the poorer grades of tobacco have been
taxed 100 per cent. ad valorem, while the higher grades have been taxed
at a lower rate.
Any increase of indirect taxation can be justified only by the present
emergency. We should bear in mind that already three-fourths of the
Russian revenue raised by taxation comes through indirect taxes. Further
increase of these taxes will inflict new heavy burdens upon the poorer
classes, who in any case will have to bear the heaviest burden of the
war.
The present historical moment is of such magnitude that it can be
compared only with the Napoleonic wars. But at that time also the higher
classes had to contribute to the war expenditures. In 1810 an income tax
was put upon the landed nobility. Wishing to make it appear that the war
tax is a voluntary contribution, the Government levied it according to
the declarations of the taxpayers and refused to listen to informers as
to tax-dodging. The tax rate was progressive, with a maximum of 10 per
cent. All incomes below 500 rubles ($250)[1] were exempt.
It is to be hoped that the great memory of the year 1812 will induce the
well-to-do classes to contribute their share to the expenditures
inflicted upon us by the war. An income tax and possibly a temporary
property tax should be accepted by them.
A. SOKOLOV.
[Footnote 1: It should be noted that the purchasing power of money was
then approximately four times higher than at present.]
Our Russian Ally
By Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace.
LAIDLAWSTIEL, Oct. 5, 1914.
The Publications Committee of the Victoria League, which is endeavoring
to enlighten the general public on the origin and issues of the war, has
suggested to me that, as Russia is now in alliance with us, I might
write an article on her recent advance in civilization and the ideals of
her people. To condense satisfactorily such a big subject into a few
pages seems to me hardly possible; but, considering that we are embarked
on a great national undertaking in which it is the sacred duty of every
loyal subject to lend a hand according to his abilities, I cannot refuse
to comply with the committee's suggestion.
To many thoughtful observers of current events it must seem strange that
in the present worldwide convulsion we should be fighting vigorously on
the same side as Russia, who has long been regarded as one of our
natural enemies. Some worthy people may even feel qualms of conscience
at finding themselves in such questionable company, and may be disposed
to inquire how far we are politically and morally justified in thus
putting aside, even for a time, our traditional convictions. It is
mainly for the benefit of such conscientious doubters, who deserve
sympathy, that I have undertaken my present task; and I propose to place
before them certain facts and considerations which may help them in
their difficulties. For this purpose, I begin by examining the grounds
on which the traditional conceptions are founded.
If we were to question a dozen fairly intelligent, educated Englishmen
why Russia has usually been regarded as a hereditary enemy and an
impossible ally, they would probably give two main reasons: First, that
she is the modern stronghold of barbarism, ignorance and tyrannical
government, and, secondly, that she threatens our interests in
Southeastern Europe and Central Asia. Let us examine dispassionately
these two contentions.
As to barbarism, there is no doubt that in the general march of
civilization Russia long remained far behind her West European sisters
and that she has not yet quite overtaken them, but it should be
remembered--and here I appeal to the Englishman's proverbial love of
fair play--that she did not get a fair start. Living on an immense plain
which stretches far into Asia, her population was for centuries
constantly exposed to the incursions of lawless, predatory hordes, and
this life-and-death struggle culminated in the so-called Mongol
domination, during which her native princes were tributary vassals of
the great Tartar Khan. Under such circumstances she could hardly be
expected to make much social progress, and she was further impeded by
difficulties of intercourse with the more favored nations of the West,
from whom she was separated by differences of language, customs and
religious beliefs. It was as if Europe had been divided into two halves
by a formidable barrier, which condemned the unfortunate Russians to
isolation. The herculean task of demolishing this barrier was, as we all
know, begun by Peter the Great. He built for himself a new capital on
the northwest frontier of his dominions--the beautiful city on the Neva,
recently christened Petrograd--in order to have, as he expressed it, a
window through which he might look into Europe. He looked into Europe
with very good results, and his successors have done likewise; but the
demolition of the barrier proved a very tedious undertaking, and it was
not completed till comparatively recent times.
The laudable efforts of the Russians to make up for lost time have been
particularly successful during the last fifty years. Immediately after
the Crimean War, which some of us are old enough to remember distinctly,
a new era of progress began. The Czar of that time, Nicholas I., whose
name is still familiar to the present generation, was a patriotic,
chivalrous, well-intentioned man, but unfortunately, as a ruler, he
belonged to the mailed-fist school, delighted in shining armor, and put
his faith largely in drill sergeants. Even in the civil administration
he fostered the spirit of military discipline, and he was at no pains to
conceal his contemptuous dislike of the self-government and
constitutional liberties of other countries. By unsympathetic critics he
has been not inaptly described as "the Don Quixote of Autocracy," and
for thirty years he remained faithful to his principles; but toward the
close of his reign, in his struggle with England and France, he learned
by bitter experience that true national greatness is not to be found in
militarism. This salutary lesson was happily laid to heart by his son
and successor, Alexander II., and the more enlightened of his subjects.
The period of triumphant militarism was accordingly followed by a period
of national repentance, which was also a memorable epoch of beneficent
reforms and genuine progress.
No sooner was peace concluded in 1856 than premonitory symptoms of the
new order of things became apparent in St. Petersburg, in Moscow, and
throughout the country generally. To all who had eyes to see and ears to
hear, the war had proved that if their country was to compete
successfully with its rivals, it must adopt a whole series of
administrative and economic reforms; and there was a general desire that
those reforms should be undertaken as speedily as possible. The young
Czar took the lead in the work of national regeneration, and he had the
good fortune to find sympathy and co-operation among the educated
classes. For the first time in Russian history--for on previous
occasions the efforts of reforming Czars had always encountered a good
deal of passive resistance--the Government and the people were anxious
to aid each other, and the main results may be described as eminently
satisfactory. Three great reforms deserve special mention--the
emancipation of the serfs, the radical reorganization of the civil and
criminal courts, and a great extension of local self-government.
By the emancipation decree of 1861, which had been carefully prepared by
liberal-minded officials in conjunction with local committees of the
landed proprietors, the millions of serfs, who had been habitually
bought and sold with the estates on which they were settled, and who had
known no law except the arbitrary will of their masters, were
transformed suddenly into a class of free and independent citizens! Next
came the reorganization of the judicial administration, by which a
similar beneficent change was effected. In the old times the civil and
criminal tribunals had been hotbeds of bribery and corruption to such an
extent that a satirical author had once ventured to write a comedy with
the significant title, "An Unheard-of Wonder; or, The Honest Clerk of
Court!" Now they were thoroughly cleansed, and during some half a dozen
years, when I traveled about the country in search of information, I
never heard of a Judge suspected of taking bribes. The lawsuits, which
were previously liable to be prolonged for a lifetime, were curtailed by
simplifying the procedure; trial by jury was introduced for criminal
cases; and the condition of the prisoners was greatly improved both
materially and morally. Some of the new prisons were quite excellent. A
big reformatory, for example, founded by a benevolent society in Moscow
and largely supported by voluntary contributions, seemed to me the best
institution of the kind I had ever seen.
Regarding the new system of local self-government, I may say briefly
that I was very favorably impressed by the results. The first time I
followed, as an attentive spectator, the proceedings of a Provincial
Assembly, I was fairly astonished. It was in 1870--only nine years after
the beginning of the great reforms--and already the local affairs were
being discussed, on a footing of perfect equality, by noble landed
proprietors in fashionable European costume and emancipated serfs in
sheepskins. Some of the peasants were very able, unpretentious speakers,
and in one respect they had an advantage over some of their former
masters--they knew thoroughly what they were talking about. While the
frock-coated young gentlemen who had finished their education in a
university or agricultural college were often inclined to deal in
scientific abstractions, their humble colleagues, who had come direct
from the plow, confined themselves to thoroughly practical remarks, and
usually exercised a very beneficial influence on the discussions.
The favorable impressions which I received from this Provincial Assembly
were subsequently confirmed by wider experience, especially when I
worked regularly during a Winter in the head office of the local
administration of the Novgorod province. The chief defect of the new
institutions seemed to me to be the very pardonable habit of attempting
too much, without duly estimating the available resources. This
illustrates a very important national characteristic--intense impatience
to obtain gigantic results in an incredibly short space of time. Unlike
the English, who crawl cautiously along the rugged path of progress,
looking attentively to the right and to the left, and seeking to avoid
obstacles and circumvent opposition by conciliation and compromise, the
Russian dashes boldly into the unknown, keeping his eye fixed on the
distant goal and striving to follow a beeline, regardless of obstacles
and pitfalls. The natural consequence is that his moments of sanguine
enthusiasm are frequently followed by hours of depression bordering on
despair, when he is inclined to attribute his failure to some malign
influence rather than to his own recklessness. When in this depressed
mood the more violent natures are apt to have recourse to extreme
measures.
By bearing in mind this national peculiarity the reader will more easily
understand the strange events which followed close on the heels of the
great reforms which I have just mentioned. Alexander II. was preparing
to advance further along the path on which he had entered so
successfully, when his reforming ardor was suddenly cooled by alarming
symptoms of a widespread revolutionary agitation. Many members of the
young generation, male and female, had imbibed the most advanced
political and socialist theories of France and Germany, and they
imagined that, by putting these into practice, Russia might advance by a
single bound far beyond the more conservative nations and set an example
for imitation to the future generations of humanity! The less violent of
these enthusiasts, recognizing that a certain amount of preparatory work
was necessary, undertook a campaign of propaganda among the lower
classes, as factory workers in the towns and school teachers in the
villages. The more violent, on the contrary, considered that a quicker
and more efficient method of attaining the desired object was the
destruction of autocracy by revolvers and bombs, and several attempts
were accordingly made on the lives of the Czar and his advisers. For
more than ten years, undismayed by these revolutionary manifestations,
Alexander II. clung to his ideas of reform, but at last, in 1881, on the
eve of issuing a decree for the convocation of a National Assembly, he
fell a victim to the bomb throwers.
The practical result of all this was that for the next quarter of a
century no great reforms were initiated, but those already effected were
consolidated, and some progress was made in a quiet, unostentatious way,
especially in the sphere of economic development.
A new period of reform began after the Japanese war, and this time the
reform current took the direction of parliamentary institutions. At
last, after much waiting, the political aspirations of the educated
classes were partially realized, so that Russia has now a Chamber of
Deputies, called the Imperial Duma, freely elected by the people, and an
upper house, called the Imperial Council, whose members are selected
partly by election and partly by nomination.
What strikes a stranger on first entering the Duma is the variety of
costumes, showing plainly that all classes of the population are
represented. There are landed proprietors not unlike English country
squires; long-haired priests in ecclesiastical robes; workingmen from
the factories and peasants from the villages in their Sunday clothes;
one or two Cossacks in uniform; Mussulmans from the Eastern provinces in
semi-Oriental attire. The various nationalities seem to live happily
together--Great Russians, Little Russians, Poles, Lithuanians,
Russo-Germans, Circassians, Tartars, &c. Almost as numerous as the
nationalities are the recognized political parties--Conservatives,
Nationalists, Liberals, Radicals, Labor Members, Social Democrats, and
Socialists. Great liberty of speech is allowed, but the President has
generally no difficulty in keeping order.
Thus, to all appearance, the Duma seems exactly what was required to
complete the edifice of self-government founded fifty years ago; but we
must not suppose that a Constitution not yet ten years old can be as
strong and efficient as a Constitution which has gradually emerged from
centuries of political struggle. In other words, the Russian Duma
differs in many respects from the British House of Commons. One
fundamental difference may be cited by way of example. In England, as
all the world knows, the Cabinet is practically chosen by the party
which happens to be predominant for the moment, and as soon as it fails
to command a majority it must resign; whereas in Russia, as in Germany,
the Cabinet is nominated by the Emperor. This is, of course, a very
important difference, and all to our advantage, but it is not so great
in practice as in theory. The Czar, though free theoretically to choose
his Ministers as he pleases, must choose such men as can obtain a
working majority in the Assembly; otherwise, the whole parliamentary
machinery comes to a standstill. Such a deadlock actually occurred in
the First Duma. Smarting under the humiliation of the Japanese war,
attributing the defeats to the incurable incapacity of the Supreme
Government, and believing that the old system had become too weak to
withstand a vigorous assault, the majority of the Deputies resolved to
abolish at once the autocratic power and replace it by ultra-democratic
institutions. They accordingly adopted, from the very first day of the
session, an attitude of irreconcilable hostility to the Cabinet, refused
to listen to Ministerial explanations, abstained from all useful
legislative work, and carried their strategy of obstruction so far that
the Government had to take refuge in a dissolution.
For this unfortunate result, which tended to retard the natural growth
of constitutional freedom in Russia, the Government was severely blamed
by many of its critics, but I venture to think that a large share of the
responsibility must be attributed to the unreasonable impatience of the
Deputies and their supporters. In defense of this opinion I might adduce
many strong arguments, but I confine myself to citing a significant
little incident from my personal experience. Happening to meet at dinner
one evening immediately after the dissolution an old friend who had
played a leading part in the policy of obstruction, I took the liberty
of remarking to him that he and his party appeared to me to have
committed a strategical mistake. If they had shown themselves ready to
co-operate with the Government in resisting the dangerous revolutionary
movement and favoring moderate reforms, they might have made for
themselves, in the course of nine or ten years, a very influential
position in the parliamentary system, and might have greatly advanced
the cause of democracy which they had at heart. Here my friend
interrupted me with the exclamation: "Nine or ten years? We can't wait
so long as that!"
The Second Duma was shipwrecked, like its predecessor, through youthful
impatience. Among the Deputies there was a small group of Social
Democrats who attempted to prepare a military insurrection, and when the
conspiracy was discovered there was great reason to fear that the
Government might adopt a reactionary policy; but it happily confined
itself to some changes in the suffrage regulations and a dissolution of
the Chamber, followed by a general election. Since that time the
parliamentary machinery has worked much more smoothly. The Duma has
learned the truth of the old adage that half a loaf is better than no
bread, and on many important subjects, such as the preparation of the
annual budget, it now co-operates loyally with the Ministers. In this
way it gets its half loaf, and the country benefits by the new-born
spirit of compromise.
Before going further, perhaps I ought to warn my readers that I am often
reproached by my Russian friends with taking too favorable a view of the
Duma and of many other things in Russia. To this I usually reply by
taking those friends to task for their habitual pessimism in criticising
themselves and their institutions. Naturally inclined to idealism, and
not possessing sufficient hereditary experience to correct this
tendency, they compare their institutions with ideals which nowhere
exist in the real world, and consequently they condemn them very
severely. The impartial foreigner who wishes to form a true estimate of
these institutions must always take this into account. In spite of the
impassioned philippics to which I have listened hundreds of times from
my Russian friends, I am strongly of opinion that the Russian people
have made in recent years considerable progress in their political
education, and that they will continue to do so in the future.
But how is genuine national progress possible so long as the great mass
of the population are grossly ignorant, conservative, and superstitious?
Here again we must beware of adopting current exaggerations. To begin
with the peasantry, who are by far the most numerous class, we must
admit that they are very far from being well educated, but they are keen
to learn and they gladly send their children to the village schools,
which have been greatly increased and improved in recent years. Another
source of education is the army. Since the introduction of universal
military service every unlettered recruit must learn to read and write.
A third educational agency is the peculiar village organization. As
every head of a family has a house of his own and a share of the
communal land, he is a miniature farmer; and, unlike agricultural
laborers, who need not look much ahead beyond the weekly pay day, he
must make his agricultural and domestic arrangements for an entire year,
under pain of incurring starvation or falling into the clutches of the
usurer. This is in itself a sort of practical education. Then he has to
attend regularly the meetings of the village assembly, at which all
communal affairs are discussed and decided. To this I must add that he
is by no means obstinately conservative. Habitually cautious, he may be
slow to change his traditional habits and methods of cultivation, but he
does change them when he sees, by the experience of his neighbors, that
new methods are more profitable than old ones. Ask any dealer in
improved implements and machines how many he has sold to peasants in a
single year. Or ask any director of a peasant land bank how many
thousand peasants within the area of his activity are purchasing land
outside the communal limits and farming on their own account. If you
desire any further information on this subject, ask any liberal-minded
landed proprietor who takes an interest in the prosperity of his humble
neighbors to describe to you the small credit societies and similar
associations which have recently sprung up in his neighborhood. Nor is
it only in agricultural affairs that the peasants have manifested a
progressive spirit. If you should happen to pass through the industrial
districts around Moscow, you will see many gigantic factories, which
employ thousands of hands. Incredible as it may seem, not a few of these
were founded by unlettered peasants, whose sons and grandsons have
become millionaires.
Let us now go up a step in the social scale and inquire whether those
born in the mercantile class are as progressive as the peasantry.
Formerly they were regarded, and not without reason, as extremely
conservative, and certainly they used to show little sympathy with
education or culture; but in recent years their character has been
profoundly modified by the ever-increasing influx of foreign capital and
foreign enterprise. The upper ranks at least are now being Europeanized
in the best sense of the term, not only in their methods of doing
business, but also in many other respects. Their homes are becoming more
comfortable and elegant according to modern ideas, refinement is
gradually permeating their daily life, and the sons of not a few of them
are being sent abroad to complete their education in universities or
technical colleges.
Compared with the peasantry and the mercantile community, the clergy as
a class do not show signs of great progress, but I must do them the
justice to say that they do not obstruct. Toward science and culture the
Russian Church has always maintained an attitude of neutrality, and it
has rarely troubled the adherents of other confessions by aggressive
missionary propaganda, while among its own flock it has systematically
fostered a spirit of humility and resignation to the Divine will. This
helps to explain the wonderful tolerance habitually shown by all classes
toward people of another faith. I remember once asking a common laborer
what he thought of the Mussulman Tartars among whom he happened to be
living, and his reply, given with evident sincerity, was: "Not a bad
sort of people." "And what about their religion?" I inquired. "Not at
all a bad sort of faith; you see, they received it, like the color of
their skins, from God." He assumed, of course, in his simple piety, that
whatever comes from God must be good.
Why, then, it may be asked, is this tolerance not extended to the Jews?
They complain, and apparently not without reason, that they are subject
to certain disabilities and exposed to persecution in Russia. Thereby
hangs a tale! Peter the Great would not allow Jews to settle in his
dominions on the ground that his single-minded, ignorant subjects could
not compete with a naturally clever race endowed with a marvelous talent
for money-making. Under his successors, by the annexation of Poland,
several millions of Polish Jews became Russian subjects; but the policy
of exclusion, so far as Russia proper is concerned, has been maintained
down to the present day, so that, throughout the purely Russian
provinces, Jews are not yet allowed to settle in the villages. If you
ask the reason, you will probably be told that if a single Jew were
allowed to live in a village, all the Orthodox inhabitants would soon be
deeply in debt to him. In some respects, however, the old regulations
have been relaxed. A certain proportion of Jewish students are admitted
to the universities and higher schools, and such of them as pass their
examinations may settle in the towns and freely exercise their
professions. As a matter of fact, a considerable proportion of the most
capable barristers, physicians, bankers, &c., in Petrograd, Moscow, and
other cities are Jews by race and religion, and I have never heard of
any of them being persecuted. Anti-Semitic feeling, so far as it exists,
has nothing to do with religious beliefs. It is confined to such people
as the trader who suffers from the competition of Jewish rivals, or the
peasant who finds that the money-lender, from whom he has borrowed at a
high rate of interest, exacts rigorously the fulfillment of the
contract. The pillaging of Jewish shops and houses which occurred some
years ago in certain towns of the southwestern provinces and was
graphically described in the English press was due to pecuniary rather
than religious enmity, and was organized by political intriguers.
In order to complete my cursory review of the various social classes
from the point of view of social and political progress, I must say
something of the nobility and gentry; but I need not say much, because
their general character is pretty well known in Western Europe. They are
well educated, highly cultured, remarkably open-minded, most anxious to
acquaint themselves with the latest ideas in science, literature, and
art, and very fond of studying the most advanced foreign theories of
social and political development, with a view to applying them to their
own country. Thus it may safely be asserted that they are unquestionably
progressive. They are, in fact, more disposed to rush forward regardless
of consequences than to lag behind in the race, so that their impatience
has sometimes to be restrained in the sphere of politics by the
Government. This brings us face to face with the important question as
to how far the Government and the Supreme Ruler are favorable to
national progress and enlightenment.
The antiquated idea that Czars are always heartless tyrants who devote
much of their time to sending troublesome subjects to Siberia is now
happily pretty well exploded, but the average Englishman is still
reluctant to admit that an avowedly autocratic Government may be, in
certain circumstances, a useful institution. There is no doubt, however,
that in the gigantic work of raising Russia to her present level of
civilization the Czars have played a most important part. As for the
present Czar, he has followed, in a humane spirit, the best traditions
of his ancestors. Any one who has had opportunities of studying closely
his character and aims, and who knows the difficulties with which he has
had to contend, can hardly fail to regard him with sympathy and
admiration. Among the qualities which should commend him to Englishmen
are his scrupulous honesty and genuine truthfulness. Of these--were I
not restrained by fear of committing a breach of confidence--I might
give some interesting illustrations.
As a ruler Nicholas II. habitually takes a keen, sympathetic interest in
the material and moral progress of his country, and is ever ready to
listen attentively and patiently to those who are presumably competent
to offer sound advice on the subject. At the same time he is very
prudent in action, and this happy combination of zeal and caution, which
distinguishes him from his too impetuous countrymen, has been signally
displayed in recent years. During the revolutionary agitation which
followed close on the disastrous Japanese war, when the impetuous
would-be reformers wished to overturn the whole existing fabric of
administration, and the timid counselors recommended vigorous retrograde
measures, he wisely steered a middle course, which has resulted in the
creation of a moderate form of parliamentary institutions. That seems to
indicate that Nicholas II. has something of the typical Englishman's
love of compromise.
So much for the first of the two reasons commonly adduced to prove that
Russia is an undesirable ally. I trust I have said enough to show that
the idea of her being the great modern stronghold of barbarism,
ignorance, and tyrannical government is very far from the truth. Now I
come to the second reason--that she has repeatedly threatened our
interests in the past and is sure to threaten them in the future because
she has an insatiable territorial appetite.
That Russia has a formidable territorial appetite cannot be denied, but
it ill becomes us Britishers to reproach her on that score, because, if
we may judge by results, our own territorial appetite is at least
equally formidable. Like her, we began our national life with a very
modest amount of territory, and now the British Empire is considerably
larger than the Empire of the Czars. According to recent trustworthy
statistics, the former contains over 13,000,000 square miles, and the
latter less than 8,500,000. To this I may add that the motives and
methods of annexation have a strong family resemblance. Both of us have
been urged forward partly by rapidly increasing population and partly by
national ambition; and both of us have systematically added to our
dominions, partly by colonization and partly by conquest. As examples of
colonizing expansion we may take Siberia and Australia, and as examples
of expansion by conquest we may point to Russian Central Asia and
British India.
Fortunately for the peace of the world, the two spheres of expansion
long lay wide apart. The Russians, as a continental nation hemmed in by
no natural frontiers, naturally overflowed into adjacent thinly peopled
territory and spread out very much as a drop of oil spreads out on soft
paper; while we, being islanders with an adventurous seafaring
population, chose our fields of colonization and conquest in various
distant regions of the globe. Thus, until comparatively recent times, we
had no occasion to come into conflict with our rivals, or, to speak more
accurately, the two nations were not rivals at all. Now, it is true, we
have approached within striking distance of each other, and there is
some danger of our coming into hostile contact. Of this danger and the
possibility of averting it I shall speak presently, but meanwhile I must
make a little digression in order to anticipate an objection that may be
made to the foregoing remarks.
Some conscientious inquirer, while admitting that there is a certain
resemblance between British and Russian territorial expansion, may
reasonably point to some important differences in the results. The
expansion of England, he may say, has resulted in spreading over the
world the benefits of civilization and freedom; her more important
colonies have grown into self-governing sister nations, who are showing
their loyalty and affection for the mother country by rushing to her
assistance in the present crisis; at the same time her great Indian
dependency and her Crown Colonies, which do not yet enjoy complete
self-government, are likewise showing their sympathetic appreciation of
the blessings conferred on them by the central power.
In comparison with all this, what has Russia to show? Not so much, I
confess, but she has effected considerable improvements in the annexed
territories. The great plains to the north of the Black Sea, which were
formerly the home of nomadic, predatory tribes, have been brought under
cultivation; the tents of the nomads have been replaced by thriving
villages, flaming blast furnaces, great foundries, and fine towns, such
as Odessa, Taganrog and Rostoff; the Crimea, whose inhabitants once
lived mainly by marauding expeditions and the slave trade, is now a
peaceful and prosperous province; in the Caucasus, which was long the
scene of constant tribal warfare and where the well-to-do inhabitants
were not ashamed to sell their young, beautiful daughters to the Pashas
of Constantinople, permanent order has been everywhere established and
many abuses suppressed; in Siberia, which was little better than a
wilderness, there are now thousands of prosperous farmers, railways and
river steamboats have been constructed, and the mineral resources are
being rapidly developed; thanks to the improvement of communications in
that part of the empire, Peking is now well within a fortnight of
Petrograd. Even in Central Asia there is evidence of improvement; the
Russian military administration, with all its defects, is better than
the native rule which preceded it. Such was, at least, the impression
which I received in semi-Russianized territories like Bokhara and
Samarcand. Thus, while we may be justly proud of our achievements in
imperial consolidation and progress, we may well regard with sympathy
the efforts of our rival in the same direction.
Apologizing for this little digression, I proceed now to consider very
briefly the danger of future conflict between the two great empires
which have come within striking distance of each other.
This danger, as it seems to me, though serious enough, is not so great
as is commonly supposed. We have many interests in common, as our
present alliance proves, and there are only two localities in which a
future conflict is to be apprehended. These are Constantinople and our
Indian frontier.
Napoleon is reported to have said that the nation which occupies
Constantinople must dominate the world. The present occupants have
proved that this dictum is, to say the least, an exaggeration, but there
is no doubt that if Russia possessed the Bosphorus and Dardanelles, her
power, for defensive and offensive purposes, would be greatly increased,
and she might seriously threaten our line of communications with India
through the Suez Canal. This danger, however, is very remote. So many
great powers are interested in preventing her from obtaining such a
commanding position in the Mediterranean, that if she made any
aggressive movement in that direction she would certainly find herself
confronted by a very formidable European coalition.
An attack on our Indian frontier is likewise, I venture to think, a very
improbable contingency. There may possibly be in Russia some political
dreamers who imagine, in their idle hours, that it would be a grand
thing to conquer India, with its teeming millions of inhabitants, and
appropriate the countless wealth which it is falsely supposed to
possess; but I have never met or heard of any serious Russian politician
capable of advocating such a hazardous enterprise. Certainly there is no
immediate danger. When the European struggle in which we are now engaged
is brought to an end, the nations who are taking part in it will husband
their resources for many years before launching into any wild
adventures. Moreover, our position in our great Eastern dependency has
never previously been so secure as it is now. The Government has long
been taking precautionary measures against possible troubles on the
frontier, and in the interior of the country the great mass of the
inhabitants are prosperous and contented. Hindus and Mahommedans alike
are learning to appreciate the benefits of British rule, as is shown by
the fact that in the present crisis the native Princes are generously
placing all the available resources of their States at the disposal of
the Central Government.
An additional security against danger in that quarter is afforded by the
character of the present Czar. His natural disposition is not at all of
the adventurous type, and he will doubtless profit by past experience.
He will not soon forget how he inadvertently drifted into the Japanese
conflict because he let himself be persuaded by ill-informed counselors
that a war with Japan was altogether out of the question. We can hardly
suppose that he will listen to such counselors a second time. Moreover,
he showed on one memorable occasion that he was animated with friendly
sentiments toward England. The incident has hitherto been kept secret,
but may now be divulged. During the South African war a hint came to him
from a foreign potentate that the moment had arrived for clipping
England's wings and that Russia might play a useful part in the
operation by making a military demonstration on the Afghan frontier. To
this suggestion the Czar turned a deaf ear. I am well aware that in
semi-official conversation the foreign potentate in question has
represented the incident in a very different light, but recent
experience has taught us to be chary of accepting literally any
diplomatic assurances coming from that quarter.
On this subject of possible future conflicts with Russia and of the best
means of averting them, I have a great deal more to say, but I have now
reached the limits of the space at my disposal, not to mention the
patience of my readers, I confine myself, therefore, to a single
additional remark. The conflicting interests of the two great empires
are not so irreconcilable as they are often represented, and the chances
of solving the difficult problem by mutually satisfactory compromises
may be greatly increased by cultivating friendly relations with the
power which was formerly our rival and is now happily our ally.
Confiscation of German Patents
[From Russkia Vedomosti, No. 235, Oct. 12 (25), 1914; No. 273, Nov. 27
(Dec. 10), 1914.]
The conference of the representatives of industry at the Ministry of
Commerce and Industry decided that it is desirable that the Government
should confiscate the patents granted to Austrian and German subjects
for inventions which may be of special interest for the State, provided,
however, that the patent holders should be reimbursed after the end of
the war.
The conference found it impossible to abolish the trade marks of German
and Austrian subjects, for this would hurt the Russian consumer, who
could be then easily cheated by false labels.
Two conflicting opinions prevailed in the conference. The one held that
the commercial treaties between Russia and Germany (and Austria) have
left the question of patents out of consideration, while the other
pointed out that the commercial treaties had granted to German subjects
equal rights and privileges with Russians as regards patents.
The decision seems to be a compromise between the two.
A delegation of the Moscow Merchants' Association, consisting of Messrs.
N.N. Shustov, I.G. Volkov, and A.D. Liamin, will soon go to Petrograd to
petition the Ministers of Finance, Commerce and Industry and of the
Interior for measures against German "oppression." The delegation
intends to ask for the revocation of all privileges (franchises) and
patents granted to Austrian, German, and Turkish subjects and for the
granting to the Moscow merchants of the right to admit foreigners to the
Merchants' Association only at its own discretion.
Finally, the delegation intends to discuss with the Ministers the
special fund created recently at the State Bank for the settlement of
payments to foreign merchants belonging to the warring nations. With
this fund Russian merchants are depositing money for their matured
notes. Thus the payment for foreign goods is now better guaranteed than
before. The German merchants are taking advantage of this arrangement,
offering their goods to Russian consumers through their agents and
branch houses and commercial agents located in neutral countries.
Therefore the new arrangement helps rather than hurts the German trade
in Russia.
A Russian Income Tax
Proposed by the Ministry of Finance.
[From Russkia Vedomosti, No. 225, Oct. 1 (14), 1914.]
In the long list of new Russian taxes the income tax is the most
interesting. It is still only a drafted bill. The Government hesitates
to press it. Perhaps the Duma will take some steps to make this bill a
law. Its main provisions are as follows:
All annual incomes of 1,000 rubles ($500) and above are to be assessed
at a progressive rate ranging from 1-1/2 per cent. on 1,000 rubles to
the maximum of 8 per cent. on incomes of 200,000 rubles ($100,000) and
above. All persons engaged actively in the present war shall be exempt
from this tax.
All persons freed from military service within the last four years are
to pay an additional tax equal to 50 per cent. of their income tax,
provided the incomes of the parents whose sons have been freed reach
2,000 rubles ($1,000).
All persons freed from military service having incomes below 1,000
rubles ($500) are to pay a uniform tax of 6 rubles ($3). A special war
tax is to be levied in provinces where the whole population or certain
groups of the population are freed from military service.
Note: For a poor country like Russia the minimum exempt from taxation is
very high. The large number of able-bodied men in war would cut into
this tax considerably. It has been figured out that the special 6-ruble
tax on those freed from the military service would yield about
13,000,000 rubles ($6,500,000). The total revenue from this tax would
hardly reach 50,000,000 rubles. Commenting upon this bill, critics have
proposed to reduce the minimum exempt from taxation from 1,000 rubles
($500) to 750 rubles ($375) and to cut out the special 6-ruble war tax.
PING PONG.
By BEATRICE BARRY.
Faith, hear our soldier boys a-sighin'
'Cause Major General John O'Ryan
Won't let 'em dance!
The hard-wood floors he's goin' to rip--
They may not hesitate or dip;
I'm told that he was heard to say
They're 'sposed to work and not to play
Ping Pong!
Ping Pong!
Ping Pong!
No more about a slender waist
Shall arm in uniform be placed.
He looks askance
At signs of happiness and mirth;
Soldiers were put upon the earth
To sweat and dig in hard dirt floors,
And so prepare 'emselves for war's--
Ping Pong!
Ping Pong!
Ping Pong!
I cannot say--I do not know
Whether the boys would have it so;
But if by chance
We should engage in carnage grim,
And harm, alas! should come to him--
Would they feel sorrow then, or bliss,
The while they heard the bullets hiss
Ping Pong,
Ping Pong,
Ping Pong?
Tools of the Russian Juggernaut
By M.J. Bonn.
Prof. Bonn is Professor of Political Economy at the University
of Munich and German Visiting Professor to the University of
California. The following article by him was published on Aug.
8, 1914, in the first week of war.
As long as hostile censors muzzle truth there is no use in discussing
the European military situation. Where the ingenuity of American
newspaper men has failed it would be presumptuous for any one to try.
But the question, Why are we at war? can be answered fairly well by
anybody conversant with the facts of the European situation.
We are not at war because the Emperor, as war lord, has sent out word to
his legions to begin a war of world-wide aggression, carrying into its
vortex intellectual Germany, notwithstanding all her peaceful
aspirations.
I may fairly claim to be a representative of that intellectual Germany
which comes in now for a good deal of sympathy, but I must own that
intellectual Germany, as far as I know about her, thoroughly approves of
the Emperor's present policy.
She approves of it not on the principle merely "Right or wrong, my
country"; she does so because she knows that war has become inevitable,
and that we must face that ordeal when we are ready for it, not at the
moment most agreeable to our enemies. If intellectual Germany wants to
develop the moral and intellectual qualities of the German people she
can do so only if there is peace--real peace--not endangered by the fear
of some sudden and treacherous aggression.
We approve of the war because we realize that such a peace was no longer
possible. Some of our critics are trying to show that we wanted a war,
as we wanted the colonial empire of France.
We have, indeed, refused the demand made by England as the price for her
neutrality--that we should not be allowed to take any part of France's
colonial domains, even in case of complete victory.
We refused this stipulation, not because we were after those colonies,
but because a so-called neutral power tried to impose conditions upon us
she would never have dreamed of asking from France.
If we were hankering after conquest we would have made war long ago. We
would have done so during the Morocco crisis, when Russia had not yet
recovered from the Japanese war; when Turkey was still a mighty empire,
ready to take our side, overawing the Balkan States and threatening
Russia; when Rumania was our ally and when France, trying to swallow up
the independent States of Morocco, but put herself morally in the wrong.
We refrained from war not because England supported France. The
developments of the last week have shown that we are ready to face
England, too, when needs must be. We decided for peace because we were
convinced that no amount of colonial aggrandizement could compensate us
for the dangers and horrors of a big European war.
Our diplomatic methods during those days may have been brusque and
annoying, but our aim was peace. Though we are held up continually as
the disturber of European peace, driven on by a mad desire for
territorial aggrandizement, we are the only big European nation which
has not increased her territory during the last twenty-five years.
Russia tried to steal the Far East and is now going half shares with
England in Persia. England annexed the Boer republics and is playing
with Russia for the Persian States.
France has taken Morocco; Italy, Tripoli; Austria-Hungary has formally
annexed Bosnia.
Even little Servia, who is praised just now as the most just and
God-fearing nation, has succeeded in wresting a large part of Macedonia,
inhabited by Bulgarians, from her Bulgarian allies.
The only conquest we went in for was an exchange of a strip of West
Africa, which we got from France as a kind of hush money, for her
Morocco policy, England, Italy, and Spain having taken their payment in
advance.
We have led no war of aggression for new territories, and we are held up
to moral contempt by all those nations who have taken their shares.
We went to war because we had to keep faith with Austria. We do not and
we did not approve of every step our ally has taken. But our idea of a
faithful alliance is not that you can chuck your partner whenever he has
made a mistake, but that you must stick to him through good and evil.
You may upbraid him privately if you dislike his methods; you may give
him a fair warning, but as long as your bargain exists you must stick to
it.
And our alliance with Austria is not a mere piece of political strategy,
not an unholy alliance like that of republican France with despotic
Russia or Anglo-Saxon England with Mongol Japan.
Our States have a common history. We are, as far as the Austrian Germans
are concerned--about a third of the population of Austria--the same
people. We have, and that is perhaps the most decisive point in the
alliance, nearly the same position on the surface of the globe.
We are both inland empires situated in the centre of Europe, surrounded
by many different nations, all of whom may bear some grudge against us.
As long as our joint frontiers are safe we can stand back to back and
face calmly any unnatural confederation like the present one.
We concluded the alliance with Austria because we wanted to safeguard
ourselves against foreign attack; it has turned out the alliance has
involved us in war. We might have avoided the war at present if we had
broken faith with our ally.
It would not have been difficult for us to find some legal quibbles,
like those which Italy, following a policy of very sober national
egotism, is now earnestly exclaiming to all the world.
If we had done so we should have been knaves, but we should have been
fools as well. For surely nobody can believe that the forces
antagonistic to Germany would have ceased to act if we had left Austria
in the lurch.
Neither France nor Russia nor England would have changed their policy.
They might, moreover, have tried to make Austria join in some future
conspiracy against us.
There are three main causes to which the war is due:
1. The French have never forgotten their defeat in 1870 and 1871. They
have always been thirsting for revenge.
2. We are at war because Russia thinks she has a mission on behalf of
the Slavic world; she feels that mission can only be fulfilled by
smashing Germany, the bulwark of Western idea.
3. We are at war because England has returned to her old political
ideals. She means to enforce anew the balance of power and she wants to
cut down Germany to that normal dead-level which alone, she thinks, is
consistent with her own security.
As far as our antagonism to France is concerned, we have always looked
upon it as a regrettable fact which time, perhaps, might do away with.
We are just enough to understand that a country like France, with a
glorious past, a gallant spirit and an undaunted courage, cannot forget
the blow we dealt her forty-three years ago.
We think we have been right in retaking from her Alsace-Lorraine,
belonging originally to the German Empire. But we look with a kind of
envy upon her who succeeded in denationalizing the people of those
provinces to such a degree that we have not yet been able to make them
Germans once more.
We have always regretted that the two most civilized nations in
Continental Europe should be rent asunder by an unforgotten past.
We hoped that the creation of a wonderful African empire might in the
long run soothe French national feeling. We should have been always
willing to come to an understanding on the existing state of affairs,
but though there have been lucky statesmen in France who tried such a
policy, public opinion was too strong for them. French people preferred
to sacrifice the main ideas on which their republican government is
based and made an alliance with Russia.
Religious, national, and political oppression in Russia against Pole,
Jew, and Finn, against workingman and intellectual, is propped up by the
help of liberal thinking France, whose conservatism threw a Western
glamour over Russian ill-deeds.
We have regretted more than words can say it that France has annihilated
herself as a power for the moral improvement of the universe by making
herself a tool of the Russian Juggernaut.
We read in the papers today that after a small frontier engagement in
Alsace-Lorraine the signs of mourning were taken off from the statues
representing Alsatian towns on Parisian squares.
We know in our innermost hearts that they will have to be attached for a
long time to come to those three emblems of human progress for which
France is supposed to stand, liberty, fraternity, equality, if our arms
are not successful.
We realize that the gallant spirit of the French people has furnished
the mainspring which has made this war possible.
We honor her for her courage. For we know well enough that it is she
alone among the partners who runs real risks. We know that she is not
moved by sordid motives. But as we know her unforgiving attitude, as we
knew that she was helping Russia and egging her on against us; that she
was instigating Britain and Belgium as well as Serb and Rumanian, we had
to take her attitude as what it was; as the firm policy of a patriotic
and passionate people, waiting for the moment when they could wipe out
the memory of 1870, putting nationality to the front, sacrificing their
own ideals of humanity.
Would France have given up this attitude if we had not stood by our
Austrian ally? Would she have broken her word to her Russian friend if
we had been a little more conciliatory?
I think we would commit a libel on French honor and on French patriotism
if we assumed that any step on our part could have prevented her from
trying to redress the state of affairs produced by the events of 1871.
[Illustration: decoration]
Fate of the Jews in Poland
By Georg Brandes.
[From The Day, Nov. 29, 1914.]
Georg Brandes, Denmark's critic and man of letters, has lived
in many European countries and spent the year 1886-87 in
Russian Poland. His books on "Impressions of Poland" and
"Impressions of Russia" show his interest in the political and
social conditions of the Russian Empire.
The war raging in and out of Europe does not give the experienced much
reason to hope. The immense mischief daily caused by it is certain
enough. The benefits which are believed to be the result of it and of
which the various nations dream differently are so uncertain that they
cannot possibly be reckoned upon. Before those whose sympathy was with
the deep national misfortune of the Polish people, there rose the image
of the reunion and emancipation of this tripartited people under
extensive autonomy, and most probably under the protection and supremacy
of a great power.
For the present we are far away from that goal. Poles are compelled by
necessity to fight in the Prussian, Austrian and Russian armies, against
each other. Not the smallest attempt at emancipation has been made
either in Prussian Posen or in the Russian "Kingdom" or in Austrian
Galicia. We might even say that the dismemberment at present is going
deeper than ever, as it is now cleaving the minds as well.
The only indication of a future union is the manifesto of the Grand Duke
Nikolai, the Russian Field Marshal, to the Poles, issued in the middle
of August. It began: "Poles, the hour has struck in which the holy dream
of your fathers and grandfathers may be fulfilled. Let the borders
cutting asunder the Polish people be effaced; let them unite under the
sceptre of the Czar. Under this sceptre Poland will regenerate, free in
religion, language, and autonomy."
And it ended in the following way: "The dawn of a new life is beginning
for you. In this dawn let the sign of the cross, the symbol of the
sufferings and the resurrection of the people, shine."
How clearly this manifesto, with its surprising love of liberty, its
pious reference to the cross, bore the stamp of having been enforced by
circumstances, and how accustomed one had become to disregard promises
from the Russian Government of full constitutional liberty and the like,
as those given before had not meant very much either in Finland or in
Russia itself. Still the manifesto, as a sign of the time, was well apt
to make an impression on the great masses who had always heard the
authorities stamp as criminal plots, as high treason, what was now
suddenly called from the supreme place "the holy dream of the
forefathers."
The purpose of the proclamation was probably, above all, to prevent a
revolt in Russian Poland the moment hostile troops invaded it. On the
Austrian Poles the manifesto seems to have failed to produce its effect.
As these Poles enjoy full autonomy in Galicia, and for a century have
witnessed the severity and cruelty with which their kinsmen in Russian
Poland have been oppressed, they received the proclamation with loud
vows of faithfulness to the house of Hapsburg; nay, all the _sokol_
societies which in time of peace (keeping a decision in view) had
trained their members in games and the use of arms, placed themselves as
Polish legions at the disposal of the Government against the Russians.
But that was not all. The Ruthenian inhabitants of Galicia, one-half the
population of the country, founded _a League for the Release of Ukraine_
and flooded Europe from the 25th of August with notifications and
descriptions hostile to Russia. The founders did not withhold their
names. They are D. Donzow, W. Doroschenko, M. Melenewsky, A.
Skoropyss-Joltuchowsky, N. Zalizniak and A. Zuk.
And it has very soon proved that, in spite of the proclamation of the
independence of Poland, the Czar, at any rate, includes East Galicia in
Poland as little as the inhabitants are regarded or treated as Poles or
Ruthenians. The Russians were hardly in Lemberg, before this town and
the whole of East Galicia were called in the orders of the day old
Russian land and the inhabitants described as Russians, whom their
brothers had now come to set free.
What impression the imperial manifesto made in Posen can scarcely be
proved, as each hostile remark against Prussia would have been punished
as high treason.
The German Emperor has, however, no less than the Russian Czar, been
courting the favor of the Poles and trying to win them through promises.
One month after the issue of the Czar's manifesto, a proclamation from
von Morgen, the German Lieutenant General, was displayed in the
Governments of Lomza and Warsaw. In this the following sentences are to
be found: "Arise and drive away with me those Russian barbarians who
made you slaves; drive them out of your beautiful country, which shall
now regain her political and religious liberty. That is the will of my
mighty and gracious King." Knowing the passion with which the Poles have
hitherto been driven away from their soil and persecuted because of
their language, we learn from this proclamation that the German
Government has felt the necessity of outbidding the Czar.
As far as may be seen, the Czar's manifesto made very little impression
on the intellectual in Russian Poland, who, of course, received it with
much suspicion. The masses in Russian, as in Austrian, Poland have for
some time stood passionately against each other, hurling accusations of
treason to the holy cause of their native country, until a new party has
now been formed which is politically most unripe, but for that very
reason has an enormous extension. Its password is this: "We do not want
to hear of Russia or of Austria; we only want one thing: the Polish
State without guardianship from any side." In other words, we want the
quite impossible. Political oppression for almost one and one-half
centuries brings its own punishment to a people. In such a people
political skill too easily becomes local patriotism, or it remains in
the state of innocence.
Of what use is it to begin singing: _Polonia farà de sè_? That Poland
cannot become free by itself is evident to anybody who has any political
idea.
Still I am inclined to say, never mind the forms which the Polish
independence and thirst of liberty are taking: they seem to pass like a
purifying storm through all Polish minds. Many times before this has a
glorious future risen before the Poles--1812, when Napoleon began the
second Polish campaign; 1830, when the Poles were buoyed up by the
sympathy of Europe; 1848 and 1863. But hardly has a change of
established conditions appeared so possible and painful barriers so near
the point of falling, as in this great and dreadful crisis.
He who for a generation has been busy with Polish and Russian affairs
can therefore, without much difficulty, imagine how many young Polish
hearts are now beating and burning with hope, expectation and the most
noble aspirations.
Nevertheless, the state of affairs in Russian Poland is at present more
desperate than it has ever been before, during war and revolt; and this
is not due to the pressure of the conditions or the horror of the
situation, but is due to the Poles themselves, to the overstimulation
of the national feeling which sends forth its breath of madness all over
Europe and now whirls round in Polish brains to drive out magnanimity
and humanity, not to speak of reason, which, on the whole, has no
jubilee in Europe in the year 1914.
I dare truthfully say that for no other people have I felt the
enthusiasm that I have felt for the Poles. I have revealed this feeling
at a time when they were not the order of the day, and only very few
shared my sentiments. I pronounced this feeling long ago, but it had
slight effect in drawing the attention of the Poles to my writings about
them or in winning their thanks. The Poles did not discover my book
about them till ten years after it had appeared, and when it had been by
chance translated into German. To write in Danish is as a rule to write
in water.
It would be very ungrateful of me, on this occasion, when I am obliged
to use sharp words to the Poles, not to remember the indescribable
affection and kindness they have shown me in Russian Poland as well as
in Austrian Poland. Among them I have found quite incomparable friends.
For a long time I have therefore refused to say an unkind, not to
mention an offensive word. As far back as in 1898 I refused so
absolutely to make myself the advocate of the Ruthenians against them
that the Ruthenian leaders became my bitter enemies, who never tired of
attacking me, and I was mute as a fish when Björnstjerne Björnson, not
long before his death, upon application of the Ruthenians, attacked the
Poles, fortunately for them with such unreasonable exaggerations that
the attacks did no harm. (Björnson maintained that the Pole as such was
the devil himself as the Middle Ages had imagined him.) I knew better
than Björnson what might be said against electioneering and pressure on
electors in Galicia, but I remained silent because I considered it
unworthy to attack a people which was in such a difficult position and
which was able to defend many minor injustices committed by it as
self-defense. I considered it especially impossible for me to attack the
Poles to whom I was bound by honor and toward whom I bore the warmest,
most sincere sympathy.
It is therefore with no light heart that I write these lines.
Denial of the rights of man to Jewish subjects belongs to the nature of
Russia. Now and then Europe has been startled when an uncommon massacre
of innocent Jews has taken place, as in Kishineff, but all have known
and know that Russia stows her Jewish population together in the Polish
outskirts of the realm, stows them together so tightly that they can
neither live nor die, denies them the liberty of moving, the liberty of
studying, even the right of school--and university--education beyond a
certain (too small) percentage. Only such Jews who hold a university
degree are allowed to live in the capitals of the Empire. No young
Jewish woman is allowed to take up her abode near the universities in
Petrograd or Moscow, unless she has been enrolled as a prostitute, and
it has happened that the police have made their appearance and accused
her of forgery, complaining that she did not carry on her profession,
but was reading scientific books instead. If a man is, for instance, a
doctor of medicine, he may take up his abode in Moscow; in case he is
married his wife may live there with him. But if the couple has a
two-year-old child, the mother is not allowed to take it with her into
the railway carriage and let it live with her in the capital. For the
child has no right to live there. If this right is wanted a detailed
petition must be sent in to the Governor General, in whose power it is
to grant or refuse it.
In a few of the cases where plunder and murder of a Jewish population in
Russia have taken place, the outrages have partly been excused, or at
any rate explained, through the almost incomprehensible ignorance of the
peasants. Russia's most famous political economist, who at the same time
is a great estate owner, has told me himself that when the elections to
the First Duma took place he was informed that each of the peasants on
his estate had voted for himself. He asked them, surprised, what they
meant, and explained to them that in this way none of them could be
elected; but they answered with the question, "Does not each Deputy get
so many rubles a day? Yes. And do you think that we should let so much
money go to another if we, perhaps, might get it ourselves?"
The same prominent estate owner told me that one day he asked some of
his peasants if they really had partaken in a Pogrom which had taken
place in the neighboring parish--he could not believe it, as they looked
so good-natured. To his astonishment they answered yes, and when he
asked them about the reason they replied: "You know it very well." They
then explained that they had killed these Jews because the Jews had
killed their Saviour. He: "But that was so long ago and it was not they
who did it and it did not happen in this country." To which they, again
astonished, exclaimed: "Was it long ago? We thought it was last week."
It appeared that they had understood from the priest's explanation that
the crucifixion had taken place then and there.
Under such conditions one is not surprised by any outrage. But to see
the hatred of the Jews spread in Russian Poland, where people understand
how to read and write, that must surely fill one with wonder. The great
number of Jews in the old Polish Kingdom originated in the days of
Casimir the Great (1309-1370), who out of love for his concubine,
Esther, opened his country to the Jews and made conditions favorable for
them. Since then the number has increased, as the Czars locked up all
their Jewish subjects there. So they have been living separated and with
a special dress like the Jews of Denmark at the time of Holberg. They
have, however, felt and suffered as Polish patriots. As early as 1794 a
regiment of Jewish volunteers fought under Kosciusko; their Colonel fell
in 1809. In 1830 the shallow Polish national Government refused the
Jews' petition to be allowed to enter the army. As they then ventured to
apply for admission to the Polish public schools Nicholas I. punished
them, allowing 36,000 families to be carried away to the steppes of
South Russia, where the regulation for the enlistment of children
overtook them. All their small boys from the age of 6 years were sent to
Archangel in Cossack custody to be trained as sailors. They died in
multitudes on the way.
The evils which befell all the inhabitants of Poland regardless of their
creed for some time suppressed the hatred of the Jews which is always
lurking in the masses. The great men of Poland checked its development.
Adam Mickiewicz, Poland's greatest author, went so far that in his chief
work, Poland's national epic, "Pan Tadeusz" (1834) he makes a Jewish
innkeeper one of the most sympathetic leading characters. He is
introduced in the fourth canto as a genius in music, the great master of
the national instrument, the cymbal; and Mickiewicz makes the
culmination of his poem the moment when Jankiel before Dombrowski
himself plays the Dombrowski marche, symbolical of the whole history of
Poland from 1791-1812, the year in which the poem takes place, the
Napoleon year.
In the year 1860 the equalization of the Jews with the Catholics was a
reality in Warsaw, and when, in February, 1861, at two large public
places in Warsaw, the Russians had shot on the kneeling masses singing
the national anthem, ("Zdymem pozarow,") the Jews felt impelled to show
their national feeling through an unmistakable manifestation.
In masses they accompanied their rabbis into the Catholic churches just
as the Christians in crowds entered the synagogues to sing the same
hymn.
This last feature, the processions of the two creeds into each other's
churches singing the same song, made such an impression on Henrik Ibsen,
the great Scandinavian poet, that again and again he returned in his
conversations to this as one of the greatest and most beautiful
experiences he had ever had.
And now under the whirlstorm of madness which nationalism has driven
across Europe, all this is lost; nay, from a religious reconciliation it
has been turned into flaming hatred between the races.
II.
In 1912 the election of a Deputy to the Duma was to take place in
Warsaw. The population of the town consists of between seven and eight
hundred thousand. As among them there are 300,000 Jews, the majority of
the electors, it was in the power of that majority to elect a Jewish
Deputy. Because of their Polish national feeling, however, they gave up
this right, as they wanted Warsaw, as the capital of the Kingdom of
Poland, to be represented by a man who not only in spirit, but also by
race, was a Pole. Of the Polish committee they only demanded that the
party concerned be no enemy to the Jews. It proved, however, that the
committee in its arrogance would not deal with them at all and proposed
Kucharschewski, a pronounced anti-Semitic candidate and a man who
publicly declared that he desired the election to the Duma only to work
for the extermination of the Jews of Poland. By the way, it is strange
to notice how the word "exterminate," which thirty years ago in the days
of Bismarck and Eduard von Hartmann as _Ausrotten_ was subject to the
curse and condemnation of the Poles, has now come to honor, and how
easily it passes their lips.
As the Jews, of course, could not vote on such a man, they urgently
asked the committee to propose another candidate not inimical to them.
This reasonable request was refused with coarseness and Kucharschewski's
candidacy maintained. Because of that the Jews were obliged to look
about for another candidate of Polish family who was fit for the
position and was not hostile to them. In spite of numerous applications,
they did not succeed in finding such a man; at the last moment, when all
attempts had failed, Jagello, the Social Democrat, declared himself
willing to accept the candidacy of the Jews.
The only thing in his favor was the fact that he was of pure Polish
blood. As their leading men all belong to the higher middle class, they
did not share his views. But the state of affairs forced them to support
him. Lord Beaconsfield used to maintain that the natural disposition of
the Jewish race was conservative, but foolish politics, instead of
encouraging the conservative instincts of the race, forced it to cast
its lot with the most extreme elements of the opposition. It has proved
true here.
Jagello was elected.
The leading men in Russian Poland, who, as a matter of fact, through the
whole new century, had fought against the Jews, although secretly, for
fear they should forfeit the sympathy of the intellectual aristocracy of
Europe, used this electoral victory of the Jews, which had been forced
upon them, to throw off the mask and openly act as their passionate
enemies. The so-called co-operative movement developed during the last
twelve years, and in itself nothing but a fight against the Jewish
commerce, under a different name, now changed into a systematic and
cruelly effected boycotting of the Jewish population. In private as in
public life, the openly pronounced password was: not to buy from Jews,
not to associate with Jews.
At the head of this movement marched the intelligence of Poland, among
others some of its most famous authors, avowed free thinkers as
Nemojewski, nay, as Alexander Swientochowski. Literary life presents
many changes, metamorphoses, which in thoroughness are not very much
inferior to those of Ovid. A good deal is necessary to make one who for
one-half century has witnessed the want of character among writers feel
even the slightest surprise. But I should willingly have sworn that I
should never have lived to see Alexander Swientochowski a nationalist,
he the most uncompromising adversary of nationalism, who endured a good
deal for his conviction, to see the poet of "Chawa Rubin" an
anti-Semitic chief. Not only does all that Alexander Swientochowski
wrote rise against him, but also the words, the powerful words, which
issued from his mouth in his palmy days.
The whole Polish press placed itself at the disposal of this movement.
Young Polish louts were posted outside the Jewish shops and ill-treated
the Christian women and children who wanted to buy there. By means of
the well-known Dumowski a new paper, Dwa Groszi, was started, which
simply urged pogroms. It soon came to bloody struggles. Polish
undergraduates killed an old Jew in the Sliska Street in Warsaw. In the
little town of Welun peasants poured naphtha on the house of a Jew and
put fire to it, burning a large family. Similar acts occurred in several
other places, until the Russian Government stopped this pogrom movement
in order to prevent the Polish nationalism from getting stronger.
The Polish priests in the villages incited the people from the pulpit to
boycotting of and war against the Jews. After the sentence in the Beilis
action the Polish newspapers were almost alone in publishing on
circulars the information that Beilis had been acquitted, but that the
existence of religious murder had been satisfactorily proved. Nay, the
free thinker, Nemojewski, wrote a book, in which he maintained the
monstrous lie that Jewish religious murders are facts, and traveled all
over the country with an agitatorial lecture to the same purpose.
Under these circumstances, the Jews in Russian Poland turned to the few
men whose names were so esteemed or whose characters were so
unimpeachable that their words could not be unheeded.
Ladislas Mickiewicz, the excellent son of the great Mickiewicz, who had
passed his whole life in Paris, first as a publisher and translator of
the works of his father, and then as a Polish patriotic author,
convened, together with some other prominent men, a great meeting at
Warsaw to restore the inner peace. In vain he begged and besought his
countrymen, who had enemies enough otherwise, not to act as enemies of
the Jews, who had always been their friends. No Polish newspaper gave
any report of his speech.
All this took place before the war. The provisional result was the
economic destruction of the Russian-Polish Jews. But now during the war
the glow of the bloody hatred of the Jews has blazed out in far stronger
flames and the Russian Government has as yet done nothing to subdue or
quench the fire.
During the mobilization several Polish newspapers, for instance, The
Glos Lubelski, brought the alarming news in heavy type: "In England
great pogroms against the Jews. The English Government does not check
them." The paper was conscious of the lie. But the question was to set
an example to follow.
When the lack of gold and silver began to be felt the Polish newspapers
accused the Jews of hiding the valuable metals. On closer examination,
it was found that many non-Jewish business people (for instance,
Ignaschewski in Lublin, a very rich Pole) were withholding whole bags
full of gold and silver coins, for which they were punished rather
severely; but this was not proved against a single Jew.
Furthermore, the Jews were, among other things, accused of having
smuggled in a coffin 1,500,000 rubles in gold into Germany; and the
protest against the accusation entered by the representatives and
ministers of the Jewish congregation at Warsaw was printed in Russian
papers, but not in a single Polish one.
All these things were preparations for pogroms; but many others were
made. The anti-Semites printed a proclamation in Yiddish in which the
Jews were called upon to revolt against Russia; they took care that this
proclamation was put into the pockets of the unsuspecting Jews in the
streets of the different towns; those who had distributed the papers
denounced the party concerned to the police. Everybody upon whom the
proclamation was found was shot.
At last the Jews were, as in the Middle Ages, both in word and writing
accused of having poisoned the wells. If some Cossacks or other Russian
soldiers died, the Poles accused the Jews of having caused their death.
The chief accusation was, however, the accusation of espionage, which
obtained general credence and was used both when Austrian troops came to
some town or village and when Russian troops expelled the Austrians. The
result was the same. A suitable number of Jews were conscientiously shot
by the Russians as well as by the Austrians. There are, however, lists
of those who really have been unmasked as spies. A Potocki was among
them, and had to pay for it with his life; but no Jewish name is found
on these lists.
The accusation is, however, always believed, as the Jew has, for about
two thousand years, been characterized as Judas.
The legend about Judas may without exaggeration be described as one of
the most foolish legends of antiquity; that it has been believed is one
proof among thousands of the indescribable simplicity of mankind. Few
legends carry like it the stamp of lie on their faces and few legends
have millennium after millennium caused so many evils and horrors. It
has tortured and murdered by hundred thousands.
According to the supposition the story is impossible. The supposition is
that a man in possession of superhuman attributes, a god or a demi-god,
day after day goes about and speaks in the open air in a town and its
neighborhood. So little does he make a secret of his doings that a short
time before he had made his entry at broad daylight, welcomed with
exultation by the whole population. He is known by each and all, by each
woman and each child. So little does he want to hide that he walks about
accompanied by his disciples, preaching day and night, sleeping among
them. And to think it should be necessary to buy one of his disciples to
denounce him and deliver him, to betray him, and that--for the sake of
the effect--with a kiss! Indeed if he had hidden in some cellar, then
there would be some meaning in it; but as things are, those who seek
him need only ask: which of you is Jesus? He would not have tried to
deny his name.
Judas is then not only quite superfluous, but an absurdity, the origin
of which is to be found in the desire to place the black traitor
opposite the white hero of light and in the hatred of Jews arising among
the first Gentile Christians, who later made the world forget that not
only this straw-doll, Judas, but also Jesus and all the Apostles, all
the Disciples and all the evangelists were Jews.
Nevertheless, in the conception of the rude masses this Judas--as he was
called--has become the Jew, the typical Jew, the traitor, and the spy.
Still as late as in the last decennium of the last century, Capt. Alfred
Dreyfus fell a victim to this old foolish legend.
And now it is again rehashed against the Jews in Russian Poland.
The pogroms have, by virtue of these Judas accusations and the many
other dreadful accusations, spread all over Russian Poland and there
they are spreading more and more, while Galicia as well as Posen has
proved susceptible to the incitations which have not failed. Many
hundreds of innocent people have fallen victims to them.
Here are a few instances from many:
In the town of Bechava, conquered by the Austrians, the Polish leaders,
among whom was a very well-known estate owner, applied to the Austrian
commandant, accusing the Jews of secret connection with the Russian
Army. In consequence of this the Austrians killed a 67-year-old man
called Wallstein, and his 17-year-old son. When, after a short time, the
Austrians were driven away, the same estate owner accused the Jews of
the town to the Russian commandant of being in communication with the
Austrians, having delivered to them all provisions for the purpose of
depriving the Russians of them. In consequence of his accusation, many
Jews were shot and their houses burned down.
In the towns of Janow and Krasnik the Jews were accused of having put
out mines to destroy the Russians. The Jews, and among them many
children, were hanged on the telegraph poles, and the two towns
destroyed.
The town of Samosch was conquered by the Austrian Sokol troops, those
beautiful slender people whom you do not forget when once you have seen
them train in the capital of Galicia. When they were driven away from
the Russian Army the Poles accused the Jews of the town of having been
the accomplices of the Austrians. Twelve Jews were arrested. When they
denied the charge they were sentenced to death. Five of them had been
already hanged, when in the middle of the execution a Russian priest,
carrying an image of the Virgin in his hand, appeared and with his hand
on this image took the oath that the Jews were innocent and that the
accusation was all an outcome of Polish hatred of the Jews. He proved
that the Poles of the town themselves had supported the Austrians and
that even a telephone connection with Lemberg could be found. The seven
Jews were then set free; five had already been hanged.
In the town of Jusefow, the Jews were accused of having poisoned the
wells through which hundreds of Cossacks had lost their lives.
Seventy-eight Jews were killed, many women were ravished, and houses and
shops plundered.
Similar events happened and still happen daily by hundreds. Greater or
smaller pogroms with murder, rape, and plunder have thus taken place in
the districts of Warsaw, Random, Petrikow, and Kelts.
Only a few Russian Governors, such as Korff, in Warsaw; Kelepowski, in
Lublin, and the Governors of Wilna, Petrikow, and Grodno have spoken,
although too late, against the pogroms, but neither the Government nor
the Poles take these warnings seriously.
Eyewitnesses have told me about Jewish soldiers in the different
lazarets who have turned mad, not through the unavoidable horrors of the
war, but because of the pogroms they have witnessed in the towns they
have passed. They mistake those they have seen murdered for their own
relations; they imagine they see their own mothers, sisters, or beloved
ones in that plight. They are always raving about the same thing.
The pursuit of the Jews by the Russian-Polish anti-Semites is the more
invidious under these circumstances, as 300,000 Jewish soldiers, among
them many volunteers, are serving in the Russian Army, and as the
self-sacrifice of the army and the Red Cross hitherto has been
immeasurable. In the great congregations are special hospitals for
Russian soldiers--regardless of their creed--founded by Jews and with
Jewish money. Not a few Jewish soldiers have already won the highest
military distinctions, nay, a few of them have even received them from
Mr. Rennenkampf, the Commander in Chief himself, who used to be a
zealous anti-Semite, as the Russian Court on the whole is passionately
anti-Semitic. The manifesto from the Czar _To my dear Jewish subjects_,
which has been printed in the French newspapers, has never been anything
but a fabrication.
While the usual accusation against the Jews in Russian Poland was that
of sympathizing with the Russians--for which they have no special
reason--Mr. A. Warinski, who in Russia is classed among the black ones,
also called the true Russians--in "Politiken" has made the charge
against them that the German attempts of gaining the Poles "have only
had the effect desired on the Russian and Polish Jews, as these
elements, because of psychological relation with the Prussians, feel
disposed to place themselves at the side of Germany." This accusation
and the arguments for it might express the culmination. The Jew shall
and must be Judas. If it cannot be accomplished in one way the opposite
way is tried. Mr. Warinski does not say one word about how many Jews
have gone into the war as volunteers out of pure enthusiasm for Poland.
They have not been able to believe, as I for my part cannot believe,
that the last outcrop of nationalism in Russian Poland is more than a
temporary epidemic.
How could Russian Poles in the long run be unfaithful to the only powers
they have been able to appeal to, the only powers which took an
interest in them? How can they who are fighting for their liberty after
so many years' ill-treatment be willing to seize an opportunity to
ill-treat the only people who (to its misfortune) is in their power, the
only people who have suffered far more and twenty times as long as they
themselves; and the only ones who are too strong to be destroyed through
any ill-treatment? How can the Poles, who were at times ruined as a
State through the treachery of their own men, want to fling out the
accusation of treason against a tribe which has never betrayed itself
and which even in the deepest abasement never betrayed the only Slavic
tribe who in the Middle Ages gave a refuge to its children?
I suppose that the Poles will maintain against this appeal to them that
I, whom the Ruthenians could never bring to make any attack on them, am
now, because of my descent, speaking in favor of a matter, which is very
unpleasant to them. My personal descent has so little influenced my
proceedings and way of thinking that during the whole of my public life
I have been subject to continual attacks in national Jewish periodicals
and newspapers as the man who denied community of descent and supposed
community of faith.
This Spring during my stay in America I was continually attacked in the
American Jewish papers as the callous denier of the Jews. It was
nonsense, as is most of that which appears in print, but it proves at
least that it is not on behalf of my blood but on behalf of my mind that
I speak on this occasion. My sympathy is not with the Jews as Jews, but
as the suppressed and ill-treated.
I am the man who a generation ago wrote: "We love Poland, not in the
same way that we love Germany or France or England, but as we love
liberty. For what is to love Poland but to love liberty, to feel a deep
sympathy with misfortune and to admire courage and combative enthusiasm?
Poland is the symbol of all that which the supreme among mankind have
loved and for which they have fought."
These were my words and hitherto I have adhered to them.
Shall I have to feel ashamed of having written them, now that Poland's
future is being decided?
GEORG BRANDES.
[Illustration: decoration]
Commercial Treaties After the War
By P. Maslov.
[From Russkia Vedomosti, No. 207, Sept. 10, (23,) 1914.]
For reasons beyond my control,[2] I am unable as a member of the Free
Economic Association[3] to participate in the discussion of the methods
of raising money by taxation for the war expenditures. The political
group to which I belong may not give full expression to its views. What
follows is my personal opinion shared by several men.
[Footnote 2: Mr. Maslov, who is a well-known Russian economist, was
arrested shortly after the beginning of the war on suspicion of not
being loyal enough.--Translator.]
[Footnote 3: The Russian Free Economic Association is one of the oldest
scientific bodies of Russia. It considers at its meetings proposed
taxation and various questions of economic policy. It is but natural
that the proposed new taxes should have provoked ardent discussion in
this association. How the war taxes should be levied (direct versus
indirect taxation) and who shall be the taxpayers, were among the chief
topics discussed at its recent meetings.--Translator.]
The attack by Germany is not only a menace to the democracy of France
and Belgium, it not only threatens a political dictatorship by the
Prussian nobility over Europe, but is a danger of far greater magnitude
than these. For the first time Europe is in peril of having her
commercial treaties determined by the sword. Up to this time even the
smaller countries have been saved from such a violent course, and
European capital has been obliged to restrict itself to the oppression
of Asiatic countries. Now for the first time--in case of a German
victory--Europe stands in danger of having her commercial arrangements
forced upon her by an iron hand, and is threatened with being turned
into a German colony. For in the case of a German victory no power in
Europe will be able to withstand Germany. And Germany will deal without
ceremony even with Austria.
On the other hand, in case of German defeat, the foremost capitalistic
country, Great Britain, may not menace Europe for two reasons: First,
Great Britain holds to the policy of free trade; second--and this is the
main point--she cannot support with armed force her policy as against
her allies.
In the meantime the danger indicated above threatens economically
backward Russia; her agricultural population may be ruined, her
industries may be destroyed. An unprecedented situation has arisen for
Russia. All the social classes of the empire are deeply interested in
the repulse of the armies of the Kaiser. The working class is just as
much interested in the existence of Russian industries as are the
employers. The peasants are in no lesser degree interested in the
development of agriculture; the killing of industries and agriculture
like that committed by England in Ireland centuries ago is a gloomy
prospect for all classes of society. If France and Belgium are
threatened with a political oppression then Russia is threatened with an
even more terrible economic subjugation. Such is the situation.
The poorest classes of the people are taking part in this fight with
what they have, with their blood. It is but natural that they should
expect that the material burdens of the war will fall not upon their
shoulders, but upon big business.
It seems to me that in discussing the sinews of war the Free Economic
Association has not considered fully the psychology of the masses. And
yet this psychology has a decisive influence upon the war, and is bound
to be unfavorable to the war, if the masses of the people feel that the
financial burdens of the war are to be placed upon the weakest
shoulders.
Considering that at the present moment our supreme duty is to repel the
German invasion at all costs, I think that this duty will be better
performed by putting the economic burden of the war upon the shoulders
of the well-to-do classes, for we have to reckon not only with the
taxpaying capacity of the mass of the people, but also with their
psychology.
I regard it as a great mistake that the important problem of the most
economical methods of spending money raised by taxation has not been
considered.
P. MASLOV.
THE WOMAN'S PART.
By MAZIE V. CARUTHERS.
Beside my ruined cottage, desolate,
The children cowering 'round me, mute from fright,
With tearless eyes and brooding heart, I wait,
Watching through all the long, the weary night.
God of the homeless, look from Heaven and see!
Out of the deeps, a woman calls on Thee!
My little ones, they cry all day for bread,
And, 'neath the shelter of my meagre breast,
Stirs one unborn, who must e'er long be fed--
Another babe to hunger with the rest.
Madonna Mary, hear a mother's moan!
Pity the travail I must bear alone!
The tasseled corn would plenteous harvest yield,
But all the crops are rotting in the sun.
Where are the reapers? On some battlefield
They fight for nought and die there, one by one!
God's comfort be upon them where they lie,
Sheep to war's shambles driven--who knows why?
Death and destruction walk by day, by night,
Men's blood is spilt and sacrificed in vain,
While women wait for tidings of the fight
Who may not even sepulchre their slain!
They say "God's in His Heaven"--but, instead,
'Twould seem He is asleep--or, maybe, dead!
A PHOTOGRAPHIC REVIEW OF THE WAR
_CONSISTING OF A CAREFULLY SELECTED SERIES OF THE BEST PICTURES OF THE
WAR PRINTED IN ROTOGRAVURE_
[Illustration: decoration]
[Illustration: Shell Opens the Wall Surrounding the Convent of the
Little Sisters of the Poor at Nieuport, Belgium, Exposing But Not
Damaging the Shrine
© (_Photo, International News Service._)]
[Illustration: Middle-Aged and Elderly Men in Response to the Last Call
Leaving Berlin for the Front.
(_Photo_ © _International News Service._)]
[Illustration: Louvain Peasant in Flight, Conveying His Sleeping Child
and His Possessions on a Wheelbarrow.
(_Photo_ © _Underwood & Underwood._)]
[Illustration: "Bridge of the Arches" Over the Meuse at Liége, Blown Up
by the Belgians to Hamper the Enemy.
(_Photo by Boon, Holland._)]
[Illustration: French Artillery Advancing Through Chauconier, Near
Meaux, on the Marne. One of the Houses on the Right Is Still Burning as
a Result of the Bombardment.
(_Photo by Paul Thompson._)]
[Illustration: Ruins of the Cathedral at Louvain (to the left) After the
German Destruction of the City. In the Background is the Hotel de Ville,
Which Was but Slightly Damaged.
(_Photo_ © _International News Service._)]
[Illustration: Belgian Soldier Turning Sadly from a Mere Lad Who Had
Been Shot in the Fierce Engagement at Huy, and Whose Suffering He Is
Unable to Relieve.
(_Photo_ © _Underwood & Underwood._)]
[Illustration: Interior of the Famous Library at Louvain.
(_Photo by N.J. Boon, Holland._)]
[Illustration: Cupola of a Maubeuge Fort Shattered by the German
42-Centimeter Siege Gun.
(_Photo by Paul Thompson._)]
[Illustration: Trenches Dug in Paris in Preparation for Street Fighting.
(_Photo--Sports & General._)]
[Illustration: Battery of Searchlights from the Place de la Concorde
Sweeping the Sky Over Paris by Night for German Airships.
(_Photo_ © _International News Service._)]
[Illustration: German Soldiers Examining One of the Belgian Army's
Concealed Forts Near Brussels.
(_Photo by Paul Thompson._)]
[Illustration: Sunken Belgian Battery Replying to German Siege Guns Near
Antwerp.
(_Photo--Sports & General._)]
[Illustration: Belgian Armored Train in Action During the Attack on
Antwerp.
(_Photo_ © _International News Service._)]
[Illustration: Belgian Soldier in Armored Car Watching the Bursting of a
German Shell at the Attack on Antwerp.
(_Photo_ © _Underwood & Underwood._)]
[Illustration: Fort Wavre St. Catherine, One of the Strongest in the
Ring Around Antwerp, Crumpled by the German 42-Centimeter Siege Guns.
(_Photo_ © _International News Service._)]
[Illustration: Striking Photograph of the Destroyed Shoe-Market Section
of Antwerp, Looking Toward the Cathedral.]
[Illustration: Belgian Men, Women, and Children Sleeping on Straw at
Rosendaal, Holland.
(_Photo_ © _International News Service._)]
[Illustration: A Captured German Officer Salutes a Belgian Standard,
Though His Men Ignore It as They March Past.]
[Illustration: Sinking of the German Cruiser Mainz in the Naval Battle
Off Heligoland. The Photograph, Taken from the Deck of a British
Warship, Shows the Cruiser in Flames and Settling in the Water.
(_Photo_ © _International News Service._)]
[Illustration: German Prisoners of War, Nearly a Thousand in Number,
Reaching Southern England.
(_Photo_ © _International News Service._)]
[Illustration: Belgian Girls Distributing Walnuts to the Soldiers Behind
Antwerp's Now Ruined Defenses.
(_Photo_ © _Underwood & Underwood._)]
[Illustration: A Remarkable Photograph Taken on the Firing Line at
Ernecourt. One Man Lies Dead, Another Is Being Tended by a Red Cross
Surgeon, and the Second Soldier from the Left Has Just Been Hit.
(_Photo_ © _International News Service._)]
[Illustration: Huge German Siege Gun Used in Bombarding Malines.
(_Photo_ © _International News Service._)]
[Illustration: Scene in the Krupp Gun Works, Where Germany's Army and
Navy Guns Are Manufactured.
(_Photo from Brown Bros._)]
[Illustration: Zeppelin Dirigible, One of the Great Fleet of Airships
Which Germany Is Using in the War.
(_Photo_ © _International News Service._)]
[Illustration: Belgian Guns in Action During the Defense of Antwerp.]
[Illustration: King Albert of Belgium Talking to One of the French
General Staff in the Square at Furnes During a Review of French
Reinforcements.
(_Photo_ © _International News Service._)]
[Illustration: German Soldiers on Outpost Duty Near Antwerp Sharing
Their Food with Little Belgian Orphans.
(_Photo_ © _Underwood & Underwood._)]
[Illustration: Nurse Reading to a Convalescent Soldier in the War
Hospital at Calais.
(_Photo_ © _International News Service._)]
[Illustration: A Red Cross Nurse Taking Down the Last Message of a Dying
British Soldier on the Battlefield.
(_Photo by Paul Thompson._)]
[Illustration: French Artillery Assembled in a Square at Stenay, Just
Before the Town Was Captured by the Germans.
(_Photo by Paul Thompson._)]
[Illustration: A Belgian Outpost in Action on the Battle Line Near the
Franco-Belgian Frontier.
(_Photo_ © _International News Service._)]
[Illustration: Gen. Belin, Who Is Gen. Joffre's Right-Hand Man and an
Important Factor in the Control of the French Forces.
(_Photo_ © _International News Service._)]
[Illustration: Belgian Sharpshooters Attacking from an Armored Train in
the Vicinity of Ypres.
(_Photo_ © _International News Service._)]
[Illustration: German Crown Prince and the King of Saxony Witnessing a
Parade of the Ninety-eighth Regiment of Infantry Before the Crown
Prince's Headquarters.]
[Illustration: The Kaiser (at the extreme left) Witnessing the Parade of
a Saxon Landsturm Regiment.
(_Photo_ © _International News Service._)]
[Illustration: King George and King Albert Reviewing the Belgian Troops
in Flanders. Immediately Behind the Sovereigns Are the Prince of Wales
and His Highness Pertab Singh.
(_Photo_ © _International News Service._)]
[Illustration: Algerian Troops Bringing in German Prisoners From the
Flanders Battle in the Canal Region of Belgium.]
[Illustration: King George V., Queen Mary, and Lord Kitchener Cheered by
Canadian Highlanders at Salisbury, England.
(_Photo_ © _American Press Assn._)]
[Illustration: German Motor Convoy Destroyed in the Forest Near
Villers-Cotteret, France.
(_Photo_ © _International News Service._)]
[Illustration: Red Cross Nurse at a Hospital in Northern France Hanging
Christmas Evergreens Above a Wounded Soldier's Cot.
(_Photo_ © _American Press Assn._)]
[Illustration: Gen. von Heeringen, "the Victor of Saarburg," on the
Right, Talking with Gen. von Emmich, Who Commanded Before Liége.
(_Photo by R. Sennecke._)]
[Illustration: Bringing a Suspected Spy Through the French Lines to
Headquarters After Enveloping His Head to Prevent His Seeing Anything of
Military Value.
(_Photo_ © _American Press Assn._)]
[Illustration: Constantinople Crowds Gathered at the Mosque of Faith
While Sheikh Ul-Islam Proclaims the Declaration of War Against the
Allies.
(_Photo_ © _International News Service._)]
[Illustration: Japanese Bluejackets Coming Ashore Near Tsing-Tau.
(_Photo from Paul Thompson._)]
[Illustration: The Defenders of Tsing-Tau Moving to the Outer Defenses
During the Siege.
(_Photo_ © _International News Service._)]
[Illustration: German Gun in the Bismarck Fortress, Tsing-Tau, Crumpled
by Japanese and British Shells
(_Photos by Paul Thompson._)]
Patriotism and Endurance
By Cardinal D.J. Mercier, Archbishop of Malines.
[_Copyright by Burns & Oates, Ltd., 28 Orchard Street, London. All
rights reserved._]
Here is the celebrated Christmas pastoral letter of Cardinal
Mercier, Archbishop of Malines. It is the first authentic
translated copy of the now famous document to be received in
America. The letter has caused a worldwide sensation because
of its bold appeal to the Belgian people. Its publication
resulted in the detention of the Cardinal by the Germans in
his palace and a consequent protest by the Pope and throughout
the whole Roman Catholic world.
The first reports of the arrest of the Cardinal were denied by
the German authorities. Subsequently an official report made
to the Pope stated that 15,000 copies of the pastoral letter
were seized in Malines and destroyed, the printer being fined;
that the Cardinal was detained in his palace during all Jan.
4; that he was prevented by German officers on Jan. 3 from
presiding at a religious ceremony; that they subjected him to
interrogations and demanded of him a retraction, which he
refused to make. The English reprint of the Cardinal's letter
is copyrighted by Burns & Oates, Ltd., 28 Orchard Street,
London. THE NEW YORK TIMES CURRENT HISTORY reproduces it by
permission.
My Very Dear Brethren: I cannot tell you how instant and how present
thought of you has been to me throughout the months of suffering and of
mourning through which we have passed. I had to leave you abruptly on
the 20th of August in order to fulfill my last duty toward the beloved
and venerated Pope whom we have lost, and in order to discharge an
obligation of the conscience from which I could not dispense myself, in
the election of the successor of Pius X., the Pontiff who now directs
the Church under the title, full of promise and of hope, of Benedict XV.
It was in Rome itself that I received the tidings--stroke after
stroke--of the partial destruction of the Cathedral Church of Louvain,
next of the burning of the library and of the scientific installations
of our great university and of the devastation of the city, and next of
the wholesale shooting of citizens, and tortures inflicted upon women
and children and upon unarmed and undefended men.
And, while I was still under the shock of these calamities, the
telegraph brought us news of the bombardment of our beautiful
metropolitan church, of the Church of Nôtre Dame au dela la Dyle, of the
episcopal palace, and of a great part of our dear City of Malines.
Afar from my diocese, without means of communication with you, I was
compelled to lock my grief within my own afflicted heart and to carry
it, with the thought of you, which never left me, to the foot of the
Crucifix.
I craved courage and light, and sought them in such thoughts as these: A
disaster has visited the world, and our beloved little Belgium, a nation
so faithful in the great mass of her population to God, so upright in
her patriotism, so noble in her King and Government, is the first
sufferer. She bleeds; her sons are stricken down within her fortresses
and upon her fields, in defense of her rights and of her territory.
Soon there will not be one Belgian family not in mourning. Why all this
sorrow, my God? Lord, Lord, hast Thou forsaken us? Then I looked upon
the Crucifix. I looked upon Jesus, most gentle and humble Lamb of God,
crushed, clothed in His blood as in a garment, and I thought I heard
from His own mouth the words which the psalmist uttered in His name: "O
God, my God, look upon me; why hast Thou forsaken me? O my God, I shall
cry, and Thou wilt not hear."
And forthwith the murmur died upon my lips, and I remembered what our
Divine Saviour said in His gospel: "The disciple is not above the
master, nor the servant above his lord." The Christian is the servant of
a God who became man in order to suffer and to die.
To rebel against pain, to revolt against Providence because it permits
grief and bereavement, is to forget whence we came, the school in which
we have been taught, the example that each of us carries graven in the
name of a Christian, which each of us honors at his hearth, contemplates
at the altar of his prayers, and of which he desires that his tomb, the
place of his last sleep, shall bear the sign.
My dearest brethren, I shall return by and by to the providential law of
suffering, but you will agree that since it has pleased a God-made man
who was holy, innocent, without stain, to suffer and to die for us who
are sinners, who are guilty, who are perhaps criminals, it ill becomes
us to complain whatever we may be called upon to endure. The truth is
that no disaster on earth, striking creatures only, is comparable with
that which our sins provoked and whereof God Himself chose to be the
blameless victim.
Having recalled to mind this fundamental truth, I find it easier to
summon you to face what has befallen us and to speak to you simply and
directly of what is your duty and of what may be your hope. That duty I
shall express in two words--patriotism and endurance.
My dearest brethren, I desire to utter in your name and my own the
gratitude of those whose age, vocation, and social conditions cause them
to benefit by the heroism of others without bearing in it any active
part.
When, immediately on my return from Rome, I went to Havre to greet our
Belgian, French, and English wounded; when, later, at Malines, at
Louvain, at Antwerp, it was given to me to take the hands of those brave
men who carried a bullet in their flesh, a wound on their forehead,
because they had marched to the attack of the enemy or borne the shock
of his onslaught, it was a word of gratitude to them that rose to my
lips. "O valiant friends," I said, "it was for us, it was for each one
of us, it was for me, that you risked your lives and are now in pain. I
am moved to tell you of my respect, of my thankfulness, to assure you
that the whole nation knows how much she is in debt to you."
For in truth our soldiers are our saviors.
A first time, at Liége, they saved France; a second time, in Flanders,
they arrested the advance of the enemy upon Calais. France and England
know it; and Belgium stands before them both, and before the entire
world, as a nation of heroes.
Never before in my whole life did I feel so proud to be a Belgian as
when, on the platforms of French stations, and halting a while in Paris,
and visiting London, I was witness of the enthusiastic admiration our
allies feel for the heroism of our army. Our King is, in the esteem of
all, at the very summit of the moral scale. He is doubtless the only man
who does not recognize that fact, as, simple as the simplest of his
soldiers, he stands in the trenches and puts new courage, by the
serenity of his face, into the hearts of those of whom he requires that
they shall not doubt of their country. The foremost duty of every
Belgian citizen at this hour is gratitude to the army.
If any man had rescued you from shipwreck or from a fire, you would
assuredly hold yourselves bound to him by a debt of everlasting
thankfulness. But it is not one man, it is 250,000 men who fought, who
suffered, who fell for you so that you might be free, so that Belgium
might keep her independence, her dynasty, her patriotic unity; so that
after the vicissitudes of battle she might rise nobler, purer, more
erect, and more glorious than before.
Pray daily, my brethren, for these 250,000 and for their leaders to
victory; pray for our brothers in arms; pray for the fallen; pray for
those who are still engaged; pray for the recruits who are making ready
for the fight to come.
In your name I send them the greeting of our fraternal sympathy and our
assurance that not only do we pray for the success of their arms and for
the eternal welfare of their souls, but that we also accept for their
sake all the distress, whether physical or moral, that falls to our own
share in the oppression that hourly besets us, and all that the future
may have in store for us, in humiliation for a time, in anxiety, and in
sorrow. In the day of final victory we shall all be in honor; it is just
that today we should all be in grief.
To judge by certain rumors that have reached me, I gather that from
districts that have had least to suffer some bitter words have arisen
toward our God, words which, if spoken with cold calculation, would not
be far from blasphemous.
Oh, all too easily do I understand how natural instinct rebels against
the evils that have fallen upon Catholic Belgium. The spontaneous
thought of mankind is ever that virtue should have its instantaneous
crown and injustice its immediate retribution.
But the ways of God are not our ways, the Scripture tells us. Providence
gives free course, for a time measured by Divine wisdom, to human
passions and the conflict of desires. God, being eternal, is patient.
The last word is the word of mercy, and it belongs to those who believe
in love. "Why art thou sad, O my soul? and why dost thou disquiet me?
_Quare tristis es anima, et quare conturbas me?_" Hope in God. Bless Him
always. Is He not thy Saviour and thy God? _Spera in Deo quoniam adhuc
confitebor illi, salutare vultus mei et Deus meus._
When holy Job, whom God presented as an example of constancy to the
generations to come, had been stricken, blow upon blow, by Satan, with
the loss of his children, of his goods, of his health, his enemies
approached him with provocations to discouragement; his wife urged upon
him a blasphemy and a curse. "Dost thou still continue in thy
simplicity? Curse God, and die." But the man of God was unshaken in his
confidence. "And he said to her: Thou hast spoken like one of the
foolish women: if we have received good things at the hand of God, why
should we not receive evil? _Dominus dedit, Dominus abstulit; sicut
Domino placuit ita factum est. Sit nomen Domini benedictum._" And
experience proved that saintly one to be right. It pleased the Lord to
recompense, even here below, His faithful servant. "The Lord gave Job
twice as much as he had before. And for his sake God pardoned his
friends."
Better than any other man, perhaps, do I know what our unhappy country
has undergone. Nor will any Belgian, I trust, doubt of what I suffer in
my soul, as a citizen and as a Bishop, in sympathy with all this sorrow.
These last four months have seemed to me age long. By thousands have our
brave ones been mowed down. Wives, mothers are weeping for those they
shall not see again; hearths are desolate; dire poverty spreads, anguish
increases.
At Malines, at Antwerp the people of two great cities have been given
over, the one for six hours, the other for thirty-four hours, to a
continuous bombardment, to the throes of death.
I have traversed the greater part of the districts most terribly
devastated in my diocese,[4] and the ruins I beheld, and the ashes, were
more dreadful than I, prepared by the saddest of forebodings, could have
imagined.
[Footnote 4: Duffel, Lierre, Berlaer Saint Rombaut, Konings-Hoyckt,
Mortsel, Waelhem, Muysen, Wavre Sainte Caterine, Wavre Nôtre Dame,
Sempst, Weerde, Eppeghen, Hofstade, Elewyt, Rymenam, Boort-Meerbeek,
Wespelaer, Haecht, Werchter-Wackerzeel, Rotselaer, Tremeloo; Louvain and
its suburban environs, Blauwput, Kessel-Loo, Boven-Loo, Linden, Hérent,
Thildonck, Bueken, Relst, Aerschot, Wesemael, Hersselt, Diest, Schaffen,
Molenstede, Rillaer, Gelrode.]
Other parts of my diocese, which I have not had time to visit,[5] have
in like manner been laid waste. Churches, schools, asylums, hospitals,
convents in great numbers are in ruins. Entire villages have all but
disappeared. At Werchter-Wackerzeel, for instance, out of 380 homes 130
remain. At Tremeloo two-thirds of the village are overthrown. At Bueken,
out of 100 houses 20 are standing. At Schaffen, 189 houses out of 200
are destroyed; 11 still stand. At Louvain the third part of the
buildings are down; 1,074 dwellings have disappeared. On the town land
and in the suburbs 1,823 houses have been burned.
[Footnote 5: Haekendover, Roosbeek, Bautersem, Budingen, Neerlinder,
Ottignies, Mousty, Wavre, Beyghem, Capelle-au-Bois, Humbeek,
Nieuwenrode, Liezelo, Londerzeel, Heyndonck, Mariekerke, Weert,
Blaesvelt.]
In this dear City of Louvain, perpetually in my thoughts, the
magnificent Church of St. Peter will never recover its former splendor.
The ancient College of St. Ives, the art schools, the consular and
commercial schools of the university, the old markets, our rich library
with its collections, its unique and unpublished manuscripts, its
archives, its gallery of great portraits of illustrious rectors,
chancellors, professors, dating from the time of its foundation, which
preserved for masters and students alike a noble tradition, and were an
incitement in their studies, all this accumulation of intellectual, of
historic, and of artistic riches, the fruit of the labors of five
centuries--all is in the dust.
Many a parish lost its pastor. There is now sounding in my ears the
sorrowful voice of an old man, of whom I asked whether he had had mass
on Sunday in his battered church. "It is two months," he said, "since we
had a church." The parish priest and the curate had been interned in a
concentration camp.
Thousands of Belgian citizens have in like manner been deported to the
prisons of Germany, to Munsterlagen, to Celle, to Magdeburg. At
Munsterlagen alone, 3,100 civil prisoners were numbered. History will
tell of the physical and moral torments of their long martyrdom.
Hundreds of innocent men were shot. I possess no complete necrology; but
I know that there were ninety-one shot at Aerschot and that there, under
pain of death, their fellow-citizens were compelled to dig their graves.
In the Louvain group of communes 176 persons, men and women, old men and
sucklings, rich and poor, in health and sickness, were shot or burned.
In my diocese alone I know that thirteen priests or religious were put
to death.[6]
[Footnote 6: Their brothers in religion or in the priesthood will wish
to know their names. Here they are: Dupierreux of the Society of Jesus,
Brothers Sebastian and Allard of the Congregation of the Josephites,
Brother Candide of the Congregation of the Brothers of Mercy, Father
Maximin, Capuchin, and Father Vincent, Conventual; Lombaerts, parish
priest at Boven-Loo; Goris, parish priest at Autgaerden; Carette,
professor at the Episcopal College of Louvain; de Clerck, parish priest
at Bueken; Dergent, parish priest at Gelrode, and Wouters Jean, parish
priest at Pont-Buûlé. We have reason to believe that the parish priest
of Hérent, van Bladel, an old man of 71, was also killed. Until now,
however, his body has not been found.]
One of these, the parish priest of Gelrode, suffered, I believe, a
veritable martyrdom. I made a pilgrimage to his grave, and amid the
little flock which so lately he had been feeding with the zeal of an
apostle, there did I pray to him that from the height of Heaven he would
guard his parish, his diocese, his country.
We can neither number our dead nor compute the measure of our ruins. And
what would it be if we turned our sad steps toward Liége, Namur,
Audenne, Dinant, Tamines, Charleroi, and elsewhere?[7] And there, where
lives were not taken, and there, where the stones of buildings were not
thrown down, what anguish unrevealed! Families hitherto living at ease
now in bitter want; all commerce at an end, all careers ruined, industry
at a standstill, thousands upon thousands of workingmen without
employment, working women, shopgirls, humble servant girls without the
means of earning their bread, and poor souls forlorn on the bed of
sickness and fever, crying, "O Lord, how long, how long?"
[Footnote 7: I have said that thirteen ecclesiastics had been shot
within the Diocese of Malines. There were, to my own actual personal
knowledge, more than thirty in the Dioceses of Namur, Tournai, and
Liége--Schlogel, parish priest of Hastière; Gille, parish priest of
Couvin; Pieret, curate at Etalle; Alexandre, curate at Mussy-la-Ville;
Maréchal, seminarist at Maissin; the Rev. Father Gillet, Benedictine of
Maredsous; the Rev. Father Nicolas, Premonstratensian of the Abbey of
Leffe; two brothers of the same abbey; one brother of the Congregation
of Oblates; Poskin, parish priest of Surice; Hotlet, parish priest of
Les Alloux; Georges, parish priest of Tintigny; Glouden, parish priest
of Latour; Zenden, retired parish priest of Latour; Jacques, a priest;
Druet, parish priest of Acoz; Pollart, parish priest of Roselies;
Labeye, parish priest of Blegny-Trembleur; Thielen, parish priest of
Haccourt; Janssen, parish priest of Heure le Romain; Chabot, parish
priest of Forêt; Dossogne, parish priest of Hockay; Reusonnet, curate of
Olme; Bilande, chaplain of the Institute of Deaf Mutes at Bouge; Docq, a
priest, and others.]
There is nothing to reply. The reply remains the secret of God.
Yes, dearest brethren, it is the secret of God. He is the Master of
events and the Sovereign Director of the human multitude. _Domini est
terra et plenitudo ejus; orbis terrarum et universi qui habitant in eo._
The first relation between the creature and his Creator is that of
absolute dependence. The very being of the creature is dependent;
dependent are his nature, his faculties, his acts, his works.
At every passing moment that dependence is renewed, is incessantly
reasserted, inasmuch as, without the will of the Almighty, existence of
the first single instant would vanish before the next. Adoration, which
is the recognition of the sovereignty of God, is not, therefore, a
fugitive act; it is the permanent state of a being conscious of his own
origin. On every page of the Scriptures Jehovah affirms His sovereign
dominion.
The whole economy of the old law, the whole history of the chosen
people, tend to the same end--to maintain Jehovah upon His throne and to
cast idols down. "I am the first and the last. I am the Lord, and there
is none else; there is no God beside Me. I form the light and create
darkness, I make peace and create evil. Woe to him that gainsayeth his
maker, a sherd of the earthen pots. Shall the clay say to him that
fashioneth it, What art thou making, and thy work is without hands? Tell
ye, and come, and consult together. A just God and a Saviour, there is
none beside Me."
Ah, did the proud reason of mankind dream that it could dismiss our God?
Did it smile in irony when through Christ and through His Church He
pronounced the solemn words of expiation and of repentance? Vain of
fugitive successes, O light-minded man, full of pleasure and of wealth,
hast thou imagined that thou couldst suffice even to thyself?
Then was God set aside in oblivion, then was He misunderstood, then was
He blasphemed, with acclamation, and by those whose authority, whose
influence, whose power had charged them with the duty of causing His
great laws and His great order to be revered and obeyed. Anarchy then
spread among the lower ranks of mankind, and many sincere consciences
were troubled by the evil example. How long, O Lord, they wondered, how
long wilt Thou suffer the pride of this iniquity? Or wilt Thou finally
justify the impious opinion that Thou carest no more for the work of Thy
hands? A shock from a thunderbolt, and behold, all human foresight is
set at nought! Europe trembles upon the brink of destruction!
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Many are the thoughts that throng the breast of man today, and the chief
of them all is this:
God reveals Himself as the Master. The nations that made the attack, and
the nations that are warring in self-defense, alike confess themselves
to be in the hand of Him without Whom nothing is made, nothing is done.
Men long unaccustomed to prayer are turning again to God. Within the
army, within the civil world, in public, and within the individual
conscience, there is prayer. Nor is that prayer today a word learned by
rote, uttered lightly by the lip; it surges from the troubled heart, it
takes the form, at the feet of God, of the very sacrifice of life. The
being of man is a whole offering to God. This is worship, this is the
fulfillment of the primal moral and religious law--the Lord thy God
shalt thou adore, and Him only shalt thou serve.
And even those who murmur, and whose courage is not sufficient for
submission to the hand that smites us and saves us, even these
implicitly acknowledge God to be the Master, for if they blaspheme Him,
they blaspheme Him for His delay in closing with their desires.
But as for us, my brethren, we will adore Him in the integrity of our
souls. Not yet do we see in all its magnificence the revelation of His
wisdom, but our faith trusts Him with it all. Before His justice we are
humble, and in His mercy hopeful. With holy Tobias we know that because
we have sinned He has chastised us, but because He is merciful He will
save us.
It would perhaps be cruel to dwell upon our guilt now, when we are
paying so well and no nobly what we owe. But shall we not confess that
we have indeed something to expiate? He who has received much, from him
shall much be required. Now dare we say that the moral and religious
standard of our people has risen as its economic prosperity has risen?
The observance of Sunday rest, the Sunday mass, the reverence for
marriage, the restraints of modesty--what had you made of these?
What, even within Christian families, had become of the simplicity
practiced by our fathers, what of the spirit of penance, what of respect
for authority? And we, too, we priests, we religious, I, the Bishop, we
whose great mission it is to present in our lives, yet more than in our
speech, the Gospel of Christ, have we earned the right to speak to our
people the word spoken by the Apostle to the nations, "Be ye followers
of me, as I also am of Christ"?
We labor indeed, we pray indeed, but it is all too little. We should be,
by the very duty of our state, the public expiators for the sins of the
world. But which was the thing dominant in our lives--expiation or our
comfort and well-being as citizens? Alas! we have all had times in which
we, too, fell under God's reproach to His people after the escape from
Egypt: "The beloved grew fat and kicked; they have provoked me with that
which was no god, and I will provoke them with that which is no people."
Nevertheless, He will save us, for He wills not that our adversaries
should boast that they, and not the Eternal, did these things. "See ye
that I alone am, and there is no other God beside me. I will kill and I
will make to live. I will strike and I will heal."
God will save Belgium, my brethren; you cannot doubt it.
Nay, rather, He is saving her.
Across the smoke of conflagration, across the stream of blood, have you
not glimpses, do you not perceive signs of His love for us? Is there a
patriot among us who does not know that Belgium has grown great? Nay,
which of us would have the heart to cancel this last page of our
national history? Which of us does not exult in the brightness of the
glory of this shattered nation? When in her throes she brings forth
heroes, our mother country gives her own energy to the blood of those
sons of hers. Let us acknowledge that we needed a lesson in patriotism.
There were Belgians, and many such, who wasted their time and their
talents in futile quarrels of class with class, of race with race, of
passion with personal passion.
Yet when, on Aug. 2, a mighty foreign power, confident in its own
strength and defiant of the faith of treaties, dared to threaten us in
our independence, then did all Belgians, without difference of party, or
of condition, or of origin, rise up as one man, close ranged about their
own King and their own Government, and cry to the invader: "Thou shalt
not go through!"
At once, instantly, we were conscious of our own patriotism. For down
within us all is something deeper than personal interests, than personal
kinships, than party feeling, and this is the need and the will to
devote ourselves to that more general interest which Rome termed the
public thing, _Res publica_. And this profound will within us is
patriotism.
Our country is not a mere concourse of persons or of families inhabiting
the same soil, having among themselves relations more or less intimate,
of business, of neighborhood, of a community of memories happy or
unhappy.
Not so; it is an association of living souls subject to a social
organization, to be defended and safeguarded at all costs, even the cost
of blood, under the leadership of those presiding over its fortunes. And
it is because of this general spirit that the people of a country live a
common life in the present, through the past, through the aspirations,
the hopes, the confidence in a life to come, which they share together.
Patriotism, an internal principle of order and of unity, an organic bond
of the members of a nation, was placed by the finest thinkers of Greece
and Rome at the head of the natural virtues. Aristotle, the prince of
the philosophers of antiquity, held disinterested service of the
city--that is, the State--to be the very ideal of human duty.
And the religion of Christ makes of patriotism a positive law; there is
no perfect Christian who is not also a perfect patriot. For our religion
exalts the antique ideal, showing it to be realizable only in the
absolute. Whence, in truth, comes this universal, this irresistible
impulse which carries at once the will of the whole nation in one single
effort of cohesion and of resistance in face of the hostile menace
against her unity and her freedom?
Whence comes it that in an hour all interests were merged in the
interest of all, and that all lives were together offered in willing
immolation? Not that the State is worth more, essentially, than the
individual or the family, seeing that the good of the family and of the
individual is the cause and reason of the organization of the State. Not
that our country is a Moloch on whose altar lives may lawfully be
sacrificed. The rigidity of antique morals and the despotism of the
Caesars suggested the false principle--and modern militarism tends to
revive it--that the State is omnipotent, and that the discretionary
power of the State is the rule of right. Not so, replies Christian
theology; right is peace--that is, the interior order of a nation,
founded upon justice. And justice itself is absolute only because it
formulates the essential relation of man with God and of man with man.
Moreover, war for the sake of war is a crime. War is justifiable only if
it is the necessary means for securing peace. St. Augustine has said:
"Peace must not be a preparation for war. And war is not to be made
except for the attainment of peace." In the light of this teaching,
which is repeated by St. Thomas Aquinas, patriotism is seen in its
religious character.
Family interests, class interests, party interests, and the material
good of the individual take their place, in the scale of values, below
the ideal of patriotism, for that ideal is right, which is absolute.
Furthermore, that ideal is the public recognition of right in national
matters and of national honor. Now, there is no absolute except God. God
alone, by His sanctity and His sovereignty, dominates all human
interests and human wills. And to affirm the absolute necessity of the
subordination of all things to right, to justice, and to truth, is
implicitly to affirm God.
When, therefore, humble soldiers whose heroism we praise answer us with
characteristic simplicity, "We only did our duty," or "We were bound in
honor," they express the religious character of their patriotism. Which
of us does not feel that patriotism is a sacred thing, and that a
violation of national dignity is in a manner a profanation and a
sacrilege?
I was asked lately by a staff officer whether a soldier falling in a
righteous cause--and our cause is such, to demonstration--is not
veritably a martyr. Well, he is not a martyr in the rigorous theological
meaning of the word, inasmuch as he dies in arms, whereas the martyr
delivers himself, undefended and unarmed, into the hands of the
executioner; but if I am asked what I think of the eternal salvation of
a brave man who has consciously given his life in defense of his
country's honor and in vindication of violated justice, I shall not
hesitate to reply that, without any doubt whatever, Christ crowns his
military valor, and that death, accepted in this Christian spirit,
assures the safety of that man's soul. "Greater love than this no man
hath," said our Saviour, "that a man lay down his life for his friends."
And the soldier who dies to save his brothers and to defend the hearths
and altars of his country reaches this highest of all degrees of
charity. He may not have made a close analysis of the value of his
sacrifice, but must we suppose that God requires of the plain soldier in
the excitement of battle the methodical precision of the moralist or the
theologian? Can we who revere his heroism doubt that his God welcomes
him with love?
Christian mothers, be proud of your sons. Of all griefs, of all our
human sorrows, yours is perhaps the most worthy of veneration. I think I
behold you in your affliction, but erect, standing at the side of the
Mother of Sorrows, at the foot of the Cross. Suffer us to offer you not
only our condolence, but our congratulation. Not all our heroes obtain
temporal honors, but for all we expect the immortal crown of the elect.
For this is the virtue of a single act of perfect charity--it cancels a
whole lifetime of sins. It transforms a sinful man into a saint.
Assuredly a great and a Christian comfort is the thought that not only
among our own men, but in any belligerent army whatsoever, all who in
good faith submit to the discipline of their leaders in the service of a
cause they believe to be righteous are sharers in the eternal reward of
the soldier's sacrifice. And how many may there not be among these young
men of 20 who, had they survived, might possibly not have had the
resolution to live altogether well, and yet in the impulse of patriotism
had the resolution to die so well?
Is it not true, my brethren, that God has the supreme art of mingling
His mercy with His wisdom and His justice? And shall we not acknowledge
that if war is a scourge for this earthly life of ours, a scourge
whereof we cannot easily estimate the destructive force and the extent,
it is also for multitudes of souls an expiation, a purification, a force
to lift them to the pure love of their country and to perfect Christian
unselfishness?
We may now say, my brethren, without unworthy pride, that our little
Belgium has taken a foremost place in the esteem of nations. I am aware
that certain onlookers, notably in Italy and in Holland, have asked how
it could be necessary to expose this country to so immense a loss of
wealth and of life, and whether a verbal manifesto against hostile
aggression, or a single cannon shot on the frontier, would not have
served the purpose of protest. But assuredly all men of good feeling
will be with us in our rejection of these paltry counsels. Mere
utilitarianism is no sufficient rule of Christian citizenship.
On the 19th of April, 1839, a treaty was signed in London by King
Leopold, in the name of Belgium, on the one part, and by the Emperor of
Austria, the King of France, the Queen of England, the King of Prussia,
and the Emperor of Russia, on the other; and its seventh article decreed
that Belgium should form a separate and perpetually neutral State, and
should be held to the observance of this neutrality in regard to all
other States. The co-signatories promised, for themselves and their
successors, upon their oath, to fulfill and to observe that treaty in
every point and every article without contravention or tolerance of
contravention. Belgium was thus bound in honor to defend her own
independence. She kept her oath. The other powers were bound to respect
and to protect her neutrality. Germany violated her oath; England kept
hers.
These are the facts.
The laws of conscience are sovereign laws. We should have acted
unworthily had we evaded our obligation by a mere feint of resistance.
And now we would not rescind our first resolution; we exult in it. Being
called upon to write a most solemn page in the history of our country,
we resolved that it should be also a sincere, also a glorious page. And
as long as we are required to give proof of endurance, so long we shall
endure.
All classes of our citizens have devoted their sons to the cause of
their country, but the poorer part of the population have set the
noblest example, for they have suffered also privation, cold, and
famine. If I may judge of the general feeling from what I have witnessed
in the humbler quarters of Malines and in the most cruelly afflicted
districts of my diocese, the people are energetic in their endurance.
They look to be righted; they will not hear of surrender.
Affliction is, in the hand of Divine Omnipotence, a two-edged sword. It
wounds the rebellious, it sanctifies him who is willing to endure.
God proveth us, as St. James has told us, but He "is not a tempter of
evils." All that comes from Him is good, a ray of light, a pledge of
love. "But every man is tempted by his own concupiscence.... Blessed is
he that endureth temptation, for when he hath been proved he shall
receive the crown of life, which God hath promised to them that love
Him."
Truce, then, my brethren, to all murmurs of complaint. Remember St.
Paul's words to the Hebrews, and through them to all of Christ's flock,
when, referring to the bloody sacrifice of our Lord upon the cross, he
reminded them that they had not yet resisted unto blood. Not only to the
Redeemer's example shall you look, but also to that of the
30,000--perhaps 40,000--men who have already shed their life blood for
their country.
In comparison with them, what have you endured who are deprived of the
daily comforts of your lives, your newspapers, your means of travel,
communication with your families? Let the patriotism of our army, the
heroism of our King, of our beloved Queen in her magnanimity, serve to
stimulate us and support us. Let us bemoan ourselves no more. Let us
deserve the coming deliverance. Let us hasten it by our virtue even more
than by our prayers. Courage, brethren! Suffering passes away; the
crown of life for our souls, the crown of glory for our nation, shall
not pass!
I do not require of you to renounce any of your national desires. On the
contrary, I hold it as part of the obligations of my episcopal office to
instruct you, as to your duty in face of the power that has invaded our
soil and now occupies the greater part of our country. The authority of
that power is no lawful authority. Therefore in soul and conscience you
owe it neither respect nor attachment nor obedience.
The sole lawful authority in Belgium is that of our King, of our
Government, of the elected representatives of the nation. This authority
alone has a right to our affection, our submission.
Thus the invader's acts of public administration have in themselves no
authority; but legitimate authority has tacitly ratified such of those
acts as affect the general interest, and this ratification, and this
only, gives them juridic value. Occupied provinces are not conquered
provinces. Belgium is no more a German province than Galicia is a
Russian province. Nevertheless, the occupied portion of our country is
in a position it is compelled to endure. The greater part of our towns,
having surrendered to the enemy on conditions, are bound to observe
those conditions. From the outset of military operations the civil
authorities of the country urged upon all private persons the necessity
of abstention from hostile acts against the enemy's army.
That instruction remains in force. It is our army, and our army solely,
in league with the valiant troops of our allies, that has the honor and
the duty of national defense. Let us intrust the army with our final
deliverance.
Toward the persons of those who are holding dominion among us by
military force, and who assuredly cannot but be sensible of the
chivalrous energy with which we have defended and are still defending
our independence, let us conduct ourselves with all needful forbearance.
Some among them have declared themselves willing to mitigate, as far as
possible, the severity of our situation and to help us to recover some
minimum of regular civic life. Let us observe the rules they have laid
upon us so long as those rules do not violate our personal liberty, nor
our consciences as Christians, nor our duty to our country. Let us not
take bravado for courage, nor tumult for bravery.
You especially, my dearest brethren in the priesthood, be you at once
the best examples of patriotism and the best supporters of public order.
On the field of battle you have been magnificent. The King and the army
admire the intrepidity of our military chaplains in face of death, their
charity at the work of the ambulance. Your Bishops are proud of you. You
have suffered greatly. You have endured much calumny. But be patient;
history will do you justice. I today bear my witness for you.
Wherever it has been possible I have questioned our people, our clergy,
and particularly a considerable number of priests who had been deported
to German prisons, but whom a principle of humanity, to which I gladly
render homage, has since set at liberty. Well, I affirm, upon my honor,
and I am prepared to assert upon faith of my oath, that until now I have
not met a single ecclesiastic, secular or regular, who had once incited
civilians to bear arms against the enemy. All have loyally followed the
instructions of their Bishops, given in the early days of August, to the
effect that they were to use their moral influence over the civil
population so that order might be preserved and military regulations
observed.
I exhort you to persevere in this ministry of peace, which is for you
the sanest form of patriotism; to accept with all your hearts the
privations you have to endure; to simplify still further, if it is
possible, your way of life. One of you who is reduced by robbery and
pillage to a state bordering on total destitution, said to me lately: "I
am living now as I wish I had lived always."
Multiply the efforts of your charity, corporal and spiritual. Like the
great Apostle, do you endure daily the cares of your Church, so that no
man shall suffer loss and you not suffer loss, and no man fall and you
not burn with zeal for him. Make yourselves the champions of all those
virtues enjoined upon you by civic honor as well as by the Gospel of
Christ.
"Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever modest, whatsoever just,
whatsoever holy, whatsoever lovely, whatsoever of good fame, if there be
any virtue, if any praise of discipline, think on these things." So may
the worthiness of our lives justify us, my most dear colleagues, in
repeating the noble claim of St. Paul: "The things which ye have learned
and received and heard and seen in me, these do ye, and the God of Peace
shall be with you."
Let us continue then, dearest brethren, to pray, to do penance, to
attend holy mass, and to receive holy communion for the sacred intention
of our dear country.... I recommend parish priests to hold a funeral
service on behalf of our fallen soldiers on every Saturday.
Money, I know well, is scarce with you all. Nevertheless, if you have
little, give of that little for the succor of those among your
fellow-countrymen who are without shelter, without fuel, without
sufficient bread. I have directed my parish priests to form for this
purpose in every parish a relief committee. Do you second them
charitably and convey to my hands such alms as you can save from your
superfluity, if not from your necessities, so that I may be the
distributer to the destitute who are known to me.
Our distress has moved the other nations. England, Ireland, and
Scotland, France, Holland, the United States, Canada, have vied with
each other in generosity for our relief. It is a spectacle at once most
mournful and most noble. Here again is a revelation of the Providential
wisdom which draws good from evil. In your name, my brethren, and in my
own, I offer to the Governments and the nations that have succored us
the assurance of our admiration and our gratitude.
With a touching goodness, our Holy Father Benedict XV. has been the
first to incline his heart toward us. When, a few moments after his
election, he deigned to take me in his arms, I was bold enough there to
ask that the first Pontifical benediction he spoke should be given to
Belgium, already in deep distress through the war. He eagerly closed
with my wish, which I knew would also be yours. Today, with delicate
kindness, his Holiness has decided to renounce the annual offering of
Peter's Pence from Belgium.
In a letter dated on the beautiful festival of the Immaculate Virgin,
Dec. 8, he assures us of the part he bears in our sufferings. He prays
for us, calls down upon our Belgium the protection of Heaven, and
exhorts us to hail in the then approaching advent of the Prince of Peace
the dawn of better days. Here is the text of this valued message:
_To Our Dear Son, Désiré Mercier, Cardinal Priest of the Holy
Roman Church, of the Title of St. Peter in Chains, Archbishop
of Malines, at Malines:_
Our Dear Son: Health and apostolic benediction. The fatherly
solicitude which we feel for all the faithful whom Divine
Providence has intrusted to our care causes us to share their
griefs even more fully than their joys.
Could we, then, fail to be moved by keenest sorrow at the
sight of the Belgian Nation, which we so dearly love, reduced
by a most cruel and most disastrous war to this lamentable
state?
We behold the King and his august family, the members of the
Government, the chief persons of the country, Bishops,
priests, and a whole people enduring woes which must fill with
pity all gentle hearts, and which our own soul, in the fervor
of paternal love, must be the first to compassionate. Thus,
under the burden of this distress and this mourning, we call
in our prayers for an end to such misfortunes. May the God of
mercy hasten the day.
Meanwhile we strive to mitigate, as far as in us lies, this
excessive suffering. Therefore the step taken by our dear son,
Cardinal Hartmann, Archbishop of Cologne, at whose request it
was arranged that French or Belgian priests detained in
Germany should have the treatment of officers, gave us great
satisfaction, and we have expressed our thanks to him for his
action.
As regards Belgium, we have been informed that the faithful of
that nation, so sorely tried, did not neglect, in their piety,
to turn toward us their thoughts, and that even under the blow
of so many calamities they proposed to gather this year, as in
all preceding years, the offerings to St. Peter, which supply
the necessities of the Apostolic See.
This truly incomparable proof of piety and of attachment
filled us with admiration; we accept it with all the affection
that is due from a grateful heart; but having regard to the
painful position in which our dear children are placed, we
cannot bring ourselves to favor the fulfillment of that
project, noble though it is. If any alms are to be gathered,
our wish is that the money should be entirely devoted to the
benefit of the Belgian people, who are as illustrious by
reason of their nobility and their piety as they are today
worthy of all sympathy.
Amid the difficulties and anxieties of the present hour we
would remind the sons who are so dear to us that the arm of
God is not shortened, that He is ever able to save, that His
ear is not deaf to prayer.
Let the hope of Divine aid increase with the approach of the
festival of Christmas and of the mysteries that celebrate the
birth of our Lord, and recall that peace which God proclaimed
to mankind by His angels.
May the souls of the suffering and afflicted find comfort and
consolation in the assurance of the paternal tenderness that
prompts our prayers. Yes, may God take pity upon the Belgian
people and grant them the abundance of all good.
As a pledge of these prayers and good wishes, we now grant to
all, and in the first place to you, our dear son, the
apostolic benediction.
Given in Rome, by St. Peter's, on the feast of the Immaculate
Conception of Our Lady, in the year MCMXIV., the first of our
Pontificate.
BENEDICT XV., Pope.
One last word, my dearest brethren: At the outset of these troubles I
said to you that in the day of the liberation of our territory we should
give to the Sacred Heart and to the Blessed Virgin a public testimony of
our gratitude. Since that date I have been able to consult my colleagues
in the episcopate, and, in agreement with them, I now ask you to make,
as soon as possible, a fresh effort to hasten the construction of the
national basilica, promised by Belgium in honor of the Sacred Heart.
As soon as the sun of peace shall shine upon our country we shall
redress our ruins, we shall restore shelter to those who have none, we
shall rebuild our churches, we shall reconstitute our libraries, and we
shall hope to crown this work of reconciliation by raising, upon the
heights of the capital of Belgium, free and Catholic, that national
basilica of the Sacred Heart. Furthermore, every year we shall make it
our duty to celebrate solemnly, on the Friday following Corpus Christi,
the festival of the Sacred Heart.
Lastly, in every region of the diocese the clergy will organize an
annual pilgrimage of thanksgiving to one of the privileged sanctuaries
of the Blessed Virgin in order to pay especial honor to the protectress
of our national independence and universal mediatrix of the Christian
Commonwealth.
The present letter shall be read on the following dates: On the first
day of the year and on the Sundays following the day on which it shall
severally reach you.
Accept, my dearest brethren, my wishes and prayers for you and for the
happiness of your families, and receive, I pray you, my paternal
benediction.
D.J. CARDINAL MERCIER,
Archbishop of Malines.
APPEAL TO AMERICA FOR BELGIUM.
By THOMAS HARDY.
Seven millions stand
Emaciate, in that ancient Delta-land:
We here, full charged with our own maimed and dead,
And coiled in throbbing conflicts slow and sore,
Can soothe how slight these ails unmerited
Of souls forlorn upon the facing shore!
Where naked, gaunt, in endless band on band
Seven millions stand.
No man can say
To your great country that, with scant delay,
You must, perforce, ease them in their sore need:
We know that nearer first your duty lies;
But--is it much to ask that you let plead
Your loving kindness with you--wooing wise--
Albeit that aught you owe and must repay
No man can say?
With the German Army
By Cyril Brown.
[Staff Correspondent of THE NEW YORK TIMES.]
I.
GERMAN GREAT HEADQUARTERS IN FRANCE, Dec. 1.--There is a certain
monotony about the "scientific murder" of the firing line--a routine
repetition of artillery duels, alarums, and excursions which can be (and
are being) vividly described by "war correspondents" from the safe
vantage ground of comfortable cafés miles away. The real human interest
end of this ultra-modern war is to be gleaned from rambling around the
operating zone in a thoroughly irresponsible American manner, trusting
in Providence and the red American eagle sealed on your emergency
passport and a letter from Charles Lesimple, the genial Consul at
Cologne, to keep you from being shot.
For instance, you get some interesting first-hand knowledge as to how
spies can "get away with it," in spite of the perfect German military
system of controls and passes. There is no "spy hysteria" in Germany as
there apparently is in England, judging from the London papers, but none
the less the German authorities know perfectly well that there are
swarms of spies in their midst and are hunting them down with quiet,
typically Teutonic thoroughness.
But the very perfection of the German military machine is its weak spot,
and on this, my second visit to the German Great Headquarters, I was
able to give the astonished authorities a personal demonstration as to
how any smooth-tongued stranger could turn up at even this "holy of
holies." The nocturnal trail led in a military train from Luxemburg over
Longwy to Longuyon, where at 3 o'clock in the morning I met an old
reader of THE NEW YORK TIMES, Herman Herzberger, a wealthy glove leather
manufacturer of Berlin, well known to the trade in New York and
Gloversville.
"What a coincidence," Mr. Herzberger remarked in good American. "I am
going to the front with my wife to see my 18-year-old son, who is in a
hospital at Vonziers. My son, who was in the high school, enlisted as a
volunteer, with practically the whole school, at the outbreak of the
war."
With "constant reader," I boarded a troop transport at Longuyon and
crawled on through the night to the front. It was a reserve battalion of
a Prussian infantry regiment of the line, and a little research work
produced the interesting discovery that it was composed of men who had
been wounded, were recovered, and going back for the second time. They
were delighted to have an American in their midst, and promptly made me
an honorary member. They had no idea where they were going, but eagerly
hoped "they would be back in the trenches by evening."
"Many of us," said a Sergeant, "did not need to come back because owing
to having received serious wounds the first time we were excused from
further military service--but they all came back none the less. Here's
one man who had nine wounds, from bullets and shell splinters, and this
one was shot through the lungs, but you're all right again, aren't you?
and this one is going back, although he has a wife and six children at
home."
It was an interesting revelation as to the morale of the German
reinforcements.
At 9 o'clock in the morning the troop transport stopped for refreshments
at the French village of X, and here a funny phenomenon was witnessed.
From all sides the shrewd inhabitants of the village came running,
scores of them, with bottles of wine. The laughing German soldiers got
out and, negotiating over a picket fence, returned with the refreshments
while the inhabitants made off with German coin. I saw bottles of
champagne change hands here for the sum of 25 cents. In spite of the
cheapness of wine, however, the German soldier is well disciplined and
does not "go the limit"; I have never seen an intoxicated specimen
afield.
One of the soldiers told the following story to illustrate the iron
discipline enforced in the Kaiser's army in the case of the inevitable
black sheep: "A Frenchwoman, who kept a small tavern, came to our
commandant and complained because a Bavarian soldier had wantonly turned
the spigot and allowed a whole cask of red wine to run out on the
ground. After an investigation the offender was found guilty and for
punishment tied to a tree for two hours. To be tied fast by your head
and legs is the most dreaded punishment, because you are disgraced
before all your comrades."
From X I started out on a foot tour, and entered the Grosses
Hauptquartier (Great Headquarters) unchallenged, by the back door.
Journalistically it was disappointing at first, for it was Sunday
morning, and apparently Prussian militarism keeps the Sabbath holy.
There was no interviewing the Kaiser, for he had gone "way down East"
and with him his War Minister, Gen. von Falkenhayn. The courteous
commandant, Col. von Hahnke, was not on the job. Even the brilliant
chief of the press division, Major Nikolai, was out of town when I
called on the Great General Staff.
But there were compensations, for at a turn of the road I saw a more
impressive sight than even the motoring Kaiser--a mile of German
cavalry coming down the straight chaussé, gray horsemen as far as the
eye could see and more constantly coming over the brow of the distant
hill, with batteries of field artillery sandwiched between, while on the
railroad track, paralleling the highway, infantry and heavy artillery
troop trains crawled past in endless succession, as closely together as
subway trains during the rush hour at home. An allied aeroplane,
hovering overhead, would have learned something to its advantage.
I had innocently blundered into one of the most important troop
movements of the war, but how many and where they were coming from or
where they were going to I pledged myself not to disclose. The
inevitable company of cyclists rode at the head of the long column that
was still passing when I went to bed. Next came an imposing staff--then
a mounted band blaring away, then a crack guard cavalry regiment, proud
standard flying, then cavalry less élite, here and there a palefaced
spectacled trooper who looked like a converted theological student.
Whole regiments came riding down the pike singing "The Red, White, and
Black" in unison--a stirring, marching song, which for patriotic fervor
and fighting spirit "puts it all over" the British "It's a Long Way from
Tipperary."
It was a Roman holiday for the French inhabitants of the town of ----,
who lined the roads en masse quivering with suppressed emotion and
happiness, thinking they were eyewitnessing a great German retreat. "Our
French soldiers will soon be here again," they whispered to one another.
But it wasn't a retreat--it was one of those mysterious strategic shifts
you read about in the papers without really realizing what it means till
you see it--great masses being rushed from one battlefield to another on
the long line.
For weeks these same regiments had been daily "decimated," "cut to
pieces," and otherwise badly mauled by English war correspondents, but
you would never have suspected it. Bearded dragoons and Uhlans were
still able to sit up and smoke big Hamburg cigars as they rode along,
the horses looked fresh, the guns of the batteries were spick and span,
the men seemed to have "morale" to spare; they looked as if they were
just going for the first time--and not coming from the scrimmage.
By way of digression and as illustrating the military "discipline" on
which the Germans pride themselves so, the following whimsical interlude
took place in front of the sacred portals of the Great German Staff: A
famous German professor of philosophy, adorned in civil life with the
high title of Privy Councilor, 65 years old, white-haired,
white-bearded, and with big yellow horn-rimmed spectacles, incongruously
wearing the field gray uniform whose collar and shoulder straps
indicated that he was an unterofficier of the reserve regiment of a
German university town well known to Americans, was waiting patiently
outside of the guarded gate in company with a young Feldwebel (a
non-commissioned officer of higher rank.) The old philosophy professor
had enlisted with practically his whole class at the outbreak of the
war, but on account of his age was not sent to the front with them at
the time, but finally was allowed to go with a transport of four
automobile loads of gifts and supplies for the regiment. He and the
Feldwebel had to hang around outside while the Lieutenant in charge went
inside to do the talking in the Great General Staff Building. Presently
the old philosophy professor ransacked his pockets, produced an apple,
clicked his heels together in regulation fashion and, saluting his young
superior, (infinitely inferior in the civil social scale,) said: "Am I
permitted to offer you an apple, Herr Feldwebel?"
His ranking superior acknowledged the gift with curt military punctilio,
then added respectfully, "I thank you, Herr Privy Councilor."
In the afternoon a forced march of two miles brought me to the handsome
villa occupied by the foreign military attachés, where Major Langhorne,
the American expert, was again found in good health and spirits, and
particularly happy because in a couple of days he was again to see some
real fighting. The Great General Staff continues to give our military
attaché every possible opportunity to see things for himself and give
Uncle Sam the benefit of the military lessons to be learned from the big
scrap, no matter which way it goes.
Today I again dropped in on the Great General Staff and found it not
only at home, but very much interested on discovering that I had no pass
to come or go or be there at that time. The wartime mind of Prussian
militarism is keen and right to the point. It saw not the chance of
getting publicity in America, but the certainty that other more
dangerous spies could come through the same way. By all the rules of the
war game, Prussian militarism would have been thoroughly justified in
treating me as a common spy in possession of vital military secrets, but
it courteously contented itself in insisting on plucking out the heart
of the journalistic mystery. All attempts at evasion and humor were
vain--here was the ruthless reality of war. It was the mailed Prussian
eagle against the bluff American bird of the same species, and the
unequal contest was soon ended when Major Nikolai, Chief of Division
III. of the Great General Staff, stood up very straight and dignified
and said: "I am a German officer. What German violated his duty? I ask
you as a man of honor, how was it possible for you to come here?"
The answer was quite simple: "The German military machine was so perfect
that it covered every contingency except the most obvious and guarded
every road except the easiest way. All you have to do is to take a
passenger train to Luxemburg, and hang around the platform until the
next military train pulls out for Belgium or France, hop aboard, and
keep on going. In case of doubt utter the magic phrase, 'I am an
American,' and flash the open sesame, the red seal of the United States
of America--to which bearded Landsturm guards pay the tribute of
regarding it as equally authoritative as the purple Prussian eagle
stamped on a military pass."
Followed a two-hour dialogue in the private office of the chief of the
Kaiser's secret field police, as a result of which future historians
will find in the Kaiser's secret archives the following unique document,
couched in Berlin "detectivese" and signed and subscribed to by THE
TIMES correspondent:
Secret Field Police, Great Headquarters, Dec. 1, 1914.
There appears the American war correspondent, and at the
particular request of the authorities, explains:
On Saturday, Nov. 30, I arrived at Trier on a second-class
ticket at about 10:30 P.M. There I bought a third-class ticket
and boarded a train leaving about 11:10 P.M. and reached
Luxemburg at about 12:15 A.M. I did not go into the railroad
station, but, trusting to my papers, boarded a military train
leaving at 12:45 A.M., going over Longwy to Longuyon, where I
arrived at 3:30 A.M., Sunday. There an official whose name I
do not know took me to a troop train and made a place for me
in the brake box. I left the train at X and went on foot to H
(the Great Headquarters,) where I reported myself to the Chief
of Police.
I recommend that a sharper control be exercised on the station
platform at Luxemburg, as it is a simple matter to avoid the
only control which is at the ticket gate, by simply not going
out and therefore not having to come in.
The lot of the professional spy will be harder in the future. Meanwhile,
I expect to shake the dust of the German Great Headquarters from my
reportorial feet early tomorrow morning, for pedestrianism is not a safe
pastime in the war zone.
Story of the Man Who Fired on the Rheims Cathedral
II.
WITH THE GERMAN ARMY BEFORE RHEIMS, Dec. 5.--Eating a ham sandwich while
squinting through an artillery telescope at the cathedral and hearing
the man who fired the famous shots tell all about it was the unique
combination I experienced today, and in retrospect the ham sandwich
stands out as the most important feature, for it symbolizes the morale
of the men before Rheims.
The post of observation was in a sometime French fort, now riddled by
French shells, on the crest of a hill affording a fine panoramic view of
the city, and my sightseeing predecessors here had included the Imperial
Chancellor, von Bethmann-Hollweg; Muktar Pasha, the Turkish Ambassador
to Berlin; Major Langhorne, the American Military Attaché, and other
celebrities.
Rheims Cathedral was said to be about four miles away, but through the
powerful magnifying telescope (of the scissors type and so contrived
that only its two eyes peered over the breastworks while the observer
was completely hidden from view) it showed up as clearly as Caruso
through an opera glass. The top of one of the two towers had a decidedly
moth-eaten appearance--it looked as if one of the corners had been shot
away, and the roof was evidently gone, but otherwise the exterior of the
cathedral looked--through the telescope--to be in a good state of
preservation and likely to enjoy a ripe old age. No French observer was
seen on the cathedral towers, and I was informed by First Lieut. Wengler
of the Heavy Artillery that none had been since his admonitory shells
had carried their iron warning to climb down. A staff officer of the
---- Division had introduced him to me as "the friend of the Rheims
Cathedral," explaining that it probably wouldn't be standing today but
for him.
[Illustration: VICE ADMIRAL FREDERICK STURDEE,
Commander of the British Squadron Which Destroyed the German Fleet Off
the Falkland Islands.
(_Photo_ © _American Press Assn._)]
[Illustration: ADMIRAL SIR JOHN FISHER,
First Sea Lord of the Admiralty, Who Holds the Guardianship of the
English Coast.
(_Photo from Underwood & Underwood._)]
"So you are the vandal?" "the friend of the Rheims Cathedral" was asked.
"Yes, I am the 'barbarian,'" he laughed modestly. He wears the Iron
Cross of the first and second class, and, although still only a
Lieutenant, commands two batteries. A most picturesque but paradoxical
"barbarian," with a soft-spoken lisp, mild blue eyes, boyish face in
spite of a tawny-reddish full beard of long standing, and slightly bowed
legs, it required a most rigorous reportorial inquisition as practiced
on millionaires and politicians at home to extract these details from
the modest "friend of the Rheims Cathedral":
"The French observer on the cathedral was first noticed on Sept. 13.
After that the French artillery fire became uncomfortably accurate.
Eighty shells fell here in one day alone--killing only one cow," he
added, with a plaintive note of reminiscence. He pointed to three big
holes in the ground close by and all within a circle of ten yards'
radius, where three French shells had dropped in quick succession, as
further evidence of how well they had got the range.
"The fellow continued 'on the job' quite shamelessly until the 18th," he
went on, "when I aimed two shots at the cathedral, and only two. No more
were needed to dislodge him. One from a 15-centimeter howitzer struck
the top of the 'observation tower,' the other, from a 21-centimeter
mortar, hit the roof and set it on fire. I used both howitzers and
mortars so as to let the French know that we could shoot well with both
kinds. I wanted to dislodge the observer with the least possible damage
to the fine old cathedral, and the result shows that it is possible to
shoot just as accurately with heavy artillery as with field artillery.
The French also had a battery planted about 100 yards from the
cathedral. It isn't there any more," he added laconically.
A few turns of the screw brought a row of trees marking a boulevard into
the field of vision. "There is a French battery there at the present
time," he said.
"How do you know?" For I saw trees but no guns.
"Aeroplanes," "the friend of the Cathedral" explained. Another turn of
the screw brought a church steeple into view.
"The French are now using this church steeple for observation purposes,"
the battery commander said. "The observer is reported to me every
morning. He is getting to be too shameless. I shall take a shot at that
steeple this afternoon in all probability. And then I suppose they will
again call us barbarians. I saw the fellow myself this morning. He sits
in that little arched window there." I saw the window quite distinctly,
and only regret that the culprit had climbed down for the luncheon
intermission, which is religiously kept by both the French and German
artillery.
A tour of the wrecked fort followed and among other interesting sights
the guide pointed out the trail of the famous freak shot that killed the
cow. The shell went first through a glass window, then through the wall
at the back of the room, into a second chamber, where, without
exploding, it had amputated a hind leg of the milch cow whose loss is
still mourned by two batteries of heavy artillery.
Up to now, war as experienced from the vantage ground of a high hill
overlooking Rheims seemed a pleasant picnic, for the German arsenal was
well stocked with plenty of good food, while the Chief of the Division
Staff, with typical German hospitality, had sent along his adjutant
armed with two baskets of Teuton sandwiches, which added to the picnic
illusion and claimed far more attention than the Cathedral of Rheims.
The frequent sight of Generals down to high privates taking hearty
nourishment all along the front in France with the same comfortable
enjoyment as in their own homes was more convincing than all official
bulletins that they are not worrying about the outcome in the West, for
morale and meals are synonyms.
The luncheon interval over, the French batteries woke up and began
sending over shells with Gallic prodigality, the Germans replying
sparingly, and as if in invitation, for my benefit, a French aeroplane
no bigger than a Jersey mosquito appeared and circled over the German
positions trying to locate the cleverly concealed heavy batteries, while
down on the plain back of the hills a German motor aeroplane gun popped
away for dear life trying to connect with the inquisitive visitor.
Little cottonball clouds of white smoke, like daylight fireworks, hung
high in the air, where the French flier had been, also black "smoke
pots" to help the gunners in getting the range, but the Frenchman
managed to dodge all the shrapnel that came his way, and escaped.
By request, "the friend of the cathedral" led the way (a long and
strenuous one) to his 15-centimeter howitzer battery, concealed with
amazing cleverness even against the observation of aviators, and pointed
out the gun that had fired "the shot heard round the world." He would
gladly have fired a sample shot, but the guns of the battery were
already set for the night (although it was only noon!) that is, aimed at
certain portions of the landscape which French troops would have to
cross if they attempted to make a night attack on certain of the German
trenches, so that no time would be lost in aiming the guns--all they had
to do was to fire the moment the telephone bell rang a night alarm.
"Was there any connection between his iron crosses and the Rheims
Cathedral?" he was tactfully asked. There was not, but modest heroes are
a nuisance journalistically, and "the friend of the cathedral" required
a lot of coaxing before he told that he had won both the first and
second class sometime before and elsewhere, the second for galloping his
heavy howitzer battery into action like field artillery and by getting
it to work at close range, "smearing" a desperate French attack; first
class for continuing to direct the fire of his battery from the roof of
a building until it was literally shot from under his feet. "The friend
of the cathedral," is also an experienced aviator and when business is
dull in the howitzer line around Rheims, kills time by aerial
reconnoitring. "Be sure and send me a copy of your paper," he laughed,
when I beat a hasty strategic retreat to the rear to keep the Wilsonian
neutrality from being violated, for after lunch French shells have a
habit of raining alike on the just and the unjust.
The strategic retreat led through a village where in a farmyard was seen
one of the most curious freaks of the war. A French shell had exploded
here, and the terrific air pressure had lifted a farm wagon bodily and
deposited it on the roof of the stable, where it still perches.
Half a mile beyond was something even more curious--a subterranean
village built in the woods by German pioneers, and consisting of many
small block houses of fir logs, sunk three-quarters of the way into the
ground, the rest covered over with mounds of dirt and laid with sod. The
idea, it was explained, was to have a cozy and safe place of retreat
when the French batteries, as occasionally happened, took the village
ahead under fire.
My retreat ended at Château Mumm, well out of the firing zone, where
Gen. Count von Waldersee did the honors in the unavoidable absence of
the owner, said to be related to a well-known brand of champagne. On
inquiry, I learned that the champagne cellars of Château Mumm were quite
empty, but the retreating French were said to have caused the vacuum,
not the Germans. Château Mumm's absentee owner will be glad to learn
that his property is being well cared for, pending his return. I was
interested to note quite recent issues of The London Times, Daily Mail,
and London Daily Telegraph on the drawing room table.
"It's very interesting, you know, to read what our enemies are saying
about us," a staff officer explained.
Two other items of miscellaneous interest were picked up. From a well
informed source I learned that at one stage of the game, the English
"Long Toms" were posted to good advantage back of Rheims out of range of
the German heavy artillery. Although their lyddite shells were alleged
to have been comparatively harmless and did little damage, they were
nevertheless silenced on general principles and by a very simple
expedient. Every time the "Long Toms" were fired, a few answering shells
were sent their way and, of course, falling short, dropped into the
city. This gave rise to stories of "furious bombardment of Rheims," but
also caused the withdrawal of the "Long Toms" to spare the city.
A General whose name is familiar to every reader of THE NEW YORK TIMES
said:
"I could take Rheims with my corps in twenty-four hours."
But there was no present advantage in storming it at this time, and
certain disadvantages, for in addition to certain strategic reasons, it
was explained, the Germans would be saddled with the burden of having to
administer and feed the large city.
The "battle of Rheims" looked to me very much like a put-up job, a game
of trying to silence one another's batteries and nothing more. A heavy
artillery duel is essentially a contest between trained observers trying
to get a line on the whereabouts of the enemy's guns, and looking down
on Rheims from the German hills, even a lay correspondent could sense
the military necessity which would drive the French to make use of the
only high spots in town from which you could see anything for
observation purposes, and the equally grim necessity for the Germans to
dislodge them. I came away with the impression that the world owes a
real debt of gratitude to "the friend of the Rheims Cathedral."
Richard Harding Davis's Comment
_To the Editor of The New York Times_:
I have just seen a letter in THE TIMES from a correspondent in the
German trenches outside of Rheims. He reports a statement made to him by
Lieut. Wengler of the Heavy Artillery, who claims he is the officer who
shelled the cathedral, at which he fired two shots, and "only two."
Wengler says, "The French observer on the cathedral was first noticed on
Sept. 13 ... the fellow continued 'on the job' quite shamelessly until
the 18th, when I aimed two shots at the cathedral and only two. No more
were needed to dislodge him. One from a 15-centimeter howitzer struck
the top of the 'observation tower,' the other, from a 21-centimeter
mortar, hit the roof and set it on fire. I wanted to dislodge the
observer with the least possible damage to the fine old cathedral ...
the French also had a battery placed about 100 yards from the
cathedral."
Editorially THE TIMES says such a statement may prove of "value as
evidence." May I also, as evidence, tell what I saw? I arrived at the
cathedral at 3 o'clock in the afternoon of the day Lieut. Wengler says
he fired two shells, one of which hit the observation tower and one of
which set fire to the roof. Up to the hour of 3, howitzer shells had
passed through the southern wall of the cathedral, killing two of the
German wounded inside, had wrecked the Grand Hotel opposite the
cathedral, knocked down four houses immediately facing it, and in a
dozen places torn up immense holes in the cathedral square. Twenty-four
hours after Lieut. Wengler claims he ceased firing shells set fire to
the roof and utterly wrecked the chapel of the cathedral and the
Archbishop's palace, which is joined to the cathedral by a yard no wider
than Fifth Avenue, and in the direction of the German guns the two
shells fired by Lieut. Wengler had already wrecked all that part of the
city surrounding the cathedral for a quarter of a mile.
To get an idea of the destruction, suppose St. Patrick's Cathedral, on
Fifth Avenue, to be the Rheims Cathedral, the Union Club, and the
Vanderbilt houses, the chapel and Archbishop's palace, and all the
buildings running north from St. Patrick's Cathedral to Central Park and
east and west to Madison Avenue and Sixth Avenue, that part of Rheims
that was utterly wrecked. That gives you some idea of the effectiveness
of Lieut. Wengler's fire.
"Father," he says, "I cannot tell a lie. I did it with only two shells!"
The statement of Lieut. Wengler that the French placed a battery a
hundred yards from the cathedral also is interesting. The cathedral
stands in a maze of twisting narrow lanes. From no spot within a quarter
of a mile of it could you drive a golf ball without smashing a window a
hundred feet distant. To place a battery of artillery a hundred yards
from the Rheims Cathedral with the intent of firing upon the German
position would be like placing a battery in Wall Street with the idea of
shelling Germans in the Bronx. Before your shells reached the Bronx you
first would have to destroy all of Northern New York.
Wengler says the only shells aimed at the cathedral were fired by him on
the 18th, and that after that date neither he nor any other officer
fired a shot. On the 22d I was in the cathedral. It was then being
shelled. I was with the Abbé Chinot, Gerald Morgan of this city, Capt.
Granville Fortescue of Washington, and on the steps of the cathedral was
Robert Bacon, our ex-Ambassador to France.
The "evidence" of Lieut. Wengler is a question of veracity. It lies
between him and these gentlemen. I am content to let it go at that.
RICHARD HARDING DAVIS.
New York, Jan. 7, 1915.
The German Airmen
III.
HEADQUARTERS OF GERMAN NTH ARMY, "Somewhere" in France, Dec.
6.--Sensational duels between hostile aeroplanes are regular occurrences
now, and not infrequently aerial battles take place between whole
squadrons. I heard this from the chief of an aeroplane squadron, who was
returning from a reconnoitring flight around Rheims. When I met him he
was traveling in his luxurious private limousine which he had brought
with him into the field from Berlin. My military motor car had executed
a flank attack on the road embankment with disastrous results, and the
aviator kindly gave me a lift into town and some interesting
information.
"We are all eagerly awaiting orders for a raid on England," the Captain
led off. "Yes, I have flown over Paris. Going to Paris is mere
chauffeur's work. The six machines of my squadron have covered 15,000
miles since the war began. The French machines are about twenty miles an
hour faster than ours; but there is no advantage in going so fast, for
you can't make good observations. At a height of 6,000 feet, you are
quite safe against fire from below. We also find the safest thing to do
is to circle right over a battery. They can't get at you then.
"Fights in the air are regular occurrences now. We attack every chance
we get in spite of the fact that we have only our revolvers against the
machine guns which they have mounted on their aeroplanes. We find the
best defense against their machine-gun fire is to get up close to the
French aeroplane and then dodge and twist in sharp dips and curves,
spoiling the aim of their mounted machine gun, and giving us an
advantage with our revolvers.
"One of the most interesting engagements was between a squadron of four
of our aeroplanes armed with revolvers and a big and a little
'Bauerschreck,' [the German nickname for the armored French aeroplanes
armed with machine guns.] The fight lasted for nearly an hour at an
altitude ranging from 5,000 to 6,000 feet, the big 'Bauerschreck' being
finally forced to land, while the little one flew off. One of our
aviators did a fine piece of work recently, landing behind the French
lines, destroying the railway at that point and flying off again. The
French are magnificent fliers, and so are the English, but we Germans
have the training. Especially in trained observers we have a big
advantage."
I saw one of the German flier heroes in a base hospital. To the nurse's
chart over his cot were pinned the Iron Cross of the second and first
class and a bunch of flowers, and the Surgeon General coaxed him to give
the details of the winning of his decorations.
Sergt. Luchs and his observer were returning from an aerial
reconnoissance when they were overtaken and attacked by a fast French
aeroplane. The effectiveness of the French machine gun fire was later
shown by seventy holes in the wings of the German aeroplane. For
forty-five minutes the battle in the air lasted--6,000 feet up--revolver
against machine gun, ending only when Luchs was shot through the lungs
and liver. He was able to guide his machine safely to the ground within
the German lines before he lost consciousness. But one of his revolver
bullets had gone home, probably puncturing the gasoline tank, for the
French aeroplane was also seen making a forced landing.
Gen. von Heeringen, Commander in Chief of the Nth Army, told me a
similar story about two officers who fought with revolver against
machine gun until their motor and tank were shot to pieces, forcing them
to glide to earth. The General said he had learned about their bravery
only by accident, as they had reported only the results of their
reconnoissance.
That the German aviators are at a disadvantage in fighting against the
Allies' aeroplanes armed with machine guns was freely admitted by Gen.
von Heeringen, who said significantly that that would be attended to in
the near future.
"French aeroplanes have paid me a number of visits," the commanding
General said with a laugh, "Our aviation camp seems to be an attraction
for them. We have shot down six of them in the last few weeks. Our
gunners are really only just beginning to get the hang of it, with
practice. The trouble in peace time was always to find some sort of a
target to train our gunners in the use of the new motor gun. We couldn't
very well ask of our own aviators to go up and let themselves be shot
at. But now the French are affording us just the moving target we have
been looking for, and our shooting is improving splendidly."
Gen. von Haenisch, von Heeringen's brilliant Chief of Staff, who as
former Inspector General of the aviation arm had more to do than any
other one individual with bringing German military aviation to its
present high pitch of efficiency, supplemented his chief's remarks by
saying:
"We recently brought down a French aeroplane from an altitude of 8,100
feet. Our new gun can shoot four miles high."
I had the interesting experience of visiting an aviation camp in the
field, inspecting a full sample line of aero bombs, and looking over the
very latest thing in German military aeroplanes, a big new Aviatik
biplane. For the benefit of THE NEW YORK TIMES readers, who have grown
accustomed to headlines about "German Taubes over Paris," it must be
explained that, just as all German cavalry are not Uhlans, so all German
aeroplanes are not Taubes. "Taube" is the name of the German military
monoplane, of which there are comparatively few in use; and I am
informed that hardly any Taubes have flown over Paris, the bomb-throwing
visitors having been the more practical double-decker Aviatiks. The new
model which I inspected had a monoplane body, observer and pilot sitting
tandem fashion, the Mercedes motor (several cylinders) being in front.
It was designed, not for speed but for weight-lifting, as indicated by
its formidable arsenal of bombs.
The beauty of workmanship and finish of these infernal machines was
interesting. The forty-pounders and twenty-pounders looked like
miniature torpedoes, with slightly bulb-shaped bodies and tapering
rounded noses, with a tiny three-bladed propeller for a tail and a steel
ring to serve as a hand grip. When the aviator is ready to drop a bomb
all he has to do is to make a simple adjustment, taking not more than a
second, which releases the propeller, and then throw the bomb overboard.
As it drops the propeller is set into rapid motion and drives the
clockwork mechanism inside the bomb. After a hundred-yard drop it is all
ready to explode when it strikes. There are also round cannon-ball-shaped
bombs, and special bombs for starting a conflagration when they strike.
Following the lead of the French, the Germans have also adopted the
"silent death," and half a dozen of the German aerial darts were given
me for souvenirs. They are of steel, about three inches long, with one
end pointed and the other flanged, so as to give a rotary motion as they
whizz through the air. They look more murderous than they really are,
for I was told by one of the aviator officers that they were not very
effective. The Germans, methodical in everything, wanted no doubt left
in any one's mind that the "silent death" was introduced by the French
and only copied by them in self-defense; so every one of the steel
darts--a touch of grim humor--bears on one side of the point, in French,
the legend "French invention" and on the other side "German
manufacture."
German Generals Talk of the War
IV.
GERMAN GREAT HEADQUARTERS IN FRANCE, Dec. 9.--I have just eaten my way
along the German front in France, for a second visit to the German Great
Headquarters. This week's lunch and dinner "bag" included Gen. von
Heeringen, "the Victor of Saarburg"; Gen. von Emmich, "the Conqueror of
Liége"; Gen. von Zwehl, "the Hero of Maubeuge"; Gen. von Wild, the new
Quartermaster General, who before his appointment fought a twenty-round
draw with the English at Ypres, though he thinks he won on points, and
hosts of coming champions.
It is literally necessary for an American correspondent on this side of
the fence to eat his way to the firing line and back again, for the
German afield is as hospitable as the tented Arab, and, thanks to their
wonderful field telephone service, they "have you." The A.O.K. (Armee
Ober Kommando) telephones to the Corps Kommando that you are on the way,
the Corps Kommando relays the news to the Division Staff, the Division
Staff rings up the Regimental Commander, who 'phones the Battalion or
Battery Chief. To reach the firing line you have to run the gauntlet of
anywhere from three to six meals, and if you happen to be one of those
"amazing Americans" and insist on being shown to an orchestra seat in
the first trench, you will be sure to find some sort of a table spread
for you in the very shadow of death, for their habit of hospitality is
fireproof.
But while robbing war corresponding of all its old-time romance, the
German, gastronomic way has the great advantage of giving you the
maximum of information in the minimum of time and of letting you meet
the masters of modern warfare, the men who have done big things, under
ideal conditions, for over after-dinner coffee and cigars you can and
will--if you are an American--ask the most imprudent questions with the
certainty of getting a good-natured and courteous answer.
Von Emmich makes the most instant appeal to an American. Short and
stockily built and looking every inch a fighter, he gives you the
impression of possessing tremendous, almost Rooseveltian vitality, with
a saving sense of humor. Von Emmich is the General with a winning smile.
He could have been a successful machine politician if he had emigrated
to America instead of remaining in Germany and becoming the most popular
General in the German Army, among the men, for he has the rare gift of
inspiring his followers with a sense of personal loyalty. His troops
idolize him. They break out into hearty hurrahs at the slightest
provocation when they see him. It is lèse-majesté, but none the less
true, to say that they think as much of their General as of their
Kaiser. They tell you proudly that he rode at their head when the City
of Liége was taken by storm, and after seeing him you could never
picture von Emmich bringing up the rear in a motor car, after the manner
that more prudent Generals use. He has iron-gray hair and a bristly,
close-cropped mustache to match, and a very florid complexion, and looks
absolutely unlike the sleek individual whose photograph was published
with his obituary notice in the London press while the forts of Liége
were still "holding out" on paper.
Asked point blank, Gen. von Emmich stoutly and with great good humor
denied that he had ever committed suicide or even contemplated the step.
"But you know, Excellency, that you were reported to have lost something
like 120,000 men before Liége," it was suggested.
"That's three times as many as I had," he answered with the "winning
smile."
Gen. von Emmich will talk quite freely about anything but himself and
military matters, but a few odds and ends were snapped up. It was
interesting to learn that he was in Liége only a day and a half, then
pushed on ahead in the direction of Namur with the bulk of his corps,
leaving only his heavy artillery behind to finish up the remaining
forts. He did not even know that Zeppelins had taken part in the
bombardment of these forts until he heard about it afterward. Later he
turned up at Mons and had a hand in beating the British or expediting
their strategic retreat, according to the point of view. His subsequent
movements and present whereabouts are interesting, but would never pass
the German censor.
"Did you feel proud at being selected to lead the way into Belgium,
Excellency?" I inquired.
"Yes, of course I did," he replied.
"Would you like to lead your corps into England?" For just an instant
what looked very much like the light of battle was in his eye.
"I will go anywhere I am ordered to go--anywhere," he replied with
smiling emphasis.
I was interested to discover that the staff of the Nth Army Corps had
also been racking its brains about quite other than tactical problems
when Gen. von Emmich led the way into the dining room of the very modest
so-called "château" of the French village, where he and his staff were
quartered, and pointed to the extensive but quite mongrel art collection
on the walls. "The absent owner does not appear to have been much of a
connoisseur," he laughed, "That picture over there worried and puzzled
us for a long time," pointing out a large impressionistic canvas over
the mantelpiece representing a nude male and female figure kneeling on
the seashore and looking out over the impressionistic water at what
looked like an island. "Finally my Chief of Staff hit upon a
satisfactory solution, suggested that it represented 'Adam and Eve
Discovering Heligoland.'"
Gen. von Emmich's headquarters produced another interesting story. At 3
P.M. a general alarm was sent out to the reserve troops to prepare for
immediate retreat, as the French were coming. Every bit of baggage was
picked up and loaded on wagons, the infantry in full marching kit lined
up--everything ready in record-breaking time without rush or confusion
to withdraw on the word of command. But no command to march
came--instead a "well done" from the General as he rode down the long
column. It was just a little "fire-alarm drill" to keep the reserve
troops up to the high-water mark of efficiency.
Gen. von Zwehl, nicknamed Zwehl-Maubeuge, is probably almost unknown in
America, though the dark blue enamel maltese cross of the Pour le Merite
order at his throat tags him at once as worth while. Von Zwehl is the
outward antithesis of von Emmich. He looks like anything but a
fighter--a quiet, gentle-looking soul with kind and a bit tired eyes,
soft silverly hair, and a whimsical sense of humor, a gentleman of the
old school. "But you should just see him in the field during a
fight--he's a regular whirlwind," one of his staff said.
He confirmed the fact that Maubeuge had fallen on schedule time in ten
days and that he had taken over 40,000 French prisoners, that he had
given the French commandant till 7 P.M. (German time) to surrender, and
that the appointment was kept with great promptness, also that the
French were a bit chagrined when they learned they had been "taken in"
by a single corps. I also learned that he and his corps had arrived in
time to stop the first English corps which had crossed the Aisne and was
marching on X.
Gen. von Zwehl praised the English troops against whom he had
successfully fought, and who are now in the North, saying, "The English
soldier is a splendid fighter, especially on the defensive." Asked if
the remark of one of his staff that "the English can't attack" was a
fact, von Zwehl said: "I can only speak as far as my own experience
goes, and that is that the English never were able to carry through a
bayonet charge with success against my troops. They came on bravely
enough, but when our troops would open fire on them at 50 yards and
follow it up with a counter attack, the English would invariably go over
into the defensive, at which they are at their best. They are
particularly experienced in 'bush warfare,' and display the utmost skill
in making the most of every bit of cover."
The commanding General confirmed the following gruesome story which one
of his staff officers had told me:
"The English apparently do not bother to bury their dead, but let them
lie. We are still burying English who fell on Sept. 14 and later. We
found and buried two only yesterday. That the abandonment of their dead
is deliberate is indicated by the fact that we have found the bodies of
dead English soldiers in corners and nooks of the approaches to the
English trenches, where the wounded had evidently crawled to die, and
where their comrades must constantly have passed them and seem them."
More Generals were met during a visit to the "office building" of the
Great General Staff in the Great Headquarters. Here, too, I was allowed
to examine the historic room where around a large mahogany table the
chiefs of the staff hold their daily conferences, at which the Kaiser
himself is often present. A huge map of France and a slice of Belgium
covered the table and hung down to the floor on either side. I noted
with interest that it was a French General Staff map. On one wall hung
another map showing the exact location of all the armies in the West.
In the unavoidable absence of the combination Chief of Staff and War
Minister von Falkenhayn, the new Quartermaster General von Wild did the
honors in the long Louis XIV. Room where the Great General Staff eats
together--an interesting sight, for it represents the round-up of the
brains of the German Army. Gen. von Wild, until his promotion, commanded
a division against the English at Ypres and spoke in generous terms of
his opponents.
"The English are excellent fighters," he said. "I have walked over many
of the battlefields in the North--gruesome sights, beyond words to
describe. From what I saw, I am convinced that the English losses have
been much heavier than ours."
Gen. von Wild said that a puzzling and unexplainable feature of these
battlefields was that so many of the dead were found lying on their
backs with rigid arms stretched straight up toward heaven--a ghastly
spectacle.
Here, too, was a German General who knew more about the American Army
than most Americans, the Bavarian General, Zoellner, the great General
Staff's specialist on Americana, and it was interesting to note that, in
spite of its own pressing problems, the General Staff is still taking a
keen interest in those of America and deriving valuable lessons.
"I have been particularly interested in the Mexican troubles," Gen.
Zoellner said. "To my mind, the lesson for America is the need of a
larger standing army. I was particularly impressed by the speed of your
mobilization and your dispatch in landing your expeditionary force at
Vera Cruz. I was also especially interested in your splendid Texas
cavalry division. We have nothing like it in the German Army, because
such a body of men could not be developed in a closely settled country.
You may not know that only a short time before being sent to Mexico the
Texas cavalry had received brand-new drill and exercise instructions,
but in spite of this they acquitted themselves splendidly, showing the
remarkable adaptability of your soldiers.
"In sending your coast artillery as infantry regiments to Mexico you
anticipated us in a rather similar use of our marine divisions on the
coast. The most valuable lesson we have learned from you is typhus
vaccination. This we owe to the American Army. I believe it goes back to
the fact that your Gen. Wood was a medical man before becoming Chief of
Staff."
Gen. Zoellner intimated that the whole German Army either had been or
was being vaccinated against typhoid on the American plan. "And there is
also a very American flavor about our volunteer automobile corps--their
dash and speed they have learned that from you Americans," he concluded.
My previously formed suspicion that the Germans were making war on the
American plan, managing their armies like so many subsidiary companies
of a big trust, was fully confirmed by my second visit to the office of
the Great General Staff. Instead of a picturesque bunch of Generals
spending anxious days and sleepless nights over their maps with faithful
attendants trying to coax them to leave off dispatch writing long enough
to eat a sandwich, I found a live lot of army officials, keeping regular
office hours and taking ample time out for meals. The staff was
quartered in a handsome old municipal building; the ground floor,
devoted to living purposes, quite like an exclusive club; the business
offices upstairs.
Gen. von Haenisch took me aloft and explained to me how business was
done. A good telephone operator, it developed, was almost as important
as a competent General--the telephone "central" the most vital spot of
an army. Here were three large switchboards with soldiers playing
telephone girl, while other soldiers, with receivers fastened over their
heads, sat at desks busy taking down messages on printed "business"
forms. In the next room sat the staff officers on duty, waiting for the
telephone bell to jingle with latest reports from the front. There was
no waiting because numbers were "engaged" or operators gossiping; you
could get Berlin or Vienna without once having to swear at "long
distance." Gen. von Haenisch had his chief of field telephone and
telegraph trot out what looked like a huge family tree, but turned out
to be a most minute chart of the entire telephone system of the --nth
Army. It showed the position of every corps and division headquarters'
regiment, battalion, and company, and all the telephone lines connecting
them, even to the single trenches and batteries.
Gen. von Haenisch suggested having some fun with Gen. von X., commanding
the army next door on the right, and I was made Acting Chief of Staff
for two minutes, getting von X.'s Chief of Staff on the phone and
inquiring if there was "anything doing."
"No; everything quiet here," came the reassuring answer.
An art exhibition within sound of the guns at the front by the
well-known Munich artist, Ernst Vollbehr, the Kaiser's own war painter
with the --nth army, was another real novelty. The long-haired painter,
wearing the regulation field gray uniform, brought his portfolio of
sketches into the billiard hall of the headquarters and showed them with
sprightly running comment:
"Here is the library of Brimont. You can see most of the books lying on
the ground. It wasn't a comfortable place to paint because there were
too many shells flying around loose. Here is the Cathedral of Dinant.
Very much improved aesthetically by the shells knocking the ugly points
of the towers off. Here is a picture of Rheims Cathedral looming through
the fog, as seen from the German lines. I painted this picture of the
battle of the Aisne from a captive balloon. Here is a picture of the
surrender of Maubeuge, showing two of the 40,000 French prisoners. I can
usually paint better during a battle because there's nobody looking on
over my shoulder to distract my attention. I have about 140 sketches
done in all. His Majesty has most of them now, to pick out those he
wants painted. This sketch of a pretty young Frenchwoman is 'Mlle. Nix
zu Macken,' so nicknamed by some sixty-odd hungry but good-natured
Landsturm men quartered in a tavern of a French village, where she was
the only woman left. Every time they made signs indicative of a desire
for food she would laugh and say in near-German, 'Nix zu macken,' and
that's how she got her name."
Painter Vollbehr was authority for the following Kaiser anecdote:
"One day as the Kaiser was motoring along a chaussée he met a herd of
swine under the guardianship of a bearded Landsturm man, who drove them
rapidly to one side to keep them from being prematurely slaughtered by
the imperial auto. As the motor slowed up the Kaiser asked him if he was
a farmer by profession. 'No; professor of the University of Tubingen,'
came the answer, to the great amusement of the Over War Lord."
Human Documents of the War
Swift Reversal to Barbarism
By Vance Thompson.
[From The New York Sun, Sept. 13, 1914.]
I.
There is in Brussels--if the Uhlans have spared it--a mad and monstrous
picture. It is called "A Scene in Hell," and hangs in the Musée Wiertz.
And what you see on the canvas are the fierce and blinding flames of
hell; and amid them looms the dark figure of Napoleon, and around him
the wives and mothers and maids of Belgium scream and surge and clutch
and curse--taking their posthumous vengeance.
And since Napoleon was a notable Emperor in his time, the picture is not
without significance today. Paint in another face; and let it go at
that.
War is a bad thing. Even hell is the worse for it.
War is a bad thing; it is a reversal, sudden and complete, to barbarism.
That is what I would get at in this article. One day there is
civilization, authentic, complex, triumphant; comes war, and in a moment
the entire fabric sinks down into a slime of mud and blood. In a day, in
an hour, a cycle of civilization is canceled. What you saw in the
morning was suave and ordered life; and the sun sets on howling
savagery. In the morning black-coated men lifted their hats to women.
Ere nightfall they are slashing them with sabres and burning the houses
over their heads. And, the grave old professors who were droning
platitudes of peace and progress and humanitarianism are screaming, ere
today is done, shrill senile clamors for blood and ravage and rapine.
(Not less shrill than others is the senile yawp of that good old man
Ernst Haeckel, under whom I studied in my youth.)
A reversal to barbarism.
Here; it is in the tearoom of the smartest hotel in Munich; war has
come; high-voiced women of title chatter over their teacups; comes
swaggering in the Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria; he has just had his
sabre sharpened and has girt his abdomen for war. His wife runs to him.
And she kisses the sabre and shouts: "Bring it back to me covered with
blood--that I may kiss it again!" And the other high-voiced women flock
to kiss the sword.
A reversal to barbarism.
It has taken place in an hour; but yesterday these were sweet patrician
ladies, who prattled of humanity and love and the fair graces of life;
and now they would fain wet their mouths with blood--laughingly as
harlots wet their mouths with wine.
The unclean and vampirish spirit of war has swept them back to the
habits of the cave-dwelling ages of the race. In an hour the culture so
painfully acquired in slow generations has been swept away. Royalty, in
the tearoom of the "Four Seasons," is one with the blonde nude female
who romped and fought in the dark Teutonic forests ere Caesar came
through Gaul.
Reversal to barbarism.
War is declared; and in Berlin the Emperor of Germany rides in an open
motor car down Unter den Linden; he is in full uniform, sworded, erect,
hieratic; and at his side sits the Empress--she the good mother, the
housewife, the fond grandmother--garmented from head to foot in cloth
the color of blood.
Theatricalism? No. The symbolism is more significant. The symbol bears a
savage significance. It marks, as a red sunset, the going down of
civilization and the coming of the dark barbarism of war.
II.
BREAKING POINT OF CIVILIZATION.
There was war; and the whole machinery of civilization stopped.
Modern civilization is the most complex machine imaginable; its infinite
cogged wheels turn endlessly upon each other; and perfectly it
accomplishes its multifarious purposes; but smash one wheel and it all
falls apart into muddle and ruin. The declaration of war was like
thrusting a mailed fist into the intricate works of a clock. There was
an end of the perfected machine of civilization. Everything stopped.
That was a queer world we woke in. A world that seemed new, so old it
was.
Money had ceased to exist. It seemed at that moment an appalling thing.
I was on the edge and frontier of a neutral State. I had money in a
bank. It ceased to be money. A thousand-franc note was paper. A
hundred-mark note was rubbish. British sovereigns were refused at the
railway station. The Swiss shopkeeper would not change a Swiss note.
What had seemed money was not money.
Values were told in terms of bread.
It was a swift and immediate return to the economic conditions of
barbarism. Metals were hoarded; and where there had been trade there was
barter. And it all happened in an hour, in that first fierce panic of
war.
Traffic stopped with a clang as of rusty iron. The mailed fist had
dislocated the complex machinery of European traffic. Frontiers which
had been mere landmarks of travel became suddenly formidable and
impassable barriers, guarded by harsh, hysterical men with bayonets.
War makes men brave and courageous? Rubbish! It fills them with the
cruelty of hysteria and the panic of the unknown. I am not talking of
battle, which is a different thing. But I say the men who guarded the
German frontier--and I dare say every other frontier--in the first
stress of war, were wrenched and shaken with veritable hysteria. At St.
Ludwig and Constance those husky soldiers in ironmongery, with shaved
heads and beards and outstanding ears, fell into sheer savagery, not
because they were bad and savage men, but simply because they were
hysterical. The fact is worth noting.
It explains many a bloody and infamous deed in the tragic history of sad
Alsace and of little Belgium. The war-begotten reversal to savagery
brought with it all the hysteria of the savage man. The sentries at St.
Ludwig struck with muskets and sabres because they were hysterical with
terror of the new, unknown state into which they had been plunged, not
because they were not men like you and me. Surely the savage Uhlan who
ravaged the cottages of Alsace was your brother and mine, and the Magyar
beyond the Danube and the Cossack at Kovna. Only they had gone back to
the terrors of the man who dwelt in a cave.
Traffic stopped; and when it stopped civilization fell away from the
travelers. That was strange. Take the afternoon of the day war was
declared, the date being Aug. 1, in the year of our Lord 1914, and the
hour 7:30 P.M., Berlin time. It was the last train that reached the
frontier from Paris. Between Delle and Bicourt lies a neutral zone about
three kilometers--say, nearly two and a half miles--in extent. On one
side France and invasion and terror and war; on the other side of the
zone the relative safety of Switzerland. Six hundred passengers poured
out of the French train at noon into that neutral zone and started to
walk to Swiss safety. A blazing August sun; a road of pebbles and
stinging, upblown dust.
The passengers had been permitted to bring on the train only what
luggage they could carry; so they were laden with bags and coats,
dressing bags and jewel cases--all they had deemed most valuable. Mostly
women. German ladies fleeing for refuge; Russian ladies; English,
American; and a crowd of men, urgent to reach their armies, German,
Swiss, Russian, Austrian, Servian, Italian; withal many of the kind of
American men who go to Switzerland in August.
And the caravan started in the dust and heat of a desert. A woman let
fall her heavy bag and plodded on. Another threw away her coats. Men
shook off their bundles. The heat was stifling. And through the clouds
of dust a panic terror crept. It was the antique terror of the God
Pan--the God All; it was a fear as immense as the sky.
A woman screamed and began to run, throwing away everything she had
safeguarded so she might run with empty hands. A score followed her. Men
began to run. They thrust the women aside, cursing; and ran. And for
over two miles the road was covered thick with coats and bags, with
packages and jewel cases. The greed of possession died out in the
causeless fear.
These hoarse, pushing men, these sweating, shameless women had gone back
10,000 years into prehistoric savagery. Lightly they threw away all the
baubles and gewgaws civilization had fashioned for adorning and
disguising their raw humanity, and the habits of civilization as well.
They had touched but the outermost edge of war, and their very clothes
fell off them.
III.
BARBARISM AND WOMEN.
War; and it takes eighty-four hours to make a twelve-hour journey from
the Alps to Paris; the cable is dead; the telegraph is dumb; letters go
only when smuggled over the frontiers by couriers; you look about you
and find you are in a mediaeval and mysterious world. You stand amid the
melancholy ruins of canceled cycles. The mailed fist of war has smashed
your world to pieces. You do not know it.
The man you thought of as a brother looks at you with eyes of passionate
hatred; you have eaten bread and salt together; you have drunk together;
you have been uplifted by the same books; you have been sublimed by the
same music; but he is a German, and your blood was made in another land,
and he looks at you with suspicion and hate--perhaps you are a spy. (The
spy mania! Dear Lord, what absurd, bloody, and abominable stories I
could write of this madness which has Europe by the throat, this madness
which is only another form of war hysteria.) A reversal to barbarism;
you and the man who was your friend have gone back to the fear and
hatred of primitive savages, meeting at the corner of a dark wood. All
of humanity we have acquired in the slow way of evolution sloughs off
us.
We are savages once more. For science is dead. All the laboratories are
shut, save those where poison is brewed and destruction is put up in
packages. Education has ceased, save that fierce Nietzschean education
which declares: "The weak and helpless must go to the wall; and we shall
help them go." All that made life humanly fair is hidden in the fetid
clouds of war where savages (in terror and hysteria) grope for each
other's throats.
The glory of war--rot! The heroism of war--rot! The scarlet and
beneficent energies of war--rot! When you look at it close what you see
are hulking masses of brutes with fear behind them prodding them on, or
wild and splendid savages, hysterical with hate, battling to save their
hearth fires and women from the oncoming horde. Reversal to barbarism.
Think it over. Upon whom falls the stress of war? Not upon the soldier.
He is killed and fattens the soil where he falls; or he is maimed and
hobbles off toward a pension or beggary--both tolerable things; anyway
he has drunk deep of cruelty and terror and may go his way. By rare good
grace he may have been a hero. In other words, he may have been a
Belgian--which is a word like a decoration, a name to make one strut
like a Greek of Thermopylae--and become thus a permanent part of the
world's finest history.
* * * * *
I would like to write here the name of a friend, Charles Flamache of
Brussels. He was 21 years old. He was an artist who had already tasted
fame. He had known the love of woman. That his destiny might be
fulfilled he died, the blithe, brave boy, in front of Liége. It was the
right death at the right time--ere yet the massed Prussians had rolled
in fire and blood over his fair small land. Wherefore, hail and
farewell, young hero!
* * * * *
But upon whom falls the stress of war?
In a time of barbarism those who suffer are always the weak. War is in
its essence (as said Nietzsche, the German philosopher of "world power")
an attack upon weakness. The weakest suffer most.
I saw children born on cinder heaps, and I saw them die; and the mothers
die gasping like she dogs in a smother of flies.
Some day the story of what was done in Alsace will be written and the
stories of Visé and Aerschot and Onsmael and Louvain will seem pale and
negligible; but not now--five generations to come will whisper them in
the Vosges.
What I would emphasize is that in the natural state of barbarism induced
by the war the woman falls back to her antique state of she animal. In
thousands of years she has been made into a thing of exquisite and
mysterious femininity; in a day she is thrown back to kinship with the
she dog. Slashed with sabres, pricked with lances, she is a mere thing
of prey.
Surely not the dear Countess and Baroness? Of course not. War is made
in the palaces, but it does not attack the palaces. The worth of every
nation dwells in the cottage; and it is upon the cottage that war works
its worst infamy. Go to Alsace and see.
Pillage, loot, incendiarism, "indemnity"--you can read that in the
records of the invasion of Belgium; that is war; it is all right if war
is to be, for all this talk of chivalrous consideration for foes and
regard for international law is all nonsense; necessity, as
Bethmann-Hollweg said, knows no law, and necessity has always been the
tyrant's plea; it is the business of a soldier to kill and terrify; if
he restricts his killing and terrifying he is a bad soldier and bad at
his work of barbarism; but--
There is a more sinister side to Europe's lapse into barbarism. The
women are paying too dear. And to make them pay dear is not really the
business of a soldier, not even a bad soldier. Yet the woman is paying,
God knows. A tragic payment.
IV.
AFTER BARBARISM, WHAT?
One morning at dawn--it was at Amberieu--I saw the long trains go by
carrying the German wounded and the German prisoners, who had been taken
in the battles of the Vosges. There were 2,400 taken on toward the
south. There were French nurses with the wounded. I saw water and fruit
and chocolate given to the prisoners.
This was early in the war. The sheer lapse into barbarism had not yet
come. Soon the German newspapers announced:
"Great concern is expressed in press and public utterances lest
prisoners of war receive anything in the line of favored treatment.
Newspapers have conducted an angry campaign against women who have
ventured at the railway station to give coffee or food to prisoners of
war passing through; commanding officers have ordered that persons
'demeaning themselves by such unworthy conduct' are to be immediately
ejected from the stations, and in response to public clamor official
announcements have been issued that such prisoners in transport receive
only bread and water."
And the French followed suit; no "coddling" of prisoners; back to
barbarism, the lessons of humanity forgot and savagery come again.
Civilization in the old world is smashed. I have traversed the ruins;
and my feet are still dirty with mud and blood. But I can tell you what
is going to come out of that welter of ruin. There will come a sane and
righteous hatred of militarism. What will be surely destroyed is
Caesarism. Prophecy? This is not prophecy; I am stating an assured fact.
Even at this hour of hysterical and relentless warfare there lies deep
in the heart of the democracy of Europe a consuming hatred of
militarism.
Drops of water (or blood) do not more naturally flow into each than did
the English hatred of Caesarism blend with the high French hatred of the
evil thing; and when the palaces have done fighting, the cottages of
Europe, from the Baltic to the Mediterranean and from the Black Sea to
the Hebrides, will proclaim its destruction.
And you will see it; you will see Caesarism drowned in the very blood it
has shed. And the German, mark you, will not be the least bitter of the
foes of militarism. He will be indeed a relentless foe.
Reversal to barbarism, say you? A shuddering lapse into savagery?
Quite true; that is the state of Europe over the fairest and most highly
civilized provinces. The picture of Sir John French strolling up and
down the battle line smoking a cigarette does not give a fair idea of
it; nor do you get it from the Kaiser on a hilltop surveying his massed
war bullocks surging forth patiently to battle; all that belongs to the
picture books of war.
The real thing is dirtier.
Civil Life in Berlin
[From The London Times, Oct. 17, 1914.]
_A gentleman, the subject of a neutral country, who has just
returned from a visit to Germany, has furnished The Times with
the following statement as to his impressions. He says:_
I did not hear any boasting over German successes. When I spoke to
Germans of their victories they would reply: "Yes, we have had
victories--but what of the dead?" This thought is present even in places
where one might think that for the time being every effort would be made
to prevent its intrusion. In Berlin, for example, where all the theatres
are open and attracting crowded audiences, it is the burden of a song
sung during one of the patriotic plays, of which several are now being
performed.
I went to a theatre on the night of the fall of Antwerp. A play entitled
"1914" was acted, in the course of which many topical allusions were
made by the well-known comedian Thielscher. Even in these serious times
the Berliner, who is famous for the form of humor known as Berliner
Witze, cannot refrain from his jokes. One of these was the question:
"Why does Germany understand war so well? Because it has been declared
upon her eight times!"--the point of the jest lying in the fact that the
German word _Erklaren_, "to declare," means also "to explain." Another
pun of the same kind was made out of the word _Niederlage_, which means
both "defeat" and "dêpot." "Germany," said one of the characters, "is
surrounded by enemies on all sides." "Yes," was the reply, "she is the
head establishment, while England, France, and Russia only have the
_Niederlage_."
There were some serious scenes in this play, in the middle of one of
which some one stepped quickly on to the stage and, interrupting the
actors, exclaimed: "One moment, one moment, if you please! Antwerp has
fallen!" Of course, there was tremendous enthusiasm at this
announcement, but when it had subsided, one of the company came forward
and sang:
Nicht zu laut!
Nicht zu laut!
Denkt g'rad' jetzt wo Ihr jubelt und lacht;
Nicht zu laut!
Nicht zu laut!
Fiel ein Krieger vielleicht in der Schlacht
Und er liegt beim zerschossenen Pferde
Und nimmt Abschied von Mutter und Braut--
Nicht zu laut!
Nicht zu laut!
(Not too loud! Not too loud! Think just now while you laugh
and cheer; Not too loud! Not too loud! Perchance a warrior
fallen in the battle lies beside his shot down steed, and bids
farewell to mother and bride; Not too loud! Not too loud!)
I have mentioned this to give an idea of the kind of life which the
Berliners are living just now. There are other popular theatres in which
similar plays are now running with titles such as "Der Kaiser Rief"
("The Emperor Called") and "Fest d'Rauf" ("Hit Hard!") the latter being
borrowed from the words of the famous telegram sent by the Crown Prince
at the time of the Zabern incident. These theatres are crowded. At the
principal theatres classical plays such as "Hamlet" and Lessing's "Minna
von Barnhelm" were being played while I was in Berlin.
Berlin keeps open many places of amusement until the early hours of the
morning, and the war has not made any difference in this respect. What
is known as the "night life" of Berlin continues. For years past the
fast element in Berlin has been one of its most notorious features. This
accompaniment of the prosperity of the capital since the war of 1870 has
struck with surprise many observers of German life accustomed to the
idea of German simplicity and purity of morals, rendered classical by
Tacitus and exemplified by many representatives of German national life
in the earlier part of the nineteenth century, when Germany was rallying
from the blows inflicted by Napoleon. All that need be said upon this
head is that, as far as report can be accepted as evidence, vice is the
only commodity which has become less expensive since the war began.
The spy fever seems somewhat to have abated. At present, however, the
public are not allowed to walk on the footway beside the headquarters of
the army or the General Telegraph Office, obviously with a view to
protecting these buildings against damage from hostile persons. The
Germans still think that many spies exist in their country. The presence
of women acting as tramcar conductors struck me as strange. These are
the wives of men summoned to the colors. Notices are affixed to the
interior of the cars stating the reason for the presence of these women,
and requesting the public to be considerate toward them, and to help
them over any little difficulties they might encounter in the discharge
of their duty. Traffic in Berlin is absolutely regular. There are as
many taxicabs as before, but instead of benzine, which is wanted for the
army, they now use other spirit. The streets are as brilliantly lighted
as ever. Riding exercise is taken by gentlemen in the Thiergarten every
morning as usual. Sport is reviving, and there are a good many football
matches. Two recently played were those between Berlin and Vienna and
Berlin and Leipsic, the latter for the Red Cross. The universities will
open on the 25th inst., the regular date.
The population, as a whole, is serious and confident of victory; but the
war is by no means the sole topic of conversation. England is the enemy
most bitterly hated, the Germans maintaining that her only reason for
entering on the war was to destroy German trade. England's desire to
preserve the neutrality of Belgium is scouted. The common people in
Germany say that having fought the Belgians and defeated them they will
retain their country. This, however, is not the attitude of the more
educated section of the population, who express the opinion that the
difficulty of ruling Belgium would be greater than the advantage to be
derived from it.
[Illustration: ADMIRAL VON TIRPITZ, GERMAN NAVAL MINISTER,
As Head of the Naval Administration He Is Second in Authority to the
Major Admiral in Chief, the Kaiser.
(_Photo_ © _by Brown Bros._)]
[Illustration: PRINCE HENRY OF PRUSSIA,
In Supreme Command of the German Battleship Fleet.
(_Photo from Bain._)]
The fierce hatred of England in Germany is due in large measure to what
the Germans call "the shopkeepers' warfare" of the English. They
maintain that the English confiscation of German patents is a wholly
unfair method of fighting, and it has caused the deepest resentment.
When asked as to the future, they reply that they will do all in due
time. After Belgium will come France, and then the turn of England will
arrive. They are not discouraged by the failure to reach Paris, since
the strategy adopted by the French would have rendered the possession of
Paris of little value. It will still be taken.
With regard to England not much is said of an army of invasion, but
German confidence is evidently reposed in her Zeppelins, of which a
large number is being constructed with all possible speed. They are to
be employed against England, whose part in the war is the least
honorable of all. Belgium's attitude at the outset they can understand,
France's desire for _la revanche_ is natural, but England's only motive
was jealousy of Germany's industrial development and the desire to
cripple her trade and commercial prosperity. Therefore, Woe to England!
Belgian Boy Tells Story of Aerschot
[From THE NEW YORK TIMES, Nov. 18, 1914.]
_The following letter from an American civil engineer, lately
in business in Belgium, whose reliability is vouched for by
the person named in his letter as having been associated with
him in business in Pittsburgh, has been received by_ THE
TIMES:
B----, ----shire, England,
Oct. 3, 1914.
_To the Editor of The New York Times:_
I have just read an article in your issue of Sept. 16 on the German
killings at Aerschot, Belgium. You suggest an investigation into this
crime. I happen to have a first-hand contribution, which I herewith
inclose.
The writer is an American citizen, civil engineer, late partner of ----
---- of Pittsburgh, Penn., to whom you can refer. When war was declared I
had an engineering office in Belgium. As the use of telegraph and
telephone was suddenly stopped there remained nothing but to close the
office. I therefore paid off my employes, among whom was a young office
boy, a Belgian, about 16 years old, frail stature, small build, almost
childlike appearance, but well educated and intelligent.
The inclosed narrative is a strict translation of a letter received from
the boy. This is, therefore, first-hand information, and my knowledge of
the character of the boy, as well as the ring in what he has to tell,
justifies me in vouching for the correctness of his narrative.
In reading these pages, you will note a weak point in our administration
of charity, which has been repeatedly brought to my attention. England
has every intention to act generously and warm-heartedly with the
Belgian people, who you may say have been sacrificed for the Allies.
They tender homes for refugees and transportation from Belgian shores to
England. They give out money liberally, but when this boy, utterly
without means, friends or papers arrived in Antwerp, there is no help
for him. If he had been smaller, somebody would have treated him as a
child and brought him along. If his father had not been dragged off into
slavery in Germany he might with an old aunt have represented a family.
Had he been able to preserve his legitimatization papers the Belgian
authorities would have given him some support. Had he been older, he
would have been enlisted in the defense of his country.
Here, therefore, is an individual, not small enough, not large enough,
not having relations enough and not having any documents. He was worthy
of help, but did not fit in anywhere. I am now doing my best to get
money over to him through the Belgian National Bank, also to get him
some sort of a paper, through the Belgian Legation in London, which will
enable him at least to cross the frontier to Holland, whence he might be
able to pay for his way to England.
I hope you will publish the boy's letter, _but it is necessary that you
suppress both his and the writer's name_. Should either be given and the
boy remain in Belgium, _it may cost him his life_. The mention of my own
may later on cause me difficulties with our German friends of liberty.
Yours truly,
---- ----.
[Inclosure.]
Translation of letter received from one of my employes, a young Belgian
boy of about 16 years of age. Received in England Sept. 28, 1914.
ANTWERP, Sept. 23, 1914.
Dear Sir: As you correctly said in my testimonial when you were closing
the office, the war has isolated Belgium. Really I can well say that I
have been painfully struck by this scourge, and I permit myself, dear
Sir, to give you a little description of my Calvary.
Your offices were closed in the beginning of August. As I did not know
what to do and as the fatherland had not enough men to defend its
territory I tried to get myself accepted as a volunteer.
On Aug. 10 I went to Aerschot, my native town, to get my certificate of
good conduct. Then I went to Louvain to have same signed by the
commander of the place. This gentleman sent me to St. Nicholas and
thence to Hemixem, where I was rejected as too young. I then decided to
return to Brussels, passing through Aerschot. Here my aunt asked me to
stay with her, saying that she was afraid of the Germans.
I remained at Aerschot. This was Aug. 15. Suddenly, on the 19th, at 9
o'clock in the morning, after a terrible bombardment, the Germans made
their entry into Aerschot. In the first street which they passed through
they broke into the houses. They brought out six men whom I knew very
well and immediately shot them. Learning of this, I fled to Louvain,
where I arrived on Aug. 19 at 1 o'clock.
At 1:30 P.M. the Germans entered Louvain. They did not do anything to
the people in the beginning. On the following Saturday, Aug. 22, I
started to return to Aerschot, as I had no money. (All my money was
still in Brussels.) The whole distance from Louvain to Aerschot I saw
nothing but German armies, always Germans. They did not say a word to me
until I suddenly found myself alone with three of the "Todeshusaren,"
(Death's Head Hussars,) the vanguard of their regiment. They arrested me
at the point of the revolver, demanded where I was going, and why I had
run away from Aerschot. They said that the whole of Aerschot was now on
fire, because the son of the Burgomaster had killed a General. Finally
they searched me from head to foot, and I heard them discuss the
question of my fate.
Finally the non-commissioned officer told me that I could continue on my
way; that they would certainly take care of me in Aerschot, as I had
been firing at Germans, and they would shoot me when I arrived. I would
have liked better to return to Louvain, but with an imperious gesture he
pointed out my road to Aerschot, and I continued. On arriving within a
few hundred meters of the town I was arrested once more.
I forgot to tell you that of all the houses which I passed between
Louvain and Aerschot, there were only a few left intact. Upon these the
Germans had written in chalk in the German language: "Please spare. Good
people. Do not burn." Lying along the road I saw many dead horses
putrefying. There were also to be seen pigs, goats, and cows which had
nothing to eat, and which were howling like wild beasts. Not a soul was
to be seen in the houses or in the streets. Everything was empty.
I was then arrested when a short distance from Aerschot. There were with
me two or three families from Sichem, a village between Diest and
Aerschot. We remained in the fields alongside the road, while the
Prussian regiments with their artillery continued to pass by. When the
artillery had passed we were marched at the point of the bayonet to the
church in Aerschot. On arrival at the church the families of Sichem
(there were at least twenty small children) were permitted to continue
on their way, and the non-commissioned officer, delighted that I could
speak German, permitted me to go to my aunt's house.
The aspect of the town was terrible. Not more than half the houses were
standing. In the first three streets which the Germans traversed there
was not a single house left. There was not a house in the town but had
been pillaged. All doors had been burst open. There was nothing, nothing
left. The stench in the streets was insupportable.
I then went home, or, rather, I should say, I went to the house where my
father had always been boarding. You know, perhaps, that my mother died
twelve years ago. I did not find my father, but according to what the
people told me he had been arrested, and, with five other Aerschot men,
taken to Germany--I do not know for what purpose.
I got into this house without any difficulty, because the door was
smashed in. I stayed there from Saturday, Aug. 22, up to Wednesday, the
26th, a little more comfortable. There was nothing to eat left in the
house. I lived on what a few women who remained in Aerschot could give
me. I was forced to go with the soldiers into the cellars of M.X.,
director of a large factory, to hunt for wine. As recompense I got a
loaf. It was not much, but at this moment it meant very much for me.
On Wednesday, Aug. 26, we were all once more locked up in the church. It
was then half-past four in the afternoon. We could not get out, even for
our necessities. On Thursday, about 9 o'clock, each of us was given a
piece of bread and a glass of water. This was to last the whole day. At
10 o'clock a Lieutenant came in, accompanied by fifteen soldiers. He
placed all the men who were left in a square, selected seventy of us and
ordered us out to bury the corpses of Germans and Belgians around the
town, which had been lying there since the battle of the 19th. That was
a week that these bodies had remained there, and it is no use to ask if
there was a stench. Afterward we had to clean the streets, and then it
was evening.
They just got ready to shoot us. There were then ten of us. The guns had
already been leveled at us, when suddenly a German soldier ran out
shouting that we had not fired on them. A few minutes before we had
heard rifle firing and the Germans said it was the Aerschot people who
were shooting, though all these had been locked up in the church and we
were the only inhabitants then in the streets, cleaning them, under
surveillance of Germans. It was this German who saved our lives.
Picture to yourself what we have suffered! It is impossible to describe.
On Aug. 28 we were brought to Louvain, always guarded by German
soldiers. There were with us about twenty old men, over eighty years of
age. These were placed in two carts, tied to one another in pairs. I and
about twenty of my unfortunate compatriots had then to pull the carts
all the way to Louvain. It was hard, but that could be supported all the
same.
On arriving at Louvain I saw with my own eyes a German who shot at us.
The Germans who were at the station shouted "The civilians have been
shooting," and commenced a fusillade against us. Many of us fell dead,
others wounded, but I had the chance to run away.
I now took the road to Tirlemont, marching all the time among German
camps. Once I was arrested. Again they wanted to shoot me, insisting
that I was a student of the University of Louvain. The Germans pretend
it was the student who had caused the population in Louvain to shoot at
them. However, my youth saved me, and I was set at liberty.
I arrived in this way, making small marches, sleeping under the stars,
at a small village, St. Pierre Rhode, six miles from Aerschot. This
village had not been occupied by the Germans. A benevolent farmer took
me in, and I lived there peacefully until Wednesday, Sept. 9. On that
day the Germans arrived. They took us all with them and we had to march
in front of them to prevent the Belgians from shooting. After one hour
they gave us our liberty.
The Belgians had now retaken Aerschot. I returned there as quickly as I
could. Only a few houses were still burning. It was Sept. 10. I left
again in the afternoon at 4 o'clock, taking a train, together with the
railway officials, and arrived at 6 P.M. in Antwerp, where I now stay
without any resources.
All my money, the 20 francs which you presented me and my salary for
five weeks, as well as my little savings, are lying in Brussels, and I
cannot get at them. I cannot work, because there is no work to be got. I
cannot cross over to England, as, to do this, it is necessary that there
should be a whole family. In these horrible circumstances, I
respectfully take the liberty of addressing you, and I hope you will aid
me as best you can. I swear to you that I shall pay you back all that
you give me. I have here in Antwerp no place, no family. The town will
not give me any aid, because I have no papers to prove my identity. I
threw all my papers away for fear of the Germans. I count then on you
with a firm hope to pay you back later.
Please accept, dear Sir, my respectful greetings.
---- ----.
* * * * *
_Special to The New York Times._
PITTSBURGH, Penn., Oct. 17.--The Pittsburgh civil engineer mentioned as
the former partner of the writer of the letter to THE TIMES citing acts
of the Germans in Belgium, is well known here. He was informed by THE
TIMES correspondent tonight that he had been named by the writer of the
letter as likely to testify to his trustworthiness and was asked if he
cared to say anything regarding this. He replied:
"While I have no idea what my former partner has written to THE TIMES, I
would credit his statements, whatever they might be."
THE NEUTRALS.
By BEATRICE BARRY.
Ours is the "neutral nation"
In this war that the white men wage,
And we on the Reservation
Care naught how the white men rage.
Where are the forest spaces
That the red man was free to roam?
And what of the woodland places
Where the red man made his home?
Gone! There's a paleface house
Where the brave had his strong tepee,
And the white man's cattle browse
Where the wild herds used to be.
For our power sites he reaches
While both smoothly he speaks and well
Of the God whose love he teaches
And whose justice he would tell.
O Great White Spirit who rideth
On the wings of the Winter gale,
Though thy children's faith abideth,
Alas! they have lost the trail.
Fifteen Minutes on the Yser
[Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES.]
IN BELGIUM, Dec. 12, (Dispatch to The London Daily News.)--Fighting of
an exceedingly desperate character has been taking place during the
latter portion of the week along the line which extends between the Yser
and the Lys. Success has attended the efforts of both Germans and French
in turn; but the losses of the enemy have been by far the greater, and
the French have in places gained a slight advantage. This is
particularly noteworthy when it is considered that the Germans on
Thursday especially attacked in overwhelming force time after time.
Their movement was concentrated on a zigzag line of trenches not far
from the village of Dichebusch, which, as it happened, was not
particularly strongly held by the French.
A terrific prelude to the attack was made by the German artillery, which
concentrated a furious shrapnel fire upon the French position. At this
point the trenches of the Germans were only seventy yards from the
French, and for fear of hitting their own men the German guns were aimed
fairly high, so that the Frenchmen in the rear trenches suffered most
heavily. Those in the front trench huddled against its sides while the
storm of shot and shell raged over them. There was nothing else for them
to do at the moment, and, as it proved, it was extremely fortunate for
the Allies that the German guns spared these men.
The French seventy-fives raked the German batteries in answer, and
things were going hot and strong when the German infantrymen suddenly
became active. From their trenches seventy yards away a shower of hand
grenades came bowling over toward the first French trench. Many of them
fell short, and few did any damage; but hardly had this second plague
come to an end when out from the trenches climbed a swarm of Germans
rushing furiously toward the Frenchmen. At last the men in that first
trench had something to do. They jumped to their loopholes and blazed
magazine fire into this raging, tearing attack. Every bullet seemed to
find its mark; it could hardly have done otherwise at such a range.
The advance line wavered, stumbled over prostrate parts of itself, and
then swept onward again. There was no time for the Frenchmen to reload
their rifles; besides they did not want to do so. They simply climbed
out of the trenches and met the Germans with the bayonet. The German
guns were still roaring to prevent the arrival of French reinforcements;
but the reinforcements came quickly, suffering heavily in coming.
The few Frenchmen still struggled sturdily with their enemies, who
outnumbered them three to one, and eventually the Germans who survived
the attack turned and bolted back to their trenches, with the Frenchmen,
seeing red, at their heels.
It was as furious a fifteen minutes as could be conceived. The No Man's
Land between the trenches was heaped with men tangled and twisted in
death or writhing with wounds which unmercifully let them live. Neither
side dared venture across to aid these sufferers, so they were left in
their agony.
But this one desperate charge did not end the day's work. The French
mortars thumped away incessantly, and showers of hand grenades were
exchanged. One more attack was made by the Germans in daylight, with a
like result. The ground was piled high in places with bodies. Then,
when night had fallen, yet another attack was made. One mighty mass of
Germans came charging over the narrow space. By sheer weight of numbers
they overwhelmed the French and took the trench for which they had paid
such a ghastly price. They held it only for a few hours. By converging
on it from three points at once the French retook it soon after
midnight.
On Friday morning a wonderful French bayonet charge at length drove out
the Germans, who had fought most gallantly and stubbornly throughout the
day and during the night, and the terrible morning which followed. The
Red Cross workers were busy without ceasing; but many men had bled to
death, lacking surgical aid, in that strip of ground between the
trenches.
This is the kind of warfare which is going to be waged in this seemingly
inevitable battle between the two rivers. It may last as long as the
battle of the Yser or the Aisne, and we may wait day after day again for
the verdict. If the Allies can press forward just three or four miles
before the year is out they will have done extraordinarily well.
Hereabout the German artillery is in greater strength than anywhere else
along the whole line of battle.
Progress will undoubtedly be slow because the Germans have taken such
tremendous pains to pave (in a literal sense) with concrete trenches the
way of retreat. British airmen report line upon line of intrenchments
where the Germans have defensively furrowed the land behind them for
miles. As the Allies advance--and they indubitably will advance--these
trenches will in turn be stubbornly defended. It is going to be, I am
afraid, a long, weary, and bloody business. Those in England who
sometimes complain at the absence of decisive victories may have to wait
a long time yet before it can be said that the Germans are in full
retreat; for full retreat is the very thing they have guarded against
most carefully.
In the semi-circle of slaughter around Ypres the trenches of the Allies
and the Germans are at nearly all points extraordinarily close together.
This means an immense strain on the men. They remain for hours together
in cramped, unnatural positions, knowing from experience that an unwise
move will bring a bullet from crack marksmen told off to snipe them.
This close proximity of the rival forces confounds all the theories of
the military writers of the past. According to the army textbooks this
war is being conducted in a grossly unprofessional manner. For bringing
his men so close to the enemy many a young company commander has
received a severe dressing down on manoeuvres.
Of course under such circumstances abuse and badinage is continually
being bandied across the intervening spaces between the trenches, and
the quick-witted Frenchmen generally get the better of it in the war of
words.
One of them, who came back from the Ypres neighborhood a few days ago,
told me a delightful story of a practical joke played upon the Germans,
who were entrenched only about thirty or forty yards away from his
platoon. One bright spirit was lecturing the enemy and making
dialectical rings round them.
"Hola, bosches," he cried, "your Kaiser is very brave, isn't he? He
wears the Iron Cross, but he doesn't come into your trenches. Tomorrow
M. Poincaré, our President, will visit us. He does not wear an Iron
Cross, but he isn't afraid."
On the morrow the Germans saw a top hat come bobbing and bowing along
the French trench and heard loud cries of "Vive le President!" Time
after time they riddled that top hat with bullets, and still it went
bobbing along until the French took it off the spade handle, threw it
into the air and howled in derision.
Seeing Nieuport Under Shell Fire
[Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES.]
FURNES, Dec. 21, (Dispatch to The London Daily News.)--For several days
I have been in possession of an authorization from the French commandant
permitting me to penetrate to Nieuport. This town has been under
bombardment by the Germans since Oct. 20. There were days, however, when
no shells fell in the town and a walk in the streets presented no
danger, though this was by no means the case last week, when, after a
period of calm, an event of considerable importance occurred. The Allies
took up the offensive in an effort to drive the Germans from the coast
and recapture Ostend and Zeebrugge.
Along the whole front from the Yser to the sea there were important
movements of troops. These I am not at liberty to describe, but they
have for the most part only a small significance in relation to the
events described in this letter. For eight days the struggle has been
very severe on the Yser, and night and day hundreds of guns have been
sending shells across the space dividing the two armies. Since the end
of October the Germans had been established at St. Georges and
Lombartzyde, close to Nieuport, and their trenches between Nieuport and
Nieuport-les-Bains were separated from those of the French and Belgians
only by a canal twenty yards wide running from Furnes through Nieuport
to the sea.
I left Furnes on a French motor truck carrying bread and meat to the
troops at Nieuport. For about three miles the truck followed the canal,
passing the village of Wulpen, and then came to a stop. We had arrived
near the bridge over which we must pass to reach Nieuport. As we slowly
approached the bridge I asked the chauffeur: "What is delaying us?" "It
is a little too warm for the moment," he replied.
When a soldier admits that things are warm it is certain that there is
serious fighting afoot. To the right and left over the fields we could
see the inundations. On the roads our soldiers were moving and the guns
of the Allies were filling the air with thunder. In the intervals one
could hear the spitting of quick-firers and the lesser chorus of rifle
fire. Just ahead on a little bridge were a few soldiers of the engineer
corps busily at work under the direction of a Lieutenant.
Suddenly I saw them fall flat on the ground. At the same moment a shell
whistled over their heads and buried itself in the canal bank only forty
yards from us.
"Shelter your machine behind the house," shouted the Lieutenant, and the
chauffeur did not want a second telling. He backed the truck a few yards
to place it against a house opposite the bridge at the corner of the
road from Ramscapelle.
I left the truck and stood with some soldiers close against the wall. In
five minutes fifteen shells fell within a radius of 100 yards of the
bridge, but not one struck the bridge itself. We could hear them come
shrieking toward us, and the only comment of the soldiers each time was
"Here comes another."
We passed over the bridge and advanced along the canal bank in the
direction of the Germans. As we approached the trenches near the Dixmude
railway bridge we were able to survey the plain of St. Georges, which is
now completely under water. For a moment the firing between the trenches
had ceased, and we were able to take a leisurely view of the scene from
the height of the bridge over an area half a mile square. The water is
three feet deep, and in the centre of the lake stands a farmhouse
surrounded by trees. French and Belgian soldiers had crossed the water,
advancing under the protection of artillery fire, and had captured the
houses standing on the far side.
Returning to our motor, we quickly reached Nieuport. The aspect of the
place was strange. The houses, as in all ancient fortified towns, press
closely one against another. The streets, however, are wide and regular.
They were as empty as the streets of a dead city. In the roofs of the
houses were large holes. Windows and doors had been destroyed, and
blinds and curtains were floating out on the wind.
To my great surprise I learned that four or five houses were still
occupied. About twenty inhabitants, I was told, were still living in
their cellars after the two months' bombardment. The soldiers did what
they could to feed these people, who said that rather than leave their
homes they would perish in the ruins. The rest of the inhabitants, about
4,000, had fled, taking with them only what they could carry in their
hands. In every house one could see broken furniture covered with dust.
In many of them gaping holes had been torn by shells, while some of the
front walls had been carried clean away. Bedsteads and wardrobes were
seen standing awry on the upper floors, ready to fall into the street.
Of other houses, reduced, one may say, to powder, only heaps of rubbish
remain, in which one can distinguish among pieces of tiles and bricks
and plaster chests of drawers, pianos, sideboards, sewing machines, and
so forth, broken and mixed with what is left of household linen and
crockery. Family portraits, as if in mockery, remain hanging in places
and contemplate the scene of ruin. The contents of the shops have been
scattered over the floors, and whatever has not been destroyed by
shells, shrapnel, and bombs, has been left to rot under the rain which
comes through the roofs and ceilings. All sorts of merchandise was lying
about in confusion on the pavements.
The church, one of the oldest Gothic monuments in the country, has been
completely demolished. The belfry tower is torn open, and one broken
bell is lying on the ground at the edge of a pit some thirty feet in
width, made by the explosion of an enormous German shell. A large wooden
crucifix by the side of the church has been torn from the ground and
lies in a ditch.
There is a layer three feet deep of pieces of wood covering the floor of
the church. This was once the roof and furniture of the old Gothic
temple.
The cemetery, furrowed by shells, contains fresh graves covered with
flowers. These are graves of officers and soldiers. On one of them are a
soldier's coat and cap; on another a small Belgian flag. The second
grave was dug only this morning, the young soldier, I was told by a
Sergeant, having arrived at 8 o'clock and having been killed by a German
shell at 10.
Only one structure in Nieuport remained intact, the Templars' Tower, a
very solid piece of masonry, five centuries old.
Groups of officers and men were moving about among the ruins of the
town. They were all young men, whose laughter and jokes contrasted
grimly with the terrible howl of the guns and the crash of the
projectiles which were still falling in the town. The French batteries
added to the noise. Nothing can describe the terrible power of the heavy
French artillery. The voice of the guns pierced my ear drums. Though
they were posted at a considerable distance, one might almost think them
close at hand. As a shell passes over your head it reminds you of a
hurricane blowing through the bare branches of a forest.
Accompanied by my chauffeur, I ran through streets which he pointed out
as being more dangerous than others. They were being shelled from the
flank by the Germans, and sometimes, I was told, accidents would occur;
that is, somebody would be killed by a shell flying along the street
from one end to the other. One feels one's self much more at ease in
the streets which intersect these thoroughfares at right angles.
In one spot I met a Red Cross motor ambulance laden with wounded, and
going in the midst of the gravest danger, in the direction of Furnes. At
another point we saw a French Captain, who, in a stern voice, ordered
his soldiers to keep away from the middle of the street. These men were
not on duty for the moment and were chatting as merrily as if they were
in no danger.
Raid on Scarborough Seen from a Window
By Ruth Kauffmann.
[From THE NEW YORK TIMES.]
CLOUGHTON, Scarborough, England, Dec. 17.--It's a very curious thing to
watch a bombardment from your house.
Everybody knew the Kaiser would do it. But there was a little doubt
about the date, and then somehow the spy-hunting sport took up general
attention. When the Kaiser did send his card here yesterday morning it
was quite as much of a surprise as most Christmas cards--from a friend
forgotten.
Eighteen people were killed yesterday morning between 8 o'clock and 8:30
in the streets and houses of Scarborough by German shrapnel, 200 were
wounded, and more than 200 houses were damaged or demolished.
A little before 8 o'clock three dreadnought cruisers were seen to cut
through the light fog, which was just lifting, and, hugging the cliffs
opposite our house, scuttle south to Scarborough. From our windows we
could not at that hour quite make out the contours of the ruined castle,
which is generally plainly visible. Our attention was called to the fact
that there was "practicing" going on, and we could, at 8:07, see quick
flashes. That these flashes pointed directly at Scarborough we did not
for a few minutes comprehend. Then, the fog slowly lifting, we saw a fog
that was partly smoke. The castle grew into its place in the six miles
distance. It seemed for a moment that the eight-foot-thick Norman walls
tottered; but no, whatever tottered was behind the keep. Curiously
enough we could barely hear the cannonading, for the wind was keen in
the opposite direction, yet we could, as the minutes crept by and the
air cleared, see distinctly the flashes from the boats and the flashes
in the city.
After about fifteen minutes there was a cessation, or perhaps a
hesitation, that lasted two minutes; then the flashes continued. Ten
minutes more and the boats began to move again. One cruiser disappeared
completely from sight, sailing south by east. The other two rushed, like
fast trains, north again, again close to our cliffs; and in another half
hour we heard all too plainly the cannonading which had almost escaped
our ears from Scarborough. We thought it was Robin Hood's Bay, as far
north of us as Scarborough is south; but afterward we learned that the
boats omitted this pretty red-roofed town and concentrated their
remaining energy on Whithy, fifteen miles north; the wind blowing
toward us brought us the vibrating boom.
We drove to Scarborough. We had not gone one mile of the distance when
we began to meet people coming in the opposite direction. A small
white-faced boy in a milk cart that early every morning makes its
Scarborough rounds showed us a piece of shell he had picked up and said
it had first struck a man a few yards from him and killed the man. A
woman carrying a basket told us, with trembling lips, that men and women
were lying about the streets dead. The postman assured us that
Scarborough was in flames. A road worker told us we should be turned
back, and another man warned us to beware of a big hole in the road
further along, large enough to swallow our horse and trap; yet we could
certainly see no flames issuing from Scarborough, which now lay directly
before us.
We put up the horse at a stable on the very edge of the city and walked
up the steep hill. The hotelkeeper and his wife, we were told, were
already "refugees."
Scarborough is a sprawling town that stretches a length of about three
miles from the extreme north end to the extreme south. Inland about a
mile and a half is a wireless station, and on the cliff, 300 feet high,
stands the ruined castle and its walled-in grounds, in the midst of
which is--or was, for it was yesterday blown clean away--a signal
station. Although there are barracks the town is unfortified. A seaside
resort of considerable importance, its population varies by many
thousands in Winter and Summer, with a stationary population of 45,000.
But to compensate for its Summer losses are the numerous fashionable
schools for both boys and girls.
We did not meet a deserted city when we entered. The streets were
thronging. There was a Sunday hush over everything without the
accompanying Sunday clothes, but people moved about or stood at their
doorways. Many of the shop fronts were boarded up and shop windows were
empty of display. The main street, a narrow passageway that clambers up
from the sea and points due west, was filled with a procession that
slowly marched down one side and up the other. People hardly spoke.
They made room automatically for a group of silent boy scouts, who
carried an unconscious woman past us to the hospital. There was the
insistent honk of a motor car as it pushed its way through; all that
struck me about the car was the set face of an old man rising above
improvised bandages about his neck, part of the price of the Kaiser's
Christmas card.
The damage to property did not first reach our attention. But as we
walked down the main street and then up it with the procession we saw
that shops and houses all along had windows smashed next to windows
unhurt. At first we thought the broken windows were from concussion, but
apparently very few were so broken; there was not much concussion, but
the shells, splintering as they exploded, had flown red-hot in every
direction. The smoke we had seen had come from fires quickly
extinguished. Scarborough was not "in flames."
We left the main business street and picked our way toward the Foreshore
and the South Cliff, the more fashionable part of town as well as the
school section. Here there was a great deal of havoc, and we had to
climb over some of the débris. Roofs were half torn off and balancing in
mid-air; shells had shot through chimneys, and some chimneys tottered,
while several had merely round roles through the brickwork; mortar,
bricks, and glass lay about the streets; here a third-story room was
bare to the view, the wall lifted out as for a child's dollhouse and
disclosing a single bedroom with shaving materials on the bureau still
secure; there a drug store lay fallen into the street, and the iron
railing about it was torn and twisted out of shape. A man and a boy had
just been carried away dead. All around small pieces of iron rail and
ripped-up asphalt lay scattered. Iron bars were driven into the woodwork
of houses; there were great gaps in walls and roofs; the attack had not
spent itself on any one section of the city, but had scattered itself in
different wards. The freaks of the shells were as inexplicable as those
of a great fire that destroys everything in a house except a piano and a
mantelpiece with its bric-a-brac, or a flood that carries away a log
cabin and leaves a rose bush unharmed and blooming.
Silent pedestrians walked along and searched the ground for souvenirs,
of which there were aplenty. Sentries guarded houses and streets where
it was dangerous to explore, and park benches were used as barriers to
the public. All the cabs were requisitioned to take away luggage and
frightened inhabitants. During the shelling hundreds of women and
children, breakfastless, their hair hanging, hatless, and even
penniless, except for their mere railway fares, had rushed to the
station and taken tickets to the first safe town they could think of.
There was no panic, these hatless, penniless women all asserted, when
they arrived in York and Leeds. A wealthy woman whom I slightly know
nearly rushed into my arms, her face very flushed, and told me that she
had left the servants to pack her china and vases, and was now on her
way to find a workman to dig a hole in the garden to receive them; as
for herself, she would eat from kitchen dishes henceforth.
A friend of mine hurried into Scarborough by motor to rescue her sister,
who was a pupil at one of the boarding schools. But it appeared that
when the windows of the school began to crash the teachers hurried from
prayers, ordered the pupils to gather hats and coats and sweet chocolate
that happened to be on hand as a substitute for breakfast, and made them
run for a mile and a half, with shells exploding about them, through the
streets to the nearest out-of-Scarborough railway station. My friend,
after unbelievable difficulties, finally found her sister in a private
house of a village near by, the girl in tears and pleading not to be
sent to London; she had been told that her family's house was probably
destroyed, as it was actually on the seacoast.
On the other hand, instances of self-possession were not lacking.
Another school hardby took all its children to the cellars, where the
teachers made light of the matter, and the frightened father of one very
nervous child was pleasantly amazed to find his child much calmer than
himself--and quite delighted with the experience. In St. Martin's
Church, the Archdeacon was celebrating communion. Shells struck the roof
of the church. The Archdeacon stopped the service for a brief moment to
say:
"We are evidently being bombarded. But we are as safe here as we can be
anywhere," and proceeded calmly with the service.
We left Scarborough at night. The exodus of inhabitants, school
children, whose Christmas holidays began earlier by one day on account
of the raid, and visitors continued steadily. The cabmen, so idle in
Winter, were rejoiced to find that work for today would not be lacking.
"At this rate," said one of them to me as he lighted the carriage
candles for our trap and handed me the reins, "if the Germans come again
there'll be no one left for them to kill."
There is, the Admiralty tells us, no military significance in this
event, and, from the British point of view, I doubt if a woman will ever
be considered worthy of a hearing in anything military; but I presume
there is some sort of significance from a real estate point of view in
the holes made in the hotels and houses, and from the hospital point of
view in the sad procession of stretchers. But however little
significance the December bombardment of Scarborough has, it is
certainly a surprise to be wakened by three hostile cruisers, and one
must admit that the Kaiser has at least left his greetings of the season
on the east coast.
How the Baroness Hid Her Husband on a Vessel
[Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES.]
LONDON, Dec. 7.--The story of how Baroness Hans Heinrich von Wolf, who
was Miss Humphreys, well known in New York society, smuggled her husband
into Germany after the beginning of the war past a British cruiser and
two sets of British shipping inspectors so that he could fight for the
Fatherland is revealed in news received here giving details as to the
bestowal upon the Baron of the Iron Cross of the First Class.
Baron von Wolf and his wife, who is the daughter of a wealthy patent
medicine manufacturer and whose stepfather is Consul General St. John
Gaffney, at Munich, were on their plantation in German Southwest Africa,
when the Kaiser ordered the mobilization. Being a reserve officer, the
Baron started homeward on board a German steamship on July 29, and,
fortunately for him, the Baroness accompanied him.
On receipt of wireless information that war had been declared, their
ship promptly put into Rio Janeiro toward the middle of August, and it
was two weeks later before the Wolfs found a neutral vessel headed for
Holland.
In South American waters they were halted by a British cruiser, but
although there were many German reservists among the passengers, the
cruiser was so full of Germans already that she could not carry any
more, so they were permitted to proceed.
Baron von Wolf left the ship "officially" at Vigo, Spain, his wife
waving a tearful farewell to his imaginary figure on the tender. He was
really secreted, through the connivance of a generously bribed steward,
in a tiny closet, where he remained for twenty-four hours. Finally he
was spirited into his wife's state-room, and during the rest of the
voyage spent most of his time lying under her berth. All his meals,
drinks, and cigarettes were brought in by the steward, who was in the
plot, and, as the Baroness remarked laughingly to friends afterward, "I
gained a frightful reputation as a heavy drinker and smoker, and one
Mrs. Grundy even spread the scandalous report that I had a man in my
room."
British warships compelled the Dutch vessel to enter Falmouth, where the
authorities searched her for contraband and reservists. Knowing that the
Baroness was a German officer's wife, naval officials called upon her
several times in the course of the two weeks during which the ship was
forced to remain at Falmouth, but each time they found her either doing
up her hair, whereupon they retreated hastily with apologies for the
intrusion, or lying in her bunk, feigning illness. The ship manifest, of
course, showed that Capt. von Wolf had disembarked at Vigo, and the
Captain of the vessel, ignorant of the truth, swore that he had seen
Capt. von Wolf on board the tender, waving to his wife on deck.
There was a further search at Dover, but von Wolf's hiding place was
never discovered.
The Kaiser awarded the Iron Cross to von Wolf for capturing seven
English soldiers single-handed near Ypres and for carrying dispatches in
an automobile under a fire so hot that his chauffeur and two officers in
a car following were killed.
As far as his neutrality will permit, Consul General Gaffney, in whose
Munich residence the Baroness is living during the war, has indicated to
friends his delight over the valor of his stepson-in-law.
Warsaw Swamped With Refugees
By H.W. Bodkinson of The London Standard.
WARSAW, Oct. 15.--Thousands of fugitives crowd the city. They come from
all parts of Poland, but principally from the frontier towns and
villages which the Germans have been ravaging for over six weeks.
It rends one's heart to hear of the sufferings of these poor refugees,
who are mostly Jews, but with a considerable sprinkling of Poles and
Lithuanians. Every available hall and every empty warehouse is filled
with them. They must have shelter and food, and Warsaw has risen
heroically to the task of providing them with these necessities. Yet how
they suffer and what a struggle is theirs for bare existence!
My first visit was to the largest hall in Warsaw, called the Swiss
Valley, where the large Philharmonic concerts are usually held and which
in ordinary times is the gathering place of society. It is now converted
into a refuge for 600 or 700 homeless fugitives, who have left their all
behind them and fled in terror, frequently on foot, for many miles, and
carrying their possessions on their backs. The majority are old men,
women, and children. In the babel of voices are frequently heard pitiful
cries of poorly fed children, shrieks of more lusty ones, and groans and
wailings of mothers who still seem stunned and stupefied by their
frightful experiences.
Dinner was being served when I arrived. At several tables sat women,
many with babies in arms, and children, while men were being served in
one of the large corridors. Standing in endless rows, they took their
turn at the steaming pots. In the main hall many fugitives were
crouching on the floor, some on mattresses, and piled about them were
little mounds of household effects that they had succeeded in saving
from their wrecked and ruined homes. It was truly a picture of direst
misery, and in the faces of young and old one could read calamity.
Kalisch is probably a heap of ruins, these recent arrivals tell me, and
of the usual population of 65,000 barely 2,000 are left. German soldiers
have abandoned the city, but are quartered three or four miles away, in
the village of Oputook. Kalisch is only a fortified camp, visited daily,
however, by German cavalry, who use it as a reconnoitring base. All
gardens have been destroyed and trees cut up for barricades, and even
crosses from the cemetery have been displaced and used in fortification
work.
Refugees tell dreadful stories of what they saw on their flight through
this unfortunate part of Poland. Everywhere are burned and pillaged
villages, towns destroyed, and gardens that are heaps of ashes and
ruins.
One old man, formerly a country school teacher, saw three peasants
hanging from a tree, with all the signs of having been frightfully
tortured, as their arms and legs were broken in several places. They
evidently had been accused of espionage and summarily executed. While
telling me of this sight the old man fairly shook with the terror of
reminiscence, and when he finished he was sobbing aloud.
How Warsaw is going to take care of these poor unfortunates is still an
unsolved problem. Already a wave of unemployment is spreading in the
city, and it will be impossible to find work for this enormous increase
in the town's population. Some are being sent to the southern coal mines
and others are being employed on fortification works at Novo
Georgieoak, but they are the pick of the lot. It is the old and infirm,
the women and children, who must be provided for, and though
contributions come in steadily, yet there is not half enough relief for
all, and appeals are being made both to Petrograd and Moscow, cities
which still are practically free from the horrors of war, for speedy
help.
After the Russian Advance in Galicia
[From The London Times.]
LWOW (Lemberg), Oct. 17.
I have returned from a trip of several hundred kilometers through
Galicia, covering the zone of the Russian conquest and subsequent
occupation. I believe it is fair to consider the district traversed as
typical of the general conditions in the existing conquered zones and of
those prevailing during and after the fighting.
The portion traversed lies from Lwow in a southeasterly direction to
Bessarabia, along the Carpathians and the line of retreat of the heavy
Austrian column and the subsequent advance of Gen. Brussiloff. The
situation at Halicz offers an opportunity to judge of the conduct of the
Russians, as this position was occupied after considerable severe
fighting nearby. Gen. Brussiloff's advance was preceded by heavy masses
of Cossacks, and two checks were experienced before this point was
reached, and therefore it may be assumed that their blood was roused
when Halicz was reached and any excesses or lack of control were to be
expected here, where there are many Jews. The facts, which are obvious
and not dependent upon hearsay or official confirmation, are that though
this country was swept by a huge army, three divisions of Cossacks
crossing the river at Halicz, besides a mass of infantry, there is in
the rural districts no sign to indicate this deluge of a few weeks
earlier. The fields have at present an absolutely normal aspect, with
stock grazing contentedly everywhere, while in every village there are
quantities of geese, chickens, and pigs. There are acres and acres of
rich farming land, with grain still stacked, while the Autumn plowing
and belated harvesting are proceeding as usual.
Nine villages through which the Russian armies swept give no sign of war
having passed this way. At an occasional station or village a few
destroyed buildings are seen, but these in every instance appear to have
been places where the retreating Austrians halted or attempted to make
stands, and the fire even at these points seems to have been carefully
concentrated on strategic points--for instance, a town where the railway
dêpot and a warehouse have been leveled. I was particularly impressed by
the village of Botszonce, near Halicz. A few versts from there a
stubborn fight lasting several days resulted in the abandonment of the
Austrian line of resistance and a retreat, with a halt at Botszonce.
Hence the town was shelled, and the municipal offices and big buildings
in the centre were utterly destroyed, but three buildings stand
conspicuously among the ruins. These are two churches, and the Town
Hall, with a spire resembling that of a church. The fact that the
building next to the latter was leveled utterly, while not a single
shell entered the supposed church, indicates that the Russian practice
at 5,000 meters was sufficiently accurate to insure the protection of
sacred edifices, while neighboring buildings were wrecked. It is also
significant of the Russian restraint following a hard battle where
losses were substantial.
It is universally observable that where villages were shelled attempts
were made to spare the peasants' houses, few of which were damaged, save
by fires spreading from other buildings. Everywhere wanton destruction
has obviously been avoided, and the percentage of towns in this zone
where any damage whatever was done is small. The foregoing facts signify
the restraint and soberness exercised both by the Cossacks and the
following infantry. The natives were not unfriendly to the Russians,
which would partially account for this, but such discipline as was
exhibited is significant even in a friendly country, when one considers
the size and extent of the invading armies.
Other conclusions based on conversations with Russian officials, which
were obviously prejudiced, and with peasants, whose evidence was given
to a correspondent who accompanied these officers, must be accepted
guardedly. Such information as was obtained from these sources
indicated no complaint against the Russian soldier. Little material was
taken, and this, it is said, has been paid for. This I personally
believe, as the merchants and natives appear to be genuinely friendly,
the occupying troops stating that even the Cossacks were docile. Many
Austrian officials are wearing their old uniforms with Russian colors on
their arms.
It would be unwise to attempt to estimate the underlying feelings of the
population, but I believe it is a safe assumption that Russia's Galician
Government will be the most progressive and liberal of all her
experiments, and will probably prove an easy yoke for all those who do
not attempt to interfere politically. It is obvious that an exceptional
effort has been made throughout the campaign and the occupation to keep
the inhabitants friendly and establish the Government here as a
demonstration of Russian progressive tendencies. I believe, too, that
this time the tendencies are distinctly liberal, but it is futile to
attempt to estimate the future.
Officer in Battle Had Little Feeling
[Correspondence of The Associated Press.]
ROTTERDAM, Dec. 1.--The psychology of the battlefield gets a rather
thorough and able treatment by an Austrian reserve officer, who, after
having been wounded in an engagement with the Russians, gave the
following interview to a Hungarian journalist. The officer in question
was with Gen. Dankl in the fighting southeast of Krasnik.
"You feel little or nothing while in battle," he said. "At least, you
forget how things affect your mind. The eyes see and the ears hear, but
those are perceptions which do not result in impressions one could
co-ordinate. They do not even affect your sentiments. But it is not
cynicism, for all that; merely the lack of appreciation of what takes
place. My Captain, a most lovable fellow, whom I did not alone respect
as an officer, but of whom I also thought a great deal personally, was
leading his company into fire when three bullets hit him in the abdomen.
I saw him fall, but thought nothing of it and marched on.
"In spite of the fact that you have no ill-feelings against the enemy,
and may not even fear him, you destroy him as best you can. On the
evening before our first battle we were sitting about the mess
table--most of us officers of the line. None of us had ever killed a
man. I said: 'Friends, when I meet the first Russian officer tomorrow my
impulse will be to shake his hand.' My comrades agreed with me. But on
the following day I was obliged to lay a number of Russians low.
"My Slovacs are the most phlegmatic people in the world, but excellent
soldiers. They shoot without anger, but simply because they are fired
upon. One fights because one is on the battlefield and cannot do any
different. The terrible thing is that often you are shot at without
being able to return the fire. But this is not as fear-inspiring as it
is discouraging. You learn to know what fear is when you begin to
realize that you might be killed without killing somebody first.
"Of course I have been scared. That was after I had been wounded. We had
been firing a long time, and when next we advanced we came into a deep
and sandy road, out of which we could not get because of the enemy's
terrible fire. We had to lie perfectly still while bullets simply poured
over us. That was awful."
The officer omitted to state that while in this position he was shot
three times in the arm, but continued to lead his troops throughout the
action.
"It is a well-known fact that the soldier sees very little of the
battle. On Aug. 24, early in the morning, we re-received [Transcriber's
Note: so in original] orders to occupy a low hill at the edge of a tract
covered with brushwood. Forming part of the reserve, we were expected to
remain under cover. In front of us was a large open battlefield. To each
side of us were batteries which had thundered away since early morning.
The result of this was that many of the enemy's shells dropped right in
front of us. I remember noticing that while the smoke of our shells had
a lilac color that of the enemy's was white.
"So far we had not been disquieted by the shells at all. On the edge of
the brushwood had been planted a yellow-black flag, showing that
somewhere in that vicinity was to be found our General Staff. Our
Colonel left us and walked toward it, possibly to get orders, but just
as he got there a shrapnel exploded a little ahead of him in the air and
we saw our commanding officer, in whom we placed all our confidence, go
down. After that it was a terrible feeling to lie still. From that
moment on, too, a veritable hail of shells began to come. Some sappers,
who had been busy digging a trench for the protection of the General
Staff, started to run. I feared that my soldiers would follow the
example, and began to make fun of the poor sappers, scolding them at the
same time. Thank God, my battalion found that funny and began to laugh.
They lived through a terrific shrapnel fire with not a care and even
found occasion for laughter.
"A Major took command of the regiment and we received orders to retake a
hill which the enemy had captured under heavy fire. But of the enemy
nothing at all was to be seen as we neared the position, though the hail
of shell and shrapnel increased in fury. The flag bearer marched about
300 paces off my side. By accident I looked in his direction, saw the
white cloud of smoke of a Russian shell, and where the flag bearer had
been there was nothing more to be seen.
"The enemy meanwhile had taken to flight, and later we saw the Russians
wading through a swamp. Then they got to the River Por and crossed
it--we after them, shooting, wading, out of breath. Of a sudden a
village behind us went up in flames, the light falling on us like the
rays of a huge reflector. Then and there we received a rain of fire, and
saw the enemy had taken possession in good order of the other bank. We
had to fall back, not because we were afraid, but because those were the
orders. The sensation of being in danger of death we did not have.
"Flags and drums are useless things in warfare. What is the use of a
flag which by its bright colors reveals your position, which, as the
brown paint on my sabre shows, it has been intended to conceal? In the
one case even the slightest reflection of light is guarded against,
while in the other a large field of colors undoes all that it has been
wished to accomplish. The drummer, on the other hand, must beat his drum
as he goes to the attack, yet he is expected to run into the enemy
unarmed. He would prefer exchanging his drum for a rifle, so that he
would be able to shoot down a soldier.
"One feels nothing of the presence of the enemy in battle and on the
marches. To be wounded is also not such a bad experience. But you begin
to think after the battle. To bear the horrors of war a sort of ideal is
necessary. Once, when I took my Slovacs into an attack, we passed a
cross by the wayside. Many of them knelt down for a moment and said a
prayer. That was sincere and sublime. The ideal which makes it possible
for me to bear everything is to be a good officer on the
battlefield--under the circumstances my duty toward the social aggregate
to which I belong."
The Battle of New Year's Day
By Perceval Gibbon.
[Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES.]
ZYRARDOW, Poland, Jan. 3, via London, Jan. 8, (Dispatch to The London
Daily Chronicle.)--The lines of trenches, the position of which I am
able to observe from here, are those extending south from Sochaczew, and
to the west of Msczonow. The chief German efforts are being directed
against the centre of this line.
They have made a concentration of their best troops opposite our
positions west of the village of Guzow, against the trenches of the
second army at a point where an army corps of veterans have turned their
position into an earthen fortress. Here within the last few days the
Germans have brought up guns of all but the largest calibre and
generally displayed considerable increases in their artillery. Here also
their infantry attacks, those tragic and wasteful assaults in force
which send so many thousand German corpses down the streams of the Rawka
and Bzura to the Vistula, and so home, are most intense.
During the last few days a certain lull in the frequency of these
attacks has been observable and has been construed by the Russians as
prefatory to renewed endeavors to force the line and advance a short
stage on the dangerous road to Warsaw. This premonition was justified on
New Year's Day when the enemy's attacks were renewed east of Guzow. The
armies are facing each other across their breastworks at a distance
varying from 200 to 300 yards. The dawn of 1915, the Germans roused
themselves again to the dreary energy of the hopeless battle. I watched
the shelling from the headquarters of a regiment which is occupying a
trench in the centre of the front line.
It was impossible to approach the trench more nearly during daylight, as
the grassless brown flats were noisy with bullets from the German lines.
They shoot with wasteful prodigality shrapnel and even heavier shells on
any single figure that is discernible; but when early dark came down the
attempt was made successfully and the first line held by the Bielojevsky
Regiment was reached. I had the advantage of the company up to the zone
of fire of Prince Peter Volkonsky, who is leader of a Red Cross motor
column. Throughout our journey the Germans were firing rockets. A slow,
green ball of fire ascends as gradually into the air as a loaded
balloon, seems to poise aloft for a moment, then sinks slowly to earth,
lighting the country for a long way around with a ghastly green
illumination. Each rocket is followed by a prompt fire from the field
batteries and a short spurt of rifle fire.
The trench to which I finally came at midnight was that in almost the
mathematical centre of the Guzow positions. Here behind an
eight-foot-high breastwork the famous regiment, which invariably has
been in the front line during the five months of the war, has made
itself efficiently at home. Since the war began the regiment, whose
normal strength is 4,000 men, has lost 5,500, making good its losses out
of the reserves, so that now again it is at its full strength.
The Germans have made a routine of their attacks, always making them at
night and always ineffectually. They advance as far as the barbed wire,
30 yards in front of the trench. There they encounter the full force of
the Russian rifle fire and fall back again. The Germans shell without
ceasing. All the Russians speak of their profuse expenditure of
ammunition. The commander of the trench told me that at the lowest they
fired over 3,000 shells on a single day.
Although intermittent firing continued through the night, no attack was
made. With the morning the German guns resumed their exhaustive questing
along the rear of the trenches, and a big factory to the southward once
more became their target. Its great chimney began to acquire a kind of
sporting significance, it was so obviously the object of fire in that
direction; and bets were going in the trench backing the chimney against
the German gunners.
I counted in an hour thirty-six shells directed at the factory, but the
chimney, like the steeple of a persecuted but triumphant religion, was
cocking its unbowed head to the skies.
Now began the shelling of the trench, while the German rifle bullets
searched along the front. This, however, is a game at which the Russian
riflemen are specially proficient. They can in a few moments organize a
combined murderous fire which forces every German who is not weary of
life to keep his head down. After a few minutes the German rifle fire
goes wild, their bullets no longer striking about our loopholes.
Toward late afternoon their fire increased, and the Russian long-range
battery came into position behind us. The gun out of sight astern of us
roared grandly. A shell traveled over us, whistling in its flight, then
splashed in brief fire, and a great cloud of smoke arose a hundred yards
ahead of us and the same distance short of the German trenches. A second
shell burst about the same distance beyond the German line. Then, after
careful sighting, and the position having been verified, came a third
shell and landed superbly and within easy sight upon the very lip of the
trench, blowing a great gap in the earthwork. It was gunnery of the most
exact and expert kind.
Shell after shell under our eyes, timed to a fraction, raked the trench;
then came the reply to it. A German heavy battery out of sight in a dip
toward the river came into action. From horizon to horizon the world was
noisy with the stupendous drum of artillery, while at each brief
interval the rending reverberation of rifle fire from trench to trench
tore at one's ears.
The dreary, icy night darkened over the desolate fields which in this
war have seen their crops trampled and have been sown with dead men. The
darkness was lit by gun flashes and brief moons of shrapnel winking
aloft, while from the opposite trench issued a ghostly, flickering blaze
of rifles at their work.
The attack developed after all to the left of the trench in which we
were. It was part of a great attack along a line which extended from
near Gradow southward to Rawa, and was unsuccessful everywhere.
When dark came I made my way out of the trench in the same way I had
previously entered it--under fire; but this time the moon was showing
frostily clear over the horrible levels, so that as we went we were
silhouetted against her vacant face. We obviously were plainly visible
to the Germans, for besides bullets, which were beginning to become
commonplace and unremarkable, a shrapnel shell came screaming up and
burst on the ground about twenty feet away.
We gained the road to Chervonaneva. The road was white and straight,
bare as one's empty hand. Here I endured the most curious experience of
my life. Myself and companion, John Bass, correspondent of The Chicago
Daily News, were walking in our heavy furs between the glaring moon and
the German gunners, who will fire extravagantly at anything. Their guns
got to work along the road and a shell came screaming up and burst
perhaps twenty feet away, followed by three or four others.
Our attempt to take to the fields, where we would not be so conspicuous,
was thwarted by the Russian barbed wire and other preparations for the
enemy. There was nothing for it but to continue along the naked road
till we got out of range. Further on low trees began at the side of the
road. We hastened toward them, hoping to make them serve as cover, but
shell after shell arrived, each bursting close by. The trees were of no
use.
There was not another soul upon the road for over two miles. Each time
we heard a shell coming toward us we cowered with our arms covering neck
and face. After each shot we inquired of each other if either had been
hit. The shooting of the gunners with such a small and distant target
appeared to me superb.
At last a shell exploded overhead, smashing the branches and sending a
load of metal flying. I felt blows of flying earth and twigs on my back.
Bass asked, "Have they got you?"
"Are you all right?" I inquired.
"Think they have got me in the face," was the reply.
I had an electric pocket lamp, with which I made an examination. He was
cut across the jaw with a fragment of shell and bleeding freely. I
bandaged him with our handkerchiefs, Bass, as always, uncomplaining and
treating the wound humorously.
Several shells followed, each too near for comfort, but we were now
reaching the limit of the guns' range, and we came without further
incident clear of their fire.
Bass's Story
[Special Dispatch to THE NEW YORK TIMES.]
CHICAGO, Jan. 7.--John F. Bass, the staff correspondent of The Chicago
Daily News, who with Perceval Gibbon had a remarkable escape from being
blown to pieces by German shells while returning from a visit to a
Russian first-line trench in Poland, cables to his paper his version of
their experiences, which duplicates largely that by Perceval Gibbon
cabled to THE NEW YORK TIMES.
Recounting their arrival at the trench held by the Bielojevski Regiment,
in the centre of the battle line, he says:
"The officers, in small underground bomb-proofs, gave us a hospitable
welcome. The men had cut small recesses in the front wall of the
trench, where they were comfortably housed in straw with bagging in
front to keep out the cold. The trenches were in good condition and
clean for war time.
"In the loopholes rifles lay ready for firing. One man in every four
watched while the other three slept. As we walked through the trench we
stepped over dead bodies of men who had recently fallen. Two of the
regiment's battalions are commanded by Staff Capt. Podjio, one of the
finest specimens of a conscientious, hard-working line officer I have
met. He passed the night traveling the trenches, keeping a vigilant
watch and encouraging the men, who seemed to be in fine condition.
"It was bitterly cold, so we lay for a time on the straw of a
bomb-proof, watching by candlelight a giant orderly sending and
receiving messages on a buzzing telephone from different parts of the
line. It is a habit of Germans to make night attacks that bring them
within fifty yards of the Russian trenches before they are driven off.
"We saw indistinctly across the trenches the Russian videttes in front.
It is reported that the Germans do not take the precaution of posting a
line of sentinels before their trenches. Just before morning the
videttes came running to report activity in the German trenches. Quickly
the sleeping soldiers were roused to man the loopholes. The machine guns
cracked and the rifles rolled out volleys in the cold morning light. The
Germans answered and bullets kicked the top of our trench. Some of the
bullets seemed to crack on striking and it was reported to us that the
Germans were using explosive missiles. Under the Russian fire the
Germans failed to leave their trench.
"When the light swelled into day the German artillery began shelling the
houses, the tall chimney, and the trenches. Black clouds of smoke rose
from the spots where the shells struck. On our trench they used
shrapnel, which burst for the most part beyond us in white puffs. The
German infantry continued a heavy fusillade, but our machine gun fire,
which seemed to sweep the dust from the top of the German trench, caused
their rifle fire to go high and the bullets hissed overhead.
"Two German aeroplanes swept down the line above the Russian trench, but
retired when chased by a Russian biplane. In the distance a German
observation balloon hung in the sky like a huge sausage."
[Illustration: H.S.H. PRINCE LOUIS ALEXANDER OF BATTENBERG,
Who Was Forced to Resign as First Sea Lord of the British Admiralty.
(_Photo_ © _by Pach Bros., N.Y._)]
[Illustration: FIELD MARSHAL LORD ROBERTS,
From a Photograph Taken on His Eighty-second Birthday.
(_Photo by L.N.A._)]
The Waste of German Lives
By Perceval Gibbon.
[Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES.]
ZYRARDOW, Poland, Jan. 5, (Dispatch to The London Daily
Chronicle.)--Once again Poland has seen a great German general attack
along the whole line of the Bzura and Rawka positions from Gradow to
Rawa. For thirty-six hours the battle has shifted like a moving flame in
a long line. Now that its intensity is abated, it is clear that the
German purpose has again failed of accomplishment, and at several points
the Russian line has advanced.
We have no key to the German mentality which inspires these attacks so
wasteful in lives of soldiers, so ineffectual in their general result.
In the records of this struggle along the courses of the two little
rivers I have notes of upward of 100 attacks in considerable force,
of which not a single one resulted in shifting the imperturbable Russian
infantry from a trench, but each of which has been accompanied by
ghastly loss to the Germans.
A fight characteristic of the operations on this front took place west
of Gradow, where the German attack was exceptionally heavy throughout
New Year's Day, culminating in an assault by infantry on the same night.
Throughout the day they shelled the Russian trenches, spending
ammunition with their customary lavishness. The day's shelling justified
the Russian opinion that of the German forces their artillery and
cavalry are the weakest arm and their infantry is the best. The
positions are not greatly disturbed by the day-long aspersion with
shrapnel, and the Russians are more than ready for the attack. On this
front the infantry attacks usually in line, but this night they came up
in dense columns. The Russian guns were at work promptly with the fuses
of the shells reduced, so that they burst almost at the gun's mouth, and
from the trenches a steady, schooled infantry fire tore gaps in the
masses of the enemy.
At Gradow the Russians were utterly outnumbered. To this extent the
German concentration of forces was successful, but no further. They
succeeded in reducing the Russians' tactics from a mere defense of the
trenches to delivering a counter-attack; but this was the limit of their
success.
I have talked with three Russian officers here who were wounded during
the counter-attack. Five machine guns were at work on them as they left
their trenches in a charge. One of the officers was shot through the
chest as he climbed the bank of the trench; the second got perhaps
twenty yards before being hit in the head; the third, however, led his
men home into the German trench. Of the Russians who set out only eighty
were alive and unhurt when they reached the German trench, but this
eighty took it with the bayonet, killing about five times their own
number of Germans.
At Gradow, on the morning of Jan. 2, the ground resembled the strewn
battlefield of Brzezny or the body-littered valleys between the woods
of Augustowo in October. As in those other tragic defeats where the
ruthless Generals sacrificed their soldiers like water, there were heaps
and ridges of gray-clad dead. Gradow is only one single point in the
line which the Germans assaulted, yet here alone they lost upward of
6,000 killed. The same night they attacked positions corresponding at
the villages of Guzow, Radziwillow, Msczonow, and Rawa. In every place
they were beaten back with heavy losses. The estimates from various
sources, some official, state that their losses for the single night's
abortive fighting, giving them nowhere an advance of a single yard of
territory, were assuredly not fewer than 30,000 dead on the ground and
three times as many wounded or dead within their own lines.
I am cured of prophecy, but through the fog of imminent events certain
happenings are dimly indicated. Roughly speaking, the next fortnight is
Germany's final opportunity. During that time they may pour out lives
with the same hope as hitherto of making an impression on the steadfast
line of the Bzura and Rawka. Then that last glamour of hope of success
in Poland vanishes.
In the highest opinions the Austrian Army is finished, and it remains
only to clear up the mess they have made and then again the great
advance on poor, dim, beautiful Cracow will proceed. Przemysl is at its
last gasp, and then the Russian armies will be in Silesia, the source
and headquarters of Prussia's industrial wealth, the one province she
cannot afford to see invaded. Within a time, which I hear estimated
between three and six weeks, these wind-swept, icy plains of Poland must
see a stage in the war completed.
Germans have been captured lately in whose possession was found the last
proclamation of the Kaiser that "if compelled to retire from Poland,
leave standing neither house nor town; leave only the bare earth
underfoot." Well, the road to Berlin does not end at the Polish
frontier.
The Flight Into Switzerland
By Ethel Therese Hugli.
[From THE NEW YORK TIMES, Jan. 10, 1915.]
BERNE, Nov. 18.--Question: What is Switzerland?
Answer: A small neutral State entirely surrounded by war!
At the first glance such would seem to be the actual state of affairs,
for neutral Italy, our southern neighbor, takes up but a small part of
our border; to the west we have France, to the north Germany, and to the
east Austria, all engaged in deadly combat, all realizing that this time
the loser will go down, never to come up again as a power of the first
class. The drawback in being so neutral and so near the stage of all
these dramatic proceedings, is that we are overwhelmed with "latest
dispatches." Our papers bristle with the victories, defeats, denials,
assertions, protests, accusations, blame, as contained in the dispatches
of the various news agencies.
Reuter is the official English agency. His news is taken with a generous
pinch of salt. The German agency is Wolff, whose proud boast it is never
to have announced a single German defeat. As a consequence, he is also
taken with a large pinch. The French pin their faith to Havas, whose
rose-colored dispatches have earned for themselves the name of
"Havas-Lies." The Austrians believe in the Wiener agency, whose
dispatches are too busy saying: "The reports of Austrian defeats, spread
by the enemy, are absolutely untrue," to have time for any real news;
while in Italy--"neutral Italy"--the Italian news agency shows such
unholy glee over German reverses as to make an impartial person sniff
rather suspiciously at its "neutrality." The Wesbuick agency in Russia,
severely censored from Petrograd, gives a dry, business-like view of the
White Bear's progress in the east. And so it goes.
Of course, officially, Switzerland is absolutely neutral, but it is
asking too much of human nature to expect the individual to have no
opinion. The fact, therefore, that French Switzerland sympathizes
unofficially with France, and German Switzerland with Germany, has had
its effect on the Swiss mobilization, which has called the
French-speaking Swiss to the German border and the German-speaking to
the French. This fact is about the only one that has leaked out of the
movements of our army. The secrecy maintained is absolute, reigning even
in the ranks of mothers and sweethearts, to say nothing of wives, who
all of them are proud to show their loyalty by at least refraining from
saying where their men are posted. It is said that Switzerland is armed,
mined, and barb-wired along every foot of her frontier, and it has
lately transpired that this perfect defense, and the fact that
practically every soldier is a sharpshooter, led the Germans to give up
their plan of breaking through Switzerland to get at France, and made
them choose Belgium instead.
Switzerland has always been a sort of sanctuary for refugees,
principally political, and now, especially, she is full of all kinds of
strangers. In the first days of the war there were streams of Italians,
suddenly thrown out of work in Germany and Austria and packed off home,
who passed through Switzerland in every stage of want and despair. Every
big town organized its soup kitchens at the railway station; women of
the best families took the matter in hand, and so the huddling,
apprehensive columns were passed from one town to another, fed, clothed,
and comforted, finally landing in their own country, safe and sound. An
enthusiastic letter of thanks has been published in the papers,
emanating from these grateful "Chinks," (Swiss for "Dago,") and ending
up with "Eviva la Svizzera!" ("Long live Switzerland!")
Germany began to clean out the Russians on the first day of the war.
Hordes of them poured into our country with fistfuls of ruble notes that
no one would take, and with a growing hunger that they could not
appease. A doctor was called to visit a band of twelve that were herded
together in two rooms of a cheap hotel here. He expected to find
emigrants; instead, they were people of the highest refinement. Their
story was pitiful. They had been inmates of a private sanatorium in
Germany and were summarily dismissed at the outbreak of the war.
Separated from their trunks, ill and weak, and too confused to think
clearly, they arrived in Berne with nothing but their piles of ruble
notes, that no one would take, and the fear of death in their hearts.
They were quartered in the hotel by the committee, and the physician was
called. One woman of the party begged him to take a ring, worth many
hundred dollars, and give her $10 for it, so that she might buy some
comforts for herself and daughter. Of course, the whole party was
immediately removed to a private sanatorium, where its members were
cared for, and where, little by little, they recovered their calm and
gathered up their scattered wits.
Very far from calm is a Swiss who has just returned from captivity in
the interior of Morocco on account of being mistaken for a German. The
day of the declaration of war the French authorities ordered him out of
his beautiful Moroccan home, giving him forty-eight hours to pack up.
His wife was visiting her mother here in Berne, and one can fancy her
state of mind on receiving a telegram to the effect that her husband
and babies, twins of 7 and a little fellow of a year and a half, were
ordered off, with the nurse, to parts unknown, as political prisoners.
In vain the man protested he was Swiss. His name was German, and he was
in a German firm; therefore he was a "canaille d'allemand"; so off they
went. At first they were packed on a little steamer whose capacity was
thirty people--there were 150 of them, and they cruised along the
Mediterranean for a night and a day.
At last they lay before Casa Blanca, and, on asking why they were not
landed, received the reply that the authorities must first of all clear
the pier, as the boatload of refugees landed there the day before had
been received with showers of stones and vile epithets from the mob,
whose hate of the Germans knew no bounds. When they finally landed they
were quartered in a riding school with 150 others, where they all slept
on the tanbark. They had coffee for breakfast, and during the three days
they were there had a thick soup each day for dinner, and nothing more.
One day it was bean soup, one day peas, and the third day lentils. They
were finally transported to the interior of Morocco and assigned to the
barracks of the Foreign Legion, the members of which are now fighting in
France, and here they passed strange, uncomfortable, heart-breaking
days.
Finally, when summoned to deliver up his money, the man said: "I shall
telegraph this outrage to Berne."
"What, are you Swiss?" was the officer's surprised question.
"Yes."
"Well, keep your money," said the officer; and a few days later Mr. X.,
through the efforts of our State Department and our Minister to France,
was released and joined his wife in Switzerland. This story was told me
by the agonized grandmother, whose tears flowed fast at the thought of
the hardships to which her daughter's babies had been exposed.
And now come the Belgian refugees to us, a most pitiable band. French
Switzerland has the honor of beginning the movement which has made
possible the bringing to Switzerland and placing in hundreds of
households these innocent victims of this hideous war. In addition,
subscriptions have been opened in various papers, and thousands of
francs have been gathered and sent to this most unfortunate of nations.
The movement to receive Belgian refugees is gaining ground, too, in
German-speaking Switzerland, though here the sympathy for Germany stands
somewhat in the way of a full and open hospitality. Some papers write:
"Let the Belgians stay in their country. The Germans will take care of
them. Let those that have fled return to their hearths and take up their
daily vocations. In this way the misery of the country--which is
certainly not entirely the fault of Germany (a hit at England)--will be
alleviated. Furthermore, Switzerland's harboring of Belgian refugees is
a demonstration against Germany. Let Switzerland beware of doing
anything to prejudice her neutrality. Finally, there are in our own
country plenty of miserable poor people to exercise our charity upon,
and every one knows that charity begins at home."
Articles have appeared in the German papers expressing surprise at
Switzerland's hospitality, and to all of these carpers, at home and
abroad, these people who have acted out of the purest motives of charity
and love for their neighbor, answer somewhat as follows:
The Belgians that have come to take refuge in Switzerland wished nothing
better than to stay in their own land. They were driven out in hordes,
at the point of the sword, by the Germans. It would be hard to convince
them that they ought to go back and that the Germans will take care of
them. Some of these miserable beings did return, hoping to pick up their
life again after the great shock. They found their village a heap of
stones, their business ruined. How could they, therefore, "return to
their hearths and take up their daily vocations"? If Switzerland's
charitable impulse is to be construed as a demonstration against
Germany, then must Switzerland reflect that any excuse will do, and that
her neutrality has the same validity in Germany's eyes as had Belgium's.
No country, thinking and acting objectively, could find in this movement
anything to "prejudice Switzerland's neutrality."
As for charity beginning at home, one might add that it does not end
there. It would be hard to find a country whose charitable organizations
are so all-embracing as here. In times of peace there are committees who
sew for and otherwise look after every kind of human misery. There are
the tuberculous poor, the girl-mothers, the creches, the new-born
babies, the soup kitchens, the visiting trained nurses, the clinics, the
blind, the vicious, the vacation colonies, the swimming lessons, the
gymnastics, the tramps and their woodyard, &c., and every organization
has its Christmas tree, with distribution of presents when the season of
rejoicing comes around. Now that the war is here, and every available
man is standing at the frontier guarding his Fatherland from invasion,
the soldiers have been added to the list of charities, and none of the
old has been stricken off.
In addition to babies' socks, every one has time to knit a pair of
soldiers' socks, and in every dainty work basket, lying next to
neglected fancy work, there are sure to be some half-finished warm
woolen gloves or wristlets or knee warmers for the boys at the frontier.
If Switzerland can keep up her home charities and look out so splendidly
for her soldiers at the same time, and still have the means and the will
to welcome and care for the poor and unhappy of a sister folk whose fate
might very well have been her own, it is surely not a subject for
adverse criticism, but, on the contrary, for encouragement. And who was
it who said: "For as much as ye did it unto the least of these, ye did
it unto Me"?
Once Fair Belgrade Is a Skeleton City
[Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES.]
LONDON, Jan. 11.--Z.D. Ferriman, special correspondent of The Daily
Chronicle with the Servian Army and the first English journalist to
enter Belgrade since the Austrian occupation, sends a long dispatch
describing the Servians' re-entry into their capital, in the course of
which he says:
"On the first view Belgrade does not seem to have suffered to any great
extent from the bombardment. Walking up the broad thoroughfare of the
Rasia, you arrive nearly at the top before you see a house with the
upper story blown away and with a fragment of what appears to have been
the roof--an imminent peril to passers-by.
"But appearances are specious. Many buildings whose facades are intact
are skeletons. Projectiles with high trajectory have fallen through the
roof and wrought destruction within. This is the case with a wing of the
Royal Palace. The windows are shattered, but the masonry has not
suffered. Within, however, all is devastated. Among the public buildings
the museum is a shapeless heap of débris, and the university is so much
knocked about that the plainest and cheapest remedy will be an entirely
new edifice.
"The higher part of the city has suffered most, with the exception,
perhaps, of the district around the station, which is completely
battered down. Rents in the pavement show that shells charged with very
high explosives were employed. One huge gulf I noticed at least twelve
feet deep by fifteen long and eight wide.
"There are many instances of the vagaries of these missiles of
destruction. I visited a house in which M. Nikovitz, who accompanied me
in my peregrinations, had occupied an apartment. There was nothing the
matter with the front, but a neat hole in the side marked the passage of
a projectile which had traversed the building and exploded in the
adjoining house, now a mound of brick-bats and matchwood. One half of a
large establishment in Prince Michael Street was completely wrecked, but
the other half was undamaged, and rolls of textile fabrics were in order
on their shelves or piled on counters. The best shops are in this
street, and much havoc has been wrought.
"I picked up spherical shrapnel bullets on several premises. Shrapnel
has no battering force. Its object is to kill or disable men. It can do
no harm to walls. Its employment in this instance was a wanton act
intended to inspire terror and doubtless augmented the loss of life
among the citizens.
"The principal hotel, the Moskwa, situated at the highest part of the
town, has been devastated partially within, but the framework of the
building is intact. On the other side of the street a row of houses far
less conspicuous has been demolished. In one street we met a little girl
of 12 coming out of a house opposite to one which was a heap of ruins.
We asked her if she had seen it destroyed. She said she had and was very
frightened. Shortly afterward a shell fell in their own garden; then
they ran away and took refuge with friends at the other end of the town.
An old woman had a stall containing tins of shoe polish and other
trifles. A jumble of charred wood and twisted iron behind had been her
shop. The caretaker at the house occupied by M. Nikovitz, a cheerful old
dame, told us how she had hid herself at the other end of the long
garden, but it was terrible.
"We asked some urchins, who would be at school in normal times, but
whose occupation and delight are now to hold officers' horses, if they
were not frightened. 'At first,' they replied, 'but not afterward. They
make a great noise, but they never catch us, and we do not mind
them--the shells.' A boy of 12, who was carrying on his father's
hair-dressing business single-handed during the latter's absence on
service, expressed a similar opinion.
"I am told that about 3,000 people remained, out of the normal
population of 100,000, during the bombardment. I cannot ascertain the
number of killed and injured, but it certainly runs into the hundreds.
Those of the inhabitants who left the city but remained in the
neighborhood returned after the bombardment and were here during the
eleven days of the Austrian occupation.
"The practice of taking hostages, which it has been reserved for this
twentieth century civilized war to revive, was resorted to at Belgrade.
I am assured on unimpeachable authority, supported by accounts of
several eyewitnesses, that not fewer than 1,000 persons were carried off
to Austria. Among them were boys of 15 and 16. Nor were foreign
residents immune. M. Bissers, the Belgian Consul, who is also a Director
of the electric tram and light company, was of the number. He was
handcuffed like a common criminal. Neither the fate nor whereabouts of
these civilian prisoners of war is known.
"The plate-glass fronts of many shops in the principal thoroughfares are
smashed, and the interiors present a picture of desolation, overturned
cash registers and objects that have not been stolen lying broken and
scattered on the floor, but the majority of the establishments that have
been ransacked do not show outward signs of it. The system seems to have
been to obtain ingress from the back.
"In the Rasia there is a stately mansion. Its owner, M. Kersmanovitz,
died a short time ago, leaving large sums for charitable purposes. The
house was occupied by his widow when the war broke out. Chalked on the
door were names distinguished in the Austro-Hungarian peerage--Baron
Zichy, Graf Festetics, and Graf Vanderstraten, all Lieutenants on the
staff, who had been its denizens during occupation. Though their tenure
was brief they had made the most of their time. The place was gutted,
carpets torn up, tapestry torn down, and pictures destroyed. It was also
indescribably filthy. This may have been the work of the soldiery after
the departure of the young noblemen.
"The poor suffered equally with the rich. A humble restaurant used by
the working classes, one of two or three still open, was despoiled of
its linen and cutlery. Small shops had been sacked as well as the larger
establishments. It was all fish that came to the Austrian net. I have
not yet met any one whose dwelling escaped. The Russian Legation is
wrecked.
"The Royal Palace was thrown open to the people. 'It is yours,' said the
Austrian liberators in the generosity of their hearts; but they had gone
over it with care first."
[Illustration: decoration]
Letters and Diaries
A Group of Soldiers' Letters
A German cavalry division was pursuing a division of English infantry.
The English ranks were suddenly reinforced; they turned and charged the
Germans, who fled in disorder.
All the Germans fled--but one. Says an English soldier, Trooper S.
Cargill:
When they saw us coming they turned and fled, at least all but
one, who came rushing at us with his lance at the charge. I
caught hold of his horse, which was half mad with terror, and
my chum was going to run the rider through when he noticed the
awful glaze in his eyes, and we saw that the poor devil was
dead.
That ghastly vision of the mounted corpse can find no place in histories
of this war. It has no historical significance even if it did receive a
place in the cable dispatches from the front. Only from the lips of
soldiers or from their pens when they snatch a few moments from the
business of war to write to their people at home come such naïvely
graphic accounts of trivial but illuminative incidents.
In many an American family is treasured a packet of yellow papers, on
which are written, in ink fast fading away, brief and intimate
impressions of the civil war by men who waged it. Every war has thus its
unknown, unhonored chroniclers, who send to their little home circles
narratives that for startling realism no highly paid special
correspondent could surpass.
Trooper Cargill's letter is one of a number contained in an
extraordinary volume just published by the George H. Doran Company of
New York, with the title "In the Firing Line," (50 cents net.) Mr. A.
St. John Adcock collected a large number of letters sent home during the
last few weeks by English soldiers fighting in France and has arranged
them to form what is perhaps the most essentially human account of the
great war that has yet appeared.
Consider, for instance, the narrative of Private Whitaker of the
Coldstream Guards. He fought through the terrific four-day battle near
Mons, and his account of it follows. It must be remembered that the
British troops who took part in that battle had sailed from Southampton
only four days before:
You thought it was a big crowd that streamed out of the
Crystal Palace when we went to see the Cup Final. Well,
outside Compiègne it was just as if that crowd came at us. You
couldn't miss them. Our bullets plowed into them, but still
they came for us. I was well intrenched, and my rifle got so
hot I could hardly hold it. I was wondering if I should have
enough bullets when a pal shouted, "Up, Guards, and at 'em!"
The next second he was rolled over with a nasty knock on the
shoulder. He jumped up and hissed, "Let me get at them!" His
language was a bit stronger than that.
When we really did get the order to get at them we made no
mistake, I can tell you. They cringed at the bayonet, but
those on our left wing tried to get around us, and after
racing as hard as we could for quite five hundred yards we cut
up nearly every man who did not run away.
You have read of the charge of the Light Brigade. It was new
to our cavalry chaps. I saw two of our fellows who were
unhorsed stand back to back and slash away with their swords,
bringing down nine or ten of the panic-stricken devils. Then
they got hold of the stirrup-straps of a horse without a rider
and got out of the mêlée. This kind of thing was going on all
day.
In the afternoon I thought we should all get bowled over, as
they came for us again in their big numbers. Where they came
from goodness knows; but as we could not stop them with
bullets they had another taste of the bayonet. My Captain, a
fine fellow, was near to me, and as he fetched them down he
shouted, "Give them socks, my lads!" How many were killed and
wounded I don't know; but the field was covered with them.
It is also of the four days' battle that Private J.R. Taft of the Second
Essex Regiment wrote. How typical of real life, as distinct from
romance, is his ready transition from his devout thanksgiving for his
safety to his amused recollection of the popular song that rose above
the crash of shot and shell:
We were near Mons when we had the order to intrench. It was
just dawn when we were half way down our trenches, and we were
on our knees when the Germans opened a murderous fire with
their guns and machine guns.
We opened a rapid fire with our Maxims and rifles; we let them
have it properly, but no sooner did we have one lot down than
up came another lot, and they sent their cavalry to charge us,
but we were there with our bayonets, and we emptied our
magazines on them. Their men and horses were in a confused
heap. There were a lot of wounded horses we had to shoot to
end their misery.
We had several charges with their infantry, too. We find they
don't like the bayonets. Their rifle shooting is rotten; I
don't believe they could hit a haystack at 100 yards.
We find their field artillery very good; we don't like their
shrapnel; but I noticed that some did not burst; if one shell
that came over me had burst. I should have been blown to
atoms. I thanked the Lord it did not. I also heard our men
singing that famous song, "Get Out and Get Under." I know that
for an hour in our trench it would make any one keep under,
what with their shells and machine guns. Many poor fellows
went to their death like heroes.
The writer of the following letter, too, was telling of Mons. To friends
far away, at peaceful Barton-on-Humber, he wrote:
Just a line to tell you I have returned from the front, and I
can tell you we have had a very trying time of it. I must also
say I am very lucky to be here. We were fighting from Sunday,
23d, to Wednesday evening, on nothing to eat or drink--only
the drop of water in our bottles which we carried.
No one knows--only those that have seen us could credit such a
sight, and if I live for years may I never see such a sight
again. I can tell you it is not very nice to see your chum
next to you with half his head blown off. The horrible sights
I shall never forget. There seemed nothing else only certain
death staring us in the face all the time. I cannot tell you
all on paper. We must, however, look on the bright side, for
it is no good doing any other.
There are thousands of these Germans, and they simply throw
themselves at us. It is no joke fighting seven or eight to
one. I can tell you we have lessened them a little, but there
are millions more yet to finish.
Of the battle that reddened the foam of the North Sea during the last
days of August many a seaman recorded his impressions. And what curious
things stuck in the memories of the weary, powder-stained survivors!
"The funny thing which you should have seen," wrote Midshipman Hartley
to his parents, "was all the stokers grubbing around after the action
looking for bits of shell." And a seaman on H.M.S. Hearty wrote:
Two cooks were in the galley of the Arethusa, just having
their rum, when a shell killed one and blew the other's arm
off. A funny thing, they've got a clock hanging up; it smashed
the glass and one hand, but the blooming thing's still going.
There is fine realism in Seaman Gunner Brown's letter to the parents who
waited for tidings in their cottage on the Isle of Wight:
We and another ship in our squadron came across two German
cruisers. We routed one and started on the second, but battle
cruisers soon finished her off. Another then appeared, and
after we had plunked two broadsides into her she slid off in
flames.
Every man did his bit, and there was a continuous stream of
jokes. We penciled on the projectiles, "Love from England,"
"One for the Kaiser," and other such messages. The sight of
sinking German ships was gloriously terrible, funnels and
masts lying about in all directions, and amidships a huge
furnace, the burning steel looking like a big ball of sulphur.
There was not the slightest sign of fear, from the youngest to
the oldest man aboard.
[Illustration: ENGLAND'S SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR, FIELD MARSHAL EARL
KITCHENER.
(_From the Painting by Angelo._)]
[Illustration: GEN. VON BISSING,
Recently Made Military Governor of Belgium to Succeed Field Marshal von
der Goltz.
(_Photo from Ruschin._)]
But it remained for a naval Lieutenant, whose name is not given, to
describe, in a letter to a friend, one of the most remarkable incidents
of the war, an incident which might have occurred in the imagination of
Jules Verne or of H.G. Wells in his youth. He wrote:
The Defender having sunk an enemy, lowered a whaler to pick up
her swimming survivors; before the whaler got back an enemy's
cruiser came up and chased the Defender, and thus she
abandoned her whaler. Imagine their feelings--alone in an open
boat without food, twenty-five miles from the nearest land,
and that land the enemy's fortress, with nothing but fog and
foes around them. Suddenly a swirl alongside and up, if you
please, pops his Britannic Majesty's submarine E-4, opens his
conning tower, takes them all on board, shuts up again, dives,
and brings them home, 250 miles!
In his introduction to the book St. John Adcock calls the private
letters of the soldiers "the most potent of recruiting literature."
Undoubtedly this is true of some of them. The casual, almost flippant,
records of splendid heroism, the reflection of a spirit of gay courage,
the description of the most picturesque and romantic aspects of
battle--these tend, certainly, to fill the mind of the stay-at-home
readers with a desire for participation in this great adventure.
But, on the other hand, such passages as "The dead were piled up in the
trenches about ten deep, and there were trenches seven miles long," and
"Our Maxim gun officer tried to fix his gun up during their murderous
fire, but he got half his face blown away," are not likely to make
fighting seem a pleasant occupation. It is true that the dead referred
to in the first of these passages are the enemy's dead; still, there is
a wholesale quality about those seven-mile trenches filled with dead ten
deep that is not a recruiting allurement.
Nor is this letter, vivid in its realism, likely to make those not
already warlike eager to enlist. It was sent to his parents at
Ilfracombe by Private William Burgess of the Royal Field Artillery:
We left our landing place for the front on the Tuesday and got
there on Saturday night. The Germans had just reached Liége
then, and we got into action on the Sunday morning. The first
thing we did was to blow up a bridge to stop the Germans from
crossing. Then we came into action behind a lot of houses
attached to the main street. We were there about ten minutes
when the houses started to fall around us. The poor people
were buried alive. I saw poor children getting knocked down by
bursting shells.
The next move was to advance across where there was a Red
Cross hospital. They dropped shells from airships and fired on
it until the place was burned down to the ground. Then they
got a big plan on to retire and let the French get behind
them. We retired eight miles, but we had to fight until we
were forced to move again. We got as far as Le Cateau on
Tuesday night. We camped there until 2 o'clock next morning.
Then we all heard there was a big fight coming off, so we all
got together and cleared the field for action. [The letter
mentions the numbers of men engaged, and states that the
Germans were in the proportion of three to one.] We cut them
down like rats. We could see them coming on us in heaps and
dropping like hail. The Colonel passed along the line and
said, "Stick it, boys."
I tell you, mother, it was awful to see your own comrades
dropping down--some getting their heads blown off and others
their legs and arms. I was fighting with my shirt off. A piece
of shell went right through my shirt at the back and never
touched me. It stuck into a bag of earth which we put between
the wheels to stop bullets.
We were there, all busy fighting, when an airship came right
over the line and dropped a bomb, which caused a terrible lot
of smoke. Of course, that gave the Germans our range. Then the
shells were dropping on us thick. We looked across the line
and saw the German guns coming toward us. We turned our two
centre guns on them and sent them yards in the air. I reckon I
saw one German go quite twenty yards in the air.
Just after that a shell burst right over our gun. That one got
me out of action. I had to get off the field the best way I
could. The bullets were going all around me on the way off;
you see, they got completely around us. I went about two miles
and met a Red Cross cart. I was taken to St. Quentin Hospital.
We were shelled out of there about 2 in the morning, and then
taken in a train and taken down to a plain near Rouen. Next
morning we were put on a ship for dear old England.
The First German Prisoners
[From The London Times.]
_The following letter from a soldier at the front who has
taken part in the first fighting appears in the Temps of
Paris, Aug. 16:_
We are now able to realize the state of mind in which they arrive. The
army corps to which I belong has already brought its guns into action.
We have seen prisoners, and we have observed battlefields, and we have
noticed a thing or two. First of all, these prisoners are not the least
bit fanatics. Many of them don't know what they are fighting about. They
have been told a thousand phantasmagoria--that France had declared war,
that the Belgians and the Italians were helping the Germans, &c.; and
one of them was tremendously proud at having the Czar Nicholas as his
honorary Colonel! They were taken for the most part in isolated patrols,
and it happened so often that it was impossible to get others to start
off on reconnoissances, since their comrades never came back and they
had no desire to share a like fate.
The prisoners are gentle and calm, and follow with their eyes the bits
of bread which are passed about near them and which one gives them, and
they eat them voraciously. For two days they have only received two
rations of coffee. Their appetite is so great that, though in presence
of a French officer they will click their heels together properly, they
never cease at the same time to munch noisily and to fill out their
hollow cheeks.
One feels that they believe us French to be up to every sort of
devilment, that we are going to undress them, to take their papers, and
they tremble from head to foot in fear of being shot. Even when you give
them a cigarette, it does not seem to allay their mistrust. One of them,
who was dying of thirst, would not drink the water that was offered him
before the gendarme had tasted it in front of him.
They are all astonished at their adventure. They had been told that they
were going to enter Maubeuge in company with the Belgians; to seize
Maubeuge would be as easy as taking a _café au lait_--and there they are
without their _café au lait_!
The officers are absolutely different. Prussian pride gave them an
assurance which their mishap has transformed into irritation. A young
Baron Lieutenant, like von Forstner, pretended that he couldn't make his
bed, and refused to answer before simple soldiers. He couldn't feel
anything but the humiliation of being a prisoner, and couldn't get
accustomed to his new situation.
We found on the field of battle the medicine chest of a vet., who jotted
down his impressions from minute to minute. When he was killed he was
writing: "I see the shells bursting with a white smoke in the sky, which
is lighted up from the south; luckily my helmet protects me from
sunstroke." Evidently he was on an excursion, this veterinary surgeon,
and was counting on coming to Paris, and had taken the most minute
precautions of hygiene and of elegance. He was provided with scent and
eau de cologne. He had even brought with him a rose ointment for the
nails, and a superb gilt shoulder-belt which was to raise his prestige
for when he passed under the Arc de Triomphe. The battery to which he
belonged is annihilated now. We could observe on the spot the terrific
effect of our artillery, which was very well commanded. Six abandoned
guns, of which three are impossible to move, are there on the ground
with all their crews, all their officers, all their horses--the pieces
still mounted, riddled with splinters. They were taken back to the rear,
and attracted all the way along the curiosity of the soldiers, with
their sumptuous armorial bearings and their motto, _Ultima regis ratio_.
But this lesson seems to have made a bit of an impression on the Germans
who have fled, and it has given a new energy to our troops, because the
battery to which we owe this success did not have a single man wounded.
The Germans seem to be forty years behind the times. They go on just as
in 1870. With childish and barbarous imagination they see
_francs-tireurs_ everywhere and can't yet believe that we have a regular
army quite close to the frontier.
They arrive in a village toward 8 in the morning; three French dragoons
are there as patrols. When the German column is within range, the three
dragoons bring down the Colonel and dash off at full gallop from the
other end of the village. The Germans are furious and swear that they
have been attacked by _francs-tireurs_, and that they are going to
inflict punishment. They seize the curé, a notable inhabitant, and two
or three peasants, and take them off to be present at the burning of
their houses, while waiting to be executed themselves.
I have this story from the curé, who arrived to us absolutely done, with
his cassock in rags, without a hat on, after a day of shocks such as he
has certainly never had in his life before. Although he has got the
superb beard of a missionary, they made him march with the chasseurs,
hitting him with the butts of their rifles till the moment when the
French shrapnel arrived. Then it was _sauve qui peut_. Our brave curé
saw all his butchers fall around him. When the noise had finished, five
unarmed German chasseurs rushed toward him crying with their great,
thick accent, "Catholics, Catholics!" They were Poles who were flying
from the army and coming over to our lines. "With my own arms," said the
curé proudly, "I made five prisoners."
Altogether bewilderment, softness, and indifference on the part of the
men; vanity, cruelty, and foolery on the part of the officers. Those are
the virtues which they offered us on first acquaintance. Just compare
them with ours!
Two Letters From the Trenches
[From The London Times, Oct. 25, 1914.]
_A Canadian officer attached to the British forces writes as
follows on Sept. 27:_
It has been very fortunate for me having a recommendation to Gen. C. He
said that he would welcome all the French-speaking Canadians with
military knowledge that crossed the Atlantic. I keep my rank of
Lieutenant and am attached to the ---- Guards, which does scouting,
patrol, and reconnoissance duty in areas prescribed by the Brigadier. We
have plenty of most interesting work, which suits me down to the ground.
Nothing could exceed the kindness shown to Canadian officers by their
English brethren. We are all one in aim, in spirit, and in that
indefinable quality of loyal co-operation which holds together the
British Army fighting against enormous odds in France, as it binds
together the British Empire by bonds not less strong because they are
invisible.
This afternoon we are taking a good sound rest at the house of a
retired French farmer, who has three sons fighting in the country. He
is as game as game, and says he is just holding things together until
the war is over. He is 75 and remembers the horrors of the last war, in
which he fought in the artillery.... Our "look-out" men are ever on the
alert, for we never take a meal or rest altogether. Sentries and
signalers are always posted before we dismount. The curé joined us at
the farmer's house and we enjoyed an excellent repast, with the honor of
two local gendarmes who had brought in a German spy caught red-handed
robbing the house of a peasant the night before and attempting to murder
her. The man was dressed as a French peasant. Upon him we found evidence
that he was a spy. Summary procedure made it easy to decide that the
sentence of drumhead court-martial was death. And here again is an
instance of the extraordinary clemency of the French clergy. The curé
pleaded that the spy should not be shot and the extreme penalty
inflicted. So I consented (not being a man of blood) to the prisoner
being sent to the nearest French military post, to be executed or not,
as the General shall order.
I really believe that all of the evidence which crowds into me supports
the charge that this is not a campaign which has proved attractive to
the German rank and file. Prisoners we have taken say that they have no
relish for the fighting. They have been well plied with drink, and seem
to urge that drunkenness may be pleaded as an excuse for crime.
_An officer whose letter from the trenches we published a few days ago
has since written a letter, dated Oct. 8, from which we take extracts:_
Last week I wrote that we had been in the trenches ten days. Now we have
been in them nearly three weeks, and still the fight goes on. We don't
mind it now. We hated it at first. The inaction made us ill. But we
recovered and began to make jokes about it. And now we don't care. We
eat and sleep, and eat again; and we dig, eternally dig, grubbing our
way deeper and deeper into the earth, and making covered ways that lead
hundreds of yards back from the firing line into safety.
And at the end of one of these I sit at this moment; away on the rear
slope of the hill which is our fortress. The sun is sinking far away
down the valley of the Aisne, and the river flickers in the distance
between lines of trees, while the little villages at the foot of the
slopes are gradually losing themselves in the evening mist. How lovely
to sit here in time of peace! Could one bear it after this, I wonder?
With all the beauty, there are sad things around me; signs of war every
way I look. To the right, a few yards off, are new-cut graves, and they
are putting up headstones, made by a reservist who is a mason in private
life. One man was killed yesterday, and we buried him after dark. There
was no service, because we had neither light nor book; but I said the
Lord's Prayer before the earth was thrown in, thinking there could be no
harm.
Then away across a bend of the valley are more of our trenches, with the
German parapets 200 yards away beyond. And over these our shells are
bursting, fired by guns on the slope of the hill beneath me; they
whistle softly as they skim through the air over my head, and I hear the
burst as they land. Further away to the west is one of the enemy's
strongholds, and there bigger shells are bursting, throwing up clouds of
black smoke and dust. These pass by with a louder purring whistle like
the sound of surplus air escaping from the pipes of an organ in church.
They come from our big guns up in the woods across the river, hidden
from view. And always up in the sky the German aeroplanes circle round
and round, seeking for the guns, their engines buzzing and the sun
shining on their wings. Now and then they dash away, perhaps to carry
news, perhaps because a British or French machine has come upon the
scene. When they spot our positions they drop little silvery packets,
which unfold and show their gunners where to shoot. Sometimes they drop
bombs, but these do little harm. At times the weather is foggy, so
that the aeroplanes can do nothing at all, and warfare becomes suddenly
ten years out of date.
[Illustration: ARCHDUKE FREDERICK,
Commander in Chief of Austrian Armies Operating Against the Russians.
(_Photo from Paul Thompson._)]
[Illustration: DR. VON BETHMANN-HOLLWEG, THE GERMAN CHANCELLOR,
In His Field Uniform, Showing the Helmet in Its New Weatherproof Cover.
(_Photo by Brown & Dawson, From Underwood & Underwood._)]
Now the enemy are firing on the little village behind our lines,
dropping shell among the houses, and always near the house where certain
staff officers are at work. A curious point this--how close they get to
the house when they can't possibly see the result of their fire. The
explanation must be "spies." They are everywhere here; they wear British
uniform and French uniform, and, most dangerous of all, civilian dress.
It is our own fault; we allow the French population to return to the
village right in our midst, and who in these times can question every
one's rights? The other day three men in civilian dress were found near
our lines sitting in trees; they were armed with wire-cutters, and said
they were engaged in cutting vines. Now there are no vineyards near, but
our wire entanglements were just beyond the wood. Again, one night we
were to attack a small position at a given hour, but the order was
afterward canceled. However, at the appointed time the enemy opened
fire upon the ground we should have crossed and lighted the scene with
rockets.
Nighttime is a period of continuous strain. The sentry peers into the
darkness, imagining every bush to be an approaching enemy. Distant trees
seem to change their position; bunches of grass, really quite close,
seem to be men coming over the sky-line. One man questions another; the
section commander is called upon. He in turn explains his fears to an
officer. A single shot is ordered at the suspected object, and no sound
is heard. So the night goes on. When we were new to the game a single
shot was enough to alarm the whole line, and thousands of rounds were
fired into the darkness. Now we know better. So also do the enemy. And
it was satisfactory to find that our ammunition had not all been wasted,
for a patrol recently discovered more than a hundred dead Germans in a
wood in front of us. The ammunition had not been wasted that time. But,
oh, what a wasteful war!
The Baptism of Fire
[From The London Times, Nov. 4, 1914.]
_The following letter, thoroughly characteristic of the pluck
and cheerfulness of the young British officer, was received
from a cavalry subaltern at the front:_
October 27.
Your two boxes of cigarettes were heaven. We've been in the trenches two
days and nights, but no excitements, except a good dose of shrapnel
three times a day, which does one no harm and rather relieves the
monotony. I've got my half troop, 12 men, in this trench in a root
field, with the rest of the squadron about 100 yards each side of us,
and a farmhouse, half knocked down by shells, just behind. We get our
rations sent up once a day in the dark, and two men creep out to cook
tea in the quiet intervals. Tea is the great mainstay on service, just
as it was on manoeuvres. The men are splendid, and as happy as
schoolboys, and we've got plenty of straw at the bottom of the trench,
which is better than any feather bed. We only had one pelting night, and
we've had three or four fine days. We have not seen any German infantry
from this trench, only one patrol and a sniper or two. Their guns, too,
are out of sight, but hardly a mile away.
Our first day's real close-up fighting was the 19th. We cavalry went on
about a day and a half in front of the infantry. We got into a village,
and our advanced patrols started fighting hard, with a certain amount of
fire from everywhere in front of us. Our advanced patrols gained the
first group of houses, and we joined them. Firing came from a farm in
front of us, and then a man came out of it and waved a white flag. I
yelled, "Two hundred; white flag; rapid fire." But ---- wouldn't let us
fire. Then the squadron advanced across the root fields toward the farm
(dismounted, in open order), and they opened a sharp fire on us from the
farm. We took three prisoners in the roots, and retired to the houses
again. That was our first experience of the white flag dodge; we lost
two killed and one wounded.
Then I got leave to make a dash across a field, for another farm where
they were sniping at us. I could only get half way, my Sergeant was
killed and my Corporal hit. We lay down; luckily it was high roots and
we were out of sight; but they had fairly got our range, and the bullets
kept knocking up the dirt into one's face and all round. We just lay
doggo for about half an hour, and then the fire slackened, and we
crawled back.
I was pleased with my troop, under bad fire. They used the most awful
language, talking quite quietly, and laughing all the time, even after
the men were knocked over within a yard of them. I longed to be able to
say that I liked it, after all one has heard about being under fire for
the first time. But it is beastly. I pretended to myself for a bit that
I like it, but it was no good. But when one acknowledged that it was
beastly, one became all right again and cool.
After the firing had slackened we advanced again a bit, into the next
group of houses, the edge of the village proper. I can't tell you how
muddling it is. We did not know which was our front, we did not know if
our own troops had come round us on the flanks, or whether they had
stopped behind and were firing into us. And besides, a lot of German
snipers were left in the houses we had come through, and every now and
then bullets came singing by from God knows where. Four of us were
talking in the road when about a dozen bullets came with a whistle. We
all dived for the nearest door, and fell over each other, yelling with
laughter. ---- said, "I have a bullet through my new Sandon twillette
breeches." We looked, and he had; it had gone clean through. He didn't
tell us till two days after that it had gone through him too; but there
it was, like the holes you make to blow an egg, only about 4 inches
apart.
We stopped about two hours. Then the cavalry regiment on our left
retired. Then we saw a lot of Germans among the fires they had lit (they
set the houses on fire to mark their line of advance.) They were running
from house to house. We were told not to fire, for fear of our own
people on the other side. Then came a lot of them, shouting and singing
and advancing down the street, through the burning houses. One felt a
peculiar hatred for them. We heard afterward that there was a division
of infantry, at first we thought there were only a few patrols.
We retired about two miles and dismounted for action. Soon they began to
come up from three sides, and we retired again. They were pretty close,
advancing higgledy-piggledy across the fields and firing. They shot
abominably (nothing like the morning, from the houses, when they had all
the ranges marked to a yard). We lost only about 20 horses, no men
killed. "Hellfire Herbert" got his horse shot under him when they were
within about 200 yards. He was next troop in front of me. He suddenly
got complete "fou-rires" when he saw me. I got him a spare horse, and he
was still laughing, and cursing them with a sort of triumph. We only
trotted away. A man in my troop kept touching his cap to the Germans,
saying "Third-class shots, third-class shots."
The next day we went forward to another places and intrenched against a
very big German force, but we only had to face their guns. Poor ---- was
killed. They pushed us pretty hard back to our infantry. We were
supposed to have done well.
Since then we have been doing infantry work in the trenches. We have
been out of work in our trenches; only shrapnel and snipers. Some one
described this war as "Months of boredom punctuated by moments of
terror." It is sad that it is such a bad country for cavalry. Cavalry
work here against far superior forces of infantry, like we had the other
day, is not good enough. The Germans are dashing good at that
house-to-house fighting business.
It is horrible having to leave one's horses; it feels like leaving half
oneself behind, and one feels the dual responsibility all the time. I
hope we get them on the run soon, then will come our chance. They have
been having terrific fighting on the line on each side of us, and it has
gone well.
I adore war. It is like a big picnic without the objectlessness of a
picnic. I've never been so well or so happy. Nobody grumbles at one for
being dirty. I've only had my boots off once in the last ten days, and
only washed twice. We are up and standing to our rifles at 5 A.M. when
doing this infantry work, and saddled up by 4:30 A.M. when with our
horses. Our poor horses don't get their saddles off when we are in
trenches.
The dogs and cats left in the deserted villages are piteous, and the
wretched inhabitants trekking away with great bundles and children in
their hands.
I can't make out what has happened to the Battle of the Aisne; it seems
to have got tired and died.
The Indians had two men killed directly, and said, "All wars are good,
but this is a bot'utcha war. Now we advance." A Colonel of a French
regiment on our flank was sitting in a pub. in the village when the
Germans came around that flank and started firing their Maxim gun. The
Colonel and his orderly rushed into the street, and each discharged ten
rounds quick, and then went back and finished their drinks. It's
horrible when they put "Jack Johnsons" into your bivouac at night from
about twelve miles off. You can hear them coming for about 30 seconds,
and judge whether they are coming for you or a little to one side.
An All-Night Attack
[From The New York Tribune.]
PARIS, Jan. 9.--The most picturesque description of night fighting in
the trenches written by any French correspondent at the front is
published today in Le Figaro. It comes from Charles Tardieu, Corporal in
an infantry regiment, and is a detailed record, half hour by half hour,
of a night of attacks and counter-attacks from 6 o'clock in the evening
until dawn. After describing three successive German assaults, during
which searchlights and flashlights played important parts, the Corporal
notes:
2:25 A.M.--All the Corporals run back for ammunition. We had expended a
hundred rounds each. Away we go to our ammunition reserve, hid in a big
hole twenty yards to the rear, and we come running back and distribute
packages of cartridges. Each man cleans his rifle. An hour passes in
silence, broken only by the intermittent volleys and by the moaning of
the wounded and dying, some of whom exclaim: "Kamarades, kamarades,
drink, drink!" We will look after them when the day breaks.
3:15--Here they come at us again. Bullets whistle over our heads. Our
Captain passes the order in whispers not to open fire until the bouches
sales reach our wire network, then to shoot like hell. We smile grimly
and keep still. Every minute the firing draws nearer. We await behind
our loopholes, now and then risking a peep through them. These loopholes
are only fifteen or twenty centimeters wide, but if a bullet comes
through them it is a skull pierced and certain death. This silent
waiting is a tremendous mental and nervous strain.
We keep still as mice, with clenched teeth. Luminous fuses, like roman
candles, burst forth in every direction, exploding in dust over our
heads. A moment later a dazzling signal light rocket bursts fifty yards
high, just above our trenches, lighting them up as clear as day for
several seconds. We crouch down under the lower parapet like moles.
Immediately afterward a mad fusillade, and the German .77 guns, having
got a better range than during the previous attacks, throw shells that
burst, luckily for us, nearly one hundred yards behind our trenches.
This attack must be general, for we hear fusillades cracking far away to
the right and left.
Suddenly we tremble in spite of ourselves. The hoarse sound of the short
German bugles pierces the night with four lugubrious notes in a minor
key, funereal, deathly. It is their charge. Yells, oaths, and
vociferations are heard in front of us. Our Captain commands us to fire
by volleys: "Aim! Fire!" "They must have felt something," drawls out
some one of us in a nasal, Montmartre-like voice. Then again: "Aim!
Fire!" What sport! Then comes the cric-crac-cric-crac, sewing
machine-like hammering of our mitrailleuses. Our Captain passes the
word: "Fire low! fire low! Aim! Fire!" Volley follows volley. The
enemy's dash seems checked. Their fire slackens. We hear their officers
swearing and yelling at their men in shrill, high-pitched, penetrating
voices. Joyful exaltation gives us a sort of fever. "Aim! Fire!" But the
bouches sales make another rush at us. Driven on by their infuriated
officers, they again reach our wire network. Our Captain commands, "Fire
at will." Then, "Fire at repetition, fire until the magazine is
exhausted." Just as the Germans, in wavering, hesitating groups,
presenting vague outlines, try to cut our networks they tumble over like
marionettes. Already some of our men, intoxicated with fury, stand up in
the trenches.
Our Captain commands, "En avant à la baionnette!" ("At them with
bayonet.") A fierce roar from our chests, and the only bugler left alive
in our company sounds the charge. Away we go with our bayonets. We
scarcely reach them when the bouches are put to rout. Some of them
escape helter-skelter, throwing down rifles and knapsacks. "Halt!"
commands our Captain. We lie down and keep up the firing on the
retreating remnants of the enemy. "Back to the trenches!" is the next
command. A few more volleys in the direction of the Germans, then comes
the command, "Cease firing. Take your haversacks, eat, and rest." All
becomes silent again except for the harrowing moans of the wounded. We
learn that the German assault has been repulsed all along the line.
Their losses must have been awful.
5 A.M.--Gray, misty dawn breaks from behind the orme trees. Soon we are
able to see what has happened. Over three hundred bouches are on the
ground in front of our company's trench, lying dead or wounded. Our
cooks with their soup pots get out of our hole and go to the rear to
prepare in the underground kitchens our well-earned coffee and cabbage
soup. Our Captain rubs his hands with satisfaction. A strong patrol goes
out of our trenches to reconnoitre the enemy's positions in the pine
wood. The rest of us try to get some sleep.
The Germans as Seen from a Convent
[From The London Times, Aug. 16, 1914.]
_Some interesting sidelights on the events of the past
fortnight in Belgium are provided by extracts from the diary
of a young English girl, Miss Lydia Evans, who has just
returned from a convent school at Fouron, near Visé. The
following are among the entries in this graphic narrative,
published in The Evening News:_
Aug. 2.--All the people of the village passed down with cows, calves,
horses, hay, &c., which they were obliged to send in for the Belgian
Army near Liége. The first troop of Prussians came into the village this
afternoon on the pretense of having a horse shod.
Aug. 3.--Two more troops of soldiers arrived. The Prussians slept at our
convent, some in the park, others on beds in the recreation room. The
reverend mother put everything at their disposal. They asked nicely, but
gave the impression that if refused they would take more. We all went to
bed at 10 o'clock. Everybody got an alarm to dress half an hour
afterward. We came down and found the place full of Germans, who were
exceedingly polite. They are magnificent. The meanest soldier is
perfectly equipped, everything perfectly new, and splendid horses. They
are like theatre soldiers, they are so perfect. They were awfully nice,
and talked a lot.
Aug. 4.--Between Monday and Tuesday there was a terrible fight between
the Germans and Belgians at Visé because the Belgians would not let the
Germans pass to get to Liége. The Belgians blew up several big bridges
between Visé and Liége, also the one at Visé.
Aug. 5.--One man told us all the villagers had left except himself. The
German soldiers were here all day, but are very polite. They always bow
and salute. We hear a terrible noise at Visé of bombardment, and a great
fusillade in the convent. A wounded man was brought to the convent.
Aug. 6.--A curate near here has been shot. The Germans are very nice if
you give them what they want, but if they are refused the pistol comes
out. Old Mother Thérèse was at the door when a soldier asked her for a
kettle. She refused, and he nearly shot her.
Aug. 7.--A most fearful noise was heard about 2 o'clock. They say that
it was a fort blown up. A German aeroplane passed yesterday. The
soldiers are camping in the woods. There are seven wounded here. Nearly
all the others are taken to Aix-la-Chapelle.
Aug. 8.--Went to mass in the village. A man told us that the Germans had
burned two big farms at Warsage (the next village.) Two women and two
men arrived from Liége. They said that the people had been living in
caves for the last two days and nights. These poor people saw awful
sights in coming across the fields, which were covered with dead. We
have heard that Berneau is burned and the women and children hung. The
Germans are furious at having lost such a number of men before seeing
the French. A soldier passed last night, and Maria lifted up a corner of
the curtain. In a minute he had out his revolver and threatened to shoot
her. Some of the soldiers opposite the convent were drunk.
Aug. 9.--An aeroplane passed right over us, and seemed to drop something
white. The soldiers are going about in bands destroying and laying waste
every house and garden. They pass with bottles of wine and their pockets
bulging out with things they have stolen. They set a house on fire just
near the convent. There are 40,000 soldiers between here and Niouland.
Aug. 10.--There was a terrific crash at the door. Four German officers,
who had come in a motor, pointed their revolvers and asked for wine.
They looked as if they had been drinking. We had a fearful fright after
dinner. An officer, followed by a soldier, came to ask us where the curé
was, and threatened to shoot us because we could not tell him. Miss
MacMahon had to lead him to the rector's house, with a revolver pointed
at her back all the way. The houses on either side are burning. The nuns
asked the German officers if they would spare the convent. They laughed
and said they would make it a cemetery for their dead. They took away
the wounded, and as soon as they had gone the nuns woke us up, and we
started out, following all the back roads.
* * * * *
A postcard has been received from Miss Agnes Holliday, daughter of a
Hammersmith builder, who is at a convent school near Liége, in which she
states that on Tuesday night last "the convent was full of German
soldiers, to whom we spoke. At Fouron they have had a terrible time."
War-Time Scenes in Rouen
[From THE NEW YORK TIMES, Sept. 8, 1914.]
_The following is a literal translation of a letter just
received in New York by a French lady's maid from her sister
at Rouen, and gives the point of view of the modest laboring
classes in France:_
ROUEN, Aug. 21, 1914.
My Dear Sister Henriette:
If I judge according to our impatience to get your news, I understand
you are anxious for ours. I hope that you made a good voyage and that
nothing disagreeable has happened to you during the journey. There is a
little change in life in Rouen. Numerous factories are closed, for the
reason that the men are gone to war, and women are powerless to operate
the machinery. As for me, the sewing is still going a little, but I do
not think that it will last long. Business stops little by little; the
most of the stores are closing, which gives the city a sad appearance.
Per contra, there is a big bustle in and around the railroad station of
the Rue Verte. Hundreds of persons stand on the square near the station,
to assist the passing of the English troops on their way to Paris; they
are acclaimed by the cry of "Vive la France!" "Vive l'Angleterre!" "Down
with Germany and the barbarians!"
Numerous trains bring hundreds of young wounded English, French, and
Belgian soldiers. Many offices of the Red Cross are settled in the
largest hotels of the city. Many citizens have asked to take some of the
wounded into their homes. We are going to have several of them at our
home. Mother is already preparing two rooms. She has moved Lili's bed
into the kitchen. As for us, we are going to sleep in the armchairs.
Lili talks of the war like a grown-up person, and so seriously! She also
wants to take care of the wounded. She will divert them. She made
dresses for all her dolls and put them to bed. She set on the table all
the history books to interest the soldiers. Of course she will do the
reading herself. Then she collected all the pieces of old sheets to make
some lint out of them, but she will do that in the kitchen when the
wounded are sleeping, so as not to worry them. If you were in Rouen now
you would be proud of your god-child. Maman had to have made for her a
big white table "for nurse." She goes to school every day, and I
promised that I would take her with me this afternoon to see an English
warship which arrived in the Seine yesterday. It seems that the ship had
narrowly escaped capture by the Germans, but I cannot give you much
information. We don't have any news from our own soldiers. I do not know
where father is. George and Maurice must be artillerymen in Belfort.
Jeanne and Helene are in despair, thinking of their husbands. Maurice's
baby is always so sweet; he does not suspect that his father is at war.
Our aunt has no news from Leon, André, and Joseph.
This is all the news. I hope that my letter will reach you. Do not
worry. But if the Germans arrive in Rouen they will find somebody to
receive them. If the men are not strong enough the women will help them.
For my share I would like to kill one of them, and it is the Kaiser
himself; I assure you that I would do it gladly. My dear Henriette, I
say "au revoir" to you today.
Maman and Lili send you their best kisses. A big kiss from your fragile
MADELEINE.
P.S.--It is a good thing that I am always so cheerful and contented. It
happens sometimes that I can make Jeanne and Helene forget, and I give
them a little hope.
"It Is for Us and for France"
[From The New York Sun.]
_LONDON, Oct. 14.--To those who believe, as Germans would have
the world believe, that the French Nation is decadent, fit
only to disappear from the face of the earth, the following
letter, simple as any letter can be, yet full of the
Spartanlike qualities that even a German must admire, will
serve as an inspiration.
It was written to a French soldier by his sister. The soldier
showed it to his officer, who was so pleased that he had it
published anonymously for the troops. One of the men at the
front has sent the letter to The Times. A translation of it
follows:_
Sept. 4, 1914.
My dear Edward: I hear that Charles and Lucien died on Aug. 28; Eugene
is very badly wounded; Louis and Jean are dead also. Rose has
disappeared.
Mamma weeps. She says that you are strong, and begs you to go to avenge
them.
I hope your officers will not refuse you permission. Jean had the Legion
of Honor; succeed him in this.
Of the eleven of us who went to the war eight are dead. My dear brother,
do your duty, whatever is asked of you. God gave you your life, and He
has the right to take it back; that is what mamma says.
We embrace you with all our heart and long to see you again.
The Prussians are here. Young Joudon is dead; they have pillaged
everything. I have come back from Gerbervillers, which is destroyed. The
brutes!
Now, my dear brother, make the sacrifice of your life. We have hope of
seeing you again, for something gives me a presentiment and tells me to
hope.
We embrace you in all our hearts. Adieu and au revoir, if God permits.
THY SISTER.
It is for us and for France.
Think of your brothers and of grandfather in '70.
"Chant of Hate Against England"
How Ernst Lissauer's Lines Were "Sung to Pieces" in Germany.
[From The Basler Nachrichten.]
_The ever-increasing hatred in Germany against England and the
constantly diminishing bitterness expressed in German circles
toward the French is commented upon at considerable length by
the Basler Nachrichten, one of the leading German newspapers
of Switzerland, which publishes excerpts of utterances of
leading Germans to illustrate its deductions. The Swiss
paper's article follows:_
It pays to take a birdseye view of a phenomenon which, in a most
interesting fashion, is becoming more and more apparent: the increase of
the German hatred against Englishmen and the diminution of the German
hatred against the Frenchmen.
The most eloquent examples of this white-hot wrath against the English
are the now well-known army orders of the Bavarian Crown Prince,
Rupprecht. Under date of Oct. 29 the text of the first order was made
public. It reads:
Soldiers of the Sixth Army! We have now the good luck to have
also the Englishmen opposite us on our front, troops of that
race whose envy was at work for years to surround us with a
ring of foes and to throttle us. That race especially we have
to thank for this war. Therefore, when now the order is given
to attack this foe, practice retribution for their hostile
treachery and for the many heavy sacrifices! Show them that
the Germans are not so easily to be wiped out of history. Show
them that, with German blows of a special kind. (_Mit deutsche
Hiebe von ganz besouderer Art!_) Here is the opponent who most
blocks a restoration of the (Drauf,) peace. Up and at him!
RUPPRECHT.
Under date of Nov. 11 an order of similar purport issued by the same
army commander was made public:
Soldiers! The eyes of the whole world are upon you. It is now
imperative that in the battle with our most hated foe we shall
not grow numb, and that we shall at last break his arrogance.
Already he is growing pliable, (mürbe.) Numerous officers and
men have surrendered voluntarily, but the great decisive blow
is still to be struck. Therefore you must persevere to the
end. The enemy must be downed; you must not let him loose from
your teeth. (_Ihr musst ihn nicht aus den Zahnen lessen._) We
must, will and shall conquer!
At the same time the Bavarian Crown Prince had the "Song of Hate Against
England" of Ernst Lissauer distributed among the troops as an army
order. This poem, which was issued as early as Sept. 1 in the
"Kultur-Beiträgen," published by R. Dammert in Berlin, reads in full:
HASSGESANG GEGEN ENGLAND.
Was schiert uns Russe und Franzos'?
Schuss wider Schuss und Stoss um Stoss,
Wir lieben sie nicht,
Wir hassen sie nicht,
Wir schützen Weichsel und Wasgaupass,
Wir haben nur einen einzigen Hass,
Wir lieben vereint, wir hassen vereint,
Wir haben nur einen einzigen Feind:
Denn ihr alle wisst, denn ihr alle wisst,
Er sitzt geduckt hinter der grauen Flut,
Voll Neid, voll Wut, voll Schläue, voll List,
Durch Wasser getrennt, die sind dicker als Blut.
Wir wollen treten in ein Gericht,
Einen Schwur zu schwören, Gesicht in Gesicht.
Einen Schwur von Erz, den verbläst kein Wind,
Einen Schwur für Kind und für Kindeskind,
Vernehmt das Wort, sagt nach das Wort,
Es wälzt sich durch ganz Deutschland fort:
Wir wollen nicht lassen von unserem Hass,
Wir haben alle nur einen Hass,
Wir lieben vereint, wir hassen vereint,
Wir haben alle nur einen Feind:
_ENGLAND!_
In der Bordkajüte, im Feiersaal,
Sassen Schiffsoffiziere beim Liebesmahl,
Wie ein Säbelhieb, wie ein Segelschwung,
Einer riss grüssend empor den Trunk,
Knapp hinknallend wie Ruderschlag,
Drei Worte sprach er: "Auf den Tag!"
Wem galt das Glas?
Sie hatten alle nur einen Hass.
Wer war gemeint?
Sie hatten alle nur einen Feind:
_ENGLAND!_
Nimm du die Völker der Erde in Sold,
Baue Wälle aus Barren von Gold,
Bedecke die Meerflut mit Bug bei Bug,
Du rechnetest klug, doch nicht klug genug.
Was schiert uns Russe und Franzos'!
Schuss wider Schuss, und Stoss um Stoss.
Wir kämpfen den Kampf mit Bronze und Stahl
Und schliessen Frieden irgend einmal,
Dich werden wir Hassen mit langem Hass,
Wir werden nicht lassen von unserem Hass,
Hass zu Wasser und Hass zu Land,
Hass des Hauptes und Hass der Hand,
Hass der Hämmer und Hass der Kronen,
Drosselnder Hass von siebzig Millionen,
Sie lieben vereint, sie hassen vereint,
Sie alle haben nur einen Feind:
_ENGLAND!_
[Following is a translation of the song by Barbara Henderson, appearing
in THE NEW YORK TIMES of Oct. 15, 1914:]
French and Russian, they matter not,
A blow for a blow and a shot for a shot!
We love them not, we hate them not,
We hold the Weichsel and Vosges gate.
We have but one and only hate,
We love as one, we hate as one,
We have one foe and one alone.
He is known to you all, he is known to you all,
He crouches behind the dark gray flood,
Full of envy, of rage, of craft, of gall,
Cut off by waves that are thicker than blood.
Come, let us stand at the Judgment Place,
An oath to swear to, face to face,
An oath of bronze no wind can shake,
An oath for our sons and their sons to take.
Come, hear the word, repeat the word,
Throughout the Fatherland make it heard.
We will never forego our hate,
We have all but a single hate,
We love as one, we hate as one,
We have one foe and one alone--
_ENGLAND!_
In the Captain's Mess, in the banquet hall,
Sat feasting the officers, one and all,
Like a sabre blow, like the swing of a sail,
One seized his glass and held high to hail;
Sharp-snapped like the stroke of a rudder's play,
Spoke three words only: "To the Day!"
Whose glass this fate?
They had all but a single hate.
Who was thus known?
They had one foe and one alone--
_ENGLAND!_
Take you the folk of the Earth in pay,
With bars of gold your ramparts lay,
Bedeck the ocean with bow on bow,
Ye reckon well, but not well enough now.
French and Russian, they matter not,
A blow for a blow, a shot for a shot,
We fight the battle with bronze and steel,
And the time that is coming Peace will seal.
You we will hate with a lasting hate,
We will never forego our hate,
Hate by water and hate by land,
Hate of the head and hate of the hand,
Hate of the hammer and hate of the crown,
Hate of seventy millions choking down.
We love as one, we hate as one,
We have one foe and one alone--
_ENGLAND!_
This poem, according to the Tägliche Rundschau, has already had the fate
of every folksong--the version of it that was circulated among the
Bavarian troops lacks the middle stanza and has in other ways also been
"sung to pieces." But it has also been worked over artistically. The
Chemnitz Director of Church Music, Prof. Mayerhoff, has set the "Chant
of Hate Against England" to music for male voices. The song was rendered
publicly at a great meeting in a concert in the Alberthalle at Leipsic,
and was taken up in roaring chorus by the audience. The composer himself
accompanied his composition on the piano.
As can be seen, therefore, the popularity of the song and its sentiment is
by no means confined to Bavaria. It extends throughout the entire empire.
Of hundreds of voices in the press, let us mention only one. Councilor of
Justice Eschenbach of Berlin, in the Neue Gesellschaftliche Korrespondenz
writes:
To honor our immortal heroes of Tsing-tau, and for the eternal
shame and reproach of the scoundrel nations, Japan and
England, I propose the following: Let the entire German press
scorn in the next fourteen days to permit the words
"Englishmen" or "Japanese" to appear in its columns and before
the eyes of our people and of the entire civilized world; but
instead, and invariably, let the word "Mörder" (murderers) be
used for "Englishmen" and the word "Raubmörder" (highway
assassins) for "Japanese." For no other name will there be
hereafter among us for these greatest scoundrels of history.
Thereby care will be taken both for the present throughout the
world as far as the German language is heard and the results
of the German spirit are known, and also for future
historians, that the proper point of view shall be given
throughout eternity for the condemnation of these murderous
gangs accursed of God.
How different is the attitude of the Germans toward the French!
From a trench on the Aisne the following was written to the Heidelberger
Zeitung:
Four hundred meters from where we lie, likewise intrenched,
lie these wretched Englishmen, toward whom our people feel a
holy fury, while they regard the battle with the Frenchmen, on
the other hand, rather as a member of a university student
corps regards an honorable duel. I, too, am entirely of that
view.
The well-known psychologist, Prof. W. Hellpach of Karlsruhe, writes to
the Berliner Tageblatt from the field:
The German soldier, too, does not hate the French people.
Indeed, no one hates it. That is one of the most amazing
phenomena of this war--our inner relation to France. Daily and
hourly we hear words of disgust concerning the Russians, see
gestures of hatred against the Britons--but toward France
there is expressed amid all purely warlike antagonism a sort
of sympathy resembling almost a smiling love for a naughty
child which one feels obliged to punish because it has been
guilty of stupid but very serious misbehavior.
We must force France to its knees--perhaps more completely
than any of our other foes--but every one seems to hope that
after this, after this last lesson, France will come to her
senses and conclude a real peace with her German neighbor.
Even among the common men in our ranks there has developed
almost plant like a certain realization of a common duty of
these two nations, a feeling of certain virtues which they,
complementing one another, can preserve only by co-operation.
But for the cultured ones among us, the idea of a hereditary
feud has given way to a clear consciousness that there is a
middle European Continental culture, supported by German,
Austrian, and French genius in common, and that the
preservation, development, and continuation thereof as against
a hasty and superficial Anglization must be the task of the
future. All, all now learn through experience that this matter
with France is a woe of civilization (kulturjammer), and that
now at last it is going to change, that it could change, if--
In the same newspaper the Berlin National Economist, Prof. Werner
Sombart, writes:
Against France we probably experience the least aversion or
hatred. At bottom we have really nothing "against the
Frenchmen," but they have a great deal against us. But we find
them, in spite of their fanatical hatred of the Germans (which
we honor and respect) chivalrous antagonists, who in their
wrath of battle are certainly quite our peers; and in them, we
find, there is far more force and will for victory than we
were in the beginning wont to believe. They die for their
fatherland, and their final reason for fighting is after all
an ideal one, the faith in the glory and greatness of a
super-individual, the self-sacrifice to a whole that is higher
than the personal. Thus, at least, does that France stand
opposed to us, that is fighting for its existence in the
trenches along the Aisne.
With the rabble that shouts "à bas la guerre" in Paris, we
need reckon just as little as with the rather doubtful
citizens that constitute the immediate Government of France
and whose heroism seems to show great rents these days. Yes,
for the heroic race of Frenchmen we feel almost a sort of
pity, as with a noble wild game of the forest, wounded unto
death. And this pity finds expression in wistful sympathy when
we think of the quixotic strain in this wrestling with an
overwhelming foe, when we see the childlike faith with which
the people have grasped at every unplausible hope of rescue
from its anguish of death and still grasps at it, as a
drowning man grasps at a wisp of straw. Don Quixote still
remains the "noble knight" for whom--if he appears in the age
of firearms--we still fire three salvos of honor over his
grave.
And then, when we mention the word "France," there arise all
the memories of the imperishable cultural values which its
people have given to us. I believe that there are many, very
many among us, who in their hearts hope that there may once
again be something like a co-operative understanding and
journeying together of Germans and Frenchmen, even if in a
distant future which the youngest among us will probably not
live to see--an agreement which through a union of German and
French elements of culture will promise vast achievements for
the purposes of humanity. In the last analysis--for that has
in these very days been more frequently expressed--these two
nations belong together; they are of equal worth, of equal
spirit, of equal fineness, and yet so different that they can
give each other infinitely much.
Just as has the hate against England, so has this friendship for France
found poetic expression. In the Hamburger Kriegsblatt we read a poem by
Wilhelm Höhne, the final stanza of which reads:
Ma pauvre France! Wann siehst du es ein
Dass all deine Bündnisse Trug und Schein?
Was meinst du, wärst du mit dem vereint,
Der dich niederringt heute--ein ehrlicher Feind!
Auf "Deutsche Treue" da könntest du zählen!
Mit uns im Bund könnt'st der Welt du befehlen.
Dem Briten, dem Russen, dem Asiaten!
Deutschland hat nie einen Freund verraten!
(Translation.)
Ma pauvre France, when wilt thou see
That all thy allies are cheating thee?
What, though if thou with him wouldst go
Who now overwhelms thee--an honest foe!
On German faith thou couldst reckon sure;
With us, thou couldst rule the world secure,
The Briton, the Russian, the Asian, bend.
Germany has never betrayed a friend!
[Illustration: decoration]
ANSWERING THE "CHANT OF HATE."
By BEATRICE M. BARRY.
French and Russian, they matter not,
For England only your wrath is hot;
But little Belgium is so small
You never mentioned her at all--
Or did her graveyards, yawning deep,
Whisper that silence was discreet?
For Belgium is waste! Ay, Belgium is waste!
She welters in the blood of her sons,
And the ruins that fill the little place
Speak of the vengeance of the Huns.
"Come, let us stand at the Judgment place,"
German and Belgian, face to face.
What can you say? What can you do?
What will history say of you?
For even the Hun can only say
That little Belgium lay in his way.
Is there no reckoning you must pay?
What of the Justice of that "Day"?
Belgium one voice--Belgium one cry
Shrieking her wrongs, inflicted by
_GERMANY!_
In her ruined homesteads, her trampled fields,
You have taken your toll, you have set your seal;
Her women are homeless, her men are dead,
Her children pitifully cry for bread;
Perchance they will drink with you--"To the Day!"
Let each man construe it as he may.
What shall it be?
They, too, have but one enemy;
Whose work is this?
Belgium has but one word to hiss--
_GERMANY!_
Take you the pick of your fighting men
Trained in all warlike arts, and then
Make of them all a human wedge
To break and shatter your sacred pledge;
You may fling your treaty lightly by,
But that "scrap of paper" will never die!
It will go down to posterity,
It will survive in eternity.
Truly you hate with a lasting hate;
Think you you will escape that hate?
"Hate by water and hate by land;
Hate of the head and hate of the hand."
Black and bitter and bad as sin,
Take you care lest it hem you in,
Lest the hate you boast of be yours alone,
And curses, like chickens, find roost at home
_IN GERMANY!_
England Caused the War
By T. von Bethmann-Hollweg, German Imperial Chancellor.
_Following is the full text of the speech delivered by the
German Chancellor at the session of the Reichstag in Berlin on
Dec. 2, 1914:_
The Emperor, who is absent with the army, has charged me to transmit his
best wishes and cordial greetings to the German Reichstag, with whom he
is known to be united till death in the stress of danger and in the
common concern for the weal of the Fatherland.
Our first thought goes out to the Kaiser and the army and navy--our
soldiers who are fighting for the honor and greatness of the empire.
Full of pride and unshakable confidence, we look to them and to our
Austro-Hungarian comrades in arms, who are firmly united to us, to fight
great battles with brilliant bravery.
Our most recent ally in battle who has been obliged to join us is the
Ottoman Empire, which knows well that with the destruction of the German
Empire it, too, would lose its national right to control its own
destiny. As our enemies have formed a powerful coalition against us,
they will, I hope, find that the arm of our brave allies reaches the
weak spots in their world position.
On Aug. 4 the Reichstag expressed the firm resolution of the whole
people to undertake the war which had been forced upon them and to
defend their independence to the utmost.
Since then great deeds have been accomplished. The incomparable
gallantry of our troops has carried the war into the enemy's country.
There we still stand firm and can regard the future with every
confidence, but the enemy's resistance is not broken.
We are not yet at the end of our sacrifices. The nation will continue to
support those sacrifices with the same heroism as hitherto, for we must
and will fight to a successful end our defensive war for right and
freedom. We will then remember how our defenseless compatriots in
hostile countries were maltreated in a manner which is a disgrace to all
civilization. The world must learn that no one can hurt a hair on the
head of a German subject with impunity.
It is evident to us who is responsible for this--the greatest of all
wars. The apparent responsibility falls on those in Russia who ordered
and carried out the mobilization of the Russian Army; the real
responsibility, however, falls on the British Government. The Cabinet in
London could have made the war impossible if it had without ambiguity
declared at Petrograd that Great Britain would not allow a Continental
war to develop from the Austro-Servian conflict.
Such a declaration would also have obliged France to take energetic
measures to restrain Russia from undertaking warlike operations. Then
our action as mediators between Petrograd and Vienna would have been
successful, and there would have been no war.
But Great Britain did not act thus. Great Britain was aware of the
bellicose machinations of the partly irresponsible but powerful group
around the Czar. She saw how the ball was rolling, but placed no
obstacle in its path. In spite of all its assurances of peace London
informed Petrograd that Great Britain was on the side of France and,
consequently, on the side of Russia.
The Cabinet of London allowed this monstrous worldwide war to come about
hoping, with the help of the Entente, to destroy the vitality of
England's greatest European competitor in the markets of the world.
Therefore, England and Russia have before God and men the responsibility
for the catastrophe which has fallen upon Europe. Belgian neutrality,
which England pretended to defend, was nothing but a disguise.
On the evening of Aug. 2 we informed Brussels that we were obliged, in
the interest of self-defense and in consequence of the war plans of
France, which were known to us, to march through Belgium, but already,
on the afternoon of the same day, Aug. 2, before anything of our action
in Brussels could have been known in London, the British Government
promised France unconditional assistance in case the German fleet should
attack the French coast. Nothing was said about Belgium neutrality.
How can England maintain that she drew the sword because we violated
Belgian neutrality? How could the British statesmen, whose past is well
known, speak at all of Belgian neutrality? When, on Aug. 4, I spoke of
the wrong which we were committing with our march into Belgium it was
not yet established whether the Belgian Government at the last moment
would not desire to spare the country and retire under protest to
Antwerp. For military reasons I cannot go into whether there was the
possibility of such a development on Aug. 4.
As to the guilt of the Belgian Government, many indications were already
known at that time, but there were no positive and written proofs. Now,
however, that it is demonstrated by documents found in Brussels how the
Belgians surrendered their neutrality to England the entire world knows
two facts.
One is that when our troops on the night of Aug. 3-Aug. 4 entered
Belgian territory they were on the ground of a State which had given up
its neutrality long ago. The other is that, not for the sake of the
neutrality of Belgium, which she had herself undermined, did England
declare war on us, but because she believed that she would be able to
master us with the help of two great Continental powers.
Since Aug. 2, since her promise to assist France, England was no longer
neutral, and was actually at war with us, and the argument that the
declaration of war was a sequel to the violation of Belgian neutrality
is nothing but a piece of play-acting performed to mystify the English
people and neutral States.
Now that the Anglo-Belgian war plans are unveiled in their smallest
details, the policy of British statesmen is branded before the tribunal
of history for all time.
But British diplomacy went further. At England's request Japan snatches
away heroic Kiao-Chau and violates the neutrality of China. Has England
interfered in this violation of neutrality? Has England shown a care for
neutral States in this case?
When, five years ago, I was called to office the Triple Alliance was
opposed by a firmly united Entente. England's work was designed to serve
the known principle of the balance of power, which means in plain German
that the principle, followed for centuries by British policy and
directed against the strongest Continental power, should find its
strongest tool in the Triple Entente. This proves from the beginning the
aggressive character of the Entente toward the plainly defensive
tendencies of the Triple Alliance.
This was the germ of the forcible explosion. German policy was obliged
to try to avert the danger of war by an understanding with the
individual powers of the Entente. At the same time she was obliged to
strengthen her defensive forces so that she should be prepared if war
should come all the same. We did both. In France we always encountered
ideas of revanche felt by ambitious politicians. With Russia some
agreements were concluded, but Russia's firm alliance with France, her
antagonism to us and our ally, Austria-Hungary, her Pan-Slavistic desire
for power, her artificial hatred for Germany, made it impossible to
conclude an agreement which in the case of a political crisis would
exclude the danger of war.
England was comparatively free. Here the best attempt at an
understanding could be made which would have effectively guaranteed the
peace of the world. I acted accordingly. The way was narrow, which I
knew well. For decades the British insular intellect has been evolving
the political principle, the dogma that the arbitrament of the world is
due to England, which she can only maintain by undisputed supremacy on
the sea and the much-quoted balance of power on the Continent.
I never hoped to break the old principle by persuasion. What I believe
possible was that the growing power of Germany and the growing danger of
war could be made to compel England to perceive that this old principle
was untenable and unpractical, and that a peaceable arrangement with
Germany was preferable, but that dogma always paralyzed the possibility
of an understanding. After the crisis of 1911 public opinion forced
British rulers to a rapprochement toward Germany. By wearisome work an
understanding was finally reached in different disputed questions of
economic interest which related to Africa and Asia Minor. This
understanding should have diminished possible political friction if the
free development of our strength were not impeded. Both peoples had
sufficient space to measure their strength in peaceful competition.
This was the principle always upheld by German policy. But while we were
negotiating England was always thinking of strengthening her relations
with Russia and France. The decisive factor was that more binding
military agreements for the case eventually of a Continental war were
concluded outside the political sphere. England negotiated, if possible,
secretly. If anything leaked out of importance it was minimized in press
and Parliament. It could not be concealed from us. The whole situation
was as follows:
England was willing to come to an understanding with us in individual
questions, but the first principle always was that Germany's free
development of strength must be checked by the balance of power.
We did not fail to warn the British Government. As recently as the
beginning of July I notified the British Government that we knew of the
secret naval negotiations with Russia concerning the Naval Convention. I
pointed out the serious danger which British policy meant for the peace
of the world. A fortnight later what I predicted occurred. When war had
broken out England dropped her disguise. She loudly announced that she
would fight till Germany was conquered in an economical and military
sense. We have only one answer. Germany cannot be destroyed. As her
military strength has stood the test so has her financial strength.
Look at the diminution in the number of unemployed. The unemployed of
yesterday are the army of today--their spirit is that of the soldier of
yesterday and of today--the one spirit that animates us all.
When this spirit, this moral greatness of the people, when the proved
heroism of our troops is called by our enemies militarism, if they call
us Huns and barbarians, we can be proud enough and need not worry. This
wonderful spirit in the hearts of the German people, this unprecedented
unity, must and will be victorious. When a glorious and happy peace is
concluded we will maintain this spirit as the holiest legacy of this
terrible and serious and great time. I repeat the words of the Emperor:
"I know no parties. I know only Germans. When the war is ended parties
will return without parties, without a political fight. There is no
political life, not even for the freest and most united people."
Many seats are vacant here. Where are their holders? You know. There is
the vacant seat of Herr Frank, (Socialist member;) but he will return no
more. The spirit of cheerful self-sacrifice which animates us here as
the guardians of the people's weal inspires the entire people.
Japan joined our enemies from a desire to seize as booty the monument
of German culture in the Far East. On the other hand, we have found an
ally in Turkey, as all the Moslem peoples want to throw off the English
yoke and shatter the foundations of England's colonial power. Under the
banner of our army and the flag of our fleet we shall conquer.
This, then, is our inspiration--our vow! Germany shall fight on and
continue to sacrifice herself on the altar of civilization and progress
and patriotism until she shall have secured a guarantee from all that
none henceforth shall disturb--shall dare to disturb--the peace of this,
our German land.
A SONG OF THE SIEGE GUN.
By KATHERINE DRAYTON MAYRANT SIMONS, Jr.
Welded in the devil-workshop of the Essen blacksmith's stall,
There conceived and consecrated to the nations' final fall,
In the iron of my entrails, in my thews of shrunken steel,
In my mighty bore of barrel, in the claw of cleated wheel,
Through the travail of my forging, was there bred the ancient hate--
Primal blood-feud of the races, which the races' blood must sate!
You, the Empress of the Ocean--did your statesmen ne'er foretell
That your fortresses should crumble at the hot kiss of my shell?
While the garnered greed of ages lay in leash beneath my breast,
Did you deem an oath of honor more than is a royal jest?
While you slept my masters labored! In the metal of my frame
Molded they the mighty promise of a continent in flame!
In the casting of my carriage, in the boring of my sheath,
They have riveted my armor with the dormant dragon teeth!
By my twelve-mile range projectile, by my weight of forty tons,
Do I mock the slender playthings which Allies now call their guns!
Ever angry and unglutted, when the rocking fight is red,
Then my slogan stirs all sleepers save the still and dreamless dead!
Lo! The past is but a promise! When my Saturnalia comes,
Then the Saxon stands uncovered to a march of muffled drums,
Then the northern snows are trampled where the Slavic horsemen sleep,
And the Latin women tremble for their lovers as they weep!
[Illustration: GEN. LIMAN VON SANDERS PASHA,
Commander in Chief of the Turkish Army.
(_Photo_ © _by American Press Assn._)]
[Illustration: GEN. KAMIO,
Commander in Chief of the Japanese Tsing-Tau Expedition.
(_Photo from Paul Thompson._)]
Why England Fights Germany
By Hilaire Belloc.
[_Copyright, 1915, by The New York Times Company._]
_Hilaire Belloc has for years been among the most prominent of
English writers, his political and economic opinions being
widely quoted. As a historian he has given special attention
to the French Revolution, being the author of "Danton," "Marie
Antoinette," "The Girondins," and other studies which are
regarded by scholars as standard works. Mr. Belloc's military
knowledge and experience (he served in the Eighth Regiment of
French Artillery) and his understanding of history have made
him an acute and interesting chronicler of the present war.
The following article appeared in_ THE NEW YORK TIMES _of Jan.
17, 1915._
I shall attempt in what follows to answer the question "Why is England
at war with Germany?" It is perhaps the most important question upon
which neutral countries, and especially neutral English-speaking
countries, should have a true answer. Upon their just appreciation of
England's position in this war a great deal of the immediate future of
the world will depend.
But before proceeding to answer the question directly, we must get rid
of certain misconceptions.
The question must be, as the French say, not only "put," but "put in its
due proportion." It is not enough to answer the question "Why is England
at war with Germany?" unless we know to begin with what that event means
to this gigantic war as a whole.
Let us begin, then, by saying that this great war is not primarily a war
between England and Germany at all. England and Germany are not the two
chief combatants. The issue is not a victory to be achieved by Germany
on the one side, or England upon the other. The victory of one of the
parties in the great struggle would not produce a much stronger England,
though it certainly would produce a much stronger Germany.
The struggle is primarily and essentially a struggle between two
conflicting theories of life and government, which have the Continent of
Europe for their theatre, and of which the Prussians upon the one hand,
the French upon the other, are the protagonists and have been the
protagonists for now more than three generations.
All human conflicts have spiritual roots, and the underlying spiritual
forces which by their contrast have led to this war are the forces of
the old Latin and Christian civilization, with its doctrines of human
equality and the rest, and the North German reaction against that
tradition. Of the first the French are the guardians and have always
been. Of the second the North Germans of the Baltic plain, and
particularly the Prussians, have been the exponents; and one may survey
Europe as a whole and say that the conflict spreads through the minds of
all Europeans, dividing them between those who would prefer their
posterity to live, consciously or unconsciously, under the ancient and
continuous tradition of the civilization inherited from Rome or under
some reversal of that tradition.
That conflict is apparent in every department of life; in the arts, in
the customs of society, and, most important of all, in philosophy.
The direct, immediate, and perceptible issue of the struggle is again
something different. It is an issue between the German-speaking peoples
and the Slav. If you were to ask an acute, well-traveled observer, say a
European diplomat, what, at bottom, this war was, he would answer you
thus:
"This war is an armed conflict provoked by the German-speaking peoples
under the leadership of Prussia against the Slavs under the leadership
of the Russian Empire. It has been provoked by Prussia as leader of the
German peoples, not in a spirit of aggression but in a spirit of
self-defense. The German peoples have for centuries regarded themselves
as the bulwark of European civilization against Slav barbarism. They
believe that the Slav power is rapidly getting so great as to be an
immediate peril. They think it must be fought now or never. On this
account Austria was induced by Prussia to challenge the Russian
Government over the Servian question.
"Either that challenge would be accepted, with the result of war, or
Russia would give way, thereby obtaining for the German peoples a
victory without bloodshed. And Austria would proceed to administrate the
Servian Slavs and to control them--driving a wedge into the whole Slav
power and rendering it innocuous for the future.
"In this struggle between Teuton and Slav France comes in as an
accessory, having made an alliance with Russia long ago for her own
ends, and having nothing to do with the quarrel between Teuton and Slav.
The German-speaking peoples regret the interference of France, but are
prepared to take on the burden of a French war rather than abandon the
moment for restricting the growing power of the Slav.
"Now, in all this," (your experienced man with a wide view of Europe
would add,) "England was not concerned. Her position was quite
subsidiary in all this quarrel. She had far less to do with it even than
France had, and it was in every Cabinet of Europe doubted whether
England would come in at all. By the Prussian Government it was taken
for granted that England would have no reason to come in. By the French
it was feared in spite of the recent relations between the two countries
that England would remain neutral. And, in general, the fact that
England is at war at all is a fact on one side of the original quarrel
and its original motives, though it is a fact that will profoundly
affect the progress and the results of the war."
Such a statement would be no more than the plain truth as educated men
know and see it in Europe today. The entry of England into the field of
conflict was an entry from one side. It did not fall into line with the
general motives of the people. It was, among all English statesmen, a
matter of debate; it was decided by but a narrow majority of those
responsible for so enormous a decision.
When we have clearly grasped these two fundamental facts--first, that
the war is not on its mechanical side mainly a war between England and
Germany, but mainly a war between two contrasting European and
Continental ideals; secondly, the correlative fact that the entry of
England into the war was not certain until the last hour, and was, when
it was made, made only after doubtful consideration and after a division
among the politicians, responsible for the conduct of her affairs,
something almost accidental, as it were--we can proceed to consider the
three causes which converging were sufficiently strong in their
combination to produce that result, and when we know what those three
causes were, their strength and the accidents of their convergence, at
this moment we shall have answered the question, "Why is England at war
with Germany?"
These three causes are:
1. The fixed cardinal point for English policy upon which no English
patriot worthy of the name would hesitate for a moment, and which no
historian with any sense of justice can condemn, to wit, that no one, if
England can help it, shall have naval predominance over the British
fleet, particularly in the narrow seas.
2. The effect of certain undertakings, a whole network of diplomatic
actions, particularly in connection with France, engaged in by the
English Foreign Office during the last ten years.
3. A certain vague attachment to the Western, or Latin, tradition of
civilization with its routine of conventions in war and peace, and
particularly of treaties as between first-class powers. This tradition
was still sufficiently strong to act as a motive converging with the two
others mentioned above to produce a sufficient moral stream in favor of
war as, though sluggish, to help to turn the scale.
I say that these three things combined, upon the whole and doubtfully,
discovered a sufficient strength between them to make the English
politicians, after serious hesitation and close division, determine upon
war.
Let me take them in their order:
1. The cardinal point of statesmanship upon which all English foreign
policy has turned for two hundred years, that no one shall be more
powerful at sea than England, especially upon the shores of the narrow
seas, appears to foreigners unarguably arrogant.
It is, indeed, of its nature a challenge to the rest of the world, but
if the reader will consider a moment he will see that it is a challenge
to which modern England, at any rate, is inexorably condemned. However
much such a position may clash with the temperament of chivalrous and
peaceable men--and it does clash with the temperament of many an English
statesman of the past and of the present--no one with a respect for his
country, or paying the common duty of allegiance to it, can compromise
upon the matter. It is here with England precisely as it has been with
all her parallels, the great oligarchic commercial commonwealths of the
past; she lives by the sea, and the closing of the sea would be to her
not inconvenience, but death.
It is, I think, this very sentiment that England can live only on
condition that the English fleet is supreme which has led England to use
that supremacy so sparingly. It is true to say that there has been no
force of so much superiority to its rivals as the British Navy which in
all history has been used for such purely defensive purposes as the
British Navy has been used during the present generation, and this
moderation I conceive to be due to a clear recognition that morally the
claim to supremacy at sea is a challenge which the great rival nations
must feel acutely, and which they have a right to feel acutely, and
which, therefore, must be softened in every possible way.
But if it is necessary that Great Britain should brook no rival at sea
it is still more necessary that such a rival, should he arise, should
not have naval bases within striking distance of her coast. The great
exception has, of course, been France, and for two centuries at least
that fact has molded the whole of British policy. Had Germany remained a
Continental power and rejected maritime ambition that would still
continue to mold British policy.
The French have, and Europe being what it is, will always continue to
have the aptitude for the sea, the genius in mechanical invention and
the superabundant wealth which between them are the three factors of the
great modern fleet. A lengthy coast line training millions of her
workers to a seafaring life, a long tradition of naval families, and
pioneer in every form of modern naval war from the armor plate to the
submarine, is the proof of this, if proof were needed.
As against the presence of some part of the French naval power on an
opposing coast across a narrow armed water, the English Channel, Great
Britain proceeded, generation after generation, to keep her control an
essentially defensive naval force. She did it upon the position that her
military effort, and therefore expenditure, should be slight; that her
economic as her other energies should be chiefly devoted to her marine.
And though the French in the moments of their greatest prosperity were
able, for all their constant military effort, to produce navies that
rivaled those of Great Britain, yet Great Britain's effort was the more
constant. She never engaged large bodies of men in war; she could take
advantage of every French reverse during the two centuries when the
French were perpetually engaged in huge Continental conflicts.
Great Britain, in a word, by ceaseless vigilance and at a great expense
of energy, managed upon the whole to dominate one branch of the narrow
seas, the channel. Upon the other branch, the North Sea, she felt nearly
always secure. An exception to this security was found during the brief
Dutch period in the seventeenth century and again, much more acutely,
when the French were the masters of the Low Countries, and when Napoleon
took control of the shipbuilding yards not only from Brest to Dunkirk,
but from Dunkirk to the Bight of Heligoland.
This presence of the French power in Holland, Belgium, and Frisia, in
particular the French control of Antwerp, was the true cause of violent
anxiety, and the no less violent efforts in reply which Britain made
during the Napoleonic wars. For twenty-three years she fought, with but
two short intervals of repose, upon a dozen nominal pleas, but with one
plain piece of statesmanship at the back of her mind--that no one should
control the narrow seas against herself.
And especially that if she could not prevent the existence in normal
times of a very powerful, dangerous French fleet, rendering her anxious
for one-half of those seas, at least the other half should be free from
such anxiety.
In the midst of such a secular determination, successfully maintained,
Germany began to build her new great modern fleet.
The German Empire had a most unquestioned right thus to challenge the
power of Great Britain. It was indeed the most effective challenge which
a nation jealous of Britain's commerce could deliver, but it is none the
less true that the plain policy of self-preservation compelled Britain
to take up that challenge.
For the first time in three hundred years Britain found herself
beginning to support French trades, in the general policy of the world.
The French, for reasons which had nothing to do with England and with
which the mass of the English governing classes in no way sympathized,
had maintained for more than thirty years a determination to restore
their own power at the expense of Prussia. Because modern Germany was
building her fleet, modern Britain, in order to check that movement,
began thus in novel fashion and against all the old English traditions
to support the French.
The thing was done at the bottom with reluctance. All Englishmen felt
the common bond of religion which united their country with that which
governs modern Germany. Many Englishmen believed that there was some
vague bond of race between the two countries. Not a few worthy, ignorant
men, and even one or two men of great ability, attempted to direct
negotiations whereby a fixed ratio should exist between the two fleets;
in other words, whereby the German Empire should pledge itself to a
permanent inferiority at sea.
That empire would indeed have been more foolish even than cowardly had
it listened to any such proposals. The position, therefore, was one of
inevitable and increasing friction. It was a matter of life and death to
England that no other great Western fleet should exist besides the
French, and it was a matter of national existence to Germany once she
had undertaken a policy not to give up that policy at the dictation of
any other power--for, among other things, modern Germany lived on
prestige; her whole internal structure depended upon it, and for Prussia
to lose faith before Europe would be the end of the Germany that Prussia
had made.
There are those who say that a Germany conducted by some Richelieu, or
even by a surviving Bismarck, would never have attempted the building of
a great fleet until accounts had been finally settled with France. There
are those who say that the elements of statesmanship required the German
Empire first to settle herself politically upon the shores of the
Straits of Dover and the Netherlands, first to destroy the danger of a
great war in the west on land, then and then only to begin building that
fleet which must inevitably challenge Great Britain. It is no part of
this criticism to consider the statesmanship of another nation, but at
any rate once the policy of building the fleet was begun conflict with
England was in sight.
2. The second cause of England's joining in this war is the effect of a
number of internal arrangements, some of them of minor importance, but
all leading in one direction and ultimately placing the Government of
Great Britain in a position from which it was difficult to retire. In
general terms these arrangements were based upon the idea of joining the
group of powers, French and Russian, which formed the counterpoise to
the Germanic group in Europe, the German Empire and Austria. At the same
time there was running through these arrangements the idea of detaching
Italy, whose Government was firmly attached to Germany, but whose
population was very doubtful, from the Triple Alliance of Germany,
Austria, and Italy, which had been the cardinal point in European
affairs for a generation.
The various steps by which Great Britain approached this position are
well known. In the first place, she came to an arrangement with France
whereby she should have a free hand in Egypt and France should be
supported by England in the occupation of Morocco. This was done behind
the back of Germany to the manifest loss of Germany's colonial ambition
and, what is more noticeable, England was openly paying a very high
price for the new state of affairs she hoped to create, for she had
pretty well a free hand in Egypt, already, while France's opportunity of
going to Morocco and exploiting a very large area of valuable
territory--something quite new and additional to her--depended upon
England's withdrawing her opposition.
That opposition was withdrawn; and though the most violent effect was
produced in Germany, though there were threats of war, pitiable quarrels
within the French Cabinet and a moment of grave danger, the pact was
accomplished, and Morocco, all save the strip opposite Gibraltar, became
French, while all that Germany had to show for her share was an
irregularly shaped and not valuable couple of slices cut out of tropical
Africa in the Congo Basin from the vast French possessions there, and
added to her own still insufficient share.
Another group of arrangements was that with Russia, and here again
England willingly paid a heavy price, and again completely reversed her
traditional policy. She gave all that is vital in Persia to Russian
control. She forgot her old anxiety about the Indian frontier; she lost
her old and hitherto unbroken policy of supporting Turkey in Europe.
When the war came she was with the French in supporting the Balkan
powers, "The Little Nations."
Finally, in the matter of Italy, she supported or permitted the Italian
attack upon and annexation of Turkish territory in North Africa, and
consistently, before and after that event, worked for the strengthening
of Italy in the Triple Alliance and for securing the neutrality of that
country, at least in case of a European war.
There were many other arrangements besides these three principal and
typical ones, but all, small or great, were based upon the same idea,
and pointed in the same direction. England was leaning upon the Russian
side against Germany. The most important in the minor details in this
new policy, the one which has had most effect perhaps in producing the
war, was an understanding whereby the French fleet should virtually
evacuate the Northern Seas and undertake for England the policing of the
Mediterranean trade routes, and the guardianship of that source of food
supply to Great Britain, thus leaving the whole weight of the British
Navy free to guard the North Sea, and to face the new and growing German
naval force.
Now, it must always be borne in mind that these arrangements, large and
small, detailed and general, whereby Great Britain gradually involved
herself in a network of French and Russian supports and reciprocal
duties, never took the form of an alliance. The utmost pains were taken
by English diplomatists and permanent officials at the English Foreign
Office, experts and servants, to state that England remained free in
spite of all to act as her conscience or her interest might dictate,
whenever, or if, war should break out between the two groups of
Continental powers. No one can read the conflict of evidence between the
German Ambassador and Sir Edward Grey in the highly typical telephone
incident which took place immediately before the recent declaration of
war without seeing that liberty of action was maintained by the
Government of Great Britain until the very last moment.
But one cannot do a number of things, each weighted with a similar
tendency, without one's whole conduct and fate being determined in the
direction to which those actions tend. To preserve one's legal or
technical independence is not enough. In this specific case, for
instance, the naval arrangement proved an exceedingly weighty thing.
France could say:
"Relying on your explicit, though not expressed, support of myself and
Russia, I guarded your trade routes in the Mediterranean and left my
northern coasts undefended. Here is war about to break out with those
northern coasts of mine bare against the overwhelming attack from the
German fleet, and with nothing wherewith I can guard it; and that
nakedness is entirely due to having trusted you. You may not have a
legal obligation, but the moral one is not to be shirked."
At any rate, I insist upon the tendency of all these various diplomatic
acts, because it has been they that might have dragged the most
reluctant Government into this conflict, and it was they which, in
combination with the cardinal policy of preventing maritime rivalry in
the narrow seas, decided the present policy of this country.
3. But, as I have said, there was a third cause, much vaguer and, until
war actually broke out, of little effect. Though there had existed for
thirty years from 1880 until after the beginning of the new century such
strong bonds of sympathy between Great Britain and North Germany--bonds
riveted by Court influence and much more strengthened by the influence
of the universities and of religious leaders--though some contempt for
and alienation from the French had become of increasing note in English
public utterances and literature, yet Great Britain retained upon the
whole the Western doctrine of civilization and of its traditions.
The increasing German reaction against those traditions, particularly in
morals, was not wholly sympathetic to the temper of the gentry, at least
in England, and was sometimes exasperating.
All nations have cynically violated treaties at one time or another, but
there is about a solemnly undertaken treaty by the great European powers
and affecting the happiness of the smaller neutral States something
particularly sacred. And though it must not for one moment be regarded
as the principal cause of the war, it is true that the crudity of
Prussia's neglect of treaties, the too simple fashion in which Prussia
proposed a breach of international obligations in the matter of Belgium,
did affect the conscience of not a few powerful men in England, and,
what is perhaps more important, furnished a definite and concrete point
on which the doubtful issue of peace or war could repose.
It must be remembered in this connection that Prussia had a novel
tradition of her own in such matters. The phrase "The Frederickian
tradition" is an accurate phrase. Frederick the Great did start the open
and avowed doctrine that a breach of international convention and of
international morals is always tolerable in the aggrandizement of one's
country.
I think one is not telling the truth if one says that the proposed
violation of Belgian territory for the invasion of France was of a
nature to cause an explosion of anger in the very hardened minds of the
professional politicians in any modern country. There is not one group
of them that has not been guilty of something of the sort before. But I
think one is telling the truth if one says that the over-simple and cold
way in which Prussia took it for granted that the violation of a solemn
and most important treaty was nothing just shocked opinion, even of the
politicians, sufficiently to help to incline the balance against her.
There is much more. The Prussian estimate of Russian, of French, and
even of English psychology was very erroneous. The Prussian way of
getting France not to join is about as subtle as spitting in a man's
face, and the elephantine gambols of the German diplomats in London
during the fatal week preceding the war were a positive aid to the
catastrophe that was about to take place. They blundered as hard and as
heavily as it was possible to blunder; going to the wrong people;
despising the subtly powerful; paying court to the more advertised and
less controlling of the English public men, and in a word behaving
themselves after that fashion for which we have coined the adjective
"newspaper."
There was further the peculiar aggravation of the tone in which the
Austrian note had been addressed to Servia. There was further the
patent and almost puerile double dealing of Berlin in the attempted
negotiations for peace between Russia and Austria--in which negotiations
the British Cabinet was very prominent. But beyond all these other minor
points, these three causes I have mentioned, by their convergence, seem
to have determined England's participation in the war, with all the
enormous but as yet unguessed consequences that will follow therefrom.
I repeat, I do not say that any one of those three causes would in
itself have been sufficient. The three combining were just sufficient,
and this account, if I am not mistaken, justly presents the picture that
history should have of the manner in which Great Britain determined to
conclude the long process of her recent diplomatic revolution and to
engage with the Allies against the German Empire and the Hapsburg house,
which the German Empire tows in its wake.
AT THE VILLA ACHILLEION CORFU.
By H.T. SUDDUTH.
A haunting presence seems to fill the air,
A shade of grandeur gone and e'er to be
One with the legends of the Ionian Sea--
One memory more linked with Corcyra fair,
Disjoined, alas! from presence otherwhere--
A lost illusion of the years once free
And glorious in the kindling memory
Of grand Homeric Past still lingering there!
The olive orchards crown the hills; the vine
And rose still flourish on the sunny slopes
As in Alcinous' Gardens; Morning opes
Her eyes irradiant with the dawn divine!
But now no longer at Achilleion
The Kaiser wakes to see fair Eos dawn.
In Belgian or in Russian lands afar,
Beneath the smoke-cloud cope of shrouded Heaven
Where hissing shot and shell and War's red levin
Spread far and wide the canopy of War!
Where Nature shudders and seems to abhor
The awful scene; where myriad souls, unshriven,
From life and all its joys at once are riven,
Behold the Kaiser now 'neath Mars' red star!
A stern and sombre, gray-haired figure he,
And standing midst the wreck of youthful dreams
Sees he at times through battle smoke the gleams
Of rippling waves on blue Ionian Sea?
Thinks he not sadly on the days now gone,
And dreams he dreamed at fair Achilleion?
Germany's Strategic Railways
By Walter Littlefield.
Germany's explanation of her violation of Belgium's neutrality has thus
far assumed two successive phases which have been placed on record by
the Imperial Chancellor in as many speeches in the Reichstag. Before
that body Dr. von Bethmann-Hollweg said on Aug. 4, 1914:
Our troops have occupied Luxemburg, and perhaps have also
found it necessary to enter Belgium territory. This is
contrary to international law. The French Government has
declared in Brussels that they will respect the neutrality of
Belgium as long as she respects the opponent. We know,
however, that France was ready to invade Belgium. France could
wait; we, however, could not, because a French invasion in our
lower Rhein flanks would have proved fatal. So we were forced
to disregard the protests of the Luxemburg and Belgian
Governments. We shall try to make good the injustice we have
committed as soon as our military goal has been reached. Who,
like we, are fighting for the highest, must only consider how
victory can be gained.
On Dec. 2 last Dr. von Bethmann-Hollweg said:
When, on Aug. 4, I spoke of the wrong which we were committing
with our march into Belgium, it was not yet established
whether the Belgian Government at the last moment would not
desire to spare the country and retire under protest to
Antwerp.... Now, however, that it is demonstrated by documents
found in Brussels how the Belgians surrendered their
neutrality to England the entire world knows two facts. One is
that when our troops on the night of Aug. 3-4 entered Belgian
territory they were on the ground of a State which had given
up its neutrality long ago....
To both these charges the Belgium Government has made reply. To the
first it said that, while the assurance that France would not invade
Belgium was sufficient, yet if France did take the initiative the
Belgian Army stood ready to defend its territory from a French invasion.
To the second, it said that the documents found in Brussels merely
showed an exchange of ideas as to how England might aid Belgium in
defending her neutrality against an attack by Germany, and that there
was nothing binding on either England or Belgium as to the outcome of
these "conversations" of military experts.
In rebuttal Germany has asked: But why were we also not taken into the
confidence of Brussels and similar plans formulated by which we might
aid Belgium in repelling an invasion from either France or England?
To this the answer is simple: It has always been one of the objects of
British policy to preserve Belgian neutrality, and that, aside from
moral considerations, it would not be good military science for France
to seek Germany via Belgium.
But this answer is capable of an expansion it has not hitherto received.
Why did Belgium appear to fear an invasion from Germany and not one from
England or France?
One has heard a great deal about Germany's supposed ambition to expand
her North Sea coast at the expense of Denmark, Holland and Belgium, by
coercing the Danish and the Dutch Governments to rebuild their coast
fortifications toward England and to dismantle their forts on the German
frontier. Much has also been said of Germany's contemplated invasion of
the Low Countries at the time of the Agadir incident in 1911.
Documentary proof of Germany's contemplated initiative has hitherto been
missing. Certain facts have, however, recently come to hand which
enable one to review the German explanation. One of these facts embraces
a project for railway expansion engineered and carried out on the
Belgian frontier, which can leave no doubt in any reasonable mind that
Germany deliberately planned to violate Belgium's neutrality the moment
it became a military expediency to invade France.[8]
[Footnote 8: Compare the railway maps of Northern France and Northern
Germany in "Cook's Continental Time Tables" for the years 1908 and 1914.
A confidential agent of the British Government examined the ground in
May, 1914. Part of the results of his work has been published from time
to time by the military correspondents of The Times and The Morning Post
of London and all is particularly designated in the British Foreign
Office Memorandum secured by Prof. Hibben of Princeton on Nov. 9, 1914,
and published in THE NEW YORK TIMES of Nov. 25. In this memorandum it is
stated:
"The strategic dispositions of Germany, especially as regards railways,
have for some years given rise to the apprehension that Germany would
attack France through Belgium."
The disposition of the Third, Seventh, Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh
Germany Army Corps and the First, Fourth, and Fifth Cavalry Divisions,
from Aug. 2 to 5, shown on French war maps, reveals that the attack was
so made.]
If, according to jurisprudence, the planning to commit crime is legally
on a par with its achievement, then Germany, for five years prior to the
war, had been guilty of violating Belgium's neutrality--guilty in such a
manner as to leave no doubt in the minds of Belgian, French, and English
statesmen and military experts that the actual commission of the crime
would some day take place.
It was Belgium's peculiar duty, as will be seen, to prepare for that
day. To have taken Germany into her confidence on a point on which
Germany was already fully informed would very likely have hastened the
day and the tragedy thereof.
In keeping up her forts facing Germany and building none on the French
frontier, in exchanging ideas with English military experts as to how
best her neutrality could be defended, Belgium was preparing for the
inevitable. This inevitableness is no longer a matter of moral
conjecture. It is a matter of material evidence.
First, let us see what it was that Germany violated. Belgium, partly by
a decree of the Vienna Congress in 1815 and partly by revolution,
secured her independence from the Netherlands in 1830. The next year she
inaugurated her Constitution, and by the Treaty of London, signed Nov.
15, 1831, became the god-child, as it were, of Austria, France, Great
Britain, Prussia, and Russia, who guaranteed her neutrality for all time
in the following manner:
_Article 7--Belgium, within the limits specified in Articles 1, 2, and
4, shall form an independent and perpetually neutral State. She shall be
bound to observe this same neutrality toward all other States._
_Article 26--Consequent upon the stipulation of the present treaty there
shall be peace and unity between H.M. the King of the Belgians, on one
part, and H.M. the Emperor of Austria, the King of the French, the King
of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the King of Prussia,
and the Emperor of all the Russians, on the other, respectively,
forever._
The treaty, however, was not at once put into force, for there was a
pending quarrel between Belgium and the Netherlands. When peace was made
in 1839 the treaty was again brought forward, signed, and promulgated.
Thereupon all the States of Europe recognized the Kingdom of Belgium.
The plenipotentiaries who then signed the treaty were Palmerston for
Great Britain, Sylvan van de Weyer for Belgium, Senfft for Austria, H.
Sebastiani for France, Bülow for Prussia, and Pozzo di Borgo for Russia.
It has been asserted that, for various reasons, it was not incumbent
upon the German Empire to observe the treaties contracted for by the
Kingdom of Prussia. But these assertions, even to German statesmen,
amount to nothing. That the German Government recognized that "the
neutrality of Belgium is determined by international conventions" has
been repeatedly asserted by its numbers, from the inauguration of the
Imperial Constitution, April 16, 1871, down to Aug. 4, 1914, when the
Imperial Chancellor admitted that the presence of German troops in
Belgium was "contrary to international law."
This he stated in the Reichstag. "I speak openly," he had said. That
same evening he is reported to have exclaimed to the British Ambassador
that "just for a word--'neutrality,' a word which in war time had so
often been disregarded--just for a scrap of paper Great Britain was
going to make war on a kindred nation who desired nothing better than to
be friends with her."
There can be no doubt that Germany realized just what she was doing when
she marched her troops into Belgium. The question is, had she any
preconceived idea of such a march?
In the southwest corner of Prussia is a rectangular piece of territory,
the western and eastern sides of which are formed respectively by the
Belgian and Luxemburg frontiers and the River Rhine. This territory
includes about 3,600 square miles, and supports a population including
the great centres of Cologne, Coblence, Aix-la-Chapelle, and Treves, of
nearly 1,000,000 souls. In other words, it is an area about half as
large as New Jersey, if we omit that State's water surface, and just
about as thickly populated.
[Illustration: Map Showing Germany's Plan to Invade Belgium by a
Strategic System of Railways Begun in 1909.]
Five years ago this little corner of Prussia had about 15.10 miles of
railway to every 100 square miles of territory and New Jersey 30.23. In
five years the Prussian territory has increased her railway mileage to
28.30 and New Jersey to a little less than 30.25.
Five years ago, in the Prussian territory, the only double lines
existing were those from Cologne to Treves, from Coblence to Treves, and
the two double lines, one on each side of the Rhine, from Cologne to
Coblence, thus forming the three sides of a triangle. There was also the
double track running from Cologne to Aix-la-Chapelle. These double lines
were fed as commerce required, by only two sets of single-track lines,
all amounting to a little less than 550 miles of traction--a very fair
service, considering the products of the country covered.
In five years, without any apparent industrial and commercial demand for
it, this traction has been increased to nearly twice its length, or to
about 1,020 miles. Villages like Dumpelfeld, Ahrdorf, Hillesheim,
Pronsfeld, and the health resort of Gerolstein of comic opera fame, all
of less than 1,300 inhabitants, have been linked up by double-track
lines with towns like Remagen, St. Vith, and Andernach, whose
populations only range from 1,500 to 9,000.
Exactly what has been done? In the first place the Stolberg-St. Vith
line has been relaid and doubled, and very extensive detraining stations
constructed at various points along it, especially at Weiwertz and St.
Vith. Then the Remagen-Adenau line has been doubled as far as
Dumpelfeld, whence a double line has been continued to Hillesheim, with
double branches outward from Hillesheim to Pelm and Junkerath, both on
the Cologne-Treves railway.
Then from Ahrdorf, between Dumpelfeld and Hillesheim, a single line has
been built to connect with the Cologne-Treves line at Blankenheim, and a
most important double track laid across the barren country from
Junkerath to Weiwertz on the Stolberg-St. Vith line.
It will thus be seen that five lines converge on Pelm: the double line
from Cologne, the new double line from Remagen via Hillesheim, and the
single line from Andernach. Pelm is 2-3/4 miles from Gerolstein, and yet
over this short distance between the two villages there are laid down
six parallel lines of rail, besides numerous additional sidings.
Moreover, the double line from Hillesheim to Junkerath crosses over the
main Cologne-Treves line by a bridge, and runs parallel to it for some
distance before turning off to the left to reach Weiwertz.
In fact the knot of lines around Junkerath, Pelm and Gerolstein is a
marvel of construction for heavy, rapid transit, for no congestion would
arise in a case of a sudden flood of traffic going in various
directions, and to secure still more freedom the line from Gerolstein to
Pronsfeld has been doubled.
Few of these lines, it is to be noted, cross the frontier. Three of them
as late as last May led to blind terminals within less than a day's
march from it--the double line from Cologne via Stolberg to Weiwertz,
the double line from Cologne via Junkerath and Weiwertz to St. Vith, and
the double line from Remagen via Hillesheim and Pelm to Pronsfeld.
The cost of the whole system, with its numerous bridges and multiple
sidings, must have been enormous. The German average of $108,500 to the
mile would hardly cover it.
Here is what a traveler saw when he visited this corner of Prussia last
May:
The ---- is as much struck by the significance of the ordinary
traffic along these lines as he is by the huge embankments and
cuttings on which nothing has yet had time to grow, and by the
inordinate extent and number of the sidings to be seen
everywhere. Baby trains, consisting of a locomotive and four
short cars, dodder along two or three times a day, and if a
freight train happens to be encountered, it will be found to
be loaded with railway plant.
Another point that is noticeable is that provision exists
everywhere at these new junctions and extensions for avoiding
an up-line crossing a down-line on the level; the up-line is
carried over the down-line by a bridge, involving long
embankments on both sides and great expense, but enormously
simplifying traffic problems when it comes to a question of
full troop trains pushing through at the rate of one every
quarter of an hour, and the empty cars returning eastward at
the same rate.
The detraining stations are of sufficient length to
accommodate the longest troop train (ten cars) easily, and
they generally have at least four sidings apart from the
through up-and-down lines. Moreover, at almost every station
there are two lines of siding long enough for troop trains, so
that they can be used to some extent as detraining stations,
and so that a couple of troop trains can be held up at any
time while traffic continues uninterrupted.
It is impossible to believe that this system was constructed for any
other purpose than to prepare for the exigency which might some day
force Germany to ignore the Treaty of 1839 and invade Belgium. At least
it presumably accounts for the vast armies which invested Liége and
Namur in the early days of last August.
Its existence, in both the light and the darkness of the Treaty of
Neutrality, shows that Belgium was justified in taking any measures
which were likely to preserve her national existence, so obviously
threatened. That these measures were always within the letter and spirit
of the treaty of 1839 is so much to her credit.
The strategic lines that Germany built on her frontier would have
justified her in going further. Her obligations to herself and to her
pledged protectors prevented this. Germany went on with her railway
building unchallenged. She laboriously constructed an edifice which is
both a monument and an altar--a monument to military forethought and
expediency, an altar on which she has sacrificed her national honor.
GLORY OF WAR.
By ADELINE ADAMS.
"Singer, why are you white and sad,
And staring through the stars?"
"The friend and brother I once had
Is fallen in the Wars."
"Was he at Mons, or by the Aisne,
Or near the Flanders shore?"
"Also at Rheims, and in Lorraine,
And places many more."
"Had he no children, fair of limb?"
"Yes, he had many sons,
But most are fallen there with him,
Before the monstrous guns."
"And were the daughters of his heart
Crushed also to the sod?"
"The nun who saw their lot and part
Died maniac, cursing God."
"His wife?" "The woman lives, yet dies
Daily, and with the grace
Men say befits her sacrifice,
As it befits her race."
"What was her race, and your friend's rank?
Was he of the first line?
And was he Briton, Russ, or Frank,
Or from beside the Rhine?"
"Ah, many thousand times untold
My friend was each of these,
And went from mart or forge or fold,
To drown in red, red seas!"
[Illustration: Area of War in Western Europe.]
[Illustration: Area of War in East Prussia and Poland.]
Chronology of the War
Showing Progress of Campaigns on All Fronts and Collateral Events from
Oct. 15, 1914, to and Including Jan. 7, 1915.[9]
[Footnote 9: This war chronology is continued from the issue of Jan. 23,
and will be carried on in successive issues.]
CAMPAIGN IN EASTERN EUROPE
Oct. 16--German-Austrian forces assume offensive between the Vistula
River and Galicia; fighting near Warsaw and Przemysl; Germans forced
back into arid country from vicinity of Ivangorod; Servians and
Montenegrins defeat Austrians at Glasinatz.
Oct. 17--Germans advance near Mlawa; their attempts to cross the Vistula
repulsed; Austrians claim successes in Galicia; Montenegrins, French,
and British bombard Cattaro.
Oct. 18--Austrians repulsed at River San; both sides claim victories in
Przemysl district; report that Germans have lost heavily in trying to
cross the Vistula at Ivangorod; Servians rout Austrians on the Save and
the Drina.
Oct. 19--Fierce fighting near Warsaw and Przemysl; Servians capture
Serajevo forts.
Oct. 20--Przemysl forts damaged; Austrians advance in Stryi and Stica
Valleys; Servians win at Prekiet.
Oct. 21--Russian General Staff announces German rout in Poland and
halting of Austrians at the San; Servians repel Austrian attacks in
Bosnia.
Oct. 22--Russians defeat Germans near Warsaw; Russians capture many
Austrian soldiers and some guns in Galicia.
Oct. 23--Russians pursue retreating Austrians in Poland; Germans move
fortified positions to River Warthe and claim victory west of Augustowo;
Austrians reoccupy Czernowitz and announce capture of fortifications
around Sambor.
Oct. 24--Russians drive Germans back forty miles from Warsaw; fighting
south of Piliza River; Berlin reports repulse of attacks west of
Augustowo; fighting in Galicia; both sides claim victory in Bosnia.
Oct. 25--Russians defeat German rear guard trying to cross the Rivers
Ravka, Skernevka, and Rylka; German-Austrian forces repulsed near
Przemysl; fighting in Bosnia.
Oct. 26--Battle raging between Rawa and the Iijanka River.
Oct. 27--New Russian Army crosses the Vistula north of Ivangorod;
Russians drive Germans from Rawa; Austrians claim victory in Galicia.
Oct. 28--Germans admit that German and Austrian troops have been forced
to retire from Russian Poland as fresh Russians come up; fighting along
River San; Hungarian cavalry division almost annihilated in Galicia.
Oct. 29--Russians split opposing armies north and south of Piliza River;
Northern German army in retreat.
Oct. 30--German Army retreating from the Vistula is hard pressed by the
Russians, who capture guns and aeroplanes and reoccupy Czernowitz;
Austrian defeat near Tarnow.
Oct. 31--Germans lose heavily on East Prussian line; Russians occupy
towns beyond the Vistula; Austrians capture several Russian positions
and win victory on border of Bukowina.
Nov. 1--Russians regain more of Poland and advance along whole front
beyond the Vistula; fighting at Opatow; Montenegrins bombard Cattaro and
advance in Herzegovina; Austrian movement checked at Nadworna.
Nov. 2--Russians advance on East Prussia, while northern force covers
Warsaw; Germans retreat in three lines; German-Austrian armies in Poland
make another stand; battle between Austrians and Servians near Rovrye.
Nov. 3--Russians continue advances in East Prussia and Poland; Austrians
storm Sabao.
Nov. 4--Russians capture Barkalarjewo, drive left wing of German Army
back toward Biala and Lyck, and dislodge rear guards from Kola and
Przedborz; Austrians defeated on entire front from Kielce to Sandomierz.
Nov. 5--Germans in critical position; frost a new misery of the
campaign.
Nov. 6--Russians recapture Jaroslaw; Austrians in retreat along entire
Galician front; Germans continue to retreat in East Prussia.
Nov. 7--Russians attack last fortified German position at Sieradz on the
Warthe; Germans check Russians at Kola; Austrian Embassy at Washington
denies defeat.
Nov. 8--Russian cavalry invades Posen Province and destroys railroad
near Pleschen; German border population in Posen and Silesia in flight;
Russians in Wirballen; Przemysl again attacked.
Nov. 9--Russians are sweeping over the Prussian frontier; they occupy
Goldapp; Germans withdraw further from the Vistula; Austrians are pushed
back toward Cracow; Russians take many prisoners near Przemysl; Germans
win victory near Wyschtuniz Lake and capture 4,000 prisoners; Servians
force Austrian retirement near Shabats; Russians are twenty miles from
Insterburg and seventy from Posen; Kaiser's estate at Riminten ruined.
Nov. 10--Right wing of German Army driven back toward Masuran Lakes;
Germans rush reinforcements to Thorn and Posen; Russians occupy Miechow;
Austrians defeat Servians near Losnitza.
Nov. 11--Russians attack Cracow defenses; Austrians are pursuing
Servians on Shabats-Losnitza line.
Nov. 12--Russians control East Prussian frontier railway; siege of
Przemysl resumed; Austrians win victory at Pruth; at the San River they
try to halt advance on Cracow; Servians rout Austrians who attempt to
cross the Danube near Semandria.
Nov. 13--Austrians evacuate Central Galicia; Russians take Tarnow,
Jaslo, and Krosno; Germans face about and advance on Poland on
forty-mile front; Germans defeat Russians in Galicia and near Kola.
Nov. 14--Russians continue advance in East Prussia; they cross the River
Schreniava about fifteen miles from Cracow; Germans have successes at
Stallupoenen and Vlaclaweo.
Nov. 15--Germans withdraw from Kalisz and Weljun; they are repulsed near
Czenstochow; Russians reach Angerburg.
Nov. 16--Germans check Russian advance in East Prussia at Stallupoenen;
Russians advancing from Soldau are defeated and driven back toward
Plock; Russians in Russian Poland driven back to Kutno after German
success at Wlozlawsk; Cracow is besieged.
Nov. 17--Great battle is being fought in Poland between the Vistula and
Warthe Rivers; Germans are falling back on the entire line between
Gumbinnen and Angerburg; Austrians reach the Kolubara River and capture
8,000 Servians.
Nov. 18--Russian advance guard between the Vistula and the Warthe driven
back toward the Bzura; battle fought at Soldau; Russians advance in East
Prussia; Servians and Montenegrins win fight near Trebinje forts.
Nov. 19--Russians driven back behind the Bzura; Germans, reinforced,
advance twelve miles beyond Lenczyca; Russians push forward in East
Prussia and Galicia.
Nov. 20--Russians check von Hindenburg on the Vistula-Warthe line and
win success near Lodz; both sides claim successes on Cracow-Czentochowo
line; Russian advance continues in East Prussia around Masurian Lakes;
Russians take four towns in Galicia.
Nov. 21--Russians take Przemysl trenches and find them filled with lime
as cholera preventive; heavy fighting in Poland; fighting at Cracow;
lull in East Prussia; Servians fall back on strong positions; they deny
Austrian reports of victories.
Nov. 22--German Army advances to forty miles from Warsaw; fighting on
line from Lowicz to Skierniewice; Russians take Gumbinnen; Austrians
evacuate Neu Sandec; Russians take 2,000 prisoners near Cracow;
Austrians cross Kolubara River and capture many Servians.
Nov. 23--German advance on Warsaw checked by arrival of Russian
reinforcements; many Germans captured near Lowicz; Austrians capture
2,400 Russians at Pilica; successful sortie by Przemysl garrison.
Nov. 24--Ten-day battle in Poland ends in Russian victory, Germans being
pressed back.
Nov. 25--Left wing of main German Army surrounded in Russian Poland;
remainder of army tries to retreat north of Lodz; von Hindenburg
reported cut off from Crown Prince; Russians again invade Hungary and
corner Austrians in Carpathian passes; Servians rout Austrians who
crossed the Kolubara.
Nov. 26--Russians report continued successes, while Germans report
victories between Lodz and Lowicz; Servians make gains; Austrians report
Przemysl undamaged.
Nov. 27--Germans are sending reinforcements; Austrians admit evacuation
of Czernowitz; Montenegrins defeat Austrians near Vishegrad.
Nov. 28--Germans retreat in Poland, fighting hard; Russians gain near
Cracow, and near Strykow; Russians in Czernowitz.
Nov. 29--Montenegrins defeat Austrians in Bosnia; Russians split German
Army at Lodz into three parts and repulse relief column at Gombin;
fighting at Strykow and Zgierz; fighting in the Carpathians.
Nov. 30--Three battles are being fought in Poland; Russians report
capture of ten miles of German trenches near Lowicz; Russians fail in
attack on Darkehmen; Russians have successes in Galicia and the
Carpathians.
Dec. 1--Germans break through Russian wing near Lodz, capturing 12,000
prisoners and 25 guns; Russians claim they have taken 50,600 Austrian
prisoners in two weeks in Galicia; Austrians claim victories and capture
of 35,000 Russians in Poland; Russians seize German ammunition barges on
the Vistula; Servians capture 1,500 Austrians on the River Djid; Germans
are suffering from the cold in Poland.
Dec. 2--Austrians take Belgrade; both sides claim victories in Poland;
Russians win at Szczercow, enter Wieliczka, and occupy strong positions
on the Vistula; Montenegrins repulse Austrians trying to cut them off
from Servians.
Dec. 3--Germans claim capture of 100,000 Russians in battles in Poland;
they attempt to flank Russian right wing; Austrians repulse assaults on
Przemysl; Russians take Bartfeld; Austrians report continued victories
and say that Belgrade was taken at the bayonet's point.
Dec. 4--Russians win at Lodz; Germans have suffered heavy losses in
Poland; Allies land troops in Montenegro.
Dec. 5--Germans, reinforced, form new battle line and move on Piotrkow,
after losing heavily at Lodz.
Dec. 6--Germans occupy Lodz and drive wedge into Russian centre; one
Przemysl fort falls; Russians shell Cracow.
Dec. 7--Russians bombard Cracow suburbs; new battle on in Poland;
Russians besiege fortress of Lotzen; Germans abandon Zgier; Servians
check Austrian advance.
Dec. 8--Germans again in Cracow.
Dec. 9--Servians recapture towns of Valjevo and Ushirza, and take many
Austrian prisoners; Germans lose heavily in attack on Lowicz; Austrians
defeated near Cracow; Russians claim that they have 750,000 Austrian and
German prisoners in Russia.
Dec. 10--Servians capture many Austrians and large stores of supplies.
Dec. 11--Three German columns repulsed in Poland; Austrians defeated
north of Kesmaj and Parovnitza.
Dec. 12--Servians repulse Austrians at Kosmai; Germans occupy Przanysz,
but their front line is pierced; Lodz has been evacuated by the
Russians.
Dec. 13--Germans are defeated in Mlawa region; Posen prepares for a
siege; Austrian right wing, driven into Bosnia by the Servians, is
attacked by Montenegrins.
Dec. 14--Servians reoccupy Belgrade; Austrians reoccupy Dukla in the
Carpathians and capture 9,000 Russians; Germans gain in Northern Poland.
Dec. 15--Austrians abandon Belgrade without a battle; Germans rush fresh
troops to the Vistula; Austrians recross Carpathians into Galicia and
drive Russian left back toward the San River.
Dec. 16--King Peter enters Belgrade at head of an army; Servian General
Staff announces that country is free of invaders; Russians have new army
in Warsaw.
Dec. 17--Germans report Russian offensive against Silesia and Posen to
be completely broken; battle at Sochaczew; Austrians have success in
West Galicia.
Dec. 18--Russians admit falling back and shifting battle lines, but they
deny defeat; Russians win in Galicia between Sanok and Lisko; Austrians
announce capture of Piotrkow and Przedborz.
Dec. 19--Germans capture Lowicz; battle on the Bzura; fighting in
Galicia; Russians hold lines on Dunajec River against spirited attacks;
Austria claims to hold all West Galicia.
Dec. 20--Von Hindenburg follows up his success at Lowicz; German wedge
driven further toward Warsaw; Russians cross the Bzura and destroy
bridges behind them; Death's Head Hussars reported as having been caught
in a Russian trap and almost annihilated; Servians and Montenegrins
again invade Bosnia.
Dec. 21--Russians claim that Germans are being pursued into German
territory; both sides claim advantages in Poland.
Dec. 22--Russian Army menaces Thorn-Allenstein-Insterburg Railroad;
Germans re-form to protect it; von Hindenburg's left threatened by a new
invasion of Germany; Germans cross branches of Bzura and Rawka Rivers;
Austrians are defeated in the Carpathians.
Dec. 23--Austrians defeated in Carpathians and Southern Galicia.
Dec. 25--Movement of civilians to interior of East Prussia.
Dec. 26--Russians gain in South.
Dec. 28--Russians have raised the siege of Cracow to shatter Austrian
armies attempting flank movement; Russians believe German attack on
Warsaw has been checked.
Dec. 30--Germans retreat over the Bzura; Russians advance in South
Poland.
Dec. 31--Germans claim to have taken 136,000 prisoners, 100 cannon, and
300 machine guns in Poland since November; reports from Petrograd state
that the Germans lost 200,000 men at the Bzura.
Jan. 1--Russians invade Hungary; Germans in Poland move south; Austrian
Army split by Russian operations in Carpathian region.
Jan. 2--Germans commence offensive movement against Kielce; Germans
fortify captured Polish towns.
Jan. 3--Germans capture Bolimow; German advance on Kielce fails, as well
as German advance between Bzura and Rawka Rivers; Russians take
thousands of Austrian prisoners and sweep through Bukowina; Germans rush
to defend Cracow.
Jan. 4--Russians occupy Suczawa; Cracow again threatened.
Jan. 5--Russians defeat Austrians in Uzsok Pass and prepare to invade
Transylvania; Germans renew activities along the Vistula.
Jan. 6--New Russian army to take offensive against Germans at Mlawa;
rain is interfering with many field operations; Germans help Austrians
check advance against Cracow.
Jan. 7--Mud is hampering Germans.
CAMPAIGN IN WESTERN EUROPE.
Oct. 16--Germans occupy Ostend; battle line reaches the sea; Allies gain
near Lille; French are near Metz; Allies check Germans in attempt to
reach Dunkirk.
Oct. 17--Germans advancing again on Dunkirk; sharp fighting in Alsace;
British take Fromelles; Allies take Fleurbaix and claim gains on line
from Ypres Canal to the sea.
Oct. 18--Announcement that Allies' left has pushed forward thirty miles;
they retake Armentieres; battle near Nieuport; Belgians repulse German
attacks at River Yser; French repulse attack on St. Die and cut railroad
in Alsace; Germans evacuate Courtrai; German forces in Bruges move
toward French frontier.
Oct. 19--Allies advance between Nieuport and Dixmude; fighting from
Ostend to Lille.
Oct. 20--Germans gain near Lille; Allies report recapture of Bruges.
Oct. 21--Allies repulse German attacks at Nieuport, Dixmude, and La
Bassée; heavy fighting on the Yser; Germans gain near Lille.
Oct. 22--Battling on the coast; Allies helped by their fleets; cavalry
battle at Lille.
Oct. 23--German right wing reinforced and gains ground at La Bassée;
Allies gain near Armentieres; French retake Altkirch; heavy fighting
between the Ghent-Bruges line and Roulers.
Oct. 24--French gain at Nieuport, but lose ground near Dixmude and La
Bassée; desperate fighting along Yser Canal.
Oct. 25--Germans cross Yser Canal near Dixmude; Allies press Germans at
Ostend; French gain near Lille and they claim command of German line of
communication near St. Mihiel; battle at Nieuport.
Oct. 26--German advance checked on the Yser; fighting at Nieuport.
Oct. 27--Allies capture Thourout; fierce fighting on the Yser Canal;
Allies claim that Germans have been driven across the eastern frontier
near Nancy.
Oct. 28--Allies repulse night attack near Dixmude; they make gains in
Ypres region and between La Bassée and Lens.
Oct. 29--Allies gain near Ostend; Germans gain west of Lille and
southwest of Verdun; Germans dig intrenchments near Thielt.
Oct. 30--Belgians flood lower valley of the Yser River and compel
Germans to withdraw; Germans gain in Argonne region.
Oct. 31--Allies yield ground in Belgium; Germans take two towns south of
Ypres; they have success near Soissons; fighting around Verdun.
Nov. 1--Germans reinforced in Belgium; their advance made difficult by
floods along the Yser; Allies take Mariakerke and are near Ostend;
Allies cross the Yperlee and occupy Bixschoote.
Nov. 2--Germans, reinforced, capture Messines; French gain at several
points in advance to Ostend; Allies take Ramscapelle with the bayonet.
Nov. 3--Germans are being flooded out of the Yser region; they capture
men and guns east of Soissons and gain ground east of Vailly; Allies
check Germans in Argonne region; Belgians trap Germans by ruse at
Furnes.
Nov. 4--Germans lose along the Yser and shift their line for a new
attack; they repulse Allies south of Verdun and in the Vosges; they gain
near Vailly; British and Germans have battled for three days in Ypres
region; Germans suffer much in flooded trenches.
Nov. 5--Germans repulsed at Arras; Allies lose, then retake trenches;
Germans, stated to have been watched by the Kaiser, beaten at
Armentieres; Germans gain in Argonne region and in the Vosges; Belgians
report progress.
Nov. 6--Allies retake Soupir; they capture German trenches on the Meuse
and east of Verdun; battle raging around Ypres; French trap Germans in
Arras.
Nov. 7--Battling from the sea to Alsace; Allies recapture lost trenches
in centre and take St. Remi; Germans gain southwest of Ypres; Germans
set up guns at Ostend.
Nov. 8--Allies gain plateau of Vregny; fighting centres at Ypres;
Germans continue attacks between North Sea and the Lys; they gain in
Argonne region; Belgians gain at Dixmude and Ypres.
Nov. 9--Germans renew attacks at Ypres and Dixmude; Ypres in flames;
fighting on the Aisne.
Nov. 10--Allies advance between Ypres and Armentieres and between Rheims
and Berry-au-Bac.
Nov. 11--Germans capture Dixmude, cross Yser Canal, capture first line
of Allies' position west of Langemarck, and drive them out of St. Eloi;
Allies reoccupy Lombaertzyde and repulse attacks near the coast.
Nov. 12--Both sides claim successes on the Yser.
Nov. 13--Germans break through British lines at Ypres; Allies advance on
the coast to Bixschoote.
Nov. 14--Allies check German assaults near Ypres; fighting at Dixmude;
Germans win in centre and take Berry-au-Bac; Germans gain in forest of
Argonne.
Nov. 15--Allies drive Germans across the Yser; German gains in Argonne
region; they prepare defensive lines from the North Sea to the Rhine.
Nov. 16--Snow and floods check fighting; artillery duels in progress
from Yser Canal to Dixmude; British Press Bureau report of operations up
to Nov. 10 praises bravery of Germans.
Nov. 17--Allies gain ground on the Yser between Armentieres and Arras;
Germans resume bombardment of Rheims.
Nov. 18--Zouaves take forest near Bixschoote; Germans mine and blow up
west part of Chauvoncourt, occupied by the French; fighting continues in
West Flanders; Germans have successes in Argonne region and near Cirey;
pneumonia is in the trenches.
Nov. 19--Fighting in Flanders slackens; French retake Tracy-le-Val; they
are repulsed in the Argonne region; British bombard Dixmude; many cities
in West Flanders are in ruins.
Nov. 20--French abandon Chauvoncourt; artillery duel south of Ypres;
British gain at Bixschoote; new big gun of Allies is doing effective
work; French wreck German earthworks and supply trains near Rheims.
Nov. 21--French artillery stops German attacks in Woevre district;
French capture heights at Ornes and advance in Argonne region.
Nov. 22--Cold halts fighting on the Yser; Ypres is bombarded; artillery
fighting near Soissons and Vailly; Germans trapped by floods at Dixmude;
Germans fortify Belgian coast.
Nov. 23--Fierce fighting in the Argonne; Ypres again bombarded; German
operations in Belgium checked by bad weather.
Nov. 24--Germans attack Allies from Ypres to La Bassée.
Nov. 25--French bombard Arnaville and claim general gains; Germans gain
at Arras; Indian troops retake lost trenches in Flanders.
Nov. 26--Allies' armored train wrecks bridge across the Yser.
Nov. 27--Rheims again bombarded; French gain in Alsace.
Nov. 28--Germans mass near Arras; new British army has landed in France.
Nov. 29--Allies capture important positions near Ypres; health of
Germans on the Yser endangered by flooded trenches.
Nov. 30--German losses on the Yser are found to have been very heavy.
Dec. 1--Germans prepare for new dash toward the sea; cold is depleting
the British ranks; Germans on the Belgian coast are suffering from
famine, disease, and cold; battle on the Yser renewed; Germans are
active north of Arras.
Dec. 2--British, reinforced, take over the command of the Yser region.
Dec. 3--Germans take offensive between Ypres and Dixmude; they lose
heavily in trying to cross the Yser on rafts; French occupy Lesmenils;
they take Tête de Faux in the Vosges, and Burnhaupt in Alsace.
Dec. 4--Allies repeatedly attack the German lines in Flanders; fresh
reserves are waiting behind Allies' lines.
Dec. 5--French gain in Upper Alsace; they try to drive Germans from St.
Mihiel.
Dec. 6--Allies make advances in France.
Dec. 7--Allies begin a general offensive movement; Belgians repulse a
German boat attack along Yser Canal; Germans are leaving Alsace.
Dec. 8--German headquarters moved from Roulers; Germans make new attack
on Dixmude.
Dec. 9--Belgians capture German trenches on the Yser by a ruse; Germans
shell Ypres and Furnes.
Dec. 10--Germans evacuate Roulers and Armentieres; French win victory at
Vermelles.
Dec. 11--Allies push forward; Germans rush guns to Ostend.
Dec. 12--Allies drive Germans across the Yser Canal.
Dec. 13--Allies have repulsed persistent German attacks in a three-day
battle on the Lys; French gain in St. Mihiel region.
Dec. 14--French continue aggressive movements in Alsace and Lorraine.
Dec. 15--Allies advance on the whole front in movement to drive Germans
from Belgium; German attacks south of Ypres repulsed and way to Roulers
opened.
Dec. 16--Germans evacuate Dixmude; German defenses near Arras mined;
Allies maintain offensive; Germans force the fighting in Argonne region;
Allies make gains from Arras to the sea; Germans repulsed in Woevre
region and in Alsace.
Dec. 17--Allies enter Westende; Germans rush more troops to Belgium.
Dec. 18--Allies take Roulers; fighting in Lille and near Arras.
Dec. 19--Allies gain at several points from the North Sea to the Oise;
they lose near La Bassée.
Dec. 21--Allies extend offensive operations; they report progress in the
centre.
Dec. 22--Allies press offensive; Germans shell hospital at Ypres; they
claim that Allies' advance has failed.
Dec. 23--Allies make slight gains.
Dec. 24--British are using new howitzers; some German trenches have been
torn to bits by French guns.
Dec. 25--Reported that the French are shelling the outer forts of Metz;
unofficial truce along much of the battle front; soldiers feast and get
many gifts from home; in some instances Allies and Germans exchange
gifts and visits.
Dec. 26--Fog halts fighting in Flanders.
Dec. 27--Germans pushing preparations for defense of Antwerp.
Dec. 28--New Paris defenses are completed; the Rhine is being
additionally fortified.
Dec. 29--Germans reinforce line in Belgium.
Dec. 31--Lull in the fighting on most of the front in Flanders and
France; French take half of the village of Steinbach, Upper Alsace,
which is of strategic importance.
Jan. 3--French gain near Rheims and St. Mihiel, but are repulsed near
St. Menehould; floods hinder fighting; conditions in Yser trenches are
very bad.
Jan. 4--Germans admit loss of Steinbach.
Jan. 5--Germans are moving big guns from Ostend; French press on toward
Cernay.
Jan. 6--French make further progress at St. Mihiel; bombardment of
Furnes necessitates shifting of Belgian headquarters.
Jan. 7--French make progress in direction of Altkirch.
CAMPAIGN IN FAR EAST.
Oct. 30--Japanese attack Germans at Tsing-tau; Indian troops aid
Japanese.
Nov. 1--Desperate fighting at Tsing-tau; city is in flames.
Nov. 4--Japanese capture German guns and 800 prisoners at Tsing-tau.
Nov. 6--Germans surrender Tsing-tau fortress.
Nov. 7--Formal capitulation of Tsing-tau; Japanese will administer city.
CAMPAIGN IN AFRICA.
Oct. 28--Belgians defeat Germans on Lake Tanganyika.
Oct. 29--Allies take Edoa.
Nov. 4--Germans defeat British in German East Africa.
Nov. 7--Belgians aid British forces in the Congo.
Nov. 23--British defeated in attack on German railway terminus in East
Africa.
Nov. 27--Maritz, Union of South Africa revolutionist, defeated.
Dec. 10--Governor General Lord Buxton says that the revolution in the
Union of South Africa is ended and reports capture of 7,000 rebels.
Dec. 23--Portuguese retreat before Germans in Angola.
CAMPAIGN IN ASIA MINOR AND EGYPT.
Oct. 29--Turkey begins war with Russia by bombarding Odessa from the
sea.
Nov. 2--Russians and Turks are fighting near Trebizond.
Nov. 3--Turks claim victory over Russians in Armenia; German officers
are with camel corps on Turkish-Egyptian frontier; Suez Canal
threatened.
Nov. 4--Russia begins invasion of Armenia.
Nov. 5--England and France declare war on Turkey; Russians seize
Armenian towns; Turks have successes in Kara-Killissa and Tehan
districts; England annexes the Island of Cyprus; German officer
sentenced to life imprisonment by Egyptian police for having plans to
dynamite Suez Canal.
Nov. 6--Armenians besiege town of Van.
Nov. 7--Russians have successes northeast of Kara-Killissa.
Nov. 8--Russians take Keprekioi in Armenia and hold road to Erzerum.
Nov. 9--Russians take Turkish fort near Erzerum and pursue Kurdish
cavalry; Russians win at Kohrikoi on River Araxes.
Nov. 10--France, England, Russia, Belgium, and Servia issue a formal
declaration of war against Turkey; both sides claim victories in Erzerum
region.
Nov. 13--Russians advance on Erzerum from three directions; Turks fail
in flank attack.
Nov. 14--Russians rout Kurds in cavalry battle in Armenia; Turks have
success on Caucasian border.
Nov. 15--Turks occupy Persian town of Kotur; British troops land in
Basra Province; Indian troops, aided by British cruiser, occupy Turba,
Arabia.
Nov. 16--Russians defeated near Koprukeui; British take Turkish camp at
Fao.
Nov. 17--Russians checked near Fao; Turks occupy Duzkeuy.
Nov. 19--Russians defeat Kurds in Persian Armenia; fighting near
Urumiah; British success in Arabia.
Nov. 22--Turks win near Port Said and reach Suez Canal; Russians gain
near Juzveran.
Nov. 23--British defeat Turks near Persian Gulf.
Nov. 24--Russians defeat Turks in Armenia.
Nov. 26--Turkish advance checked in Armenia.
Nov. 28--Fierce fighting in the Caucasus; Enver Bey starts for Egypt.
Dec. 6--Turks occupy Keda.
Dec. 8--Turks defeated near Batum.
Dec. 9--Turks at Kurna surrender to Indian troops.
Dec. 10--British take 1,100 Turkish prisoners and nine guns.
Dec. 11--Sheik Kiazim, Chief of the Shiites, proclaims a holy war; Turks
report occupation of Geda.
Dec. 15--Senussi tribesmen threaten Egypt.
Dec. 18--Turks reinforced in Asia Minor.
Dec. 20--Turks gain near Lake Urumiah.
Dec. 21--Russians win in Armenia--Turks lose equipment.
Dec. 22--Arabs menace Christians in Hodeida; French Consul is seized.
Dec. 23--Turkish Army leaves Damascus and marches toward Suez Canal.
Dec. 25--Russo-Turkish operations stopped by cold.
Jan. 1--Turks invade Russia but fail to envelop Russian forces.
Jan. 2--Turks penetrate into the Russian Caucasus and occupy Ardahan.
Jan. 4--Turks ravage Persian territory.
Jan. 5--Russians rout Turkish columns at Ardahan and Sari-Kamysh;
Russians capture Izzet Pasha.
Jan. 7--Turks occupy Urumiah.
NAVAL RECORD.
Oct. 16--British cruiser Hawke sunk by German submarine U-9; British
tramp steamship Induna sunk by Germans; British steamer Guendolen fires
on German ship on Lake Nyassa; British and Japanese warships bombard
fort near Tsing-tau.
Oct. 17--British squadron, led by the Undaunted, sinks four German
torpedo-boat destroyers off Dutch coast; allied fleets bombard Cattaro.
Oct. 19--British battleship Triumph damaged at Tsing-tau; Japanese
cruiser Takachiho sunk by German submarine S-90 in Kiao-Chau Bay;
British fleet helps to repel German land attacks between Nieuport and
Dixmude; Austrian submarine sunk in Adriatic by French cruiser.
Oct. 20--German warships sink British submarine E-3; British gunboats
fight German submarines and coast batteries; Japanese fleet takes
islands of Marianne group; two German ships sunk at Jaluit; British
steamer Giltera sunk by German submarine off Norwegian coast.
Oct. 21--British monitors Severn and Mersey shell German right flank;
Cattaro again bombarded by French fleet, attack of Austrian submarines
being repulsed; German cruiser Emden sinks five British steamships and
captures a sixth in Indian Ocean; British steamer Cormorant sunk.
Oct. 22--British torpedo boat damaged by German artillery fire off
Nieuport; French ships aid British in bombardment near Ostend; British
auxiliary cruiser Carmania damaged.
Oct. 23--Allies' squadrons seeking German cruisers Emden and Karlsruhe;
Emden's activity is having a bad effect on Indian shipping; French ships
aid British in shelling Belgian coast towns.
Oct. 24--British destroyer Badger sinks German submarine; Ostend
bombarded by French warships.
Oct. 25--Japanese sink German cruiser Aeolius off Honolulu.
Oct. 26--Vessel containing French and Belgian refugees sunk near Calais,
probably by a mine, the passengers being rescued by a British ship;
Germans claim that the British ships have been driven back from the
Belgian coast.
Oct. 27--Germans lay mines off Irish coast; British freighter Manchester
Commerce sunk; Germany demands that China release shipwrecked sailors of
submarine S-90, which was destroyed by the Germans when being pursued by
Japanese.
Oct. 28--Emden sinks Japanese steamer; Japanese cruiser Chitose repulses
attack by two German warships.
Oct. 29--Emden, flying the Japanese flag, enters Penang Harbor and sinks
Russian cruiser Jemtchug and a French destroyer; Turkish warships shell
Theodosia and sink two Russian steamers; British vessels slightly
damaged off Belgian coast, with ten men killed; Swedish steamer Ornen
and two British fishing boats sunk by mine in North Sea; British sink
German steamer in the Adriatic.
Oct. 30--Russian and Turkish fleets in battle in the Black Sea; Turkish
torpedo boats bombard Odessa, sinking Russian gunboat Donets, three
Russian liners, and French steamer Portugal.
Oct. 31--Japanese and British warships attack Tsing-tau; German
submarine sinks British cruiser Hermes in Strait of Dover; Turkish
cruiser bombards Sevastopol; Russian fleet attacks Turkish fleet near
Sevastopol.
Nov. 1--German squadron under Admiral von Spee defeats British squadron
under Rear Admiral Cradock off Coronel, Chile; British flagship Good
Hope and the cruiser Monmouth go down with all on board: Germans suffer
but slightly; shelling of Allied fleets sets fire to Tsing-tau.
Nov. 2--Turkish (formerly German) cruiser Goeben damaged by fire from
Russian forts; British ship scuttled in Black Sea; Turkish commander
sinks his ship to prevent capture; Germans blockade coast of Asiatic
Turkey with mines; Karlsruhe captures British steamers Vandyck,
Hurtsdale, and Glanton.
Nov. 3--Anglo-French squadron bombards the Dardanelles forts; British
cruiser Minerva bombards Akabah, Arabia, and sailors occupy the town;
British submarine D-5 sunk by mine in North Sea.
Nov. 4--Austrian cruiser Kaiserin Elizabeth sunk by Germans to prevent
seizure; Anglo-French fleet continues bombardment of Dardanelles forts;
German warships seen off coast of England; German cruiser Yorck sunk by
mine in Jade Bay.
Nov. 5--British tow German sailing ship into Queenstown, the Captain not
having heard of the war; British mine sweeper Mary sunk in North Sea.
Nov. 6--British ships shell Belgian coast; Turks bombard Batum; British
warship damaged while shelling Dardanelles forts.
Nov. 7--Japanese squadron searches for German squadron in the Pacific;
Russians bombard Turkish Black Sea ports.
Nov. 8--Russians report sinking of four Turkish transports; Turks sink
Greek steamer carrying British flag; two Dardanelles forts destroyed by
bombardment.
Nov. 9--Emden escapes British warship, but loses her store ships;
Russians bombard Bosporus ports; Swedish steamer Ate blown up by mine.
Nov. 10--Australian cruiser Sydney wrecks German cruiser Emden, which
had destroyed more than $5,000,000 worth of British shipping; war risks
drop in consequence; British Admiralty reports that the German cruiser
Koenigsberg has been bottled up in the Rufiji River, German East Africa.
Nov. 11--British torpedo boat Niger sunk by German submarine; Japanese
torpedo boat sunk by mine in Kiao-Chau Bay.
Nov. 12--Turkish torpedo boat captured by Allies; Turkish cruiser Goeben
crippled by shell.
Nov. 14--News comes to America by mail of the sinking of the British
super-dreadnought Audacious on Oct. 27 off the Irish coast; apparently
done by a mine.
Nov. 15--Many mines picked up by Dutch coast guards; mine layer flying
Norwegian flag and manned by German sailors captured at Belfast; British
cruiser Edinburgh aids in capture of Turba, Arabia, by Indian troops.
Nov. 16--Mine cast up by sea kills seven in Holland.
Nov. 17--Swedish steamer Andrew sunk by mine in North Sea; German
squadron bombards Libau; Russian Black Sea fleet attacks Trebizond;
German cruiser Berlin interns at Trondhjem to escape enemy.
Nov. 19--British naval guns bombard Dixmude; French cruiser Waldeck
Rousseau sinks Austrian submarine.
Nov. 20--Austrian steamer Metkovitch sunk by mine off Dalmatian coast.
Nov. 21--The Goeben badly damaged in Black Sea.
Nov. 22--Turkish warships shell Taupse, but are repulsed by Russian land
batteries.
Nov. 23--British warship Patrol rams German submarine U-18 and captures
crew off coast of Scotland; German destroyer S-124 wrecked in collision
with Danish steamer.
Nov. 24--French bark Valentine sunk by Germans near Island of Mas a
Fuera; British ships attack German naval base at Zeebrugge.
Nov. 25--British steamer Malachite sunk by German submarine near Havre.
Nov. 26--British battleship Bulwark blown up in the Thames; magazine
explosion is the accepted theory, but there is some suspicion that it
was the work of spies; Turkish mine layer sunk in the Bosphorus; cruiser
Goeben is being repaired.
Nov. 27--British collier Khartoum blown up by mine off Grimsby.
Nov. 28--Norwegian and Danish trawlers seized by the British for laying
mines while using English port as base; British fishermen sweep coast
waters for mines.
Nov. 30--British ships again bombard Zeebrugge.
Dec. 3--Danish steamer Mary blown up by mine in North Sea, six men
dying.
Dec. 6--Forty British and French war vessels are off the Dardanelles.
Dec. 7--British steamer Charcas sunk by German transport in the Pacific;
Swedish ships Luna and Everilda sunk by mines.
Dec. 8--British squadron under Vice Admiral Sturdee defeats German
squadron under Admiral von Spee off the Falkland Islands; German
flagship Scharnhorst and the cruisers Gneisenau, Leipzig, and Nurnberg
are sunk; the British casualties are slight.
Dec. 9--Three German merchantmen sunk in South Atlantic; Gulf of Bothnia
closed because of mines.
Dec. 10--German submarine raid on Dover repulsed by the forts; Turkish
gunboat sunk by defense mine.
Dec. 12--Turkish fleet bombards Batum.
Dec. 14--British submarine B-11, by diving under five rows of mines,
sinks Turkish battleship Messudieh in the Dardanelles.
Dec. 15--German cruiser Cormorant interned at Guam; Turks bombard
Sevastopol.
Dec. 16--German warships shell the English coast towns of Scarborough,
Hartlepool, and Whitby; about 120 persons are killed and 550 wounded;
British warships shell Westende.
Dec. 17--Austrian training ship Beethoven sunk by mine; British squadron
bombards Turkish troops on Gulf of Saros; Russians sink German steamship
Derentie off Turkish coast; Norwegian ship Vaaren sunk by mine in North
Sea; three British ships sunk by mines.
Dec. 18--British auxiliary cruiser Empress of Japan captures collier
Exford with forty of Emden's crew on board; Russian Black Sea fleet
sinks two Turkish ships.
Dec. 19--Russian warship Askold captures German steamer Haifa and sinks
a Turkish steamer; British warships shell German positions between
Nieuport and Middelkerke.
Dec. 20--Allied fleets bombard interior forts of the Dardanelles.
Dec. 21--British capture German steamers Baden and Santa Isabel.
Dec. 22--Allied fleets shell German positions along Belgian coast;
French destroyer shells Turkish troops; allied fleets shell Kilid Bahr.
Dec. 23--Russian destroyers in Black Sea bombard coast villages.
Dec. 24--French cruiser slightly damaged by Austrian torpedo; French
submarine sunk by shore batteries.
Dec. 26--British make naval and air attack on German fleet without
important results; French attack Austrian naval base at Pola on the
Adriatic.
Dec. 27--British cruisers, assisted by seaplanes, attack German naval
base at Cuxhaven; British claim to have done considerable damage.
Dec. 29--English coast towns expected American sympathy over German
raid; dread new raid, and hold navy was dilatory.
Dec. 30--French submarine torpedoes Austrian dreadnought Viribus Unitis,
but fails to sink her.
Dec. 31--Thirty French and British warships are bombarding Pola.
Jan. 1--British battleship Formidable torpedoed and sunk in English
Channel; 600 men lost.
Jan. 4--Official Press Bureau at Berlin announces that the Formidable
was sunk by a submarine off Plymouth; British ships shell Dar-es-Salaam,
German East Africa.
Jan. 6--Turkish cruiser Goeben damaged by mines.
Jan. 7--Germans state that Austrian submarines are holding back French
fleet in the Adriatic.
AERIAL RECORD.
Oct. 23--German Taube brought down in Dunkirk; Reymond, French aviator,
killed near Verdun; German aviators drop bombs on Warsaw.
Oct. 24--Zeppelins harry fighters southwest of Ostend.
Oct. 25--Five German aeroplanes destroyed by French.
Oct. 27--New Zeppelin flies northward from Friedrichshafen; new British
gun is effective against airmen.
Oct. 29--German airmen drop bombs on Bethune, nineteen women being
killed; British airman chases bomb-dropping Taube at Hazebrouck.
Oct. 30--French airmen rain bombs on German officers near Dunkirk.
Nov. 3--German airman drops bombs on Furnes; three German aeroplanes
brought down near Souain; British airman drops bombs in Thielt.
Nov. 6--Austrian airmen drop bombs on Antivari.
Nov. 13--Russian cavalry captures two German aviators near Plock.
Nov. 14--Austrian aeroplane drops bombs on Antivari.
Nov. 15--Prince Danilo's villa in Antivari wrecked by aeroplane bomb.
Nov. 21--French and British aeroplanes drop bombs on Zeppelin sheds at
Friedrichshafen; one French airman shot down.
Nov. 24--Aeroplane bomb dropped in Warsaw street kills several people
and narrowly misses American Consulate; airmen are using steel arrows to
drop from aeroplanes.
Nov. 26--British aviator wrecks German military train.
Nov. 29--German aviators drop bombs on Lodz; French aviators drop
circulars inviting German soldiers to desert.
Dec. 5--Aeroplane bombs dropped near Baden.
Dec. 6--Russian aviators attack Breslau forts; French aviators attack
Freiburg.
Dec. 7--Major Gen. von Meyer killed by an arrow dropped by an aviator;
Ostend set on fire by aeroplane bombs; ten killed at Hazebrouck by bomb
dropped by German aviator.
Dec. 8--German airmen drop appeals to Indian troops to desert British.
Dec. 9--Aviator of Allies destroys Scheldt pontoon bridge at Antwerp;
Belgian aviator destroys three German motor trucks and scatters cavalry
detachment.
Dec. 12--German airman who dropped bombs on Hazebrouck killed by French
shells.
Dec. 16--British and French aviators are making raids almost daily into
German territory.
Dec. 18--French aviators drop bombs in Lorraine.
Dec. 19--Two German aviators stranded on a Danish island and interned in
Denmark.
Dec. 20--German aeroplane drops bomb on Calais.
Dec. 21--Aviators of Allies drop bombs in Brussels and make night attack
near Ostend.
Dec. 22--Deschamps, Belgian aviator, killed by his own bomb.
Dec. 24--German aeroplane, trying to reach Paris, is shot down; German
aviator drops bomb in Dover.
Dec. 25--Two German aviators fly up the Thames, but are routed by
British.
Dec. 26--Zeppelin drops bombs on Nancy; German aeroplanes make raid in
Russian Poland; French aviators attack Metz.
Dec. 30--German airmen drop bombs in Dunkirk, killing fifteen; French
aviators active in Flanders.
Jan. 1--German aeroplanes bombard Dunkirk.
Jan. 3--Austrian aviator drops bombs on Kielce.
Jan. 4--French aviators drop bombs near Brussels.
AMERICAN INTERESTS.
Oct. 30--Slight damage to American property in bombardment of Odessa.
Oct. 31--American Refugee Society formed in the United States.
Nov. 10--Henry Field, grandson of the late Marshall Field, is serving as
a British Army chauffeur.
Nov. 13--British authorities demand that Americans show passports on
embarking for home.
Nov. 19--American Consulate in Berlin takes charge of the work of
finding American baggage in Germany.
Nov. 25--Rush for new passports by Americans in London.
Nov. 28--American Ambassador to Turkey says American missionaries are
not being molested.
Dec. 28--American Government sends memorandum to British Government
through Ambassador Page vigorously protesting against interference with
American commerce by British warships; American Relief Committee in
London still busy, and renews lease of its offices.
Dec. 31--Full text of American note on British interference with
American trade is given out in full simultaneously at Washington and
London; the war has cost the United States $382,000,000 in decreased
exports up to Dec. 1, according to statement issued by Department of
Commerce.
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.
Oct. 17--Men formerly found physically unfit to be now re-examined.
Oct. 20--Wounded fill Budapest and South Austrian towns.
Oct. 21--Troops rushed from Italian frontier to strengthen German line
in Belgium; Gen. Bruderman, defender of Lemberg, disgraced.
Oct. 27--Acute distress in Southern Hungary; there are reports of
sedition in the army.
Oct. 30--France is arranging for repatriation of Austrian citizens.
Nov. 3--It is reported that Austria is seeking a separate peace.
Nov. 10--Lists of losses show that many Hungarian nobles have been
killed in battle.
Nov. 12--Army mutineers are shot.
Nov. 22--Cholera in Przemysl.
Dec. 2--Hungarian Chamber of Deputies votes war bills.
Dec. 3--Opposition members of Hungarian Parliament are bitter against
the Germans.
Dec. 6--Defenses of Vienna are being strengthened.
Dec. 8--No music after midnight allowed in Vienna; 60,000 wounded are in
hospital there.
Dec. 10--Czech regiments refuse to fight against Servia.
Dec. 16--Anti-war riots in some cities.
Dec. 17--Emperor orders displacement of Field Marshal Potiorek because
of defeat in Servian campaign.
Dec. 22--Many soldiers killed in troop train accident.
Dec. 23--Discontent is being manifested in Hungary; independence
movement gains headway.
Dec. 30--Anti-war riots throughout the country; Servian campaign is
abandoned.
Dec. 31--Emperor issues a New Year's rescript to the army and navy,
praising bravery of soldiers and sailors.
Jan. 2--Conditions in Trieste are distressing.
BELGIUM.
Oct. 16--People delay returning to Antwerp, where Germans are levying on
city for supplies; refugees flock to Dover.
Oct. 18--Full text of Belgium's "Gray Paper" published in THE NEW YORK
TIMES; movement to secure supplies in England; famine acute.
Oct. 19--Fifty thousand refugees return from Holland; there are nearly
1,000,000 refugees in Great Britain, France, and Holland.
Oct. 21--British Official Press Bureau praises Belgian Army; Cardinal
Mercier returns to Belgium from Holland and urges all Catholic refugees
to follow him; water supply restored and tramways running in Antwerp;
Brussels now governed as a German city.
Oct. 22--Government denies anti-German plot with England before the war
and calls on German press to print alleged records of such plot seized
at Brussels.
Oct. 24--German public is stirred by stories of brutalities by Belgian
civilians toward wounded Germans.
Oct. 26--Millions are facing starvation.
Oct. 28--One-fourth of the Belgian Army is disabled.
Oct. 29--Many Belgian wounded in Calais.
Oct. 31--Maeterlinck says that buildings in Brussels have been mined.
Nov. 12--Sightseers visit Louvain; city is being restored.
Nov. 16--Fuel supply problem is becoming serious.
Nov. 18--Faculty of University of Louvain invited to University of Notre
Dame.
Nov. 21--German Information Service says that Belgians interned in
Holland are bitter against the British for lack of sufficient aid at
Antwerp.
Nov. 22--Mayor of Ypres shot by Allies as a spy.
Nov. 23--Maeterlinck appeals to the United States and Italy to save
Flemish art treasures.
Nov. 24--Encounters are frequent between smugglers and Germans at Dutch
border.
Nov. 26--Germany publishes photographic reproduction of document which,
it charges, proves Anglo-Belgian military agreement.
Nov. 30--Rotterdam reports that Germany has decided to levy a tax of
$7,000,000 a month on Belgium, and an additional tax of $75,000,000.
Dec. 13--Brussels and suburbs decide to pay fine to Germans.
Dec. 15--Provincial councils ordered by German Governor General to meet
to consider payment of tax; bankers prepare to pay it.
Dec. 20--Representatives of provinces agree to pay tax.
Dec. 23--Report from London that Brussels tax has been waived and that
the American Minister protested against its imposition.
Dec. 26--Neutral nations notified by Germany that Consuls will not be
recognized further.
Dec. 28--Minister to United States protests against cancellation of
consular exequaturs by Germany.
Dec. 29--Belgian authorities point out to United States that Germany's
decision to cancel exequaturs raises question of sovereignty in Belgium.
Jan. 3--Ghent taxes bachelors to meet German demands.
CANADA.
Oct. 16--Canadian troops go into camp at Salisbury Plain, England.
Oct. 19--There are a considerable number of men from New York in camp at
Salisbury Plain.
Oct. 21--Americans in Montreal supply funds for armored motor cars with
American crews.
Oct. 29--Border residents apprehensive of raids by Germans and Austrians
living in United States.
Nov. 3--German newspaper in the West ordered to stop printing seditious
matter.
Nov. 4--King and Queen visit troops on Salisbury Plain.
Nov. 6--Indians contribute to war fund and offer to send warriors.
Nov. 7--Soldiers go sightseeing in London.
Nov. 8--Major Gen. Hughes, Minister of Militia and Defense, returns from
England; he says troops are well, but will not go to front for some
time; they are to have additional training.
Nov. 11--Mines laid near Victoria.
Nov. 14--Premier Borden says hosts of men are volunteering.
Nov. 18--Men in Canadian regiments who are said to be of German blood
are rejected by British authorities.
Nov. 20--German newspapers barred from Canada.
Nov. 24--American Consuls directed to assist German and Austrian
subjects in Canada.
Nov. 27--Canadian doctors arrive in France to establish hospital.
Nov. 28--Precautions are taken against possible raids across Niagara
River by Germans.
Dec. 26--German reservists reported to be gathering in California to
raid Vancouver; report not taken seriously by Canadian authorities.
Dec. 31--Princess Patricia's Light Infantry Regiment reaches the front.
EGYPT.
Nov. 2--Martial law proclaimed.
Nov. 14--Moslems pay no attention to Turkish war moves.
Nov. 21--Turks and Germans seek to sow sedition.
Nov. 29--Princes Abbas and Osman banished by British authorities on
charge of engaging in anti-British conspiracy.
Dec. 1--Premier Rushdi Pasha declares for Britain; he tells of benefits
conferred on his country by British.
Dec. 17--England declares protectorate; Turkish suzerainty at an end.
Dec. 18--France recognizes British protectorate.
ENGLAND.
Oct. 16.--Labor Party declares sympathy with Government; London hotels
discharge German and Austrian help.
Oct. 17--Winston Churchill defends sending of marines to Antwerp; he
says relief plans miscarried.
Oct. 18--Anti-German riots in London.
Oct. 19--Irish Nationalists, at meeting in London, take pledge to avenge
Belgium; many arrests for the looting of German shops.
Oct. 20--Germans and Austrians expelled from Brighton.
Oct. 21--All unnaturalized German and Austrian residents between ages of
17 and 45 are to be taken to detention camps.
Oct. 22--Westminster Abbey heavily insured against aeroplane hazard.
Oct. 24--More anti-German riots in London; paintings removed from
National Gallery to places of safety: Kitchener orders sobriety among
soldiers; Germany protests to neutrals against seizure of Germans on
neutral merchant ships.
Oct. 25--John Redmond urges Irish to enlist.
Oct. 27--Government complains that many Germans are getting consular
certificates from American officials by posing as Englishmen.
Nov. 1--British affairs in Turkey turned over to American Embassy.
Nov. 2--Admiralty orders North Sea closed to commerce; Turkish
Ambassador handed his passports.
Nov. 3--Government will not molest American ships carrying cotton to
German ports.
Nov. 4--Americans will fight as First London Machine Battery.
Nov. 5--Proclamation that holy places in Arabia and Mesopotamia must not
be touched.
Nov. 6--Detectives say some London buildings are strong German forts;
large trade in mourning clothes in London; Sweden protests against
closing of North Sea.
Nov. 7--Government thanks United States State Department for help
rendered at Constantinople by Ambassador Morgenthau.
Nov. 8--Japanese Emperor and Empress send thanks for British aid at
Tsing-tau.
Nov. 10--Karl Hans Lody shot as a spy in the Tower of London; when first
arrested he claimed to be an American.
Nov. 11--Germans are exhibiting dumdum bullets which they charge have
been taken from British soldiers.
Nov. 12--Mass meeting in London in support of Kitchener's appeal for
temperance by soldiers.
Nov. 13--Officers sent to Russia to discuss tactics of eastern campaign;
sentry in concentration camp kills a German prisoner.
Nov. 14--Under Secretary of War Tennant urges football players to
enlist.
Nov. 17--War Office denies that British have used dumdum bullets, but
accuses Germans of using them; less crime in the country.
Nov. 20--House of Commons votes additional army of 1,000,000 men.
Nov. 21--Balfour says there must be no patched-up truce; Somali chiefs
in Jubaland want to join the army; 19,000 members of the Automobile
Association have given their cars for army use.
Nov. 22--Five German rioters killed in detention camp on Isle of Man.
Nov. 23--Newspapers show disgust over failure of attempts to get
football players and spectators to enlist; recruiting is slow in
Manchester; War Office is advertising for officers.
Nov. 25--Coast towns prepare to resist invasion; Indian soldier receives
Victoria Cross; shooting of prisoners on Isle of Man has angered
Germany; reprisals feared.
Nov. 27--Coroner's jury finds that shooting of prisoners on Isle of Man
was justified; London newspapers agree to curtail football news as aid
to recruiting.
Nov. 28--Two German spies found in new army just landed in France;
famous athletes on casualty lists.
Dec. 1--German-born members of Parliament remain away from war sessions.
Dec. 2--Dublin newspaper suppressed for opposing enlistment and
expressing pro-German sentiment.
Dec. 5--Many football players are enlisting.
Dec. 9--Preparations are being made to meet possible German landing.
Dec. 11--Gibraltar is being provisioned.
Dec. 12--German officer found hidden in packing case at Gravesend.
Dec. 14--Government is searching for German wireless station on Norfolk
coast which is blocking messages.
Dec. 16--Movement to form women's volunteer reserve.
Dec. 17--Many Germans arrested following raid on coast towns; numerous
cases of ptomaine poisoning in Blackheath Camp.
Dec. 19--Many soldiers are insane or have nervous prostration as a
result of battle horrors.
Dec. 21--Some German prisoners of war are being placed on prison ships.
Dec. 23--Germany's offer to exchange one British prisoner of war for
five German prisoners is declined.
Dec. 26--Government has constructed a bridge of boats across the Thames.
Dec. 30--Archbishop of Canterbury appeals for recruits.
Dec. 31--An undercurrent of irritation is evident over the American note
on interference with American commerce; a new decoration, the Military
Cross, has been instituted for the army.
Jan. 3--Day of intercession and prayer throughout the Empire; second
expeditionary force sails for England from Australia; a third force is
being recruited.
Jan. 4--Many men leave their positions in civil life to join the army as
a result of the raid on the coast towns.
Jan. 6--Many clergymen are enlisting.
FRANCE.
Oct. 16--Learned societies plan expulsion of German members.
Oct. 17--Germans arrested in Paris; coal supply low in Paris; sugar
prices are rising.
Oct. 18--President Poincaré's country house destroyed.
Oct. 20--Military authorities deny German charge that towers of Rheims
Cathedral are used as observation post.
Oct. 21--Baron de Coubertin will train young men who would normally
enter the army in 1916; Germany protests against alleged cruelties.
Oct. 22--It is reported that 500,000 new soldiers are ready to fight.
Oct. 24--Lille and Rheims have been much damaged by German shells;
exchange of civilians with Germany begins.
Oct. 26--German property in France not confiscated, but taken into
trusteeship.
Oct. 28--Many volunteer to give their blood to help Dr. Carrel in saving
the wounded.
Oct. 29--Count de Chambrun shells his own home.
Oct. 30--Château of Princess Hohenlohe seized.
Nov. 1--Envoy asks for passports from Turkey; French affairs turned over
to American Embassy.
Nov. 4--Officers discard swords and conspicuous uniforms; they will
direct charges from rear to foil German sharpshooters.
Nov. 7--City of Roulers in ruins.
Nov. 8--Premier Viviani decorates Mayor of Rheims and says city will be
rebuilt.
Nov. 9--Military attachés of neutral countries allowed to visit theatre
of war.
Nov. 10--Rheims still being bombarded.
Nov. 18--Germans declare they saw observation post on towers of Rheims
Cathedral; bombardment resumed; Appenrodt's restaurant looted in Paris.
Nov. 19--Germans are working coal mines and mills in occupied French
territory; President Poincaré strikes names of Germans from roll of
Legion of Honor.
Nov. 21--New field gun outranges German guns.
Nov. 26--German surgeons and deaconesses sentenced to prison for
looting.
Nov. 28--Regimental dispatch dog mentioned in orders as having fallen in
duty; Germans charge use of dumdum bullets by the French.
Dec. 1--Gen. Joffre tells Alsatians that the French have come back
permanently.
Dec. 4--Youths 18 years old are called for military examination;
Mohammedan soldiers from Tunis are being sent to serve in Europe;
Germans charge brutalities to Germans in Morocco.
Dec. 11--The Cabinet meets in Paris, marking the moving of the capital
from Bordeaux; youths of class of 1915 go into training.
Dec. 13--Full text of France's "Yellow Book" published in THE NEW YORK
TIMES; postal notice announces that letters to twenty-one communes in
Alsace need only ordinary stamps.
Dec. 14--Man who mutilated German sentry is shot.
Dec. 17--Priests hold mass in the trenches; French heroism lauded at
meeting of French Academy; but a small percentage of the wounded are
dying.
Dec. 18--French court held in Alsace.
Dec. 19--Lille is near starvation.
Dec. 22--Premier Viviani makes address at opening of Parliament in
Paris, declaring that the war will end only with restoration of
Alsace-Lorraine, restoration of Belgium, and assurance of lasting peace.
Dec. 25--Portion of Alsace celebrates Christmas under French rule.
Jan. 7--French Cabinet makes public report of Government Commission
which has been investigating German methods of waging war; report
charges Germans with habitual "pillage, outrage, burning, and murder."
GERMANY.
Oct. 16--Count Zeppelin is supervising construction of new airships;
reinforcements sent to von Kluck; tax levied on Bruges.
Oct. 20--Report that Zeppelin fleet is being prepared for attack on
London; Britons over 55 years old to be allowed to leave country.
Oct. 22--Chancellor Delbrueck announces in Prussian Diet that nation
will not lay down arms until victory is won; pioneer company of Lorraine
battalion granted right to wear skull and crossbones on caps.
Oct. 23--Women spies meet death bravely.
Oct. 24--Looting barred in Antwerp; survey of conditions shows many men
eager to enlist.
Oct. 26--Prince of Monaco protests against manner in which Gen. von
Buelow proposes to treat his property in France; Government complains of
seizure by England of Red Cross ship Ophelia.
Oct. 27--Germans in Southern Hungary ask for aid.
Oct. 29--German tourists flock to Antwerp.
Oct. 30--Forty thousand teachers are at the front; 1914 reserves called
out.
Nov. 1--Freedom of the City of Blankenburg conferred upon Capt. von
Mueller of the cruiser Emden.
Nov. 3--Consuls of neutral nations allowed to inspect prison camps;
Government will not interfere with cargoes of ships carrying cotton to
Russian ports.
Nov. 4--There is a shortage of army officers; the Kaiser decrees
promotions on short service.
Nov. 7--Conspicuous insignia removed from officers; British civilians
sent to detention camp.
Nov. 8--Nation regrets loss of Tsing-tau, but bravery of garrison is
praised; border patrols prevent Belgian civilians from crossing into
Holland.
Nov. 10--Admiral von Spee and many men of his squadron receive Iron
Crosses.
Nov. 11--Fortifications of Antwerp are being repaired.
Nov. 15--Three defensive lines prepared between North Sea and the Rhine,
to be used in event of retreat.
Nov. 16--Names of occupied French and Belgian cities are Germanized.
Nov. 17--All aliens expelled from Frankfort.
Nov. 18--Port of Hamburg deserted, but shipyards are busy.
Nov. 21--Blast furnaces used as crematory at Charleroi; Government has
granted permission for six officers of the American Army to follow
forces as military observers; Ambassador Bernstorff files with United
States State Department complaint that French have violated Red Cross
Convention of 1906.
Nov. 23--Gen. von Eberhardt removed after defeat in the Vosges.
Nov. 24--Chile charges that German warships have violated her
neutrality; there is a scarcity of copper; order for locomotives to be
dismantled to get materials for making ammunition.
Nov. 25--Fortifications north of Kiel Canal are being strengthened for
fear of invasion; Bavarians are reported by the French to be deserting.
Nov. 29--Indemnity of $37,500 paid to Luxemburg.
Nov. 30--Alsatians are deserting from the army.
Dec. 3--Burgomaster Max of Brussels complains of treatment received from
Germans.
Dec. 4--Troops are suffering from typhoid; household utensils of copper
are commandeered because of scarcity of the metal; British prisoner of
war sentenced to ten years' imprisonment for attack on custodians.
Dec. 6--Second ban of Landsturm told to be ready for service on Dec.
20.
Dec. 8--Turkish officers are serving with the army in Poland.
Dec. 10--Government has informed the Pope of willingness for Christmas
truce if other combatants will observe it.
Dec. 11--Many inhabitants of Autry, France, are exiled to Saxony;
preparations are being made for an extended occupation of French
territory; French Minister of War obtains affidavits from prisoners in
concentration camps that Gen. von Stenger ordered killing of wounded.
Dec. 12--Some women refugees at Kiao-Chau want to go to America.
Dec. 14--Socialists disapprove of the anti-war stand taken by Dr.
Liebknecht, a Socialist member of the Reichstag, who alone of that body
opposed the new war credit.
Dec. 15--Bavarian soldiers to be court-martialed for mutiny at Antwerp.
Dec. 18--Rumors that Prince Otto of Windisch-Graetz will be the new
Belgian King.
Dec. 19--Relations between the Prussian Government and the Poles have
improved.
Dec. 21--George Weill, member of the Reichstag from Metz, is fighting in
the French Army; Chile protests against alleged violations of her
neutrality by the navy.
Dec. 22--Supplies in Ghent commandeered for Christmas celebration.
Dec. 24--Germany denies French charges that neutral ships have been
hired to lay mines in the Mediterranean.
Dec. 27--Commander of the Yorcke gets two-year term for losing vessel;
German spy seized while trying to enter Gibraltar disguised as a Moor.
Dec. 30--British prisoner sentenced to death for assaulting a German
officer.
Dec. 31--Kaiser sends New Year's greetings to President Wilson and the
United States; German press has received with exultation the news of
American note on British interference with American commerce.
Jan. 7--United States State Department informs Ambassador von Bernstorff
that the United States cannot investigate the German charge that British
use dumdum bullets; German military authorities in Belgium deny that
Cardinal Mercier has been arrested.
HOLLAND.
Oct. 18--Government anxious to be relieved of care of Belgian refugees;
is urging them to return home.
Oct. 19--Cities are feeling the strain of caring for Belgian refugees.
Oct. 28--Army massed on the border because of fear of invasion.
Oct. 31--Ammunition is seized from interned French and Belgian
soldiers.
Nov. 7--Soldiers protest to the German Minister at The Hague against
alleged atrocities of German troops on the Belgian border.
Nov. 8--Scheldt River is being guarded; new intrenchments are being
made; canals are guarded.
Dec. 3--Rioting in Belgian concentration camps; troops kill six Belgians
and wound nine.
Dec. 7--Government loans wheat to Belgium.
INDIA.
Oct. 28--Troops surprise German sentries in Belgium and destroy
ammunition stores.
Nov. 1--Moslems support England against Turkey.
Nov. 3--The Nizam of Hyderabad issues manifesto proclaiming loyalty to
Britain; Aga Khan says Germans coerced Turks.
Nov. 6--Army of Afghans sent to the frontier; border tribes reported in
revolt.
Nov. 10--Letters found on wounded Germans show orders to make Indian
troops a special target.
Nov. 18--German Emperor tells Crown Prince that Sheik-ul-Islam has
issued proclamation of Moslem holy war; Indian troops are being used
against Germans in East Africa.
Nov. 21--Detachment of motor ambulances is being formed for troops in
fighting in Europe.
Dec. 6--Ruling Princes make large donations to expenses of the war.
Dec. 19--Gaekwar of Baroda buys Empress of India to serve as a hospital
ship.
ITALY.
Oct. 16--Austrian Deputy crosses from Trient into Italy and urges people
to join Allies.
Oct. 19--Fleet is mobilized, with Duke of the Abruzzi in command.
Oct. 22--Marconi says the country is ready for war.
Oct. 30--Ambassador asked to care for Russian interests at
Constantinople.
Nov. 2--Large part of the public wants war.
Nov. 10--Hotels discharge German employes.
Nov. 19--Many members of Parliament urge action for the Allies.
Nov. 20--Demonstration against Prof. Grassi, a leader of the pro-German
party.
Nov. 22--Government assigns $9,200,000 for extraordinary military
expenses in Cyrenaica.
Nov. 30--Cabinet meets to consider the nation's international policy;
Federation of the Italian Press denounces visit of journalists to
Germany.
Dec. 3--Premier Salandro makes speech at opening of Parliament; nation
will preserve armed neutrality; Belgium is cheered.
Dec. 4--Anti-German and anti-Austrian speeches made in Chamber of
Deputies.
Dec. 5--Chamber of Deputies passes vote of confidence in the Government.
Dec. 8--Reported in Rome that Prince von Buelow, new German Ambassador
to Italy, comes to offer Trient as price of Italy's neutrality, and that
Austria is willing to cede it.
Dec. 13--Artillerymen of older classes called out.
Dec. 14--Meetings held in some cities in favor of intervention;
pro-Germans mobbed in Rome.
Dec. 19--Unanimous manifestation in Senate in favor of peace; National
Federation of Engineers offers services of 1,000 engineers for
enlistment.
Dec. 20--Transportation company fined for trying to ship foodstuffs to
Trieste.
Dec. 28--Government checks plot to export foodstuffs to Germany; two
arrests.
Dec. 30--Foodstuff smuggling plot proves to be extensive; German Embassy
stated to be involved.
JAPAN.
Oct. 21--Winston Churchill praises the navy.
Nov. 18--Marshall and other German islands in the Pacific to be handed
over to England until war ends.
Nov. 19--Baron Kato says sending of troops to Europe is a doubtful
measure.
Dec. 3--It is reported that Japanese officers are serving with the
Russian Army.
Dec. 8--Baron Kato tells Diet it has not been decided whether Kiao-Chau
will be returned to China; he says fleet is looking for German ships in
South American waters.
Dec. 9--Baron Kato's statement causes a sensation in China.
Dec. 10--Military control over South Sea Islands to be divided with
Australia.
Dec. 17--Ships sent to South Sea Islands for investigation of
colonization possibilities; great welcome in Tokio to Lieut. Gen. Kamio
and Vice Admiral Kato, conquerors of Tsing-tau.
Dec. 22--Gabriel Hanotaux opposes sending of Japanese troops to Europe.
Dec. 30--Foreign Office denies that troops have landed in Russia.
RUSSIA.
Oct. 19--Desolation in many parts of Russian Poland; prohibition of use
of vodka since the war has resulted in much good.
Oct. 22--Funds are being raised to help Poland; Russian Poles urge
German Poles to lay down their arms.
Oct. 24--Reservists from Canada, including Doukhobors, reach Petrograd.
Oct. 28--German girl spy is shot.
Oct. 29--Polish Catholic regiments are being raised.
Oct. 30--Gen. Dimitrieff gives the order, "Don't count the enemy; beat
him"; nation welcomes the war with Turkey as giving a chance to settle
the Eastern question; formation of Polish legions under Polish
commanders is sanctioned.
Nov. 1--Government warns Bulgaria against attacking Servia.
Nov. 2--Caucasus Moslems are loyal.
Nov. 6--Newspapers refer to Constantinople as Tzargrad.
Nov. 8--Grand Duke Nicholas congratulated by Lord Kitchener on his
successes.
Nov. 14--Czar will grant funds to aid Catholics in rebuilding ruined
churches; troops withdrawn from Finland.
Nov. 15--Fines are being levied on conquered Prussian towns.
Nov. 18--Report that Russian troops passed through Scotland to France is
officially denied in British Parliament.
Nov. 25--Mobilization of first reserves ordered in certain centres.
Nov. 26--An industrial panic is feared; it is reported that Russian
regiments are in Servia.
Nov. 30--Germans expelled from Petrograd for raising funds for warships.
Dec. 6--Russian professors deride German "Kultur."
Dec. 20--Polish legion organized.
TURKEY.
Oct. 19--Turkey declines to discharge German crews of cruisers Goeben
and Breslau at England's protest.
Oct. 21--Six hundred German officers reported to be in Turkey.
Oct. 29--Grand Vizier is warned that invasion of Egypt means war with
Allies.
Oct. 30--Allies ask for explanation of bombardment of Odessa.
Nov. 1--British, French, and Russian subjects begin to leave
Constantinople.
Nov. 2--Grand Vizier expresses regret to Allies for war operations of
fleet; Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sazonof says it is too late;
Allies insist on reparation to Russia, dismissal of German officers from
the Goeben and Breslau, and internment of vessels until end of the war.
Nov. 4--American warship sent to Beirut to protect Christians.
Nov. 5--Authorities restrained from preventing departure of foreign
subjects by intervention of American Consul.
Nov. 6--Merchandise in cities of Syria seized by Government officials.
Nov. 11--Conspiracy discovered in Constantinople against Germans and
Young Turks; leaders shot; refugees in Petrograd report Christians in
peril.
Nov. 12--Military revolt in Adrianople against German commanders.
Nov. 13--Bomb in Enver Bey's palace kills five German officers; Enver
Bey unharmed.
Nov. 14--Government issues statement blaming war on England.
Nov. 16--Government denies intention to violate international character
of the Suez Canal; Sultan issues proclamation to army and navy.
Nov. 18--Anti-German plots discovered; army and navy officers protest
against assumption of authority by Germans; committee formed to rid
country of German domination.
Nov. 23--Disorders in Constantinople; British Embassy looted; Russian
hospital pillaged.
Nov. 24--San Stefano church wrecked by mob.
Nov. 26--British, French, and Russians in Jerusalem are imprisoned and
their homes looted; massacre feared; Italian Consul asks for warships.
Nov. 27--Canadian missionaries allowed to leave the country.
Nov. 28--Riots in Erzerum; Armenians slain.
Nov. 29--Moslem priests urge killing of infidels on first appearance of
hostile fleets; Government decides to sequestrate all religious
establishments in Palestine belonging to Allies.
Dec. 1--Turks are becoming brigands at the expense of subjects of the
Allies.
Dec. 4--Rioting throughout the country; holy war proclaimed against
Servia and her allies; foreigners in danger.
Dec. 12--Many members of religious orders flee from Palestine; British
Consul dragged from Italian Consulate in Hodeida.
Dec. 13--Anti-war demonstration by women in Konak and Erzerum;
foreigners held in Beirut; no letters under seal can be dispatched;
position of Christians in Armenia is dangerous; mutiny among soldiers in
barracks and among naval crews; conspiracy against Field Marshal von der
Goltz.
Dec. 17--Field Marshal von der Goltz is appointed Commandant of
Constantinople.
Dec. 18--Government permits departure of Consuls and other aliens from
Syria.
Dec. 19--Government issues manifesto, replying to England's "White
Paper" on Turkish situation, and giving reasons for joining the war.
Dec. 27--Italian cruiser will help American cruisers in protecting
Europeans.
Dec. 28--British Consul at Saida freed after threat by American Consul;
United States cruiser Tennessee takes 500 refugees from Syria.
Jan. 2--Anti-German feeling is growing.
Jan. 4--Germans put Young Turks under oath to support present régime.
Jan. 5--The Pope obtains release of French Catholic missionaries held in
Syria.
RELIEF WORK.
Oct. 16--Cardinal Gibbons appeals for Belgians.
Oct. 22--Dollar Christmas Fund for Belgians is organized; Belgian Relief
Committee cables $50,000 to Belgians through Ambassador Page.
Oct. 24--British Government lifts embargo on foodstuffs for Belgium.
Oct. 27--Gov. Glynn names New York State Committee of Mercy; Salvation
Army starts "self-denial period."
Oct. 30--Rohilla, British hospital ship, runs on rocks on Yorkshire
coast; it is believed 100 perished; American Commission sends foodstuffs
to Belgium.
Oct. 31--King of the Belgians appeals to the American people for help;
American Red Cross unit leaves Petrograd for Kiev; Queen Mary sends
thanks for sending of relief ship Red Cross.
Nov. 2--Rockefeller Foundation is to investigate conditions in Belgium;
Commission for Relief in Belgium now on an international basis.
Nov. 3--Massapequa, Rockefeller Foundation relief ship, sails.
Nov. 4--Fashion Fete in New York for benefit of Committee of Mercy.
Nov. 7--Committee formed in England to find work for Belgian refugees;
American Women's Fund in England presents motor ambulances to British
War Office.
Nov. 9--New York's gifts exceed $1,525,000.
Nov. 11--Wealthy Belgians give $3,000,000 to relief.
Nov. 12--Queen Mary visits the American Women's War Hospital at
Paignton, Devonshire.
Nov. 13--Two American Red Cross units in Germany; two more Rockefeller
Foundation relief ships to sail.
Nov. 17--Ambassador von Bernstorff presents statement to Secretary Bryan
that Germany welcomes American assistance for Belgians.
Nov. 18--Cardinal Mercier sends appeal to America for help for Belgians.
Nov. 20--Cardinal Farley directs special collection for war sufferers.
Nov. 22--Kansas to give 50,000 barrels of flour.
Nov. 23--Rockefeller Foundation will rush relief to wide area; it is
planned to send supplies to Austria, Servia, and Russia; Massapequa
unloaded at Rotterdam.
Nov. 25--American Christmas ship Jason, with 5,000,000 Christmas gifts
for European children, enters Plymouth escorted by warships; Rockefeller
Foundation investigating agents leave England for the Continent;
American Relief Clearing House organized to centralize American relief
in Europe.
Nov. 26--Southern and Western States are contributing liberally;
American colony in Berlin gives up Thanksgiving dinner to hold
entertainment for benefit of war sufferers.
Nov. 28--Jason sails from Devonport to Marseilles; American hospital,
gift of American colony, opened in Petrograd.
Nov. 29--Four ships to be sent by Rockefeller Foundation before Jan. 1.
Dec. 1--American Commission for Relief in Belgium to manage all Belgian
relief.
Dec. 2--Prince of Wales Fund reaches $20,000,000; Virginia is to send a
shipload of food and supplies this month.
Dec. 3--Ambassador Gerard cables that Germans approve America's relief
work.
Dec. 4--American students at Oxford take up relief work in Belgium.
Dec. 5--Batiscan, British steamer, sails with food for Belgians under
safe conduct from Germany; charity bazaar for benefit of German and
Austrian soldiers opens in New York.
Dec. 6--New Belgian relief plan is started with capital supplied by the
Belgian, British, and French Governments; Jason sails for Genoa.
Dec. 8--Two sections of American Red Cross leave Italy for Servia.
Dec. 9--Polish-American Relief Committee formed.
Dec. 10--Fund for the Forgotten Poor of Servia formed.
Dec. 12--American Red Cross ships large consignment of hospital
supplies; Rockefeller Foundation steamer Niches sails with a $400,000
cargo; Antwerp is suffering from lack of flour; American Consul
Diederich asks bread for his family.
Dec. 15--Thirty-five carloads of food arrive in New York for the
Belgians from the South and West; Jason leaves Genoa for Salonika.
Dec. 17--American commission report shows that cargoes of relief
supplies valued at over $10,000,000 have been delivered or arranged for;
Dr. Alexis Carrel is making an inspection tour of the French military
hospitals.
Dec. 19--W.W. Astor contributes $125,000 for needy families of British
officers; American hospital opened in Nice for wounded French soldiers;
large American Red Cross consignment of supplies sent to Russia.
Dec. 20--German bazaar closes, with receipts of $300,000.
Dec. 23--King of the Belgians sends message of thanks to America.
Dec. 28--It is planned that every State shall send a food ship to
Belgium.
Dec. 29--Total amount given by the United States for Belgium through the
Belgium Relief Committee is $1,490,000.
Dec. 31--Steamer Massapequa, sent by Rockefeller Foundation, sails on
her second voyage with supplies for Belgians; Rockefeller Foundation has
thus far spent more than $1,000,000 on relief; sailing of the fifth
Belgian relief ship to leave Philadelphia.
Jan. 1--Rockefeller Foundation buys 6,000,000 bushels of wheat in the
Chicago market for Belgians.
Jan. 3--Shipload of food to be sent from United States to the Albanians.
Jan. 5--Minister Brand Whitlock sends message that Germany will give
Americans free hands in sending supplies to Belgium; British and German
Governments require that ships for Belgium shall carry no other cargo
than supplies; food ship sent by State of Kansas sails; British War
Office sends thanks for American assistance.
Jan. 7--French Government thanks Americans for work done by Lafayette
Fund; Ohio, Nebraska, Maryland, and Virginia will send food ships this
week.
RESERVISTS.
Oct. 28--England orders enemy's reservists on the high seas to be
seized.
Nov. 16--Arrests result from attempt to smuggle Austrian reservists into
the United States from Canada.
Nov. 20--Austrian reservists stranded in New York say Consuls have
neglected them.
Nov. 21--Danish and Swedish reservists in Canada told to report for
duty.
Dec. 2--Belgian reservists of classes from 1899 to 1914 summoned by
Consul General in New York.
Dec. 12--French reservist living in Northern Canada walks 1,300 miles to
the nearest railway station to start for the front.
Jan. 2--Four German reservists taken off Norwegian-American liner
Bergenfjord in New York Harbor and placed under arrest; extensive
fraudulent passport plot is charged.
Jan. 4--John Doe warrants issued for reservists holding fraudulent
passports; Bureau of Investigation of Department of Justice is
conducting inquiry in Philadelphia.
Jan. 6--Federal Grand Jury in New York is to investigate.
[Illustration: South-eastern Theatre of the War]
***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEW YORK TIMES CURRENT HISTORY:
THE EUROPEAN WAR, FEBRUARY, 1915***
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